Write a five paragraph letter in response to the sample analysis (click here to access the text), arguing either of the following. the court represents chaos and the woods represents order. the play places a greater value on either order or disorder, but does not value both. be sure your letter includes a central claim, a minimum of three pieces of evidence (cited quotations; these quotations can come directly from the sample analysis piece, but if you choose to use any outside sources, include a works cited page), and at least two instances of sarcasm or irony indicated by the use of quotation marks.
order and chaos in a midsummer night’s dream
william shakespeare’s a midsummer night’s dream is a tale about love, family,
confusion, dreams, reality, and magic. the play contains many binary opposites, or
elements that oppose one another, such as light and dark or love and hate. one of the
ways shakespeare uses these binary opposites is by establishing two very different
settings for the story: the athenian court of theseus, and the woods ruled by fairies. the
former setting represents law and order, while the latter represents disorder and chaos.
by establishing these two opposite settings of order and chaos, shakespeare is able to
demonstrate that a balance of both ideals is necessary for a happy and successful life.
the beginning of the play takes place in the athenian court. egeus has brought
his daughter, hermia, before theseus to force hermia to marry demetrius, but she is
refusing because of her love for lysander. as a result of hermia’s rebellion, she must
either enter a convent or die. this harsh penalty is an example of the strict nature of law
and order in the court. these strict rules set up the central conflict in the story, forcing
hermia and lysander into the woods to escape her father’s control.
in the woods, however, things are very different. oberon and puck are mischief
makers, meddling in the lives of humans and fairies alike. they create confusion and
disorder, initially causing many problems for the young lovers in the woods. oberon
explains his plan to use love potion to control the humans: “fetch me that flower; the herb
i shew'd thee once. the juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid will make or man or woman
madly dote upon the next live creature that it sees” (2.1.175-178). this love potion is magic,
and would not be found in the court of law and order. the woods then not only makes things
interesting in the story, but also creates an alternate reality where people change their
affections, hermia and helena trade societal roles, and characters such as bottom turn in to
characters that are symbolic of their personality. the chaos, in a way, reveals the dual
nature of the characters, and what could be argued as their true complex nature that was not
appreciated in the court.
by the end of the play, the characters return to the court to be married and live
happily ever after, despite egeus’s initial objections. this proves that the events in the
woods, the chaos caused, had a profound effect on the nature of the court. the law and
order is still present, as is evidenced by the weddings, but disorder has lessed the strict
nature of the court, as is evidenced by the fairies presence in the court after the weddings.
the fairies bless the court as if shakespeare is proving that a little chaos is necessary now
and then to make things end up the way they are supposed to be, but that order is
necessary for a happy ending as well. the play becomes one about the balance between
the two ideals, and a cautionary tale about relying too heavily on order or chaos.