A Midsummer Night’s Dream Essay: Importance of the Nighttime Forest

A Midsummer Nights fantasy The Importance of the Nighttime Forest In Shakespeares play A Midsummer Nights Dream the dark forest is the center of the world, relegating Athens, center of the civilized Greek world, to the periphery. Day gives carriage to night, and mortal rulers leave the stage to be replaced by fairies. The additional properties of night in a forest make it the perfect setting for the four lovers to set out on a project of self-discovery. Shakespeare implies that in darkness, cartel on senses other than eye mint candy leads to true hiting. In A Midsummer Nights Dream, the nighttime forest, by disrupting and transforming vision, forces introspection and improvisation that help the four lovers on their way to self-understanding. The darkness of the night setting seems particularly important in a play (and a culture) where the language of love relies so heavily on sight imagery. Fairy magic literalizes the connection between love and sight appropriately, Oberons lo ve juice is applied to the eyes. In the language of the play, to look on or at someone is the most common metonymic expression for falling in love with a new person, or for spending time with the one you already love. Lysander steels himself and Hermia against the trial of separation with a call to starve our sight / From lovers food till morrow deep midnight (1.1, ll. 221-2). Vision and hunger together become the elements of Lysanders metaphor around lovers and separation to see is to be with, and a lovers company is elevated in importance to the need for food and drink. But Hermia and Lysander are not going to see each other by the light of day. The scant light of midnight-midnight, when dawn and dusk are both equally far off-will provide all... ... which connotes shallow touch (Garber 10/13) the word dote is instead reserved for description of his former feelings about Hermia (4.1 ll. 163-73). His feelings for Hermia are the ones that have metaphorically been snuffed out by th e dawn, melted as the snow before the sun (4.1 l. 163). What began in night as magic, as introspection and improvisation, has in daylight solidified into deep feeling. Although he speaks of Helena creation the object and pleasure of his eye, the visual metaphor is accompanied by a proclamation of the faith and virtue of his hearts devotion (4.1 ll. 166-7). Introspection allows keener observation new slipway of looking enrich more ordinary types of sight. Night teaches the four lovers how to see more clearly during the day. Works CitedShakespeare, William. A Midsummer Nights Dream. New York Washington squarely Press, 1993.