I found this play to be a bit of a difficult read; between the
old English and the large amount of various character introductions. However,
once I got past the verbiage, I found that Shakespeare was clearly brilliant
and creative. We see creativity in the bases of each character, as well as, his
ability to entertain with a lively story. In my opinion, the elements of the
story were not exactly predictable, especially as we witness Puck unleash his
whimsical shenanigans.
The development of the characters on top of the love-story complex,
added to the humor of the play. The dynamic of character insecurities was
well-crafted, and each one served its purpose. For example, Helena’s low
self-esteem and desperation developed a comical scenario where Demetrius and
Lysander are declaring their love for her and she simply believes they are
mocking her; while this is greatly frustrating the jealous Hermia. Shakespeare
did a great job creating the characters to align with a story that is grounded
in ironic-comedy, but also offers a sense of realism.
I enjoyed the final story at the end of the play, because,
in addition to the comedic relief, there seemed to be a reference to Romeo and
Juliet. Just as Romeo killed himself when he thought that Juliet was dead,
Pyramus killed himself when he thought that Thisby was dead. When Thisby (Juliet),
realizes that her love is dead, she then, in turn, kills herself. As I
investigated this play further, I found that the story of Pyramus and Thisby
was also a reference to an ancient Babylonian legend. This provides more
evidence that Shakespeare did not take his writing lightly. Even though there
is pure entertainment with the slapstick comedic element, he also included some
“parent-jokes” for his educated audience.
I also enjoyed the ending of the play as it was a play
within a play. It was both creative and comical as though it was slapstick-comedy
mixed with overzealous dramatic tragedy. I like to think that this is where
Shakespeare inserted ideas that he had, but may have thought that they would have
taken away from the “feel good” ending of the play. This could have been his
way of ending the play the way he wanted to, while still allowing the audience
to have the closure they would prefer.
What's interesting is that that final play within a play was based on that myth, and itself was the inspiration for Romeo and Juliet. Without looking it up (I will eventually but I think it's more fun to figure things out naturally) but I wonder if he wrote Romeo and Juliet first and then made a reference to it in this play, or was inspired by his own work being inspired by an ancient story, and then wrote Romeo and Juliet?
ReplyDeleteHey Tyler,
ReplyDeleteI do not know what you have found, but as I continue to research this I am finding that critics often disagree about which play was written first. However, my research was not done in vain, as I have found that many of Shakespeare’s characters were references to other stories. A lot of this research derived from sparknotes.com; Theseus is the hero from Greek mythology, Puck was a popular character from sixteenth century stories, Titania is a character derived from Ovid’s writing Metamorphoses, and Oberon was believed to have been taken from a medieval romance story called Huan of Bordeaux. I can safely say that I would have appreciated this story in it's time. To me, there is something fun and appealing about bringing worlds together and having separately known characters interact. One story in particular that comes to mind is The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen; which combines a list of characters from 19th century novels.
Thanks for your response Tyler!