A Midsummer Night's Dream Research Paper

A Midsummer Night's Dream seems like only a dream. The plots were twisted and misinterpreted, briefly from my own personal reading. I started wondering "what is going to happen here?" The Commedia Dell' Arte archetypes or stock characters as some refer reveal behaviors in these players of Shakespeare. From other research and my classmates responses, I found that the three worlds are also the three main groups of Commedia Dell' Arte. After outlining the play, I realized that the characters in other world's represent the same behaviors of one another. The terms of the three main groups of Commedia Dell' Arte include vecchi, innamorati, and zanni.

These powerful lead male actors Theseus, the Duke of Athens, Oberon, the King of the Fairies are the masters in this play. Innamorati representers, the young lovers are Helena, Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius. I felt as if these four characters were the main players and they are. They are unknowing targets in this game with the vecchi's. The lovers are confused and lost in the forest and so the comedy begins, I guess. The two masters want complete control of others so both, Theseus and Oberon play tricks on their loved ones. Robin Goodfellow, the zanni is told to get a love flower and the old saying "love is blind", comes in full effect.

Not all the players represent Commedia Dell' Arte and maybe that was why I became so confused? I tried fitting all the players, even the secondary into all the categories. I referenced Scream last topic in this form, Randy as Robin Goodfellow.