Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Robert Frost

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Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Robert Frost

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“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” Robert Frost

This entry represents criticism of Robert Frost's “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”

“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is generally regarded as Frost's masterpiece. The poem was included in Frost's collection New Hampshire (1923) for which he won the first of his four Pulitzer Prizes. It is Frost's most famous poem, and one which he himself viewed as his “best bid for remembrance.” It is also perhaps Frost's most frequently taught and anthologized poem. The speaker in the poem, a traveler by horse on the darkest night of the year, stops to gaze at a woods filling up with snow. While he is drawn to the beauty of the woods, he has obligations which pull him away from the allure of nature. The lyric quality of “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” can be heard in the enchanting final stanza: “The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, / But I have promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep, / And miles to go before I sleep.”

Plot and Major Characters

The speaker (presumably a man, although no gender is specified), while traveling on horseback (or in a horse-drawn sleigh) on the darkest evening of the year, stops to watch the woods fill up with snow. He thinks the owner of these woods is someone who lives in the village and will not see the speaker stopping on his property. While the speaker continues to gaze into the snowy woods, his little horse impatiently shakes the bells of its harness. The speaker describes the beauty and allure of the woods as “lovely, dark, and deep,” but reminds himself that he must not remain there, for he has “promises to keep,” and a long journey ahead of him.

Major Themes

“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” like many of Frost's poems, explores the theme of the individual caught between nature and civilization. The speaker's location on the border between civilization and wilderness echoes a common theme throughout American literature. The speaker is drawn to the beauty and allure of the woods, which represent nature, but has obligations—“promises to keep”—which draw him away from nature and back to society and the world of men. The speaker is thus faced with a choice of whether to give in to the allure of nature, or remain in the realm of society. Some critics have interpreted the poem as a meditation on death—the woods represent the allure of death, perhaps suicide, which the speaker resists in order to return to the mundane tasks which order daily life.

Critical Reception

“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” was included in Frost's volume New Hampshire, for which he won the first of four Pulitzer prizes. Critics generally agree that its central theme is the speaker's dilemma in choosing between the allure of nature and the responsibilities of everyday life in human society. However, the ambiguity of the poem has lead to extensive critical debate. Some conclude that the speaker chooses, by the end of the poem, to resist the temptations of nature and return to the world of men. Others, however, argue that the speaker's repetition of the last line “And miles to go before I sleep,” suggests an indecisiveness as to whether or not he will, in fact, “keep” the “promises” by which he is obligated to return to society. Many have pointed out that this “ambiguity” is in part what makes the poem great. Another standard interpretation is that the speaker is contemplating suicide—the woods, “lovely, dark, and deep,” represent the allure of death as a means of escape from the mundane duties of daily life. Still others, however, such as Philip L. Gerber, argue that “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is most importantly a “lyric” poem, which should be appreciated in terms of its formal, metrical qualities, such as the complex, interlocking rhyme scheme, rather than its content or “meaning.” Gerber notes that “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is “widely regarded, metrically, as Frost's most perfect poem.” Critics also point to the mood or tone of the poem, as created by its formal properties, as one of a person caught up in a reverie; the hypnotic quality of the repeated closing lines, in particular, suggests a chant or spell. James Hepburn noted that the inability of critics to secure a particular meaning of the poem is due to the quality by which “It is a poem of undertones and overtones rather than of meaning.” Critical debate over the meaning and significance of “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” rages on, but few question the status of the poem as one of the greatest in American literature. Donald J. Greiner has observed of “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” that “Its deceptive simplicity, its ambiguity, and its interlocking rhyme scheme have been so lauded that it is now one of the most explicated American poems.” The extent to which this poem has been discussed—perhaps overanalyzed—by critics was indicated by the parodic interpretation of Herbert R. Coursen, Jr., who, tongue-in-cheek, surmised that the speaker is in fact none other than Santa Claus, the “little horse” who rings its harness bells representing a reindeer, and the “darkest night of the year,” during which the poem takes place, a reference to the winter solstice, which is only a few days before Christmas. According to this interpretation, the “promises” that the speaker must keep refer to Santa Claus's responsibility to deliver presents on Christmas Eve.

