'Hamlet and a Midsummer Night’s Dream\r'

'In champion of AMND’s most enduring passages, Lysander states (Act one lookhot one, line 134) ‘The course of true bonk never did run smooth. ’ The passage of arms that is inevitably natural out of make distinguish is a central root countersignature at the heart of summer solstice’s night’s Dream and Hamlet, but is extended by Shakespe atomic number 18 non only to amorous relationships, but to familial bonds as well. The conflict is ultimately crack upd in diametrically opposing ways in each be given, according to the conventions of their respective genres.Hamlet is a tragedy, and therefore arouse result only in closing, but AMND, as a comedy, uses the traditional method of brotherhood to resolve its conflict. Shakespe atomic number 18 opens AMND with the relationship between Athenian Duke Theseus and Amazonian warrior Hippolyta, thereby physique the enfolding drama with the portrayal of a essence in which flirt and military co nflict ar inextricably bound: ‘Hippolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword/and won thy love doing thee injuries. (1:1:16) Shakespeare incongruously conflates military imagery withthe verbiage of love story, establishing the theme of love, initially at least, as organism fraught with conflict. This is highlighted push as the discussion of Theseus and Hippolyta’s forthcoming union is juxtaposed with the dramatic introduction of Hermia and Lysander, young l all overs command to marry by Egeus, Hermia’s do tapering draw. Lysander and Hermia conciliate to ‘from Athens debate away our eyeball’ (1. 1. 218) and run out to the plant.Shakespeare’s use of the forest as a backdrop to the young lovers’ elopement is significant. It would require reminded members of the Jacobean earshot of ‘ saturnalia’, an superannuated Roman festival in honour of the deity Saturn, which likewisek place in the forest and was famous for subverting Roman social norms. A circus atmosphere pervaded the festival, which included features †such as get the hang waiting on their servant’s tables †which defied the etiquette of the time. The allusion to Saturnalia emphasises Lysander and Hermia’s defiance of social restraints in eloping against her draw’s wishes.Egeus’ attempted control of Hermia analogs Polonius’s consumption of Ophelia in Hamlet, as in both plays Shakespeare depicts romantic relationships as complicatedbyfamilial pressures. The forest acts as a symbolisation for freedom from such conflict. Away from urban nuance and its social traditions, the forest exists as a early space where Hermia and Lysander feel their love can truly be celebrated, unhindered by the familial administration they view left behind: ‘to that place the strident Athenian law cannot pursue us. ’ (1. 1. 62)However, social norms are not the only things overturned in the fo rest. By pouring a magical potion in the lovers’ eye, Puck, a mischievous fairy, swaps the object of Demetrius and Lysander love to Helena. This shady turn sterilizes the enfolding drama in motion, but in addition demonstrates the cruelty of fickle love, that is so easily swayed to waste effect, as Hermia laments: ‘O spite! O booby hatch! I cover you are all bent, to set against me. ’ (3. 2. 145) Shakespeare expounds upon this theme of love in Hamlet too but with far more serious consequences; as befits a tragedy.Whereas Hermia is part of the tradition of Shakespearean women who hold out their controlling fathers to marry their lovers, Ophelia get ups far more predisposed to Polonius and Laertes’ bullying as they are successful in thwarting her relationship with Hamlet. Just as Shakespeare portrays affection as transient through Puck’s meddling with Demetrius and Lysander, Laertes lectures Ophelia on love’s makeshift and untrustwor thy nature: ‘forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting. ’ (1. 3. ) The stressed rhythm of Laerte’s dialogue is created by the some caesuras that break up this line; each word drumming itself into Ophelia’s psyche. Ironically, it isn’t the ‘trifling of [Hamlet’s] favor’ (1. 3. 6) that breaks Ophelia’s heart, and ultimately her sanity, but rather her family’s interference, in particular her father’s semipolitical scheming. A. C Bradley in his book ‘Shakespearian disaster’ notes that ‘good conflict must be worn-out out’; accordingly, both Hamlet and AMND are over five acts long and only get refractory in the final scenes, each according to their genre.The conflict inherent in Shakespeare’s portrayal of romantic relationships is given tangible form as Lysander and Demetrius arrive at to fight over the woman they profess to love: ‘if thou say so withdraw and prove it to. ’ (3. 2. 255) Despite the threat of violence about to scatter on stage, Shakespeare’s reference would have been conscious that as a comedy, A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream would culminate in marriage rather then bloodshed.In the opening scene of the play, Lysander alludes to the may Day rituals that he had participated in: ‘And in the wood a league without the town, where I did satisfy…to do observance to a morn of May’ (1. 1. 165) The May Day rites were an ancient celebration of fullness and renewal, and the setting of the lustrous forest reinforces this atmosphere, redden end-to-end Lysander and Demetrius’s altercation, emphasising that the conflict would, in the end, be single-minded happily. In stark contrast, Hamlet and Laertes fight over Ophelia’s grave.Shakespeare uses the graveyard setting to foreshadow the mens room cobblers last as a result of their ontogenesis aversion †unlike in AMND, the conf lict indoors a tragedy cannot end in marriage; it must end in death: ‘I thought thy bride-bed to have decked, sweet maid, and not have strewed thy grave’. (5. 1. 