Blog 2: A Mid Summer Nights Dream: Forest Blog

Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is the most performed play in the theater industry for various reasons. One is that the play, in general, has great versatility that can be altered to reflect a directors bias or message, and the play ultimately explores its obvious main theme, love, which always makes a popular subject among the general audience!

When researching images pertinent to "A Midsummer Night's Dream", I immediately noticed the multiple depictions of a forest which has significant symbolism in the play. Forests are notorious in literature for being the dark, Gothic place where supernatural things can occur and is ultimately mysterious.

Images of forests like above show that the forest is a place of beauty, mystery, and darkness all at the same time. forests are generally not well mapped, so there is a high probability that the characters can get lost in this mysterious labyrinth where mischievous fairies seek to tamper with the lives of the characters. Ignoring the fairies that are in the picture, the forest clearly seems enchanted and posses supernatural qualities which provide an unpredictable stage for the main plot and action of the play to take place and develop. Shakespeare chooses an excellent platform to create confusion and uncertainty in this classic play.