Abstract
A Midsummer Night's Dream, is a play which revolves around the idea of love as an opportunity for foolishness. Puck takes great delight in manipulating the loves of the humans who have unwittingly stumbled into his kingdom. Lovers, particularly those in this play, expose themselves to danger as a result of love from the very beginning. Love simply makes us more so. This play demonstrates that only through humor can we survive the changes in love and life that we experience.

Abstract
This paper looks at and compares Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, with Michael Hoffman's 1999 film adaptation. Looking at how specific differences such as language and scenes differ from interpretations, and how if there is any suggestive influence that enables us to better understand the original play.

Tags:mid, summer, play

Abstract
This paper looks at Shakespeare's play "A Midsummer Night's Dream," as an example of how Cupid's arrow can make people defy convention and reason. Through an examination of the characters and their roles, the author supports the thesis that love causes a person to become irrational and can often cause them to lose touch with reality.

From the Paper
"The fighting continues between the four. Helena gets more and more upset, particularly at Hermia, who was once her dearest, closest friend, and whom she now suspects is being cruel to her. Hermia herself is very confused, at both the fact that Lysander no longer wants anything to do with her, and the fact that Helena seems to not trust her. Once the argument ceases and the four go off into the forest, so Demetrius and Lysander can duke it out over Helena, Puck catches up to set things "right". Oberon's wish is that the original lovers Lysander and Hermia are reunited, and that Demetrius will stay in love with Helena, and she will believe his love to be true."

Tags:cupid, demetrius, dreams, helena, hermia, love, lysander, oberon, potions, puck, romance, theseus, titania

Abstract
This paper examines the Shakespearean character "Puck" in the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream." It describes him as the head fairy and protagonist in the play and the reason this play is so magical. The paper describes the use of language in order to set apart the fairies from the "mortals."

From the Paper
"'Spirits and fairies cannot be represented, they cannot even be painted, -- they can only be believed'" (Bloom 87). This could be the opening line of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," for as we watch the play unfold, we are taken out of the world of today, and into a magical world full of romance, magic, and farce, and Puck is a major player in the story that unfolds."

Tags:robin, goodfellow, shakespeare, fairy, language, fairies, mortals, spirits, medieval, athen

Abstract
Dreaming and what happens during the period of slumber are two important themes that emerge from the Shakespearean comedy "A Midsummer Night's Dream". This paper discusses the difference between actual dreams and the surreal situation in order to grasp the meaning and significance of "dreaming" in the play.

From the Paper
"A Midsummer Night's dream, as the name suggest, is full of instances of fantasy and illusion which makes it on the one hand, a beautiful magical tale while on the other a comic story where surrealism outweighs every other force. While many would think that love is the dominant theme of the play, the playwright it appears had another theme in mind when he created this story. Shakespeare has given dreams a more dominant role to play in the plot because it is during the period of slumber that magical things happen to the characters, which completely change the course of the play."

Tags:slumber, love-potion, fantasy, fairies, love

Abstract
This paper explores the theme of magic in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', and discusses how Shakespeare uses supernatural elements throughout the play. It considers the boundaries between good and evil, and comments upon the ways Shakespeare presents the play as a supernaturally charged adventure.

From the Paper
"There was a strong belief in the supernatural in Shakespeare's era and subsequently, some form of the supernatural realm is a common theme throughout his plays. The supernatural is a central theme in A Midsummer Night's Dream which is set in an enchanted fairyland wood and the play clearly demonstrates the power of the supernatural and the dramatic influence the spiritual world has upon the natural order of things. "

Tags:evil, fairies, magic, supernatural, woodland

Abstract
This paper describes William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream as preposterous, and arsy-versy. The author points out that, by using the rude mechanicals, Shakespeare seems to be arguing that arsy-versy can turn even the most lamentable tragedy into a roaring comedy. The paper relates that an example of arsy-versy of one of the rude mechanicals is called Snug the Joiner, whose rhetoric is so slow and disjointed that he asks for his lines written in advance. The author also then discusses Titania as an example of preposterousnous, explaining that she is the fairy goddess who falls deeply in love with Bottom despite his having an ass for a head of which he is unaware. The paper concludes that the backwards reaction to the events of the play-within-the-play points to Shakespeare's message that people are insensitive to their own follies and yet are very perceptive of the same follies found in others.

From the Paper
"As the play begins, the preposterousness of the presentation is immediately shown in the prologue, which the rude mechanicals took great care to write so as not to offend the court. Peter Quince's delivery of the prologue presents a message opposite from the intended one. "If we offend, it is with our good will," he says, unfortunately telling the court that his intent is to offend. "All for your delight," he later says, "we are not here". The players then continue to present their play in a rather backwards manner; by making it crystal clear to the court that what they see in front of them isn't real."

Tags:preposterous arsy-versy, rude mechanicals, follies insensitive

Abstract
Self-knowledge - the ability to understand rather than misunderstand an action, emotion, or situation - is one of the social values embedded in the works of William Shakespeare. This paper examines several examples of plays where the theme of self-knowledge was present, including "The Merchant of Venice", "Twelfth Night" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream".

From the Paper
"As to whether these reminders of "social values" are an integral part of the works, or not, is rather irrelevant for the purpose of this thesis. For our concerns the fact that they exist at all is sufficient. Throughout the plays various messages are presented dealing with ethics, love, honor, and ambition, among others. Often, more than one message may be presented in a single work through different levels of emphasis and various subplots?. One major idea expressed almost as a constant in the great majority of Shakespeare's works is the idea of "self-knowledge," or more accurately the often lack thereof."

Tags:Antonio, Shylock, Orsino, Demetrius

Abstract
This paper discusses how In William Shakespeare's play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream", the theme of transformation is clearly visible throughout the entire work. It looks at how many of the characters are transformed during the course of the play, not only in terms of their character, but also in the way they view the world. In particular, the paper examines how what is most interesting in Shakespeare's depiction of these transformations is his textual references to the cycles of the moon, the irrationality of dreams, and the chaotic and transforming nature of magic.

From the Paper
"The motif of the moon is also significantly linked with the idea of dreams. It seems that, because the moon and dreams share the night, Shakespeare ties them together in a very artistic and symbolic way, particularly through the imagery he creates in his syntax; for example, "Four nights will quickly dream away the time;/And then the moon, like to a silver bow/New bent in heave, shall behold the night" (1.1.8-10). The idea of dreams is also very important to the concept of transformation in the play, as most of the characters are transformed after they sleep. Furthermore, through the constant references to dreams, and his use of dream-like language, Shakespeare makes the characters question, as well as audiences, whether or not everything that happened in the forest was a dream. "

Tags:Lysander, Demetrius, Oberon, Puck

Abstract
The essay examines the unusual and unconventional father-daughter relationships that exist in "A Midsummer's Night" Dream and "Romeo and Juliet."

From the Paper
"Biological fathers in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet are seen as authoritative, ruling figures. Their only apparent role in each is to make decisions for their daughters."

Tags:daughter, dream, father, juliet, midsummer, night, relationships, romeo