summary and interpretation of Blow blow thou winter wind

The poem entitled 'Blow! Blow! Thou Winter Wind' is a song sung by the character named Amiens in the drama written by William Shakespeare. Amiens is one of the lords who have by their own choice come with Duke Senior, who had been banished by his brother. Amiens sings this song commenting upon the ways of the world, and human ingratitude which is more biting than the piercing cold winter wind. 
The poet in the very beginning addresses the winter wind and says that it can blow as much hard as it likes because it is not so harsh and rude like man's nature of being ungrateful. The attack of the winter wind is not so sharp because it is not visible although it is bitingly cold. 
The poet asks the frosty sky to freeze because it won't cause him deep pain as caused by his friends who forget his favours instead of being thankful. The poet says that although the waters are frozen they don't cause sharp pain like one caused by his friend, who doesn't even bother to remember him. Thus, the frozen faces of the world are more painful than the frozen waters.We should always be singing throughout the year like 'holly' (an evergreen plant). The poet here says that the friendship is only a pretence and loving is nothing but absurdity and foolery. He again tells that life is very wonderful and should be fully enjoyed. It is like a song and should be sung. 
The poet here projects a harsh reality through his song. The celebrated poet Shakespeare is known for his wise words. He is his same self here. His statements are weighty, pithy and precisely correct.

“Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind” is a poem from the Shakespeare play As You Like It. This poem is an example of a type of figurative language called personification. When writers personify, they give human characteristics to their subject.

If you look carefully at this poem, you will see that it is not actually about the winter wind at all. Shakespeare reveals his true meaning in the middle of the poem with the line “Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly.” He is saying that people are often not true to their “friends” or “loved ones,” or that their friendship or love is not real. He uses the idea of a winter wind, which could be painful, to communicate how much more painful the false love and friendship is. So, when he says of the wind, “Thy tooth is not so keen,” he means that the pain caused by the wind (in the case, the wind’s metaphorical “tooth” can cause pain by biting) is not as hurtful as the emotional pain of the untrue friend or lover.

The personification is evident in the description of the wind. It is said to have a “tooth” and “breath.” It is also said to be less “unkind” than the untrue friend. These are human attributes rather than aspects of the wind. He uses the wind as a contrast to an aspect of human life; therefore, he needs to personify it.

This poem is from Shakespeare’s play As You Like It. This is a song, sung by Amiens. He is a lord, who chose to follow Duke senior, banished by his brother. In this song he comments upon the ways of the world and the human rudeness and ingratitude, which is more biting than the winter wind.

In the beginning of the poem Amiens addresses the winter wind: it can blow as strongly as it wills, but it cannot be as biting as human society.

The second part he partly accuses his friends for forgetting his favors and not being thankful. Wind can freeze him, but it won’t be so painful as the behavior of his friends.

The poet here says that the friendship is only a pretence and loving is nothing but absurdity and foolery. He again tells that life is very wonderful and should be fully enjoyed. It is like a song and should be sung.

[Postscript: Different interpretations are given! So you can choose at your own way]

Sylvia Plath -- Morning Song, ANALYSIS: SYMBOLISM, IMAGERY, WORDPLAY

There’s more to a poem than meets the eye.

Sense Perception

One of the neatest things about a baby's first few months is that the baby actually learns to experience the world around it. After all, there are just a few more sights and sounds and smells and touches out there in the Big World than there were in Mom's belly. "Morning Song" turns the senses into an ongoing exploration for speaker andsubject, a sign that the speaker might share just a little bit more with her child than even she realizes. One of the most common uses of figurative language in this poem is the incorporation of synaesthesia, or mixed-up sense impressions – which might convey just how confused the speaker is about her feelings towards the baby.

