The power of magic induced love is demonstrated when both Demetrius and Lysander believe they love Helena. This makes them look quite foolish but offends Helena, as she believes they are mocking her. Her frustration is demonstrated when she has a fight with Hermia. Lysander tries to justify his love for Helena saying that when he loved Hermia he had no ‘reason’. The repetition of ‘reason’ is to emphasis that it is not his reason speaking but it is ironic because he is under the influence of the love potion. Later Lysander says that he had no ‘judgement’ when he declared his love for Hermia, but in reality he has no judgement when he loves Helena. This shows how the power of magic induced love can affect people’s conception of appearance and reality. The hostility between the men is emphasised when the two men prepare to fight for Helena. ‘If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too’.
Titania and Bottom’s love is the ultimate absurdity in illusion. Titania expresses her love in an exaggerated manner, claiming Bottom’s singing is wonderful. ‘I pray thee gentle mortal, sing again, Mine ear is much enamoured of thy note.’ This scene is so humorous because it is so ridiculous.
The play has two settings, Athens the world of sanity, reality and daylight, and the woods; the world pf the fairies, a place of darkness, mystery, magic and illusion. When we are in fairyland there are constant references to night and darkness as magic and illusion is associated with the moon throughout the play. Shakespeare uses sound to show transference from one world to another. The hunting horn’s sound is a warning to animals to run, in a Midsummer Night’s Dream it’s sound also scares away the magic spirits, signalling an end to the magical world in the play and a sign that normality is returning.
In Elizabethan times the word ‘wood’ also means meant mad. This is appropriate as in the play the wood is a place where mad things happen.
In the wood the two worlds collide with Puck and Oberon using the love juice and Titania falling in love with Bottom. Whenever something happens in the fairy world it has an immediate impact on the real world, Athens. This is apparent when Oberon and Titania are arguing over the little Indian boy and the seasons get mixed up, crops are ruined and animals get ill.
In the play Puck is also a victim of illusion when Oberon asks him to put the love juice in ‘the Athenian man’s’ eyes, he gets the wrong Athenian man. This is ironic because Puck likes to play tricks on people and make them a victim of illusion.
Dreams and illusions often reveal what people believe or think. Hermia’s dream is ironic and it reflects reality when she says, ‘methought a serpent ate my heart away,’ the serpent is Lysander so her dream is in fact a premonition.
Bottom’s transformation into an ass is ironic as he is a bit of an ass. It is also ironic that he speaks ore sense when transformed. ‘Reason and love keep little company together nowadays’. Bottom is claiming that reason and love do not go together which is linked as a play as a whole because people in love often do not behave reasonably. Often the role of the fool in Shakespeare’s plays is to talk more sense than any of the other characters, this is true with Bottom.
When the artisans are rehearsing and performing their play they fail to distinguish between appearance and reality. Because of this they have many problems. The main problems are the wall, the lion and the moon. The artisans are struggling to find a way to present the wall, and eventually decide to have a man dressed in plaster. This makes this scene one of the most humorous in the play. The problem with the lion is they believe the ladies will be scared ‘will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?’ Only having a half mask, which shows half of Snug’s face, solves this problem. The moon is eventually decided to be presented by a man holding a lantern which is questioned by Theseus, ‘the man should be put into the lantern. How is it else the man i’th’ moon?’ All of the solutions to the artisans problems shatter the illusion attempted to be creating by the artisans, spoiling the play.
Bottom spoils the play by shattering the illusion by jumping in and out of character during the final performance, at one stage he speaks when he is dead. ‘No, in truth sir, he should not. Deceiving me is Thisbie’s cue’ Bottom is worried that Theseus thinks someone has missed their lines.
When the play is being performed the lovers mock the actions of Thisbie and Pyramus. ‘She hath spied him already, with these sweet eyes.’ This is ironic as Lysander made a speech just as ludicrous in the woods. They are mocking the artisans because they fail to understand the differences between appearance and reality.
The play performed by the artisans means that there is a play within a play meaning a double illusion. However the artisans performance is so bad they fail to create an illusion. This is one of the major differences between the two plays.
The use of language in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is important because there were few props in Elizabethan Theatre so for Shakespeare to create an effective illusion the language is important.
The light, rhymed verse used by the fairies is very descriptive and represents the fairies, light and fast. This is a complete contrast to the artisans who you laboured prose of workers and is quite common. Puck speaks in rhyming couplets to show his mischievous character and liveliness.
Oberon’s chant when he places the magic love juice Titania’s eyes, is like a spell. To Elizabethans the number seven was a magic number. Each line in the chant has seven syllables and is seven lines long, so this makes the chant even more magical, emphasising the effect of the potion.
The language of sleep that Shakespeare uses is effective. ‘Nodding violet grows,’ suggests that the nodding flowers ‘lulled’ Titania to sleep. This imagery helps the audience to create an illusion in their heads, making the illusion even more believable.
The scale of fairyland is conveyed effectively by Shakespeare by making things that we find quite small, are described by the fairies as large. ‘The cowslips tall’. A fairy describes the cowslips as tall, showing that the fairies are very small.
Oberon’s description of the flower transforms an ordinary flower, a pansy, into a magical power. ‘Before, milk-white, now purple with loves wound; And maidens call is love-in-idleness.’ This explains that the pansy used to be white but love turned it purple.
Lysander and Demetrius use exaggerated speeches when they declare their love for Helena to show the power of the loves potion. ‘Get gone you dwarf, You minimus of hindering knot-grass made, Let me come to her.’ This adds to the humour of the scene. Their language changes later, and returns to the normal verse that is used by the lovers, because the spell of the love potion is broken.
The imagery used by Lysander relates to the play as a whole and to the theme of appearance and reality. ‘These things seem small and undistinguishable, like far off mountains turned into clouds’. The mountains are solid which represents reality and the clouds are made up of air, representing illusion. When they are far away it is hard to tell what is clouds and what is the snow peaks of the mountain. This is where illusion and reality mix, as it has done in the play.
A Midsummer Nights Dream is only tragic in appearance because the audience knows that it is an illusion. Also the play is so comical that it is hard to take is seriously. Helena believes the others are having a ‘sweet jest’ against her in their ‘sport’. Puck enjoys the ‘sport’ of the ‘fond pageant’. The word ‘sport’ suggests that it is just a game and is not to be taken seriously. The audience is able to enjoy the confusion and misunderstandings because it is a comedy and the audience knows everything will be resolved in the end. Pucks role at the end of the play is significant because ‘Give me your hands, if we be friends and Robin shall restore amends,’ means that if the audience applauds the play they the illusion will be broken by the sound of the clapping.
Ryan Wanklyn 10 A Page of
