Free Approach.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream is certainly one of  W. Shakespeare's most beloved comedies.

I think that only thanks to other comedies like this,  Shakespeare could become one of the most important English writers of all the XVI century.

W. Shakespeare wrote this comedy about in 1595, so I can say that he wrote It during the second literary period of his composition.

Infact we must remember that all the literary works of Shakespeare could be divided into four big litareary groups that have their own tipical elements.

For this reason, I can say that "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is an historical play because in this book is described a world of mysterious woods outside Athens and the ancient noble courts in which lives some important people like Theseus, Duke of this country, and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazon, betrothed to Theseus.

This new kind of literary production treats the viewer of a dreaming world in which nymphs and fairies, royalty and common folk, all bump heads in their frenetic search for love, with outrageous results.

The first element that I like very much in this book is the connection between the "real world" and the "dreaming world".

I think that W. Shakespeare is very able to speak about the common people of the ancient world of Athens with a lot of very dreaming elements.

Infact, for example, isn't rare to read about the dialogues between a weaver of the court and the Queen of the Fairies.

W. Shakespeare wrote this new kind of play when he joined with the Lord Chamberlian's Men in 1594.

Over the years, the productions of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" have been astonishingly varied, proof of  W. Shakespeare's continuing universal appeal.

Considered the most important playwright of his day, in 1599 Shakespeare could represent this romantic comedie in the "Globe Theatre", a very important English theatre that was opened in that year.

In 1608 or 1609 he and his group of actors chose the "Blackfriars Theatre" as their winter location.

During W. Shakespeare's time, there were no separate acts and scenes, nor where there sets.

Women were not permitted to appear on the stage, so all the parts were played by males and, in some cases, by young boys.

In our time, Shakespeare's plays have been produced on the stage, for TV and the movies, in traditional theater settings and outdoor parks, by all-male and all-female casts.

The last film that I saw about "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was represented by the 20^th FOX and I think that was one of the most beautiful romantic movie inspired by Shakespeare.

Infact this movie, with his very able cast and with his special effects, took me in a dreaming world.

After the reading of this book, I think that this play is perfect in its kind and unsurpassed for the marvellous armony that it established among so many apparently discordant elements.

W. Shakespeare's genius is evident in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as in the way he introduces what seems at first a bewildering variety of characters and plots and then proceeds to manipulate them deftly to convey coherent themes.

The second element that I like very much in this book is the characterization of all the characters.

Infact during the reading of this book I didn't meet a very precise description of the characters, but I could imagine them very well, step by step, in every aspects.

For this reason, I think that in this play W. Shakespeare wanted emphasize very much the human behaviour, in particular with the temperament of all his characters that, for the first time, are described with their common merits and difects.

This comedy is composed of five acts, written in prose and verses and all the actions are narrated by dialogues.

The action begins at the noble court of Theseus, the reigning Duke, where preparations are underway for his marriage to the beautiful Hippolyta.

Immediately we can see that the dialogues between Theseus and Hippolyta are very rich of methaphorical

sentences, in paricular in this part of the first chapter:

"Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour

Draws on apace; four Happy days bring in

Another moon: but O, methinks, how slow

This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires

Like to a step-dame or a dowager

Long withering out a young man's revenue . "

I think that with this way of speaking all the sentences become more intensive.

Even though this first romantic dialogue appears true in all the aspects, Hippolyta is not entirely pleased with the idea of  becoming the wife of her nation's conqueror.

Meanwhile, Egeus, a wealthy member of the court, comes to the Duke to complain that his daughter, Hermia, has refused to marry Demetrius, her father's choice. Instead, she falls in love with Lysander.

For this reason Theseus tells Hermia that she should obey her father, and gives her four days in which to decide what to do.

If she refuses to marry Demetrius, Theseus will either send her to a convent for the rest of her life or have her killed.

So Hermia and Lysander decide to escape in a near wood to their elopement, and they tell Helena  of their plain.

Helena, who is in love with Demetrius, tells him what the lovers to do.

Demetrius decide to contrast that elopement, so He follows Lysander and Hermia into a wood outside the city and Helena follows Demetrius.

Across town, a band of laborers led by the carpenter Peter Quince (including Bottom, Flute, Tom Snout and some others), congregate to prepare the play in that they are to perform at the Duke's wedding.

They agree to meet in the woods the following night, Midsummer's Eve, to rehearse.

But Midsummer's Eve also happens to be the occation for great celebration for the fairies who make the woods their home.

The fairies are ruled by King Oberon and Queen Titania, that have quarrelled and are not speaking to each other.

To triumph over the Queen, Oberon orders his clever and faithful servant, Puck, to make good use of some magic nectar.

Dropped into the eyes, the magic nectar causes the victim to fall in love with the first one he or she sees.

The dishonest Puck drops the nectar in the eyes of his victims at all the wrong times, causing complete confusion: the two pairs of lovers fall in and out of love with breathtaking speed and, worst of all, Titania falls in love with Bottom, whose head has been turned into that of an ass.

Needless to say, all is resolve to everyone's satisfaction.

The Duke decrees that Hermia may marry Lysander, Helena and Demetrius reconcile, Titania and Oberon work out their problem (as do the Duke and his betrothed) and the labores present their hilarious version of the play "Pyramus and Thisby" at the triple wedding of Theseus and Hippolytaand the two sets of young lovers.

I must say that in the last part of this comedy, there's an evident element of connection with an other Shakespeare's play: "Romeo and Juliet".

I can say this because like Romeo and Juliet, Hermia and Lysander and Pyramus and Thisby are kept apart by their parents.

In the love story of "Pyramus and Thisby", they arrange to meet at a tomb. On her way to the meeting, Thisby is frightened by a lion returning from a kill. She drops her cloak and runs off; the lion mouths the cloak.

Pyramus finds the blood-stained cloak and thinking that Thisby has been killed, kills himself.

Then Thisby finds his dead body and kills herself.

However, at the end of  "A midsummer Night's Dream", Bottom, although he has at times behaved like an "ass" through the course of the play, is returned to his normal state.

With mischievous Puck's last world, one is left to wonder . (has it all been a dream?)