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Comparative Study - A Midsummer Night's Dream


However, on closer examination they are heterogeneous. For this reason I will discuss certain magical characters of A Midsummer Night's Dream in separate chapters. This enables me to highlight their specific features. The fairies interact with each other, but also with other characters in the play. In each chapter I will discuss how the fairies relate to the topic concerned. The magical creatures in A Midsummer Night's Dream are, above all, ambivalent creatures and open to various interpretations, and I will try to prove this ambivalence in each chapter as a connecting thread. .
             I will work from the general to the specific. I will start with a general analysis of the topic related to Shakespeare's text. Next I will describe and try to explain the particular elements of Haitink, Hall and Bury's adaptation and of Hoffman's film and relate the representation of the film and opera to other productions. By doing so I hope to illustrate that adaptations of A Midsummer Night's Dream are not unrelated events, but part of a larger cultural framework which influences the appearance of each performance. .
             The Representation of Fairies and Their Relationship with the Human World.
             According to K.M Briggs Shakespeare's fairies are "elementals, they control the weather and seasons" (The Anatomy of Puck, 45). Indeed, Shakespeare's text suggests that the magical creatures of A Midsummer Night's Dream could be explained as physical allegories of nature. In other words, they are explanatory phenomena for natural processes, such as dew in the morning. One could also use the allegorical fairy to explain occurrences in the household. Shakespeare's Puck himself acknowledges that he is the cause of little domestic accidents. Significantly these interpretations of the fairies denote that they are not real creatures. They are explanatory figments of the imagination. However, critics point out that the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream are important presences in the play who not only influence the lives of the lovers and control nature, but who also have private concerns, a distinct identity and a fairy homeland.


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