Essay On A Midsummer Night's Dream

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England was under Queen Elizabeth’s I’s reign under the 1590s. She had been on the thrown since 1558 and kept the crown until her death in 1603. The era she ruled is known as the Elizabethan era, and it was a period of relative peace, commercial and imperial expansions and growing national confidence. But it was also a period that was overshadowed by the on-going religious resistance that were often extreme, sometimes violent. It was a tough life in London during the 1500s. We may not know if their emotional lives was like ours today, their first year were certainly not. The childhood was short and many youths, rich and poor, were send away from home to live and serve other households. It was a time of plague, death in childbirth, harvest failures, and high infant-mortality. This, and much more, could be the reason for diminished the intensity of family bonds, and the bond didn’t last very long either, since on an average, people lived till their mid-forties. The oldest sibling inherited all, which would cause a friction among siblings. Not even love and marriage were the same. The thought of marry for love was barely new. Most men and women didn’t marry until their mid-twenties, even though the lived short lives, which is surprising. And the meaning of key concepts, like what constitutes an “individual”, was different. The mention about individuality came form writers, including Shakespeare, but it was in a modern sense of “distinctiveness” or “specialness”, the opposite of what it had long meant “inseparability”. It was a time of faith, or at least it was mandatory to go to church and religion played a big part in the shaping of life, death and the afterlife were imagined. Shakespeare grew up and was active during the Elizabethan Age, in the Tudor era. …show more content…
It was during this time that art became an appreciated occupation. It became accepted because many people in England found enjoyment in watching plays. People went to see plays to escape the reality of their hard jobs and other bad circumstances, as mention, they were exposed to during this time. It was not uncommon for ordinary people not being able to read or write, so watching a play was the best way for them to learn about important events, since the plays often gave serious literary and historical reference points.

William Shakespeare wrote A midsummer night’s dream in the mid 1590s. It’s a play about love, disobedience, magic, humour, drama and romance. It is set in ancient Greece and a magic forest outside of Athens.

Shakespeare joined the Chamberlains Men in 1594 and he wrote his plays with a focus on the strengths and capabilities of the players in the accomplished group in mind. It was also a norm, during the early performances, that the boys or men would play the female parts, since women were not allowed on stage. When performing A midsummer night’s dream, there was more focus for the audience on costumes, music and language of dialogue of the play. This focus was due to the fact that the cast had no access to scenery and had only minimal amount of props. But since many plays often were based on real life events and persons, the historical events and persons often became a bit twisted. For example the settings worked as a type of “disguise” for

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