• Line 2: Plath presents readers with a sharp image of a baby coming into consciousness through touch – or, to be specific, through a slap. As the baby feels, the speaker hears: she uses synaesthesia to describe the baby's "bald cry." (Want to know more about synaesthesia? Check our reading of line 10 in the "Line-by-Line Summary.")
• Lines 5-6: Describing shadows and drafts in the "museum" of the hospital allows Plath to play with a metaphorical sense of touch as she describes the baby's arrival. The speaker isn't actually feeling a cool shadow fall on her skin. She just imagines the baby as that shadow.
• Line 10: The "flickering" of the baby's breath creates a delicate image – one that, like a moth's wings, is barely noticeable, even in the silence of the night.
• Lines 10-11: The baby's breath sounds like a "far sea"? That, folks, is a classicmetaphor for the regular rise and fall of rhythmic breath.
• Line 18: Sound rising like balloons? Well, you see balloons. You hear sounds. Once again, Plath uses synaesthesia to develop strong sensory images.

Anything But Human

Notice how Plath develops elaborate metaphors to compare both the speaker and the baby to anything but an infant and its mother? It's a pretty fascinating strategy – and it allows the speaker to defer establishing any sort of relationship with her newborn infant. Think about it: what sort of relationship can you really have with a watch or a statue? This changes, however, as the poem works towards its end – just as the speaker is working through her emotions about the baby.

• Line 1: Baby = "fat gold watch." That, folks, is one strange metaphor. And we're just getting started.
• Line 3: The baby's cry is described as being part of the elements, which helps to create an image of the baby as a sort of force of nature. Not your typical description of a newborn, huh?
• Line 5: Baby = statue. Again, it's a metaphor. Strangely enough, though, Plath asserts the metaphor as its own sentence, "New statue." It's as if the metaphorical identity of the infant forms a logic all of its own.
• Lines 7-9: Notice the negative construction that's used to create this metaphor: the speaker is not the baby's mother in the same way that a cloud is not the baby's mother. But it could also mean that the speaker is the baby's mother just as much as the cloud is. Either way, though, there's a troubled relationship between mother and baby – it's certainly not the declaration of possession that you'd expect to hear from a new mom.
• Line 13: The speaker describes herself as a cow (or, well, as "cow-heavy"), which suggests that her relationship to the baby is an animal one: she's only there to support its physical needs (provide the baby with milk).
• Line 15: Ah, here's an interesting change. For the first time, line 15 introduces a simile to describe the baby, not a metaphor. Its mouth is clean as a cat's. Words such as "like" or "as" introduce a simile, while metaphors usually don't use comparative terms. Why's that important? Well, it suggests that the speaker isn't saying that the baby is a cat. The baby is just like a cat – which means that, for the first time in the poem, she's recognizing the baby as a baby. That's a step closer to recognizing the child's relationship to her.
• Line 18: Here's an image that's definitely human: Plath describes the baby's sounds as "vowels," which means that the speaker recognizes them as parts of speech. Human speech.

Morning Song by Sylvia Plath: Critical Analysis

When Sylvia Plath wrote this unconventional poem of hers on February 1961, she had given birth to her daughter Frieda. The mother love is strangely absent in the beginning of the poem. But the mother does move from a strange alienation to a kind of instinctive sweeping emotion, when she lives with the child for some time and when the child happens to breathe and cry; this probably happens after the intense labor pain is over, so that the mother could feel the love.

 
Sylvia Plath

In fact, “maternal feelings” do not automatically occur. Plath is honest to divulge (confess) her feelings of alienation and separation. In the last three stanzas, the emotional estrangement changes and she impulsively listen to the sound of her child as it sleeps. The surreal images and comparisons are functional to emphasize the sense of oddity and alienation in the feelings of the mother. One striking surreal image that somehow supports the ‘thingness’ of the baby is that of its cry as “bald.

