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A midsummer night's dream

By William Shakespeare

(359)

| Hardcover | 9780140620955

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Book Description

Traditionally seen as one of Shakespeare's more romantic and enchanting plays, A Midsummer Night's Dream has more recently been seen as a darker and more sinister play than generations of schoolchildren have ever imagined. The play has usually been seen as a comical tale with confused identitContinue

Traditionally seen as one of Shakespeare's more romantic and enchanting plays, A Midsummer Night's Dream has more recently been seen as a darker and more sinister play than generations of schoolchildren have ever imagined. The play has usually been seen as a comical tale with confused identities and the fickleness of youthful love, as the young lovers, Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena escape parental control and the "sharp Athenian law" of their elders by eloping into the forest outside the city. Unfortunately they stumble into civil war in fairyland, where King Oberon and Queen Titania fight over possession of a beautiful young Indian "changeling" boy. The appearance of the "rude mechanicals", a group of Athenian workers, including the weaver Nick Bottom, compounds the confusion. Chaos, confusion and "shaping fantasies" reign before the final settlement of the play, but underneath all the hilarity many critics have discerned more ambivalent attitudes towards coercive parental control, bestial sexuality and the destructive power of desire. These approaches in no way detract from the exquisite lyricism of many sections of the play, but make it a more complex and effective comedy than has often been appreciated. --Jerry Brotton

10 Reviews

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  • 2 people find this helpful

    "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind: / And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. / Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste: / Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste" (I, i, 234-237).

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    Guy Montag said on Jul 7, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • My favourite of all Shakespeare's works. The characters leap out of the pages and one can imagine the events through the comedic scenes when Puck and The Mechanicals appear, the sadness you feel for Helena seeing the one you love having love for another and finally the happiness that appears when th ... (continue)

    My favourite of all Shakespeare's works. The characters leap out of the pages and one can imagine the events through the comedic scenes when Puck and The Mechanicals appear, the sadness you feel for Helena seeing the one you love having love for another and finally the happiness that appears when the two pairs of lovers are together in the end.

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    xYoshiiiiox said on Jun 20, 2011 | Add your feedback

  • One of the best Shakespeare's comedy. In this play we can read about love, humor, fairies and a play in the play. People are changed by fairies, lovers change opinions by magic, true love wins on traditions and a lot of simple workers are appreciated by the Duke of Athens. Want more? Try to trust Ro ... (continue)

    One of the best Shakespeare's comedy. In this play we can read about love, humor, fairies and a play in the play. People are changed by fairies, lovers change opinions by magic, true love wins on traditions and a lot of simple workers are appreciated by the Duke of Athens. Want more? Try to trust Robin Goodfellow, the Puck and you'll be lost for a moment.

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    etnagigante said on Jan 11, 2009 | Add your feedback

  • A simplified version of Shakespeare's masterpiece. You can learn a lot of beautiful sentences from it =)

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    田鼠@@ said on Nov 6, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

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