Themes of a Midsummer Night’s Dream

What is a Theme?• The central topic, subject or concept the author is trying

to point out.

• It is the main point in the story-some are more obvious then others.

• Its view about life and how people behave.

• In fiction, the theme is not intended to teach or preach. In fact, it is not presented directly at all. You extract it from the characters, action, and setting that make up the story. In other words, you must figure out the theme yourself.

1.) Imbalance of Love

• There are 2 types:– Rational: Represented by the marriage– Irrational: The most important in the play.

In the play romantic situations always seem to lack correspondence or inequality interferes with the harmony of a relationship.

Difficulty of Love

• Lysander and Hermia – sexual tension and social etiquette

• Outside interventions• Betrayal of lovers/friends: Hermia and Helena,

Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena, Titania and Oberon

• Jealousy: Oberon and Titania, Helena and Hermia

2.) Art and Culture

• The play within the play• Can anyone be an actor?• What makes a good actor?

3.) Transformation

4.) Gender

4.) Gender

• Family• Relationships• Stereotypes and typical gender roles?!

5.) Dreams

5.) Dreams• “I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what

dream it was: man is but an ass, if he go about to expound

this dream.” -- Bottom

• As the title suggests, dreams are an important theme in A

Midsummer Night’s Dream; they are linked to the bizarre,

magical mishaps in the forest.

Hippolyta’s first words in the play evidence the prevalence of dreams

(“Four days will quickly steep themselves in night, / Four nights will

quickly dream away the time”)

5.) Dreams

• The theme of dreaming recurs predominantly when characters attempt to explain bizarre events in which these characters are involved. – “I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say

what / dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about t’expound this dream,”

5.) Dreams also…

• Occur without explanation, time loses its normal sense of flow, and the impossible occurs as a matter of course.

– Shakespeare recreate this environment in the play through the intervention of the fairies in the magical forest

• At the end of the play, Puck extends the idea of dreams to the audience members themselves, saying that, if they have been offended by the play, they should remember it as nothing more than a dream.

6.) Foolishness and Folly

• Nothing is serious!– Characters– Words– Themes

7.) Magic

Magic

• The fairies’ magic brings about many of the most bizarre and hilarious situations in the play.

• In the play this magic embodies the almost supernatural power of love (symbolized by the love potion) and to create a surreal world

– Although the misuse of magic causes chaos, magic ultimately resolves the play’s tensions.

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