To compare a child to a “fat gold watch” is surreal. The child is animate while a watch is inanimate. Love is engaging while winding up a watch is a mechanical act. What the simile suggests, is the great distance between the act of love and the fact of the baby.  What does this baby- this thing with its own existence- have to do with the emotions that engendered it? By raising this question about what most people consider a most “natural” phenomenon – the birth of a child – Plath helps the reader see something very old  (childbirth) as something quite strange, new, and unsettling. The disorienting effect of Plath’s style is typical of surrealism.

Plath seems to emphasize the nonhuman quality of this new being/thing that does not take its place among other humans, but “among the elements.” Stanza 2 reinforces the nonhuman quality of the baby as perceived by its parents. The child is a “new statue.” The parents are pictured as gazing at it “in a drafty museum.” In other words, they cannot help staring at the child as a statue and the parents as walls, not much communication occur. Plath’s surreal images underline the parents’ feelings of alienation and strangeness in this new (to them) situation.

No longer a statue, the child’s presence takes on more spirited animation through the animal imagery. The speaker’s lack of feeling for her child gradually transforms into appreciation and wonder, particularly at its sounds – not a “bald cry” any longer but something shaped, “a handful of notes.”

The child enters the human world when the speaker perceives its attempts at language with the clear vowels rise like balloons. The poem closes with this idea of the child making poetry of the natural and innate human sounds filled with emotion. Morning Song records how the speaker’s perception of her baby changes, her intimacy with her child grants her the vision of its animated being.

The theme in “Morning Song” is alienation and the process by which it is overcome. It deals with material instincts and its awakening. Plath avoids sentimentality in taking up the subject – of becoming a mother in a fatherly way. A woman does not come to motherhood merely by giving birth. New behavior is learned. The being of the mother is as new as the being of the child. Even the speaker listening to the child’s sounds and getting fascinated is not self-willed or under her control. She follows her instinct: “only cry and I stumble from bed.” Her child sings to her with a “morning song” and a bond is established with the help of language, the essential human act. One secondary, but important issue that the poem deals with is; can a woman be both mother and famous poet? In this, she is dealing with one of the major issues that faced women poets in the twentieth century. This poem answers her implied question. The joyous ending proclaims the arrival of both a new signer on the scene and a mother pound of her child’s vocal signals and message.

 

Further Reading

Morning Song: Introduction

Morning Song: Summary

Biography of Sylvia Plath

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Alfred, Lord Tennyson: The Princess "Sweet and Low"

This poem is a lyric written by Tennyson as a kind of children's song. He tries to employ nature in order to symbolize death. This poem is sung by a mother to her baby during his sleep. It is about the departure or death of the father. The tone has a sense of melancholy and regret for the loss of the father. Moreover, it may have a sense of hope that the father may be back one day. Tennyson wrote about political reference as the Victorian Age was characterized with colonization and discovery. 

In this poem, Tennyson employs a mother as the persona of the poem. She is talking to her young baby to calm him down in order to sleep. She describes the sweet wind of the western sea to remind her of the memory of her husband. Her addressing the child may be a kind of consolation for herself. The word "west" is repeated to symbolize death as it is the location of sunset. Furthermore, at the end of the poem, the word "silver" may refer to the coffins that are made of silver.

Tennyson uses some imagery to generate a sense of pathetic fallacy in the poem. The sadness of the persona is reflected in the description of nature. There is a personification in "the dying moon" as it anticipates the father's death. There is a sensory image as there are some words that appeal to the sense of sight such as "sea", "silver" and "moon". The word "blow" connotes the sense of touch. It shows the mother's nostalgia to her husband.

