Setting of Place Analysis in A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

This is an analysis of play entitled A Midsummer Night's Dream written by William Shakespeare. The writer analyze the setting of place used by Shakespeare in this play.

1. SETTING OF PLACE IN “A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM” BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Anastasia Windy Adellia Putri 13020115130088

2. Abstract This writing entitled “Setting of Place in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare”. The purpose of this writing is to analyze the setting of places used in the play. The writer uses setting of place theory and close reading method. As the result, the writer finds that Shakespeare used three different places in the play and each place presents different story. In conclusion, each place symbolizes different thing and meaning. Keywords: setting of place, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare

3. Summary of the Play A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy play written by William Shakespeare. It takes place in Athens. The play is about The Duke of Athens, Theseus, who wants to marry his woman, Hippolyta by arranging wedding festival. At that time, Egeus and his daughter, Hermia , comes to the palace. Theseus, whom Egeus is asking a help, wants Hermia to marry Demetrius. Demetrius is a man chosen by Egeus . Hermia refuses her father’s order then she runs away to the wood with her true love, Lysander. In the wood, there is a fairy king named King Oberon who is fighting with his wife, Titania . King Oberon, saw Helena and Demetrius in the wood, orders Puck to sprinkle a love potion to the young lover. However, Puck was mistaken Lysander to Demetrius which makes the two young couples are fighting. Oberon was also mistaken when he sprinkles the love potion to his wife. Titania is falling in love to Nick Bottom. Chaos ensues and becomes a comedy error. Finally, Oberon removes the love poison from Titania and Lysander. Duke Theseus and Hippolyta share their happiness through the wedding festival with the new lovers.

4. William Shakespeare was born on April 26, 1564. He was an English poet, playwright, and actor. By 1592, Shakespeare earned a living as an actor and a playwright in London and possibly had several plays produced. By the early 1590s, the documents show William Shakespeare was a managing partner in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, an acting company in London. By 1597, 15 of the 37 plays written by William Shakespeare were published. William Shakespeare’s early plays were written in the conventional style of the day, with elaborate metaphors and rhetorical phrases that didn’t always align naturally with the story’s plot or characters. Shakespeare wrote several comedies like A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It and Twelfth Night. He also wrote tragedies such as Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth. Shakespeare died on April 23 1616. Biography Of Playwright

5. Setting of Place Analysis A Midsummer Night’s Dream mainly takes place in Athens. But, Shakespeare used three different places to represent every story and some characters in it. The Athens Palace (Duke of Athens’s place) The first act begins by the conversation of Theseus, The Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta. They are planning their wedding festival. Then, Egeus and Hermia come to see Theseus. Theseus’s place itself symbolizes power of Theseus and at that time, Athens still ruled by King. Athens also symbolizes law and order. The purpose of Egeus arrival was to ask a help from The Duke because his daughter, Hermia , refused to marry the man Egeus has chosen. A father can demand death penalty for a disobedient daughter who refuses to marry the man of his choosing.

6. EGEUS Full of vexation come I with complaint Against my child, my daughter Hermia .— Stand forth, Demetrius.—My noble lord, This man hath my consent to marry her.— Stand forth, Lysander.—And my gracious duke, This man hath bewitched the bosom of my child.— Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes, And interchanged love tokens with my child. Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung With feigning voice verses of feigning love, And stol'n the impression of her fantasy With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gauds, conceits, THESEUS Take time to pause, and by the next new moon— The sealing day betwixt my love and me For everlasting bond of fellowship— Upon that day either prepare to die For disobedience to your father’s will, Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would, Or on Diana’s altar to protest For aye austerity and single life. (Act I, scene 1)

7. The Woods Because Hermia was forced to marry Demetrius, she with Lysander ran and escaped into the woods. Here, the woods mean as the liberty and freedom for Hermia and Lysander. In the woods there is no rule applied to them. They can freely love each other without being afraid of Hermia’s father or Theseus’s power. Athens’s law and order cannot be applied in the woods, too. LYSANDER A good persuasion. Therefore, hear me, Hermia . I have a widow aunt, a dowager Of great revenue, and she hath no child. From Athens is her house remote seven leagues, And she respects me as her only son. There, gentle Hermia , may I marry thee. And to that place the sharp Athenian law Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then, Steal forth thy father’s house tomorrow night. And in the wood, a league without the town— Where I did meet thee once with Helena To do observance to a morn of May— There will I stay for thee. (Act I, scene 1)

8. The Fairy Kingdom King Oberon was the king of the fairies. He lived inside the woods with her wife, Titania . The fairy kingdom that used by Shakespeare represents and symbolizes the magic and the word ‘dream’ itself. From the play, we can conclude that the magic form the flower-love poison was the beginning of the chaos.

9. C onclusion In the play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Shakespeare used three different places. The first place is in Athens which symbolizes the law and order. Shakespeare wants to emphasize the relation between Hermia and Egeus by involving the law that makes Hermia escaped to the woods with Lysander. After going to the woods, Hermia and Lysander felt so free to love each other. Shakespeare aims to use woods as a symbol of freedom because the law of Athens cannot be applied in the woods. And then, in the woods there also lived Oberon—the King of Fairies—who made the chaos between the young lovers because his flower-love poison. In conclusion, every setting of place forms different flow of story and it must have significant meaning.