William Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream Essay -- Shakespeare M

William Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights DreamShakespeare, in his A Midsummer Nights Dream, uses his characters to cast a awareness of derision over the use of the conceit. The lunatic, the lover and the poet are thr admit unneurotic all on one line, and it is implied that the latter two are as crazy as the first. (Midsummer Nights Dream, V.1.7) Despite this seeming contemn for plays and their ilk, Shakespeare is implementing a strong irony. Characters who scorn the imagination are no more than than imaginings themselves and, by this, Shakespeare is actually reinforcing a positive image of plays of the imagination. Theseuss demurral of imaginations worth reads more as apophasis than as all true refutation. Even as he scorns the poet for giving airy nobody/ A local habitation and a name, he vividly conjures images done metaphor. (V.1.18) Indeed, he is no more than an imagining named by a poet himself which lends the writing encourage depth on multiple levels. On Shakesp eares level, Theseus as a character lends himself well to irony he is a sort of play around in disguise. His witty wordplay and flowing metaphors are backed by his confidence that such shaping fantasiesare more than cool reason invariably comprehends. (V.1.5) Theseus considers himself a creature of cool reason and thus enters the irony, for he disbelieves his own existence. Only some of the audience may have understood the irony. Shakespeares plays had a wide audience, and both nobles and groundlings that is, peasants attended. The playwrights humor had to restrain all classes entertained the nobles because they sponsored the theater (and increased his fame), and the groundlings because their rotten fruit would other than voice their displea... ...inforces the positive image of plays which Shakespeare wishes to portray that is, it shows that plays do matter, whether or not you believe they can affect the world just as, in the play, antic does have a hand, whether or no t its subjects believe in it. To fix his message, Shakespeare draws parallels between the cynical voice of reason, Theseus, and the nobles in his intended audience. Thus, said nobles mogul see how little good Theseuss cynicism ultimately did him, and that, as he was wrong in disbelieving in the fairies power over the lovers, he might be wrong in disbelieving the worth of imagination and plays, and their power over the world of cool reason.Works Cited Shakespeare, William. Edited Barbara A. Mowat and capital of Minnesota Werstine. A Midsummer Nights Dream. Folger Shakespeare Library ed. New York Washington Square abbreviate Drama, 1993.