Tennyson uses evocative language to express the feelings of the persona. The vocabulary is so simple to suit a child's song and the tenderness of emotions. Furthermore, he uses blank verse to show the spontaneity of his ideas. The word "rest" is repeated to show the maternal emotions and feelings. Tennyson is pro-feminist, so he tries to highlight the role of women in his poems to call for the change of the Victorian society. The sentence "father will come to thee soon" may be repeated to show the inner feelings of the mother that the father will never be back.

Tennyson portrays this lyric very melodious. The rhyme scheme is regular in the first part of each stanza as it goes as ABAB. However, it is a broken rhyme as the second part of each stanza goes as AA BC. This confusion of the rhyme states the melancholy and frustration of the mother. The rhyme is quick as he uses short monosyllabic words to show her stress and anxiety. There is an alliteration of the /s/ sound in "silver sails". It is also stated in the repetition of the words "sleep" and "sweet". This soft sound indicates a state of monotony that is related to death. It also suits the mother's singing to her baby to sleep.

M.H

A Midsummer Night's Dream for the 2nd Year

Introduction of A Midsummer Night's Dream 

A Midsummer Night's Dream was written in a highly creative period in Shakespeare's career, when he was moving away from the shallow plots that characterized his earlier drama and discovering his more mature style. Most critics believe the play was written for and performed at an aristocratic wedding, with Queen Elizabeth I in attendance. Scholars estimate the play was written in 1595 or 1596 (when Shakespeare was 31 or 32 years old), at approximately the same time as Romeo and Juliet and Richard II. Obvious plot links exist between A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet, and critics disagree about which play was written first. Not only do both dramas emphasize the conflict between love and social convention, but the plot of "Pyramus and Thisbe," the play-within-the-play of A Midsummer Night's Dream, parallels that of Romeo and Juliet. Critics have wondered if Romeo and Juliet is a serious reinterpretation of the other play, or just the opposite: Perhaps Shakespeare is mocking his tragic love story through the burlesque of "Pyramus and Thisbe."

Sources and Allusions

Unlike most of Shakespeare's dramas, A Midsummer Night's Dream does not have a single written source. The story of "Pyramus and Thisbe" was originally presented in Ovid's The Metamorphosis, making it one of many classical and folkloric allusions in the play. Other allusions include Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding, which is described in Chaucer's "Knight's Tale" in The Canterbury Tales, while the theme of a daughter who wants to marry the man of her choice despite her father's opposition was common in Roman comedy. The fairies that dance and frolic throughout this play were most likely derived from English folk tradition. On the one hand, these creatures have a sinister side — Puck, for example, is also known as Robin Goodfellow, a common name for the devil — but they can also be viewed as fun-loving nature spirits, aligned with a benevolent Mother Nature. The interaction of this eclectic array of characters — from the classically Greek royalty such as Theseus (derived from Plutarch's tale of "Theseus" in hisLives of the Noble Grecians and Romans) to more traditionally Celtic fairies such as Puck — emphasizes Shakespeare's facility in using elements of the old to create something completely new.

Performance History

The first Quarto edition of the play, printed in 1600, announces that it was "sundry times publickely acted, by the Right honourable, the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants." Indeed, this drama has seen "sundry" performances over the past 400 years. Its spectacle and its emphasis on dance and magic and song have led it to be interpreted and performed in a variety of ways. For example, numerous composers have been inspired by Shakespeare's Dream. In 1692, Purcell wrote an operatic version, The Fairy Queen, although it contains little of Shakespeare's original story line. In 1826, Mendelsohn composed an overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is still popular. The play has also seen many famous, and often infamous, interpretations. For example, the 1900 Beerbohm Tree production had live rabbits hopping around the stage, while Peter Brook's 1970 production was presented on a bare stage that looked like a big white box. Most modern productions of the play, including the 1999 film, emphasize its erotic, savage undertones.

