The Love Triangle in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

A midsummer's night dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare in 1595/96 as a comedy; with 2 love triangles between 4 people, a play with horrendously funny actors, a fight between The King and Queen of the fairies, and a LOT of innuendos. First i will summarize the play we read in class, Next I will compare the play to the movie, and finally, i will say which I like of the two. It's makes you, at first, have a Romeo and Juliet feeling when you read it at first, and here's why. It starts with Theseus and Hippolyta getting ready to celebrate their wedding, when Egeus comes in with his daughter, Hermia, and her two suitors, Lysander and Demetrius. Hermia is only in love with Lysander and despise Demetrius, while her father is not veryfond of Lysander, saying thathe put a hex on her with his poems, and wants Hermia to Marry Demetrius. This leads to Theseus to say to Hermia that she has three options. She either had to 1. Marry Demetrius. 2. Marry Lysander only to be killed before hand. Or 3. Become a Nun, and said thatshe had till the wedding to decide. Naturally to the whole rebellious nature of those who are in love, Hermia and Lysander run away to get married outside of the Athenian borders to escape Athenian law, and asks for help from Helena, who is in love with Demetrius and was supposed to be wedded to him, until he got attracted to Hermia.

Naturally to the jealous ex girlfriend trope, Helena decides to instead inform Demetrius of the twos plans to try toget him to love her again. Then we get to the story that is supposed to be the comedic part of the play, which is about...People who really not supposed to act (Mostly because the had never acted before), but still are acting anyway. The main two who are more prominent are Bottom, who is the typical Your not doing this right or the I could/should play all the parts person, even though, in all actuality, he doesn't know what he's doing, and we have Quince, who thinks thatBottom should just stay with the part he has. In the next act, it brings in the more mystical parts of the play by having a fairy and Puck (aka Robin Goodfellow) are informing one another about King Oberon and Queen Titania are having a dispute about a little boy. King Oberon is Furious because Titania took a child from an Indian King, which made him jealous, because he was a darling child, and he wants to have the child as a companion for when he travels.

Titania, however, wants to keep the child, due to how the child allows her to put flowers in his hair, and that she can make a fuss about how he is the child of her friend, who died giving birth to him. After Titania leaves, Oberon has Puck go andget a flower that was shot by Cupid's arrow so thatshe can focus on something other than the kid. After Puck leaves to get the flower, Demetrius and Helena come in. Demetrius is furious because Lysander and Hermia aren't there as Helena said they would be, and asks Helena to leave in a very impolite way, and long story short, it ends with Puck mixing up Hermia and Lysander for Helena and Demetrius, making Lysander fall for Helena, which enraged Oberon, making Puck try to fix that by making Demetrius fall for Hermia (in this time, Titania has fallen for Nick Bottom, who has the head of a literal Ass), and Oberon wanting Puck to reverse the spell on everyone. Oh and the play that the townspeople put on ended horribly. Okay know I'm going to say the difference between the play and the movie, let's go. First off, in the play, it seems as if Theseus and Hippolyta are actually in a happy relationship and actuallywant to be wedded. However, in the movie, it seems as if Theseus had found Hippolyta one day in the forest one day and decided to kidnap, and Hippolyta is Definitely representing herself in the movie. Next, we have Demetrius instantly fall in love with Helena in the play, but in the movie, Demetrius first falls head over heels for Lysander. Then, in the play ending, it makes us think thateveryone made it out alive in the endafter the play the townspeoplepreformedwasfinished, when in the movie's Theseus had ordered almost everyone to die.

Finally, in the play, it ends with a prettytame, with all the characters living, in the movie, however, it ends with Theseus having a heart attack from the Fairies (which caused him to die), Hippolyta becoming a fairy, and puck saying what he said in the play. As for which I liked better... well, I'd have to say thatI liked both. The main reason whyis because, while it's always good to read something before you watch the movie it's based off of, and it's quite in joy able to see what happens in the movie, it's even more fun to compare and contrast the differences between the two. For example, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the book has it start with Harry back at house of his Aunt and Uncle, going on a diet, due to Dudley (who is his cousin) being dreadfully overweight, then being saved by the Weasley family coming to take him to a Quidditch game. In the Movie, however, it completely skips this event. My final example of why I like both is... well, I can't really explain it. It's like something you do without meaning to. Anyway, thank you for taking the time to meramble on about A Midsummer's Night Dream.

Cite this page