A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Comparing and

Contrasting of LanguageJustin Curley, Phillip Leung, Alan Lu, Ryan

Moucharrafie, & Rahul SettyEnglish 8HP, Period 3

Mrs. Galvan14 May 2012

Introduction

A. To detect what a character is feeling or how strong that feeling is, one must focus on the language a character uses. However, the type of language that characters use could change as a result from an alteration in the setting or situation. Comparing these variations in language can help a reader define a character’s personality.

B. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare uses language in order to distinguish each group of characters’ traits. The Lover’s language, when they’re in the presence of the Court or in the forest share similarities, but still have some significant differences at the same time.

Synopsis

Lovers in the Court

While they’re in the midst of the Court, the Lovers lean toward a more formal type of language that has a calmer tone and consists mostly of verse.

Lovers in the Forest

When the Lovers are in the forest, they become more expressive in language and tend to be less careful in their choice of words and their arrangement.

Similarity One (Blank Verse)Regardless of their location,

the Lovers most often speak in blank verse, non-rhyming lines in iambic pentameter. When Hermia and Lysander plan to run to the forest, they still speak in blank verse in their concerned tone, since they’re going, “[into] the wood where [Lysander] and [Hermia] upon [white] primrose beds [they’ve] lie[d]”(I. i. 222-227). On the other hand, Demetrius still speaks in blank verse while chasing Lysander into the forest. Although he is utterly confused and somewhat angered when “[Lysander] [doesn’t] stand nor look [at him] in the face”, his language grammatically remains the same(III. ii. 452-454).

• Both quotes give the reader a rhythmic effect since they are both spoken in blank verse

• The language’s purpose is to show that the Lovers formal class is the reason they speak this way

• These passages reveal that blank verse is a trait of formal Athenian language, as the Court has also been observed to speak in this fashion too

Similarity Two (Lack of Volume)

Though it is possible to determine how passionate a Lover’s feeling is, the Lovers’ lack of a constant volume at times makes the depth of feelings more difficult to process. When Demetrius and Lysander supposedly make fun of Helena, she feels as if “[they] hate [her] with [their] hearts”(III. Ii. 149-158). She is angry and loud for a moment, but after a short time, her voice seems to falter. Hermia on the other hand, remains calm and quiet, when “[she] refuses to wed Demetrius”(I. i. 62-68)

• The ending emotional effect on the reader is small, since the lack of consistent volume doesn’t give the reader much depth on the characters’ emotions

• Shakespeare uses this language for the purpose of making the Lovers externally reserved in their feelings

• This quiet language reveals how civilized formal Athenians are, since it is naturally not polite to vent the magnitude of one’s thoughts towards others.

Difference One (Emotion)The Lovers of course have feelings,

but the issue is whether or not they express those feelings. In the civilized city of Athens, the Lovers seem to articulate themselves in a somewhat reserved manner. For example, Hermia vents herself in the midst of the Court that “[Demetrius] turned [her] heaven unto a hell”, but her word choice is carefully chosen creating a softer tone with feelings harder to analyze (I. i. 62-68). However in the forest, the Lovers don’t hold back and constantly talk without concern of proper language use and with repetition to get their emotions through. During their fight in the forest, Helena insults Hermia when claiming she has “no [sense] of bashfulness” whatsoever (III. Ii. 301-304). Both her feelings and the size of those feelings can be easily seen in this passage.

• The first quote only shows Hermia’s specific emotion without a level of expression or depth, but it is relatively easy to detect Helena’s annoyance in the second quote.

• This shows that the Lovers’ feelings must be somehow prompted in order for the emotions to be truly displayed.

• This reveals the true feelings of the Lovers in the forest.

Difference Two (Ending Couplets)

Whether or not the Lovers speak in ending couplets depends on their location. In the Court, where it is safer and civilized, the Lovers can select their words in a relaxed way that results in ending couplets. Lysander tells Helena in ending couplets that “[his and Hermia’s] minds will unfold” to Helena, telling her that he and Hermia will hide in the forest. (I. i. 210-215). In the forest however, where there is no human population present, the Lovers are much more concerned on what’s happening around them rather than the way they organize their words. When Helena responds to Hermia’s threat, she “pray[s] [Lysander and Demetrius]” to “let [Hermia] not hurt her” in a concerned tone, lacking rhyming couplets(III. ii. 315-319).

• The lack of ending couplets (i.e. informal prose) effects the readers perspective of the Lovers

• The purpose is to reveal the Lovers are not as formal as the Court, showing that the Lovers’ choice of words can be easily disregarded

• This reveals the Lovers’ are not truly bound to their class, since it is so easy for them to disregard their Athenian language

Conclusion• In William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s

Dream, his use of language conveys the character’s attitude towards each other, which is represented by the Lover’s language varying while in the presence of the Court or while hiding in the Forest.

• How we Proved our Argument: By using different quotes used in different locations, the Lover’s language differs while in the Forest, spoken in prose, and in the Court, spoken in couplets. In separating specific techniques and comparing how the lovers speak in Act I and Act III shows that their language varied, but still retained some similarities.