Structure of the Play

Showing his usual dexterity in creating coherent dramatic frameworks, Shakespeare here interweaves four separate plots and four groups of characters. Theseus, the Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons and Theseus' fiancée, are the first characters introduced. Theseus is a voice of law and reason in the play, as shown by Egeus' entrance into the drama: Egeus needs Theseus to adjudicate a dispute he is having with his daughter, Hermia. The second plot features Hermia and her three friends, Helena, Demetrius, and Lysander. These young lovers stand on the boundaries of the law; like many adolescents, Lysander and Hermia rebel against authority, in this case, by refusing to accept Theseus' laws and, instead, planning to escape from Athenian tyranny. Although the lovers have one foot in the conventional world of Athens, the play forces them to confront their own irrational and erotic sides as they move temporarily into the forest outside of Athens. By the end of the play, though, they return to the safety of Athens, perhaps still remembering some of the poetry and chaos of their night in the forest. This irrational, magical world is the realm of the play's third group of characters: the fairies. Ruled by Titania and Oberon, the enchanted inhabitants of the forest celebrate the erotic, the poetic, and the beautiful. While this world provides an enticing sojourn for the lovers, it is also dangerous. All of the traditional boundaries break down when the lovers are lost in the woods. Finally, the adventures of Quince, Bottom, and the other amateur actors compose the play's fourth plot layer.

Shakespeare dexterously weaves these four worlds together, by having characters wandering in and out of each other's world, by creating echoes and parallels among the different groups. For example, the themes of love and transformation reverberate through all levels of the play, creating coherence and complexity. Coherence is also produced by the play's emphasis on time. The action is associated with two traditional festivals — Midsummer Eve and May Day — both allied with magic, mayhem, and merriment. To emphasize further the connections between the different groups, many modern directors of the play cast the same actor for the roles of Theseus and Oberon, and for those of Hippolyta and Titania.

Theme

While the play rejoices in the magical power of love to transform our lives, it also reminds us of love's excesses and foolishness. More ominously, it tells of the violence often perpetrated in the name of lust: Mythological references to the tales of Philomela and Perogina, for example, remind us that desire results not only in happy, consensual union, but also in rape. In addition to love's combat with violence, the play shows passion's conflict with reason. For example, Egeus' rigid, patriarchal view of the world clashes with his daughter's notion of love and freedom. Another important theme is the duality between fantasy and reality. Indeed, the play highlights the imagination and its inventions: dreams, illusions, and poetry.

One of the central quotes in the play is Theseus' statement that lovers, madmen, and poets share the same propensity to fantasize (V.1, 7-8). Shakespeare is concerned with the relationship between imagination and reality and with the way our emotions alter our perceptions. Early in the play, for example, Egeus accuses Lysander of bewitching Hermia with love charms and intriguing songs (I.1, 27-32), but the perceptive reader knows this is simply Egeus creating a fantastic excuse to justify his cruel treatment of his daughter. Similarly, Helena recognizes love's blindness and fickleness when she argues that strong emotions such as love can make the vile beautiful (I.1, 232-236) — our perceptions are too often skewed by capricious emotion.

Besides weaving together various themes, the play is also intriguing as a spectacle of dance, music, and costume. Numerous critics have noted the important role of dance in this drama, suggesting that the rhythm of the play's poetry and the movement of the characters in and out of scenes have an underlying dance rhythm.

The Elizabethan Theater

Attending the theater in Shakespeare's time was quite unlike attending a professional performance today. First, the theaters were of two distinct kinds: public and private. The government closely regulated both, but particularly the public theaters. Public theaters such as the one in which Shakespeare made his livelihood were fairly large open-air structures, able to hold about 3,000 people.

In order to compete with rival theaters, as well as the popular pastimes of bullbaiting and bearbaiting, acting troupes changed their show bills often, generally daily. They introduced new plays regularly, helping partially explain why about 2,000 plays were written by more than 250 dramatists between 1590 and the closing of the theaters in 1642. Public performances generally started in the mid-afternoon so spectators could return home by nightfall.

