A Midsummer Night's Dream Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

A Midsummer Nights Dream - Research Paper ExampleAccording to Stephen Greenblatt, This is a reality in which outward appearance is everything and nothing, in which individuation is at once sharply etched and continually blurred, in which the victims of fate are haunted by the ghosts of the possible, in which everything is simultaneously as it must be and as it need not have been (60). Many of these often confusing issues became the subjects of the major lit successionture produced during this era such as in William Shakespeares play A Midsummer Nights Dream. Although the subscribe date of when Shakespeare wrote this play is unknown, with most estimates suggesting it was perhaps around 1595 or 1596, the confusion between tradition and coetaneous multiplication is highlighted within this play through Shakespeares deliberate use of a play within the play. champion of the most effective means of reinforcing the major concepts of a storys plot or of highlight individual character trai ts is to include some form of repetition within the text. Shakespeare was a master at this kind of repetition as is seen in many of his plays including Hamlet and Midsummer Nights Dream. However, he uses these forms of repetition for whole different purposes. In Hamlet, the play within the play is used to some(prenominal) show the audience actions that took military post prior to the plays opening as well as to expose the guilty conscience of the king and consequently prove to Hamlet that vengeance is justified. In Midsummer Nights Dream, though, the play is used to link tradition to give up day in such a way as to demonstrate that despite the perception that times are changing drastically, unsettling many in their comfortable traditional views, human activity and emotion rattling hasnt changed all that much. To accomplish this seemingly impossible feat, Shakespeare incorporates an entire mini-play within the greater work. This mini-play appears in Act 5 and its action functio ns to almost duplicate the principle characters and actions found within the larger work. Not only does it double some of the key points of the major work, just now this mini-play also functioned to directly address an element of the audience that strength otherwise have felt omitted. In Shakespeares time, everyone attended the plays as a major form of entertainment, but the uneducated lower elements of society didnt always fully understand the high comedy offered by the playwright. By providing this mini-play, even these elements of the audience were able to enjoy the play and understand its message. Thus it is possible to examine this mini-play in order to gain greater appreciation and understanding of the larger play. Within its simple one-scene setting, this mini-play serves to expose the overstated romanticism of the lovers, the timeless struggle of young people attempting to marry for love despite the wishes of their parents and the sometimes smuggled problems that can on ly occur in the confusing darkness of night. Although many of Shakespeares plays can be traced to earlier stories as a means of linking them with tradition, this particular play has fewer historical connections. According to Mabillard, Geoffrey Chaucers story of the Knights Tale in his Canterbury Tales is one probable source for the play - both the master play and the mini-play. The Knights Tale is told from the