Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream - Book Report/Review Example

How does William Shakespeare create love tension in "A Midsummer night's dream" William Shakespeare, through his celebrated romantic comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream, exhibits his craftsmanship of creating love tension. It is this essential ability of the playwright to catch the attention of the audience by creating entrancing love tension all through the play which makes the comedy, which combines love, fairies, magic and dreams etc, appealing to the large number of viewers and readers. The play is interesting as it depicts the adventures of the four young Athenian lovers and a group of amateur actors and the most essential theme developed by the playwright is difficulty and tensions of love. A Midsummer Night's Dream turned out to be one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and the love tension developed in the play contributed heavily to this success. According to several critics, the theme of love developed in the play is of highest quality and the play is noted for the dark side of love. The unexpected twists and turns in the love relations of different characters in the play point to the dramatist's great skill creating love tension and Shakespeare is in complete control of the plot, characters, themes, and language, which makes him create a masterly work dealing with the intricacies of love. According to Victor L. Cahn, A Midsummer Night's Dream is Shakespeare's first comedy in which the playwright is in supreme control and the dramatist's skill in creating love tension is palpable in the various elements of the play. The plot of the play is an invention of Shakespeare and it brings together four stories, each of which competently interweaves with and replicates the others. The characters in the play come from all levels of life and they are sharply drawn: laughable, but sympathetic. "The language is vivid, and through his poetry the playwright creates a world in which magic and marriage harmonize eloquently. All these elements combine to dramatize several themes that pervade the comedies. We see the power of imagination in romance as well as parody of romantic convention. We see the pain suffered by women to whom men are foolish, insensitive, and even brutal. We see the self-deception to which people in love are vulnerable. We see the potential tragedy underlying comic complications about love. And we see the glory of marriage as a celebration of the cycle fertility and affirmation of life." (Cahn 1996, P. 583). Therefore, the play A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of the most effective illustrations of Love's difficulty is the most prominent theme running through the play A Midsummer Night's Dream and the characters in the play exhibit the love tension created by the dramatist. Thus, Lysander, one of the most important characters in love, articulates the most important theme of the play, i.e. the difficulty of love, when he commented about the nature of love. "Ay me! for aught that I could ever read, / Could ever hear by tale or history, / The course of true love never did run smooth; / But, either it was different in blood." (Shakespeare 1998, P. 140). Therefore, the difficulty of love and the love tension lie beneath the plot of the play and the love tension created by the playwright is obvious through the characters of the play. The troubles of romance result in the most of the conflict in the play and there are a number of romantic elements in the play. However, it is not a strict love story and the play distances the audience from the emotions of the characters so as to prod fun at the torments and afflictions that the characters in love undergo. The light-hearted tone of the play makes the audience by no means distrust that things will end happily. Therefore, it is free to enjoy the comedy without being caught up in the tension of an indecisive ending. That is to say, Shakespeare is very skilful in dealing with the love tension in the play so that it does not affect the appreciation of the play by the audience. "The theme of love's difficulty is often explored through the motif of love out of balance-that is, romantic situations in which a disparity or inequality interferes with the harmony of a relationship. The prime instance of this imbalance is the asymmetrical love among the four young Athenians: Hermia loves Lysander, Lysander loves Hermia, Helena loves Demetrius, and Demetrius loves Hermia instead of Helena-a simple numeric imbalance in which two men love the same woman, leaving one woman with too many suitors and one with too few." (Love's Difficulty). Therefore, the dramatist celebrates the theme of love's difficulty in his play A Midsummer Night's Dream and the love tension created by Shakespeare engages the audience in the development of the theme. However, it is obvious that the play has a strong prospective for a traditional outcome. That is to say, the playwright pushes the play forward in the masterful thematic development and, in spite of the love tension evident in the play, there is a search for internal balance all through the play. An analysis of the characters as well as the plot of the play confirms that the dramatist celebrates his mastery over thematic development and the creation of love tension. Thus, "the plot is in many ways based on a quest for internal balance; that is, when the lovers' tangle resolves itself into symmetrical pairings, the traditional happy ending will have been achieved. Somewhat similarly, in the relationship between Titania and Oberon, an imbalance arises out of the fact that Oberon's coveting of Titania's Indian boy outweighs his love for her. Later, Titania's passion for the ass-headed Bottom represents an imbalance of appearance and nature: Titania is beautiful and graceful, while Bottom is clumsy and grotesque." (Love's Difficulty). In developing the love tension in the play, Shakespeare brings in several unexpected twists and turns in the love story A Midsummer Night's Dream and the characters in the play exhibit the difficulty, dangers, and trials in love. Love is the most important theme of the play and the characters are too much engaged into it. As mentioned before, Lysander laments the dangers and trials that come to lovers, when he comments that "The course of true love never did run smooth." (Shakespeare 1998, P. 140).Similarly, Bottom expresses the mystery of love, when he ponders that "reason and love keep little company together nowadays." (Shakespeare 1998, P. 186). Therefore, there are obvious illustrations all through the play which suggest that the course of love never moves smoothly. The dramatist is at his best in illustrating the love tension through the various characters in the play. "A Midsummer Night's Dream is a love story with many unexpected twists and turns. Its characters spend their time and energy falling in and out of love, praising and denouncing love, and being inconstant or remaining true, revealing love's folly and its virtues Amongst all the talk about love, the surrounding action seems to move in two directions: towards love's culmination in marriage or towards love's antagonism in a battle between the sexes - or in the two seemingly opposite directions at the same time." (Nostbakken 2003, P. 21). In short, the tension in love represented in the play is a major theme in A Midsummer Night's Dream and the dramatist exhibits his skill in developing the tension in love through the romance of the major characters in the play. In conclusion, difficulty as well as intricacies of love is the most important theme of the play A Midsummer Night's Dream and Shakespeare is at his best in portraying the love tension in the play. The development of the plot and characterisation in the play contribute to the skill of the dramatist in creating the love tension. Thus, in the Act III, scene ii, there are several moments of tension which the characters create. Most of the confusion in this scene is created by Puck whoplaces an ass's head on Bottom and pours the magical love juice in Titania's eye. This results in the love tension of Titania who falls in love with Bottom as it was him that she saw first after she awoke. Thus, there are several instances of love tension all through the play and Shakespeare is most effective in using this strategy to appeal to the audience. Bibliography CAHN, Victor L. (1996). Shakespeare the Playwright: A Companion to the Complete Tragedies, Histories, Comedies, and Romances. Greenwood Publishing Group. P. 583. "Love's Difficulty." [online]. Themes, Symbols, & Motifs. A Midsummer Night's Dream: William Shakespeare. Spark Notes. Last Accessed 14 May 2009 at: http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/themes.html NOSTBAKKEN, Faith. Understanding A Midsummer Night's Dream: a Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Greenwood Publishing Group. P. 21. SHAKESPEARE, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Peter Holland (Ed). London: Oxford University Press. P. 140. Read More