A Midsummer Night`s Dream

“Every man has his own dreams, his own goals he wants to pursue, sometimes right and sometimes not. However it may be the more important thing for a man who dreams is for him to fulfill it.”

Written pieces by William Shakespeare had long been receiving a lot of positive reactions from both readers and viewers of the plays based on his writings. One of the well known plays performed during the Elizabethan era is the play A Midsumer Night’s Dream. Having a theme of intertwined love and dreams of the different characters, the play revolve on many changes along the plays completion.

Among the main characters are Theseus, Hyppolyta, Demetrius, Helena, Lysander, and Hermia, Each of the said character has his own wants, dreams and aspirations that connects each one to the other. The question is what these wants are? And from whom do they want it? These two important questions shall be answered in the paragraphs to follow.

The Characters

Theseus is the duke of Athens who has so much power over many things. His power includes control over politics, on lands and on laws. It even includes his power over the will of a person on a marriage mate. This is the law were it states that a woman or a man must marry his or her father’s choice as a sign of “single blessedness”, a celibacy in a religious order.

He is known to letting his imagination turn good people’s sincere effort into a good performance. He naturally sees the good in every person, thus instead of implying law immediately on people whom he thinks should be punished, he gives them time to change and rethink the ways they have chosen to trod. All Theseus wants is to be able to become a good duke in Athens by implying the law in the best possible way for his people.

Hyppolyta on the other hand, is the queen defeated by Duke Theseus and is now bound to marry the said duke. Although at first it was plain law, loving the duke has also been a subject of consideration for her as she begins to see the better side of the Duke’s personality.

Her character depicts a more literal minded person than that of someone who is able to design events through imaginations. Inn short she’s more literal-thinking than that of Theseus. On paranormal thoughts, like many people today, she thinks that if there are so many people who give proof to its occurrence, there might at least be something to that paranormal event. Her character though shows wanting for the best things she could be benefiting from being the duke’s wife.

Demetrius is the choice of  Hermia’s father, yet Hermia herself refuses to marry the said lad. Because of this, he implies that the law of single blessedness be applied on Hermia and her chosen man Lysander. He wants her to be punished by the law even though it might mean death to the girl he says he loves. Helena on the other hand is an envious girl who considers Hermia a rival on Demetrious heart. She has long been in love with the lad and only got her wishes through the help of the potion given by the fairies.  In the end, she became the love of Demetrious which she considers the fulfillment of her lifetime dreams.

Lysander is the young lad who touched the heart of Hermia and became the desire of the young lady. All he wants is to be married to Hermia and to spend his life with her. To do this, they both decided to elope. But a series of intertwined events mixed-up by the potion from the fairies happened during the night when they eloped. But in the end, they ended together and spent their lives with each other. This spared the duke from imposing any law on the two couples in the play.

Hermia is the Daughter of Egeus who has been faced with the punishment of death for not following the law on single blessedness. But although this has been the case, she continued to follow the desires of her heart and thus received the best results from pursuing her dreams.

Conclusion:

Yes, in this play, all the characters have their own heart’s desires. And they have their own ways of fulfilling it. Likewise, people today have their own dreams, their desires in life they would like to pursue. There are no fairies to grant people’s wishes today though, but the strong wanting and will of a person to pursue his dream could help him achieve his desires.

Bibliography

1. Enjoying “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, by William Shakespeare.
2. http://www.pathguy.com/mnd.htm. (15 June 2006).
3. Internet Movie Database Inc. (2006). A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
4. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140379/. (15 june 2006).
5. Terry A. Gray. (1996).  A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
6. http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/lambtales/LTMND.HTM.  (15 June 2006).
7. The City Kid’s Foundation. (1999). A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
8. http://abisamra04.tripod.com/msdream.html.  (15 June 2006).