Themes in A Midsummer Night's Dream

Themes in A Midsummer Night's Dream

1. Transformations

   • Emotional changes
     • Theseus believes love has transformed Hippolyta from his enemy to his love. 'Hippolyta I'd woo thee with my sword'
     • Lysander has used his charm to change Hermia. 'Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me to stubborn harshness'
     • Hermia shows love has the capacity to change the way we view surroundings. 'That he hath turned heaven to hell.'
       • 'Love can change a person's mind and judgement drastically'
   • Natural world undergoes transformations
     • Moon waxes and wanes on. 'This old moon wanes'
     • Night turns into day.
   • Physical transformation.
     • Puck turns Bottom's head into an ass. 'What do you see, you see an ass of a head of your own do you?'
     • Puck transforms his voice to lead Lysander and Demetrius around the wood by mimicking their voices.
       • 'The woods are established as a region of metamorphosis' Ceser L Barber
   • Context
     • Ovid's Metamorphosis - Shakespeare's main literary source
       • Supernatural transformations - Bottom
       • Contains story of Pyramus and Thisbe.