241) Throughout the play Ophelia is referred to by language such as ‘maid’, emphasising her youth and her innocence. This heightens the sad impact of her decline and eventual death, but likewise reinforces how she is infantilised by her father, and therefore controlled.When Polonius finds out that Ophelia has been conducting a romance with Hamlet, he insists that she no longer have touch with the prince: ‘I will teach you. Think yourself a baby. ’ (1. 3. 105) Polonius convinces Ophelia that she has been naive and stupid to believe Hamlet’s professions of love: ‘Affection? Pooh! You speak like a green girl. ’ (1. 3. 101) In Polonius’s dialogue, Shakespeare repeatedly employs images of Ophelia as a child to portray how her father psychologically controls he r, by making her dependent on his commands, as a young child would: ‘I shall obey, my lord. (1. 3. 136) In AMND Shakespeare constructs a correspondent conflict around a father-daughter relationship, as Egeus wants his daughter Hermia, to marry Demetrius and not her lover, Lysander. Shakespeare draws upon ancient Greek mythology to portray his characters and their respective philosophies. Egeus displays Apollonian attributes as he paternalistically favours a strict adherence to the law to a higher place all else, even to the point of death: ‘As she is mine, I may dispose of her…or to her death according to our law. ’ (1. 1. 3) Egeus commoditises his relationship with his daughter, as he considers her a possession to be controlled and exploited. Like Polonius who commands Ophelia to ‘set your entreatments at a higher rate’ (1. 3. 122), Egeus’s verbiage is replete with the language of commerce as he tries to trade his daughter: ‘and she is mine, and all my rights of her I do estate unto Demetrius. ’ (1. 1. 97) Hermia, however, embodies the Dionysian life philosophy, as she embraces mania and resists her father’s moralistic control: ‘My somebody consents not to give sovereignty’ (1. . 82) Unlike Ophelia who submits to her father’s demands and therefore breaks off her relationship with Hamlet, Hermia prioritises romance over filial duty as she spiritedly defies Athenian law: ‘Oh hell to choose love by another’s eyes’ (1. 1. 140) The conflicts that are engendered by love are complicated even further by the disparity between frankness and conjury, which is a central theme in both plays. In both Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, eyes are utilize as a symbol of the merging of truth and that which seems to be verity ie.Illusion: ‘seems madam? Nay it is. I know not seems…no, nor the fruitful river in the eye, nor the deject ‘hav iour of the visage. ’ (1. 2. 75) The juxtaposition by Hamlet of his father, Old Hamlet, and Claudius invokes similar language with reference to the eye: ‘what devil was’t that thus has cozened you at hoodman-blind? / Eyes without feeling, feeling without eyes, /ears without pass on or eyes’ (3. 4. 78). Shakespeare elects to convey the inherent tragic conflict in love by employ the language of eyes: ‘Ha! Have you eyes?You cannot call it love. ’ (3. 4. 68)Here the Gertrude’s love for Claudius is ease uped through the eyes of Hamlet as being ‘stewed in corruption’ (3. 4. 95) and the maternal bonds between her and Hamlet driving force her to regret her actions and fear for her phantasmal health: ‘O Hamlet speak no more. Thou turnest mine eyes into my very soul / and there I see such black and grained spots. ’(3. 4. 89) In the final scene of the play, all characters must face their spiritual destiny in their d eath, showing how conflict in Hamlet results only in death.Conflict of cosmos and illusion is also symbolised through reference to the eye in AMND, as Puck pours the poison into Lysander and Demetrius’s eyes it is then that comic drama enters the scene as love’s object is subverted: ‘Methinks I see things with parted eye’ (4. 1. 188) The illusion of the lovers exchanged allegiances is interpreter of the conflict that can result from existence being destabilized especially where love is concerned: ‘Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn/ to watch out me, praise my eyes and face? ’ (3. 2. 23) Eventually, love is restored to the couples and Theseus bids that ‘these couples shall be eternally knit’ (4. 1. 180) and here illusion is replaced with reality which results in the marriage of the couples, in accordance with the comic convention. The significance of Puck’s last speech, which is verbalise to the audience, is essentia l. Puck tells the audience that they should ‘think this and all is mended: that you have but slumbered here while these visions did appear; and this anemic and idle theme no more pliant than a dream. Puck tells them to imagine that the entire play wasn’t real, so where in Hamlet reality wins out in the end, in AMND the art of illusion leaves the play on a cliff hanger and the audience must decide whether or not reality exists. This is all part of the comic convention. In conclusion, Shakespeare presents parallel conflicts in both plays, each resulting from conflicted relationships, but they are resolved in accordance with the two plays’ genres. He concludes all conflict in Hamlet with death and tragedy and all conflict in AMND with gag and comedy.Elizabethan and modern day audiences would identify the conflict within Hamlet as the plays catalyst towards the catastrophic ending, whilst believe the conflict within AMND with less seriousness, knowing hostility between characters will ultimately dissolve. Shakespeare appears to be using the themes within Hamlet, such as death and madness, to present conflict between people as an fateful part of peoples lives, whilst the farcical nature of the battles within AMND apprise conflict is fleeting and avoidable. ‘So, good night unto you all. / cause me your hand if we be friends, and Robin shall restore amends. ’ (AMND 5. 1. 419)\r\n'