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=A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Renaissance!=

~//A Midsummer's Night Dream//

 * You are given a time machine destined to travel to England, 500 years ago to the Renaissance period. A lot of questions are running through your mind before you endeavor on your once in a lifetime journey to the Renaissance. What are you expecting when you travel back in time? What is the Renaissance era? What is happening in politics during this period? What historical events occurred that impacted our society today? What were the opinions and emotions of the people who lived during the Renaissance period? How did literature and the arts define this time period? Hopefully our website will help answer all of these questions and more before you travel back in time to the Renaissance. **


 * Between the years 1400 and 1600 a great cultural movement began in Italy and then spread throughout Europe, known as the Renaissance. The Renaissance is referred to as the rebirth of humanism. Humanism practices turned many people away from the supernatural and religious ideas, to become more interested in the importance of humans. These new ideals led people to appreciate the work that humans could do in their lifetime rather than what religion told them they had to do, in order to fulfill a decent life worthy of the afterlife. With this said, many people during the Renaissance developed a newfound love for the arts, this new appreciation for the arts defined the Renaissance period. Artists like Michelangelo, explorers like Columbus, and writers like Shakespeare flourished during this time. A new type of music was performed for the people, new types of dance became popular, and new literature was intr ****oduced to the world, along with many other advances. **




 * This new type of literature became popular with many people around the world. Many authors, such as, Chaucer, began to write in the language spoken ****by their people in place of Latin. The new printing press allowed books to be printed in the countries own vernacular language. Before the Renaissance period most books were written in Latin, therefore only very wealthy and educated people could read. Because of the printing press printing pages in the vernacular language, more people had the ability to understand and read the literature. **




 * At the height of the Renaissance, between 1594 and 1598, William Shakespeare wrote in English the play //A Midsummer’s Night Dream//. //A Midsummer’s Night Dream// is easily Shakespeare's ****most popular comedy. Even though the play is considered a comedy with fantasy elements, //A Midsummer’s Night Dream// deals with the universal theme of love and the complications that c ****ome with it. The plot is set up to tell three interlocking stories about love; the experiences of two couples camping in a magical forest, the world of a Fairy King and Queen and their elves, and a group of craftsmen attempting to stage a production of //Pyramus and Thisbe// for the wedding of the Duke of Athens. Because there are three parallel plot lines, we are introduced to several main characters. These characters include; Titania  the queen of the fairies, Oberon the king of the fairies, Oberon’s fairy assistant Puck, Lysander a young man of Athens deeply in love with Hermia, Hermia is a beautiful young woman of Athens who is in love with Lysander, Demetrius another young man of Athens who is initially in love with Hermia but later falls desperately in love with Helena, and young woman of Athens Helena who is in love with Demetrius, and Nick Bottom an actor whose head is transformed into ****a donkey and is seduced by the queen of fairies Titania. **




 * Hermia is in love with Lysander, but her father wants her to marry Demetrius. In order to escape the arranged marriage, Hermia and Lysander to be married ****in the woods. Demetrius follows the couple, and he is pursued by Helena, who shows an unrequited attraction for Demetrius. A love “rectangle” forms among the lovers when mischievous Puck plays Cupid. Meanwhile, a group of amateur actors ** rehearse a play in the woods, and soon all find their lives changed by the actions of Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of the fairies. To find out how it all ends, indulge yourself in the magic, love, humor, and action the full play provides to its readers.



==This play has been performed throughout the world for the past 450 years, the present theme of the dangers of falling in love appeals to audiences today. Did the audiences during the Renaissance receive the play in a similar way to audiences today?==