Midsummer Nights Dream Essays (852 words) - Fiction, Greek Mythology

Midsummer Night's Dream More strange than true. I never may believe These antic fables nor these fairy toys. Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend More than cool reason ever comprehends. The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact. One sees more devils than vast hell can hold: That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt. The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven And as imagination bodies forth The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name. Such tricks hath strong imagination That, if it would but apprehend some joy, It comprehends some bringer of that joy; Or in the night, imagining some fear, How easy is a bush supposed a bear! (V,i,2-22) Theseus, in Scene V of A Midsummer Night's Dream, expresses his doubt in the verisimilitude of the lover's recount of their night in the forest. He says that he has no faith in the ravings of lovers- or poets-, as they are as likely as madmen are to be divorced from reason. Coming, as it does, after the resolution of the lovers' dilemma, this monologue serves to dismiss most of the play a hallucinatory imaginings. Theseus is the voice of reason and authority but, he bows to the resulting change of affection brought about by the night's confused goings on, and allows Hermia, Lysander, Helena and Demetrius to marry where their hearts would have them. This place where the line between dream and reality blurs is an important theme of the play. Theseus is also a lover, but his affair with Hippolyta is based upon the cold reality of war, "Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword, And won thy love doing thee injuries..."(I,i,16-17). He is eager to wed Hippolyta and marriage is the place where reason and judgement rule. He wins the hand of his bride through action not through flattery, kisses and sighs inspired by her beauty. In lines 4-6 of his monologue he dismisses the accounts of lovers and madmen on the grounds that they are both apt to imagine a false reality as being real. When, in I,i,56, Hermia tells Theseus, "I would my father looked but with my eyes", Theseus responds, "Rather your eyes must with his judgment look."(57). Theseus has a firm belief that the eyes of lovers are not to be trusted. That the eye of the lover "...Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt..."(11) is, to him, proof of this. It precisely by enchanting the eyes of the lovers that the faeries manage to create so much mayhem: "Flower of this purple dye, hit with cupid's archery, sink in apple of his eye! When his love he doth espy, let her shine as gloriously as the Venus of the sky."(III,ii,101-7) Puck doesn't change Helena's nature, nor does he change her features. When Lysander wakes, he beholds the same Helena that he's always despised and suddenly he is enthralled. For Theseus this is merely caprice and in no means grounded in reality. Theseus doubts even the existence of the faeries, believing the lovers have, at a loss to explain the inexplicable changes of heart they've experienced, dreamed them up: "And as imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown, the poet's pen turns them into shapes and gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name."(14-17) A trick of the light, an abundance of shadows, lack of sleep, an overactive imagination or any one of these or million other causes are the most likely explanation. In equating lovers, poets and lunatics Theseus gets into interesting territory and serves to elevate lovers while he denounces them. The lunatic "...sees more devils than vast hell can hold.." while the poet's eye "...Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven..."(9-13); thus this same imagination is responsible for both mad ravings and great art. The concrete reality of earth co-exists with both heaven and hell as the Faerie world co-exists with the mortal world. A poet could, just as easily, be a lunatic depending on the nature of his visions. That lover's are often (bad) poets, is prime example of this interchangeability. "Such tricks hath strong imagination, that, if it would but apprehend a joy, it comprehends some bringer of that joy; or in the night imagining some fear, how easy is a bush supposed

Reading for the Implied Main Idea

Reading for the Implied Main Idea Before getting into a discussion on how to find an implied main idea, you have to know what the main idea is in the first place. The main idea of a paragraph is the point of the passage, minus all the details. Its the big picture - the Solar System vs. the planets. The football game vs. the fans, cheerleaders, quarterback, and uniforms. The Oscars vs. actors, the red carpet, designer gowns, and films. Its the summary. What Is an Implied Main Idea? Sometimes, a reader will get lucky and the main idea will be a stated main idea, where the main idea is easy to find because its written directly in the text. However, many of the passages youll read on a standardized test like the SAT or GRE will have an implied main idea, which is a little trickier. If the author doesnt directly state the main idea of the text, its up to you to infer what the main idea is. Finding the implied main idea is easier if you think of the passage as a box. Inside the box, is a random group of stuff (the details of the passage). Pull each item from the box and try to figure out what they each have in common, kind of like the game Tri-Bond. Once youve figured out what the common bond is among each of the items, youll be able to summarize the passage in a snap. How to Find the Implied Main Idea Read the passage of text.Ask this question to yourself: What do each of the details of the passage have in common?In your own words, find the common bond among all the details of the passage and the authors point about this bond.Compose a short sentence stating the bond and what the author says about the bond. Step 1: Read the Implied Main Idea Example When youre with your friends, its okay to be loud and use slang. Theyll expect it and they arent grading you on your grammar. When youre standing in a boardroom or sitting for an interview, you should use your best English possible, and keep your tone suitable to the working environment. Try to gauge the personality of the interviewer and the setting of the workplace before cracking jokes or speaking out of turn. If youre ever in a position to speak publicly, always ask about your audience, and modify your language, tone, pitch and topic based on what you think the audiences preferences would be. Youd never give a lecture about atoms to third-graders! Step 2: Whats the Common Thread? In this case, the author is writing about hanging out with friends, going on an interview, and speaking publicly, which, at first glance, dont seem to relate to each other that much. If you find a common bond among all them, though, youll see that the author is giving you different situations and then telling us to speak differently in each setting (use slang with friends, be respectful and quiet in an interview, modify your tone publicly). The common bond is speaking, which will have to be part of the implied main idea. Step 3. Summarize the Passage A sentence like Different situations requires different kinds of speech would fit perfectly as the implied main idea of that passage. We had to infer that because the sentence doesnt appear anywhere in the paragraph, but it was easy enough to find this implied main idea when you looked at the common bond uniting each idea.