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أكـاديـمـي نــشـط
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رد: third year english student second term
Themes ?
1 – major themes : order versus disorder - love
2 – minor themes : gap between generation – realism versus imagination
In the forest a fairy talks to PUCK. He is a mischievous spirit. He is like a fairy, but he is mischievous, like a naughty child. He does things that annoy people, but we cannot say that he is evil. A fairy talks to PUCK in scene one and she tells him ‘are you PUCK the mischievous spirit?’. So, he says yes, it is me. And PUCK tells her that he is the clown of the King Oberon. King Oberon is the king of the Fairies and he marries Queen Titania. So, we have the character of the fairy; Puck and we have King Oberon and Queen Titania.
Puck is an agent of mischief. Puck tells the fairy ‘yes, I am the mischievous spirit Puck’. And he tells her that he is the one who frighten the village girls. He is the one who misleads the night wanderers. And he is the one who laughs at people in troubles. The fairy talks to Puck about very important things happening in the forest. She says that there is a quarrel between King Oberon and Queen Titania. She says that Queen Titania took an Indian boy and made him her page or attendant. King Oberon is very jealous and he wants to make that boy for himself to make his servant. This is the reason of the fight. Because of this quarrel between the king and the queen, very bad things happen in the forest. The fairy expresses her worry because there is disorder in the forest. The weather has been upset. There are flood and fire in the forest. The Crops have failed. What kind of theme is this?Order versus disorder. So, according to the Great Chain of being, what happens in the macrocosm عالم الانسان transfers to the macrocosm عالم الطبيعة، عالم الكون . So, because of the quarrel between King Oberon and Queen Titania, the weather is upset and there are flood and fire and the crops have failed. This is the theme of order and disorder.
If you have a question: are there medieval features in the play? You say that the theme of order and disorder is one of the themes of the play.
King Oberon and Queen Titania enter. They come on the stage and they continue fighting together. Titania teases him and she tells him that she knows that he used to love Hippolyta . Now she will marry Duke Theseus. And he teases her also and tells her that he knows that she used to love Theseus and now he is marrying Hippolyta. The stories are interrelated. There is the story of Oberon and Titania and this story is interrelated with the other one (the story of Theseus and Hippolyta). They know characters from the other story (the story of Theseus and Hippolyta). They are interacting together. And of course there is interaction between those two people. The subplots are intermingled.
Titania tells Oberon that he should stop begging/ asking her for her boy. Titania knows that disorder is happening in the forest because of their quarrel together. She tells him that plague spreads in the country and kills many people because of their fight over that boy. She says also that the fairies do not dance anymore in circles. Fairs are cheerful and they dance in circles on the music of the whistling wind. So, they no more dance. She tells him also that summer gets the ice of winter and the winter gets the buds of summer. So, Titania talks again about the theme of order and disorder.
Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,
I’ll to my queen and beg her Indian boy;
And then I will her charmed eye release
From monster’s view, and all things shall be peace.
Oberon says now I will go to Titania and take the Indian boy. And then I take off the charm.
This quotation is related to the theme of order and disorder. Oberon is a figure of order. He wants to restore order and peace to this forest. He wants to correct the mistake which Puck had made.
In the theme of love, we find that William Shakespeare illustrated four kinds of relationship in the play:
1-Love at first sight.
a-this is applied to Demetrius when he first saw Hermia.
b-and it is applied to Lysander and Helena.
C-Also, it is applied to Titania and Bottom.
When you talk about this kind of relationship, you have to mention Cupid and you have to talk about the magic flower; the pansy, and how by mistake, one of Cupid’s arrows fell on it.
2-Love at one side.
a-(Helena and Demetrius). Helena was chasing Demetrius and he does not love her.
B-(Demetrius and Hermia). Demetrius loves Hermia and Hermia is keeping him at a distance.
Of course, you have to talk about Courtly love tradition. And you talk about gendermandering.
