An Essay on Midsummer Night's Dream - Valuable Morals

An essay on midsummer night's Dream        by Madhuvanthi Senthilkumar 8ENGLISH1

Written by Shakespeare during the Elizabethan Period, Midsummer Night's Dream is Romantic Comedy centred around four lovers and their journey, of magic, mishap and confusion. Midsummer Night's Dream reflects the era in which it was written through references to folk culture as well as the social beliefs and ideas. The morals derived from the text today, vary from the interpretation of the original Shakespearean audience, as do the concepts and ideas we have now in contrast to the beliefs that were held back then.  The Shakespeare has demonstrated Elizabethan morals in the text through investigating Dreams and Illusions(Theme overview) by creating an understanding of the human nature of love, which allows the audience to explore the concept of appearance and reality as well as perceive the beliefs of magic and supernatural in that context.

As a central theme in Midsummer Night's Dream, the composer has shown us the human nature of love and how the pursuit of love had the capacity to make the character irrational and illusive. Helena's character is a representation of the foolishness of love, she had made many illogical decisions, due to her ‘love’ or infatuation with Demetrius, and how she continuously pursues him even though he scorns her. She quotes "Therefore is Love said to be a child, because in choice he is so oft beguiled" (I.i.238), an interpretation on this would be 'Love' lacks judgement and is fickle - just as young children are erratic and make decisions, without any regard for the consequences. “And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays”. This is another example of the foolishness of love is Titania, queen of the fairies who is put under a love spell and falls in love with the Bottom, whose head, through magic, has been changed into that of an ass.  She also pledges her undying love to Bottom, only seeing him through the spell as the love of her life, with reason or truth playing no role in her thoughts. This quote reflects how the love’s extent is outside the possibilities of the world of truth and reason.  It depicts that love and reason are two completely unrelated things in the logical sense. We have learnt through this text how when in love logic and reason don’t control us, thus living more in a world of illusion and dreams.  

 Shakespeare continues exploring dreams in this text, through incorporating the concept of appearance and reality, the idea that things are not always what they seem to be, blurring the lines between illusion and actuality.  The discussion between Theseus and Hippolyta in Act 5 Scene 1, is an accurate representation on the view of illusions in this play, in contrast with reality. “And as imagination bodies forth... turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing.” (5.1.15-17), through this quote Shakespeare points out that imagination is the basis of the creative elements of our reality. He points out that there is no single reality, but different realities depending on your perspective. "The lunatic, the lover, and the poet, are of imagination all compact" (5.1.7-8). By this he means that it is imagination which makes people crazy, but it is also the imagination which inspires people. He comments that Theseus comments that “Lovers, like madmen and poets, have such seething brains.” as all three see things that don't exist because their imagination is stronger and more disordered than that of a reasonable person, exploring how illusions and dreams distort the reality of a person. While Theseus discusses the absurdity of the lover’s story and their ‘dream’, Hippolyta seems to see the consistent connection between their stories, and has some belief in it. Theseus is the voice of reason and logic in the text, while Hippolyta expresses the fantastic and imaginary as equally valid versions of the truth. Through this text Shakespeare reminds his audience how intertwined dreams and reality are.

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