a midsummers night's dream coursework

Authors Avatar

Alex Lyons         12SFBU                23/01/08

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Coursework

‘Explore Shakespeare’s presentation of the wood and its inhabitants’

As the vast majority of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ by William Shakespeare is set within a wood, near the city of Athens, it is important to step back and thoroughly examine Shakespeare’s presentation of the wood, as well as its inhabitants.

Shakespeare presents the main inhabitants of the wood as fairies. There are many fairy characters in the play, but the main fairies are Oberon, the fairy king, and Titania, the fairy queen. Puck, a somewhat secondary fairy character, is a servant of Oberon’s. Shakespeare presents them in individual ways, but still manages to enscapulate the ways in which they contrast to the mortals in the play.

Shakespeare presents the setting of the wood in a way that makes it seem as if it is a different world altogether from the city. He makes exceptionally good use of imagery during acts 2, 3, and 4, which helps to present the surreal environment of the wood further. Shakespeare also uses clever language techniques to help show how the mortals are affected by this new environment, as well as revealing the sta0rk contrast between the wood and Athens.

Oberon can be seen as the main fairy character. He is the fairy king, and seems to wield a lot of power. Shakespeare’s initial presentation of Oberon is of a character who is angry and jealous. The first moment that the audience sees Oberon he is engaged in a dispute with Titania, the fairy queen, as he accuses her of infidelity.To begin with, Oberon and Titania enter from opposite sides of the stage. Oberon then starts his speech by acting in a rather malevolent way: “Ill met by moonlight , proud Titania”. Here, Shakespeare is suggesting that Oberon is breeding animosity between the two of them, even before Titania has the opportunity to say a word. Oberon’s words, “Ill met” help present this especially. He is also using plosive sounds, to highlight Oberon’s anger.

Shakespeare presents Oberon as an unpleasant character at the end of his dispute with Titania, but Shakespeare only gives Oberon the line after Titania has left the stage. This shows a sense of dramatic irony, as here Shakespeare is implying that Oberon dare not say: “Thou shalt not from this grove till I torment thee for this injury” until she is out of earshot. Oberon dare not say it to her face, which shows the audience a cowardly side of Oberon. The effect of this line on the audience is shock; the audience would clearly be surprised that Oberon would be prepared to torment Titania. However, Shakespeare does use alliteration in Oberon’s closing line: “till I torment thee”; and Shakespeare’s repitition of the ‘t’ sounds suggests Oberon’s frustration with Titania and his desire for revenge.

Join now!

The effect of shock and surprise is intalled into the audience when Shakespeare re-emphasizes Oberon’s anger and jealousy in scene 2 of act 2, where he has Puck do his bidding, and punishes Titania. Oberon goes about this by instructing Puck to apply the juice to Titania’s eyes. He wants her to: “Wake when some vile thing is near!”. Here, Shakespeare implies that Oberon is exacting his revenge on Titania by trying to get her to fall in love with anything ‘vile’, and indeed, she falls in love with Bottom later on in the play, and this love is made ...

This is a preview of the whole essay