One thing that stood out to me in this play was the fairies. I think it is interesting when Shakespeare chooses to use mystical characters. There are several commonalities between the fairies in this play and the witches that we see in Macbeth. For example, Shakespeare used the witches in Macbeth in one way to show that even though we humans try to take everything into our own hands to get what we want, it ultimately comes down to some outside power which humans usually refer to as fate when we have no better way of explaining it. This is just like in Midsummer night’s Dream. Here we see the fairies as another example of mystical characters that, like the witches, can make up their own potions that have an effect on humans. This effect in the play happens to be love which makes everything all the more confusing. But just like in Macbeth, this is what will make everything have a conclusion in the end. The witches decided who would end up dying and who would be left to be king. The fairies enabled everything to work out so two people who we would least expect to be able to fall in love with each other.
I think this all comes down to an interesting theme of Shakespeare’s that points us and all the human family to see that not everything is in our control. Maybe it is God (like in King Richard II), or maybe it is a witch or a fairy. But in the end it will all turn out the way fate would have it. We all want a way to explain the uncontrollable occurrences of our everyday lives. So what do you believe in?
I feel similarly. I can't decide if Shakespeare believed in supernatural elements or if he just embraced the irony of humans trying to quantify chaos.
ReplyDeleteI posted about the fairies as well! I find them extremely interesting. Magical elements in plays can represent so many different things, and in this particular play they seem to have a great impact on the mortals. That could be an interesting commentary on how little choice we have in our own lives if fairies can mess with us and change our very emotions.
ReplyDeleteNot going to lie, I read your post because of the fairies picture! :) I think you bring up an interesting point about Shakespeare's beliefs in fate/fairies. Are they just rhetorical devices for his play or something that he believes in (even loosely)? The part of me that idealizes Shakespeare as a first rate playwright chooses to think that he wouldn't be so superstitious or silly to believe in the supernatural, but that was a common belief in his time period so I could definitely see him believing in fairies, or at the very least, a set fate.
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