The essay I wrote represents the months I spent in my English 12: The Bard class discussing Shakespeare’s greatest text A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Initially, the class was examined roles through which we examined the play from. I portrayed Margaret Clitherow, a Catholic woman who was considered rebellious for not following the Queen’s religion. Examining the text from this perspective provided me with the insight to analyze the transformations the characters undergo. As with my experience with Margaret, I noticed a remarkable transformation of the characters breaking the status quo. These transformations inspired me to focus my research on transforming against the status quo within A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
My paper came to its current existence after numerous revisions consulting members of various Advanced Placement Literature and English 12: The Bard classes. In revisions with Mari, she noted the importance of enhancing my opening paragraph. Following her suggestions, I modified the paragraph to represent the strong declarations I make in the essay. My revisions with Isak suggested the importance of tweaking my concluding paragraph to strengthen my essay. His suggestions helped guide me in tightening my paper. My revisions with Ari allowed me to note the mixup I made with the love potion by accidentally calling it magic dust. While conducting these editing rounds, I edited my essay based on the guidelines to strengthen my word choice. The paper that I now present represents multiple perspectives and editors allowing me to produce the best quality essay possible.
While I am quite pleased with the status of my paper, more can always be done to improve one’s writing. In future writings, I aspire to invoke a reaction from someone who is not familiar with the text I am writing about before presenting the assignment to Dr. Holt.
The Truth of Humanity and Breaking the Norms
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream shares stories of hope, loss, and love through the characters’ transformations. Each character develops into their whole self by not letting outside influences define who they are. The characters in the play undergo transformations of breaking the status quo by letting their true selves come to life, which reflects the changes humans undergo throughout their lifetime. Puck, Bottom, and the lovers evolve to find their true identity as they face encounters that guide their journey of self discovery. By doing so, they find free will and determination through the work of mysterious acts that test their emotional capabilities.
Bottom, a self righteous actor, dramatizes his childish personality throughout the play and portrays even more of an adolescent as the play evolves. He does not allow the rigid expectations of mid-century English society to prevent him from frolicking in the woods with the fairies while he wears a donkey head. While Bottom is dancing around, he is not heedful to societal expectations as he is solely engrossed with himself. Bottom is originally self-absorbed, but the extremity of the love potion forces Bottom to awaken from his dreams of disregarding society. Bottom’s transformation from someone who largely disregards society’s opinion of himself to a man ignoring society’s expectations demonstrates the power of humans changing their interactions with the world and the impact it has on one's self.
Puck, the story’s primary troublemaker, initially utilizes his love potion for amusement. As the play develops, he comes to understand the larger importance of the love potion. As Puck initially spreads the love potion, he guffaws and finds entertainment changing the lovers’ destinies, but he soon realizes the gravity of the work he is done when relationships begin to manifest. While this is setting in, Puck discovers the importance of cultivating loving relationships and works to ensure the relationships are truly built out of love and not just created and continued by the magic for his own mirth. Puck transforms the way love is interpreted and created by forming relationships of his own, breaking readers’ expectations of relationships.
The lovers’ relationships are greatly impacted by Puck’s love potion, yet their love and admiration is always there. Puck’s love potion allows the lovers to limit the influence of outside interference in their relationships and instead focus on creating relationships with whom they love. The lovers select who they want to be with after breaking free from the molded relationships their parents have created. Ultimately, the lovers find themselves with who makes them utterly joyful instead of what the status quo dictates. Offspring typically follow the path their parents establish for them, but the lovers understand that for them to be truly happy they need to stop acceding to their parents’ dreams and desires.
Each person’s experience is uniquely theirs and the characters embrace this as they become themselves while ignoring pressures and expectations from society. The characters’ evolution throughout the play demonstrates the struggles of becoming who you are but ultimately the characters embrace themselves. Society often influences how we behave, but you come to learn to choose your own happiness instead of letting outside pressures decide your path.
Costume Director Pitch
Throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the characters gravitate toward one another and form unique groupings that differentiate in personality. Their distinctive personalities are most evident when focused on the costume choices in a hypothetical adaption of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at a summer camp. The characters’ outfits denote their transformations and evolutions through the groupings, colors, and clothing styles.
The groupings of people denotes the different experiences each set of character undergoes. The different categories of people include the royals, Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, Philostrate, and Titania; the fairies Oberon, Puck, Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustardseed; the mechanicals Peter Quince, Nick Bottom, Francis Flute, Tom Snout, Snug, and Robin Starveling; and the lovers, Lysander, Hermia, Helena, and Demetrius. The Royal group present themselves as posh campers who are struggling to survive at camp based on their status in society; the fairies present themselves as campers who are content with being dirty; the mechanicals present themselves as campers who are everyday campers going through their normal routine; the lovers present themselves as teenagers trying to find themselves.
Color palettes allow onlookers to interpret the actors’ personalities before they engage with the play. The colors bring certain personality traits to life as many associate certain colors with meaning certain things. The Royals wear red and purple to show off their power, influence, and royal status. The fairies wear varying shades of browns, greens, and blues to represent their outdoorsy nature. The mechanicals present themselves in typical camp colors of tie-dye, greys, and the wide swath of colors available on the color wheel as they are everyday citizens. The lovers wear varying shades of black to represent the transitional phase of their life.
The characters’ clothing styles provide multiple ways to interpret their current phase of life. The Royals wear clothing that is elegant (and not practical for summer camp) to show off their status in society. The fairies wear clothing that is slightly baggy with small tears to demonstrate their interest in galloping around the woods. The mechanicals wear basic clothing that doesn’t provide much information to the audience. The lovers wear grunge clothing that attempts to hide who they are as to not reveal their secrets.
Costume Design Ideas
Some of the images appear somewhat blurry. This link provides access to the costume designs with their descriptions.