Explore the social and historical context through Shakespeares stagecraft in A Midsummer Nights Dream

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Nathan Griffiths

Explore the social and historical context through Shakespeare's stagecraft in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'.

To explore the social and historical context in William Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' the features of the play will be analysed, such a: the different characters dialogue compared to their social class, the connections to Greek and Roman mythology, Elizabethan beliefs and the many references to the moon.

The play opens with characters from classic Greek mythology, Theseus who slain the Minotaur and Hippolyta Queen of the Amazons, who an Elizabethan audience would be familiar with as it was extensively studied in that era and the legends would be common knowledge among people so when the play begins the audience would instantly have had an understanding. But the opening would be questioned by the viewers because they would be wondering why they are marrying since they would be aware the couple are from different cultures. It is ironic that the queen of a race of woman who refuse to marry because they despises men is marrying; this is how Shakespeare immediately sets the genre of this performance as a humorous love story.

Shakespeare would have been aware that many