What Are the Differences and Similarities in a Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Winter’s Tale?
In my essay I would like to describe and compare A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare. I think that these comedies are rather different but we can find a lot of similarities as well. I would like to support this opinion in my essay with different examples from both plays. At the beginning I would like to discuss some similarities between these comedies, I will focus on similar motifs, characters, language and setting. I will also describe what makes both plays comedies and why we sometimes hesitate whether these plays are comedies or not. Then I want to explain how these comedies differ and I will give you some examples from my own point of view. At the very end I will summarize my reflections and I will write a conclusion of my essay.
At the very beginning I want to say that both plays I am concerned with are comedies. And what makes them comedies? For me it is mainly the happy ending which can be often found in fairy tales – something bad happens, but at the end some supernatural power or something what has not clarification manage that everything turns over and good wins over evil. But there is something at the beginning what can be connected with an element of tragedy. In Midsummer Nights’s Dream when Egeus blames his daughter that she does not wants to follow her father’s will and he wants to punish her even with the death penalty. And in the second comedy Winter’s Tale when Leontes king of Sicilia blames his wife to be unfaithful and he causes the death of his beloved. It is something what is completely against the comedy. There are also very similar motifs in both plays. For example motif of love. In Midsummer Night’s Dream is a kind of very unhappy love and I think that Shakespeare wants to express a nonsensicality of lovers behaviour. Love is entangled in the wood but this misunderstanding causes the magic juice. It shows that love is very difficult and that it can go beyond boundaries, for instance when Titania falls
At the very beginning I want to say that both plays I am concerned with are comedies. And what makes them comedies? For me it is mainly the happy ending which can be often found in fairy tales – something bad happens, but at the end some supernatural power or something what has not clarification manage that everything turns over and good wins over evil. But there is something at the beginning what can be connected with an element of tragedy. In Midsummer Nights’s Dream when Egeus blames his daughter that she does not wants to follow her father’s will and he wants to punish her even with the death penalty. And in the second comedy Winter’s Tale when Leontes king of Sicilia blames his wife to be unfaithful and he causes the death of his beloved. It is something what is completely against the comedy. There are also very similar motifs in both plays. For example motif of love. In Midsummer Night’s Dream is a kind of very unhappy love and I think that Shakespeare wants to express a nonsensicality of lovers behaviour. Love is entangled in the wood but this misunderstanding causes the magic juice. It shows that love is very difficult and that it can go beyond boundaries, for instance when Titania falls
Bibliography: SHAKESPEARE, William. Komedie 1. Praha: Odeon, 1988. SHAKESPEARE, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Brno: Atlantis, 2010.