3.1 The traits of the characters and the symbols in A Midsummer Night’s Dream 6
3.2 The purport and moral of A Midsummer Night’s Dream 6
3.3 The writing methods and language features of A Midsummer Night’s Dream 7
4 Shakespeare’s View of Love Expressed in A Midsummer Night’s Dream 9
4.1 The direct description of love between Hermia and Lysander 9
4.2 The view of love implied in the novel 10
5 The great impact of Shakespeare’s view of love on literature and human being’s cognition 11
5.1 The great impact of Shakespeare’s view of love on literature 11
5.2 The great impact of Shakespeare’s view of love on human being’s cognition 12
6 Conclusion 13
Bibliography 14
1 Introduction
William Shakespeare was born on April 26 ,1564 and he died on April 23,1616. He was an English poet and he was also an outstanding playwright. Shakespeare was known as the greatest person in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. Shakespeare’s works involve many collaborations, 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and many other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
1.1 Shakespeare’s personal experience
When he was eighteen, he got married with Anne Hathaway, then they had their three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. From 1585 to 1592, he was successful in his own career in London as an actor, writer, and partial owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. After then, he retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later . Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres. He rose to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.
Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. Shakespeare’s wife was eight years older than him. Although Shakespeare was one of the greatest writers, he never wrote a word for his wife. He once said that it was the tragedy of a man to marry an older wife to warn other men. His marriage had certain influence on his writing. In Shakespeare’s plays, he advocates free love, and love loyalty to make up the deficiency of love in his marriage. Shakespeare longs for true love. Images in Shakespeare’s writing are not miserable, they can break taboos, and gain courage to get true free love and happiness.
Shakespeare’s plays are full of humanity and longing for true love. He shapes a lot of brave and free young men and women especially the images of women. Many of his plays express the themes through women. They play active roles in the struggle to get rid of authority from husband and father. They try to break the traditional customs, and ask for the freedom of marriage which truly reflects a kind of "equality"— a humanistic spirit. 从《仲夏夜之梦》看莎士比亚爱情观(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_41942.html