We continue our travel through time in the 16th century. Today we want to present you the comedy »A Midsummer Night's Dream« written by William Shakespeare in 1595/1596. As it is one of the most famous plays in world history it has to be in our »Time travel through literature«!
Shakespeare was an English playwright and made all in all 38 dramas. He grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon and moved to London where he wrote plays for his troupe and acted in some small parts. When he was 46 years old he returned to Stratford where he died at the age of 52. He still is the most famous and greatest writer in the history of the English language.
»Lord, what fools these mortals be!«
»Love looks not with the eyes,
but with the mind,
And therefore is winged
And therefore is winged
Cupid painted blind.«
»My soul is in the sky.«
»The lunatic, the lover,
and the poet, are of
imagination all compact.«
»I’ll follow thee and make a
heaven of hell,
To die upon the hand I love
To die upon the hand I love
so well.«
The play tells the story of some mortals from Athens in ancient Greece and the fairies. Their king Oberon and queen Titania have an argument because they accuse each other of unfaithfulness. Oberon wants to punish his wife and orders Puck to give Titania a love potion so that she'll fall in love with the first creature she sees. On his way he meets the two mortals Lysander and Hermia, two lovers that are not allowed to marry because of Hermia's father. Puck makes Lysander fall in love with Helena, another mortal girl from Athens, by mistake. But Helena is in love with Demetrius who should marry Hermia. Meanwhile, the queen Titania falls in love with a man who has the head of a donkey because Puck enchanted him. So everybody is in love with someone he cannot have and Oberon and Puck have to clear up the confusion. The plot is very complex but also funny because of the tricks Puck plays on the lovers.
We really enjoyed reading »A Midsummer Night's Dream« and can totally understand why Shakespeare is said to be one of the most influencing writers and poets of all time. The language he uses in his play is beautiful and very multifaceted. For example Puck speaks very roughly and uses offensive language while Oberon and Titania speak nobly. Therefore their language matches their characters very well. Personally, we loved Puck (or Robin Goodfellow which is a wonderful name!) the most. He is very funny and always fools the others, even Oberon. We have to admit that we already loved him before we read the play because of the »Iron Fey saga« from the author Julie Kagawa where Puck plays an important role. That also was the reason for us to read the play and we were not disappointed! Of course, it is quite different from modern literature but that is not a bad thing and can be very interesting. We think that many of you have (or already had) to read this in school, but it is definitely worth your free time too if you like tales and are not deterred by an old and unfamiliar style of writing.
I'll continue this travel through time now. Bye! ~Gwen
I will dream of the next story we want to write about. ~Liv
source: Wikipedia