Maria
Mrs.
Zurkowski
English
9 Greens
5
February 2013
Conflict in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Conflict plays a huge part in the
writing of stories, books, movies, etc. The term conflict defined by Salisbury
University is, “an expressed struggle between at least two interdependent
parties who perceive incompatible goals, scare resources, and interference from
others is achieving their goals.” The definition of conflict according to
Mariam Webster is, “a competitive or opposing action of incompatibles” and “a
fight, battle, war.” An author may add some type of conflict to their story
because it adds a little bit of suspense and makes you want to read on. Also,
without some type of conflict in the story, there would really be no plot
because you have to have events that lead to a conflict. If there is no
conflict, it would be boring. Writers from long ago when books were just
getting published to now apply conflict to their stories to make them more
interesting. William
Shakespeare displays conflict in his play A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, to make the play suspenseful and exciting for the
audience to read.
Shakespeare uses conflict in a
couple of different ways throughout his play. For example, Hermia wants to
marry Lysander because they are in love. However, Egeus Hermia’s dad wants her
to wed Demetrius (act 1, Scene 1). This causes a problem because if she and
Lysander are going to get married they have to escape to Lysander’s aunt’s
house because it is only there, they can go, where Egeus won’t have a say in
which his daughter has to marry. Demetrius states in (Shakespeare 2.1.195) “I
love thee not, therefore pursue me not,” saying if Hermia does not like him
that much to stop talking to him. This leads to the next conflict with Hermia.
If she does not marry who her father wants her to marry, she is either going to
be sent off to the nunnery and live her life unhappy there, or she will not be
able to have children in the future. Egeus states “As she is mine, I may
dispose of her, which shall be either to this gentleman or to her death”
(Shakespeare 1.1.43-45). It is after she says that she would much rather die as
a virgin then be married to a guy she does not love then her father begins to
realize how much she really does not like Lysander. Hermia says in (Shakespeare
1.1.65) “The worst that may befall in this case if I refuse to marry Demetrius.”
Another conflict that happens in the play, that happens to be the climax, is
when all four lovers Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, and Helena all begin to
fight. All of the fighting happens because Oberon is using the love-juice which
begins to mess the love square up, right when everything was going okay.
Originally they would have fought over Hermia, but with the love juice they
fight over Helena. This gets resolved when Oberon listens to both the boy’s
thoughts, then everything is okay and the lovers fall in love with the correct
person again. Without any of this the play would not have been enjoyable to
follow along to.
Today conflict occurs worldwide, in
communities or states, and between friends and family. Siblings may argue over
whose turn it is to do chores today and that can lead to a yelling battle that
takes a parent to resolve. Also, a conflict in our country that is currently
trying to be resolved is the issue over gun license. The president and congress
are currently working to try to find a way to ban people in danger of
committing crimes with guns after all the school shootings that have been
happening, especially Sandy Hook Elementary School. Then, a worldwide conflict is that the United
States has a lot of troops over in Iraq, and we want to withdraw them from the
area. Since we have begun talking about taking our troops out, Iraq has a lot
of religious groups fighting each other because of differences. Lastly, there
are countries that have the capability of building and sending out nuclear
weapons. One that we know about is Israel, because troops have seen nuclear
plants over there, but don’t know if they’re building nuclear weapons inside or
not.
Conflict is found all over. In
books, plays, and even everyday life. From Shakespeare conflict with all the
lovers, to worldwide problems like nuclear weapons and war, conflict is
expressed. Some are positive conflicts where it could benefit you for the
better although some can be bad and negative that could have the potential to
hurt you. Conflict plays a huge part in our lives, although you may not realize
how much it actually affects you.
Works cited:
"ConflictAbout Our Definitions: All Forms of
a Word (noun, Verb, Etc.) Are Now Displayed on
One
Page." Merriam-Webster.
Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2013.
N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Feb. 2013.
Shakespeare,
William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine.
New York: Washington Square P, 2003.
http://www.conflictdynamics.org/blog/2011/11/anger-and-conflict/