A Midsummer Night’s Dream
William Shakespeare
Brief Overview:
It is about falling in love. Four young lovers and a group of amateur actors, their interactions with woodland fairies and a duke and duchess. Taking place in a mythical Athens and an enchanted forest, there is a handsome fairy king, a misguided parent, star-crossed lovers, a weaver who's transformed into a half-donkey, wood sprites and elves. But as Puck (one of the mischievous fairy folk) knows, falling in love can make fools of us all.
Themes & Symbolism
Themes are ideas the artist is trying to convey in his or her literary work.
Problems with Love
“The course of true love never did run smooth (Lysanders) important theme—love out of balance—
Magic
The fairies’ magic,. Shakespeare uses magic to embody the unbelievable power of love (symbolized by the love potion) and to create a surreal world. The misuse of magic causes a lot of problems (use of the magic potion in the eyes of the different characters)
Dreams
Dreams are linked to the strange, magical mishaps in the forest and are used to explain peculiar events that the characters are involved.
Shakespeare was extremely interested in dreams.
How events occur without explanation. – The loss of time- How events occur and progress during time lapses.
Symbolism
The Love Potion
The love potion is made from the juice of a flower that was struck with one of Cupid’s misfired arrows. The love potion is a symbol of the erratic, fickle and undeniably power of love, which can lead to unexplainable behavior and cannot be resisted.