A Midsummer Night's Dream - Theme Identification

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” By William Shakespeare Theme Identification Men Dominating Women – Looking back at Romeo and Juliet and other Shakespeare plays, I find that men winning the hearts of women by defeating them is a common occurrence. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Theseus states “Hippolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword,” (I, i) implying that Theseus won the love of Hippolyta by defeating her. Adding to this is the struggle of Hermia from her father, Egeus’s, will, because she does not want to marry Demetrious for she loves Lysander. And then both the men are chasing Hermia, trying to win her over. Even in Much Ado About Nothing, the male figures had much power, especially in making decisions for the ladies. Conflict Between Father and Daughter – Again powered by other Shakespeare plays is the constant disagreement of a daughter with their ruling father’s decisions. Here, Hermia does not want to marry Demetrious like her father is commanding her to. She wants to go with Lysander because she loves him. You hear of this first in Act 1, and then you never see Theseus again until Act 5 when all becomes well. Shakespeare writes many plays with this theme, so one might infer that he is tryi

However, Shakespeare in this play portrayed them simply as curious and mischievous, and almost completely harmless and with true intents. Bottom"tms head is changed into that of a donkey, and the loves of Demetrious and Lysander are constantly changing from Puck"tms mischief. Many things go wrong and it becomes quite comical. Change - This is kind of a self-explanatory theme. " However, I feel that love plays a smaller part in this play. As in the case of Bottom, who is transfigured into an ass, and Titania, the queen of fairies. Speaking of the fairy"tms magic, the herb that Oberon and Puck used was a supernatural flower indeed. They were commonly viewed as evil spirits. In showing the weakness in the male"tms view of love, both the males in the two couples were switched back and forth, constantly fighting of the same girl. Even though this was caused by Puck"tms "drugs,"tm it still resembled the confusion and weakness of love. This is what further messed up the love-triangle of Demetrious, Helena, Hermia, and Lysander were entangled in. The Thin Line Between Love and Hate - Proven by Lysander and Demetrious so quickly changing their heart"tms desire from girl to girl. If it weren"tmt for the magic of the fairies, many bad things could have happened with Hermia"tms conflict over Demetrious and Lysander. True Love - Love is the most common theme not only in Shakespeare, but also in the world.