Tangled in "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

This play not only has a love triangle, it expands its geography to almost every character in the story.

Hermia is desired by Demetrius, who we can all identify as the arrogant bloke who is also having intimate times with Helena, who in turn is in love with Demetrius. Who Hermia truly desires is Lysander, not in approval her father Egeus. Theseus is brought in to point out that if Hermia does not give into Demetrius, she could either die or live the rest of her existence worshipping Diana, with chastity intact.



In Shakespeare's society, the father was the sole decider and deviating from the decision was thought to lead in disaster. Women were thought to make any real progress in society if they married, set by masculine standards. Eegeus' righteousness causes Hermia and Lysander decide to rebel anyway, wandering into the woods.

This form of Theseus is familiar for those who have read Geoffery Chaucer's "The Knight's Tale." He was a man of strong arm, strong will and utmost authority who tried to use it on everyone in his eyesight, including two lovestruck Theban knights Arcite and Palamoun. Here, Theseus is not in control of the situations in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" serving as the adult figure who cannot take reigns on youth itself.

So who decides the madness running amuck in this comedy? Meet Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow, is set to create chaos with orders given by Oberon, King of the Fairies. He is known throughout folklore as a trickster, sometimes as a devil. More information on Puck can be found here.

In the course of events, Puck accidently sets Lysander's affections towards Helena, hurting Hermia's mood tremendously. Of course, Demetrius, who was never loving in mind with Helena to begin with, starts to rival with Lysander thanks to Puck's magic.

The love, or at least the confusion of love, does not stop there. Nick Bottom, a weaver among the "rude mechanicals" who are trying to orchestrate a play about Pyramus and Thisby, gets stuck with the head of an ass, even though he declared never to be made an ass himself! It is quite funny how Shakespeare plays with expressions, with Bottom being an example of how an expression can take a life of its own.

Titania, thanks to Puck's substance, falls for the ass-headed Bottom. Poor Bottom only becomes a tool for Titania to give up an Indian boy to Oberon. Once Puck lifts the spell, Bottom's fun comes to an end. Titania survives the encounter with absolute disgust. Sometimes love doesn't go in so well.

- Kristopher

Sonnet 15

"Sonnet 15" continues the theme of the life cycle from vibrant youth to harrowing old age, the joys of reproduction and the happiness as well as the sadness of passing on seeds to a new generation.

The line "Whereon the stars in secret influence comment;/" appears to represent fate watching over the "men as plants increase, cheered and checked even by the selfsame sky." The new breed of flora, the "men" or people as a whole, can be encouraged, cheered on because they are the new generation to carry out new deeds, new operations, new identities to carry out civilization's whims and wills. It can be said that this new breed could be "checked," held back by shortcomings of what the previous generation suffered, that the new generation would have to carry the sins of the mothers and the fathers on their backs.










The theme of the aging process also shows up in "Sonnet 15." "Where wasteful Time debateth with Decay," could mean that both these factors fight against the new generation, and possibly the poet. Time makes us all age, and we all must face decay not just in the aging process but with whatever misfortunes life throws on the road. The next set of lines offer comfort in the struggle: "And, all in war with Time for love of you,/As he takes from you, I engraft you new." Time may be raging against the flesh and the mind, but there is hopes for further reproduction, for a new generation to pop up, to carry on the usual deeds and possibly do better things than the previous generation did with some "engrafting," new life surging into the veins of people.

- Kristopher

Sonnet 2

"Sonnet 2" appears to depict the aging process, that a man would be akin to the landscape, with his flora being ravaged by winter. "When forty winters shall besiege my brow" tells of "deep trenches" in this "landscape" that is the man describing his aging state, how wrinkles develop on the surface of the skin, how the joints aren't just a fluid as they used to be. But heavy details focus on the narrator's genitelia, described as "The youth's proud livery, so gazed on now/Will be a tattered weed of small worth held:" Everyone can feel worthless when Time makes the flesh coarse, the mind blind to its senses and other "old" details, but this narrator would especially feel useless if he were no longer the proper lover he used to be.

Like the first sonnet, "Sonnet 2" celebrates the passing on of generations. This narrator is thankful that he is able to pass his genes onto another person, hence achieving some level of immortality. The previous sonnet started as optimistic of the offspring growing up, but pessimistic on the level that he or she may be responsible for a famine of society as well as a famine of not passing the blood on to another. This sonnet offers a glimmer of hope, with "This were to be new made when thou art old/And see thy blood warm when thou feel'st it cold." The narrator could be even be laying on his deathbed and comment on this, knowing his body will be spent, his mind weary, but that his code has been passed on to someone else.

"Sonnet 2" is one of the first set of sonnets that depict "procreation," in the organic, human sense and in the Shakespeare's sense that the fun with sonnets was just beginning.

- Kristopher

Shakespeare Parodies

Shakespeare's works can never escape the the realm of art of parody.

Hamlet, one of Shakespeare's best known plays, has been made into several videos. This is true when it is mingled with "Star Wars," ironically borrowing Shakesperian elements.
This live action video is the corny parody of the ending of Hamlet.

This site depicts "Star Wars" action figures into "online comic" scenarios with Shakespeare involved. The action figures feature the dialogue and situations depicted in Shakespearian works.

Below is a sample scene, with Luke Skywalker, the ghost and the dialogue that came beneath it:

Ghost: I am thy father's spirit, Doomed for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confined to fast in fires Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged away.

Outside of Star Wars, even creators of Halo machinima have decided to take lines of Shakespeare's Hamlet and alter the lines to reflect the haphazards and joys of the game.

- Kristopher

Sonnet 1

The sonnet appears to tell about the life and death cycle of people, with the element of materialism involved.

The sonnet describes people who desire to reproduce with "we desire increase/," to pass on culture and customs "as the riper should by time decrease,/" There is an understanding that the younger generation learns from the older generation, or at least that is an assumed ideal that older people would hold. What the sonnet suggests that the new generation is disillusioned of the "old ways," that they find their way to the top, often at other people's expense. This can hold true of today's society, where good will is sometimes eclipsed by hopes for success.

In the middle of the sonnet, the tone grows darker to tell of this hunger for "more" of everything in sight. The sonnet tells of famines created "where abundance lies" as the individual moves to hoard it all. The younger generation seems to be described as selfish, only caring about itself and its own glory above other things and people. The sonnet could be describing of someone's humble orgins, that this individual could be dissatisfied with the humble life he or she was brought up in and has ambitions for greener pastures. These ambitions only serve to decrease the value of other people and things.

More accurately, since this was written in Shakespeare's time, this would apply mostly to the rich classes. This younger generation would have been brought up in a prosperous life, and have no regard to what could have been otherwise. So they would eat drink and be jolly without any limits set whatsoever. This can also apply to the lower classes with its woes, the quest for abundance being impossible to a level that it is destructive. This sonnet can relate to our times, as our society can be extremely materialistic where the belief is that one with the most toys, wins. What that part of society tells us is that this belief hardly guarantees happiness.

- Kristopher