第四页AnalysisofShakespeare

第四页 Analysis of Shakespeares View of Love from A Midsummer Nights Dream Introduction William Shakespeare is one of the greatest dramatists during the period of the European Renaissance,he plays a very important role in the world history of literature and in the history of drama. The age in which he lived was the age of Renaissance in Europe, humanism was the main thought weapon. And Shakespeares works brightly manifested the characteristic of humanism literature,he reached a high level in thought as well as art, which brought the European humanism literature to the peak. A midsummer nights dream is one of his famous comedies.And it is also one of his typical works to express the humanism love. The paper aims at analysing the reflect of his view of humanism love in A midsummer nights dream. I.Basic Information of the author William Shakespeare was born on April 23,1564 in Stratford-on-Avon in Warwickshire.There is no official record of Shakespeares schooling,but it is widely believed that he attended the local grammar school and read widely. William Shakespeare is one of the greatest dramatists during the period of the European Renaissance.He has great contribution to the humanism.The humanism ideal, equality, fraternity, humanitarian thoughts and the praise for youth, friendship and love which reflect in his works are of great practical significance in todays society. In Shakespeares masterpiece, the creation of his drama is his main achievements.Among them, the song of love is the basic major themes of Shakespeares dramas. Shakespeares dramas about love are mainly reflected in some comedies, their contents are colorful, some are from the long Italian stories, some use ancient works, and some come from folklore. In these dramas, the basic theme is to sing for love and friendship,and the basic mode is that a pair of lovers or two young men and women fall in love with each other at first sight,we all know that true love never run smooth, so they have to come over all obstacles and finally go through all of them well that ends well,those stories happen in A Midsummer Nights Dream, As You Like it , 第五页 Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice and other dramas in which the two basic themes have reflected. II.Introduction of the book A midsummer nights dream is a love story of two young men and women in the middle-age Greek.Two young men Lysander and Demetrius both fall in love with the young woman Hermia, and Hermia loves Lysander while her good friend Helena loves Demetrius. The disagreement of Hermias father and the interference of prince of Athens force Hermia and Lysander to run away from the city to the forest which is a few miles away from the town. Helena tells Demetrius the news,and they follow Hermia and Lysander to the forest. There are the fairy king, the fairy queen and their little elves living in the forest.At this time, the king and the queen dont get along well with each other in the disagreement of a in son.They both want the in son to serve for them. In order to let the fairy queen make concessions, the king sends his little elve Puck to get to the magic juice to tease the fairy queen. This kind of magic juice can make you fall in love with anyone who you see at the first sight when you wake up if it drops in the eyelid.The king gets the in son after he succeeds in teasing the queen and he also send his little elves to help those four young people. Because the appearance of the juice, the whole story has changed dramatically. Athought Elves drop juice to wrong people which makes the relationship between lovers more complicated, everyone still have his love in the end.At the same time ,they also get the pardon of the prince and Hermias father and gain the freedom of marriage. III.Introduction of Shakespeares View of Love Firstly,Shakespeare believes that love is beautiful and wonderful in some extent.In almost every comedy,Shakespeare sings the praises of love, friendship, and calls for personality liberation.And he thinks that everyone has the rights to fight for the freedom of marriage and the persuit of happiness. Roman poet Virgil summarized the theme of Shakespeares comedies in a sentence love can conquer everything. In a series of plays, Shakespeare creates many images of noble young men and women.They are happy, vibrant and smart. They often fall in love with each other at first sight, they get great passion in love. Even when they meet all kinds of difficulties, they are never going to give up their love.Nothing can block the combination of them, they will love with vigour and vitality, and keep on pursuing their pure love. For Shakespeare, 第六页 love and happiness is the result of the persistent pursuits of the hero and heroin which expresses the romantic lyrical atmosphere in his love comedies. Secondly,most of Shakespeares plays are filled with strong romanticism elements. His plays reflect desires of humanists to new life.Humanists want to get rid of the shackles of feudal ethics and religious asceticism,they want to strive for individual liberation and love freedom.In Shakespeares love comedies, the hero and heroine always have a good ending.In his play,the regrets of evil people and the solution of the contradictions fully express the humanistic love view of Shakespeare. We know that Shakespeares wife was eight years older than him.Although Shakespeare was one of the greatest writers,he never wrote a word for his wife.He once said that it was the tradedy of a man to marry a older wife to warn other men.His marriage had certain influence on his writing.In Shakespeares palys,he advocates free love,and love loyalty to make up the deficiency of love in his marriage. Shakespeare longs for ture love and contempt of all the feudalism. Images in Shakespeares writing are not constrained ,they can break taboos,and gain courages to get ture free love and happiness. Shakespeares plays are full of humanity and longing for true love.He shapes a lot of brave and free young men and women especially the images of women.Many his plays express the themes through women.They play active roles in the struggle to get rid of authority from husband and father.They try to break the traditional custom, and ask for the freedom of marriage which truly reflects a kind of equality humanistic spirit. In general, Shakespeare believes that love is beautiful and wonderful. And his plays are shining with individual liberation and the beauty of humanism love art. IV.Shakespeares View of Love Expressed in A Midsummer Nights Dream Shakespeares longing for beautiful and wonderful love are fully expressed in A Midsummer Nights Dream.It is a love comedy with a happy ending.No matter what difficulties the main characters meet,they are never going to give up. Hermia and Lysander do not give up even with the disagreement of Hermias father and the interference of prince of Athens.And the persistence of Helena is also a reflect of Shakespeares pursuit of love.The most dramatic part of this paly is that the magic juice can change peoples feelings to fall in love with another person.In this point,we can see that Shakespeares hope for all satisfications in love.With th help of the king and his little elves, Hermia and Lysander get the freedom of marriage while Demetrius and Helena fall 第七页 in love with each other.All of these endings of the stories express Shakespeares compliment for beautiful and happy love. A Midsummer Nights Dream is Shakespeares famous play to sing for the freedom of love and marriage which also a great piece of work to express the view of humanism love.The heroine Hermia is brave and stubborn,she is always fighting with unreasonable feudal marriage for their own happiness. She is not afraid of criticism and blame from the feudal opinion.And she runs away with Lysander to fight for the success. She is regardless of the limits of feudal ethical code to struggle for love which shows her extraordinary courage and aggressive personality.She uses actions to ask for the freedom from the authority of the husband and paternity to break the limits from traditional custom. Her pursuit of personality liberation and happiness of love shows her courage and intelligence.Her self-esteem and self-respect quality shines in the middle ages of the dark society.In that society,the equality between men and women is not allowed to be mentioned, but Shakespeare gives people dawn, although is short, but he is a forerunner. In this way,his impact is inestimable. And all of these truly reflects a kind of equality humanistic spirit and shows Shakespeares compliment for humanism love. Another female image in the play is Helena, Hermia s good friend, she is clever and acute.She never give up searching for his love,. She is deeply in love with Demetrius but Demetrius is crush on her good friend Hermia. When she learns that Hermia and Lysander are going to escape into the forest,she tells Demetrius only to get a little reward to comfort herself.She follows Demetrius to the forest,she is always pursuing her love.She is also a vivid female character in Shakespeares play to show his view of humanism love. Conclusion Shakespeare sings for the beauty of love.He longs for happy and ture love.At the same time,he shows his view of humanism love. 第八页 Bibliography 1 H. 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