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  • Essay / William Shakespeare's description of the difference between imagination and realism, illustrated in his play, A Midsummer Night's Dream

    Dreams, we all have them. Whether it's the love of our life or our greatest fear, when we fall asleep we lose the ability to differentiate between fact and fiction. This is why we feel like we're falling off a building and wake up out of breath. But when we wake up, we realize we were just dreaming and we can breathe a sigh of relief. However, what would happen if we couldn't tell the difference between our dreams and reality? William Shakespeare in The Midnight Dream shows us how confusing and disorienting this would be. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay There are rather three and a half stories in this one big story. At first, Theseus and his wife are bored and want to have fun before the wedding. That's half the story. Hermia's father brings his daughter and her boyfriend, Lysander. This being Shakespeare, Hermia and Demetrius are supposed to be married, not Hermia and Lysander. But of course there is the jilted fiancée Helena who is still in love with Demetrius. Hermia and Lysander plan to run away, but Helena tells Demetrius who wants to go after the two, and Helena follows Demetrius into the woods. This is the first story. Next comes the carpenters and their little game. This act introduces Nick Bottom, a very self-obsessed part-time actor, who is a little different. The carpenters will perform a play at the wedding of Theseus and his bride. This scene fades when they agree to meet in the woods later that night. Then you have Oberon and Titania, king and queen of the fairy court. They are angry with each other because of a little Indian boy. Oberon is upset and wants to humiliate his wife so he calls on Puck. Puck, aka Robin Goodfellow, is a trickster and rather carefree. These two things never really make a good combination. What's happening is rather strange, but not that confusing. Oberon sees Demetrius treating Helena rather rudely and he gets angry, so he tells Puck to make Demetrius fall in love with Helena. Unfortunately, Puck got bored pretty quickly so he saw Lysander and Hermia and put the potion on Lysander's eyelids. Lysandre woke up and saw Helena. Helena is tall and clumsy and has probably never been courted by anyone other than Demetrius. She thinks he is just making fun of her when he confesses his love for her. However, when Puck goes to fix his mistake, she thinks Demetrius is also making fun of her. She has no self-confidence. Skip to the moment where Puck goes to get Bottom and turns him into a donkey. He's half right. He gives him a donkey's head, but Bottom doesn't realize it and scares away his companions, who are the other actors. So Bottom is upset and when the Fairy Queen, who was also given the potion to fall in love with the one she wakes up, he is pleased with himself, still not knowing what fate has befallen him. Finally, when Oberon taunts Titania about her love for a donkey, she relents on the boy issue. Bottom is converted and sent away happily, believing it was just a dream, that he had just fallen asleep during acting practice. So he goes back and all his actor friends are so happy because they thought that he had been eaten by the donkey monster. Back to the four lovers, Hermia is very angry with Helena, because she thought Helena used her size to steal Lysander. Hermia is ready to fight, but Lysander and Demetrius also want to fight for the love of Helena, who still believes.