William Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream Essay -- Midsumme

William Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream There are so many references to the eyes in A Midsummer Nights Dream that one(a) would expect there to be a solid and consistent curtilage for their appearance. However, this does not seem to be the case. Indeed, the images associated with the eyes are so varied, and hawk so frequently, that it is practically impossible to define what it is they found. This difficulty reflects the problem of distinguishing between what is real and what is illusion -- a central theme of the play. Confusion and construe abound throughout A Midsummer Nights Dream. The lovers chase through the woodwind instrument is perhaps the roughly obvious example. The mechanicks bumbling performance of Pyramus and Thisbe is perhaps the most comic. However, as the play commences, it is a misunderstanding between Egeus and Hermia that threatens to throw the woo into turmoil. This particular misunderstanding revolves around Hermias love for Lysander. Although Ege us has arranged for his daughter to adopt Demetrius, it is Lysander that Hermia really wants to marry. However, Egeus refuses to ascent to their marriage, threatening to enforce on his daughter the antediluvian patriarch privilege of Athens (1.1.41) if she does not condescend to his original choice. Even though this would entail her entering a nunnery (or perhaps even being executed), Egeus depression cannot be swayed. His stubbornness leads Hermia to exclaim I would my father looked but with tap eyes (1.1.56). Clearly, Hermia believes that if her father could see Lysander in the same light as her, then he would quickly form a different whimsy of him. In this instance, then, the eyes symbolize judgment. Theseus response to Hermia not only ... ...e, nor his nerve to report what my dream was (4.1.204-207). Here, he confuses the senses in his attempt to get a grip on world, thus demonstrating the blurred boundary between reality and illusion. Clearly, then, the eye alone cann ot be trusted to provide adequate training about the nature of reality. The fluid, endlessly shifting imagery of the eyes serves to represent this problem, adding to the dreamlike quality of the play in the process. Possibly, it is left to the poets eye (5.1.12) to exculpate the distinction between reality and illusion The forms of things unknown, the poets pen/Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy zilch/A local habitation and a name (5.1.15-17). Works CitedShakespeare, William. A Midsummer Nights Dream. The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1997. 814-861.