A Midsummer Night's Dream - Shakespeare Stories Collection (Includes CD)

Author: Shakespeare
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's most frequently performed and beloved comedies. It is also one of the few plays in his works that is highly original. The play is filled with hope and joyous atmosphere. The forest of summer nights, fairy magic, and other elements are particularly suited for theatrical representation. The performance history of this play can almost be said to be the history of the fairy's portrayal. The protagonists flee the forest due to a foolish and harsh law, but in the forest, they are entangled in love thanks to the intervention of fairies. The story takes place on a midsummer night, during which Western culture has the concepts of midsummer madness and moonstruck, implying that order can only be restored at dawn. The play's narrative unfolds between the city and the forest, wakefulness and sleep, reality and fantasy, with a highly symmetrical structure. The forest, sleep, or dreams all symbolize the subconscious, making it particularly favored by many psychoanalytic scholars in recent decades. Additionally, because the play mentions themes such as a father forcing a marriage and a fairy king manipulating love, some also use feminist perspectives to explore the work.