3-requited love.
It is between Lysander and Hermia. It is a mutual love.
4-love by force/ false love.
It is under the effect of magic.
a-We have Lysander’s love to Helena. By the force of magic in the forest, he loves her. It is not a real love. It is a false love.
b-when Demetrius love Helena.
C-when Titania loves Bottom.
There is something you have studies it. It is Courtly love tradition. Courtly love tradition is a tradition that goes back to the Middle-Ages. In southern France, this tradition appears. According to that tradition, a knight chases a married woman. A knight falls in love with a married woman in the court and he keeps begging her to accept his love, but she is always rejecting his love at the beginning and keeps him away. He writes love poetry to her and he humiliates and degrades himself. He stays under her balcony crying and begging and doing everything to show that he has no dignity even she swears/ even she scolds and chides him. He is just happy to hear her voice. So, he keeps on begging and following her until she accepts his life. And later he discovers that she betrays him with another man. This is the courtly love tradition.
In this play, we see the opposite. So, the situation is reversed. And this is the technique of gendermandering.
Shakespeare employs the technique of gendermandering in ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream’. It is affiliated with the courtly love tradition, but it highlights a gender role reversed. It is a non-traditional technique (experimental/modern technique).
Helena takes the role of the courtly love who is supposed to be a man. She is chasing Demetrius in the forest, and Demetrius plays the role of the lady who rejects and chides/ scolds. So, the last story is reversed.
Oberon overhears all what happened. He says something.
There are two courtly lovers for Helena. They are Lysander and Demetrius. And she rejects them. So, according to the courtly love tradition, the courtly lover courts the lady but the lady rejects him. So, Helena does not care about being showered with flowery words and she thinks that both men are scorning and mocking her.
Puck is very much amused to see them fighting because he is a mischievous spirit. He is interested in that.
Lysander tells Helena that he loves her and he does not love Hermia. And Demetrius assures her that Lysander is a liar and he loves Hermia. And he tells Helena that he loves her more. So, Helena still she does not love any of them. Hermia comes and she is jealous of Helena. So, Helena again tells Hermia that she joins then in the conspiracy. They are all playing a game on her; Lysander, Demetrius and Hermia are playing a game on Helena. That is what she thinks. Helena reminds Hermia of their childhood friendship and she tells her that they used to be very close together like two cherries in one stem. So, she should consider this all friendship and should not do this to her. On the other hand, Hermia believes that Helena is scorning and mocking her. So, there is misunderstanding between the two girls; Helena and Hermia. Both think that the other mocks and scorns her. This misunderstanding is a traditional technique. It is a traditional technique which is common to all comedies.
Lysander is assuring Helena that he loves her and Demetrius is doing the same thing. So, the two men decide to look for a place off stage to fight together/ to fight for Helena’s love. And the winner in the fight will win Helena. They do not say dueling. I imagine that they will fight with the hands. Hermia clings to Demetrius. She tries to hold him back. She wants him to stay with her and not to go fight for Helena. So, he pushes her away and he curses her. He calls her ‘Ethiopian’, ‘serpent’, ‘Tartar’, ‘loathedmedicine’ and ‘hatedpotion’. This is a verbal fight. We neverfind a fight that is more humorous than violence. This is a surrealism technique.
Helena is talking about the traditional love triangles. She talks about two traditional love triangles. First, she says that she (Helena) used to love Demetrius. The other love triangle: Hermia loves Lysander.
The theme is gap between generations. The old generation is represented by Egeuswho is domineering. He controls his daughter’s will. He chooses the future husband for her. He does not give her any free choice. And the young generation is represented by Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius. Hermia wants to be free. She wants to liberate herself from her father domination. So, this is the main theme in the play and this is the main plot and these are the main characters. According to Athenian law, the father is like a god.
After everybody leaves, Lysander talks to Hermia to comment on what happened.
بنات ترى ما كتبت شيء عن realism versus imagination
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