The play A Midsummer Night’s Dream was written by William Shakespeare during the 16th century. This play can be discussed as the comedy which is based on the magic plot referred to the humorous and fairy-tale adventures of the main characters in Athens. It is important to note that a play has the most important impact on the audience when it is performed on stage. Today, film adaptations can also be discussed as the variants of the plays’ production.
From this point, it is necessary to refer to the most vivid film adaptation of the play realized by Michael Hoffman in 1999. To analyze the play or its adaptation, a person should refer to the approaches proposed by the German playwright Johann Wolfgang Goethe and the Greek philosopher Aristotle in order to discuss the aspects of the play and its success. On the one hand, the analysis of the play’s text cannot reflect the real meaning or idea based on the author’s intention without references to the real performance on stage.
On the other hand, the vision of the director can also affect the audience’s vision of the play and its idea significantly. That is why, it is important to balance these positions while analyzing the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream with references to Hoffman’s film. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999) is the vivid and expressive film adaptation of the classic Shakespeare’s play which is characterized by bright pictures and the accentuated comic component to emphasize the farce of the story.
According to Aristotle’s viewpoint, there are six significant elements in the play which should be discussed in detail in order to analyze it effectively. These elements are the plot, thought, character, diction, spectacle, and song (Downs, Wright, and Ramsey 88-89). Focusing on the play, it is important to determine several lines of the plot which include the stories of relationships between Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius, and Helena, between King Oberon and Queen Titania, between Duke Theseus and Hippolyta.
All these plot lines are closely connected guaranteeing the complex and interesting net development in the play. The element of thought is presented in the play with references to the moral ideals which are followed by different characters. Thus, the plot development depends on the progress of the characters’ complicated relations which are reflected in their love for each other, affection, and even hate and revenge.
Referring to the play’s characters, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that Hoffman’s interpretation of the characters differs from Shakespeare’s original descriptions (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Thus, Hoffman’s characters are more comic and inconsistent in their actions, they are too expressive and even grotesque, and their actions and ideas are exaggerated.
In spite of the fact that the film is based on the play appropriately, and Shakespeare’s words are followed strictly, there are some details which are added to adapt the play to the director’s vision of the play’s world. From this perspective, the diction in the form of pathetic speeches is adapted according to the play’s mood and new features acquired by the characters.
Thus, Titania is the most pathetic in the film because of her status and attitude to the partials and situation. Furthermore, the role of Puck’s trickery is also emphasized in the context of its impact of the characters, their behaviours, and associated diction presented in Shakespeare’s play, but changed with references to the presentation of more ridiculous facts and situations. Analyzing the play’s spectacle, it is important to note that the action of the play is performed not in Athens, but in Italy during the 19th century.
This fact influences the pictures provided in the film, their connection to reality, the characters’ usage of bicycles and their attitudes to each other. However, the illustrations of the magic forest reflect the play’s text appropriately to draw the attention to the imaginative world. The music by Felix Mendelssohn and operatic elements included into the film are helpful to create the specific fairy-tail world of the film with the focus on romantic plot lines.
Goethe’s approach to the analysis of the play depends on more general discussion of the play’s elements. In the 18th-19th centuries, Goethe proposed to concentrate on what an artist could try to do, on the effectiveness of his techniques, and on the overall importance of the play as the work of art (Downs, Wright, and Ramsey 89). The purpose of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999) is to provide the comic effect in its connection with the people’s feelings and their ability to follow their passion without hesitation.
If Shakespeare achieves this goal with the help of accentuating controversies in the characters’ behaviours, the film’s author focuses on exaggerating the effects of mad love and self-assurance (A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Although the original variants of the play and its adaptation of 1999 differ in details and shifted focuses, the play and film are worth seeing and discussing by the audience because the authors’ intention to emphasize the magic world of people’s feelings is realized effectively.
Thus, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is an important play which is interesting for the audience because of its deep idea and focus on the people’s inner world in combination with the vivid pictures of magic and comic world.
Works Cited
A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Ex. Prod. Michael Hoffman. USA: Regency Enterprises. 1999. DVD.
Downs, William Missouri, Lou Anne Wright, and Erik Ramsey. The Art of Theatre: A Concise Introduction. USA: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.