Because of weather, plague, Puritan opposition, and religious observances, theaters often advertised on a day-to-day basis (unlike today when we know in advance the dates a show will run). One of the most memorable advertising techniques troupes employed involved running a specific flag atop the theater to signal a performance that day (a black flag for a tragedy, a red flag for a history, and white flag for a comedy). Scholars estimate that during the first part of the seventeenth century, performances in public theaters took place about 214 days (about 7 months) each year.

Although we commonly associate elaborate lighting and scenery with producing plays, in the public playhouses of Elizabethan England, the only lighting came from natural sources. All action took place in front of a general three-tiered façade, eliminating the need for elaborate sets. Public theaters varied in shape (circular, octagonal, square), yet their purpose was the same: to surround a playing area in such a way as to accommodate a large number of paying spectators. Most theaters had tree-roofed galleries for spectators, one above the other, surrounding the yard. Each theater was also made up of three distinct seating areas, each increasingly more expensive: the pit (standing room only, used primarily by the lower classes), the public gallery (bench seats for the middle classes), and the box seats (appropriate for the Puritan aristocracy).

The private theaters of Shakespeare's day offered a definite alternative to the more common public playhouse. These venues were open to the public, but special considerations made it unusual for commoners to attend. First, the private playhouses accommodated only about 300 spectators. In addition, they provided actual seats for patrons, helping to justify a considerably higher admission than the public theaters. Unlike the open-air theaters, private theaters were roofed and lit by candles, allowing for evening performances (a time when most commoners needed to be doing chores around their own homes). During performances, too, the private theaters would often separate the acts with musical interludes rather than performing the entire play without any intermissions, as they did in the public theaters.

Character List

Theseus Duke of Athens, who is marrying Hippolyta as the play begins. He decrees that Hermia must marry Demetrius or be sentenced either to death or to life in a convent. At the end of the play, he insists that all of the lovers marry along with him and Hipployta and provides a humorous commentary to accompany the performance of "Pyramus and Thisbe."

Hippolyta Queen of the Amazons, she is betrothed to Theseus. These two were once enemies, and Theseus won her in battle. In this play, she seems to have lost much of her fighting spirit, though she does not hesitate to voice her opinion, for example, following Theseus' choice of the play "Pyramus and Thisbe."

Lysander Hermia's beloved. Egeus does not approve of Lysander, though we don't know why. Lysander claims to be Demetrius' equal, and the play supports this claim — the differences between the two lovers are negligible, if not nonexistent — yet Egeus insists Hermia marry Demetrius. Rather than lose his lover in this random way, Lysander plans to escape with her to his widowed aunt's home. During a night in the forest, Lysander is mistakenly doused by Puck with Oberon's love juice, causing him to fall briefly in love with Helena. Realizing the mistake, Oberon makes Puck reverse the spell, so by the end of the play, Lysander and Hermia are once again in love and marry.

Demetrius He is in love with Hermia, and her father's choice of a husband for her. Similar to Lysander in most ways, Demetrius' only distinguishing characteristic is his fickleness in love. He once loved Helena but has cruelly abandoned her before the play begins. Not only does he reject Helena's deep love for him, but he vows to hurt, even rape, her if she doesn't leave him alone. With the help of Oberon's love juice, he relinquishes Hermia and marries Helena at the end of the play. Demetrius is the only character who is permanently affected by Oberon's love juice.

Hermia Although she loves Lysander, her father insists she marry Demetrius or be put to death for disobedience of his wishes. Theseus softens this death sentence, declaring that Hermia choose Demetrius, death, or life in a convent. Rather than accept this dire fate, Hermia agrees to run away with Lysander. During the chaotic night in the woods, Hermia is shocked to see her beloved abandon her and declare his love for Helena. She is unaware of the mischief Oberon's love juice is playing with Lysander's vision. By the play's end, Puck has reversed the spell, and Lysander's true love for Hermia has been restored. Despite her father's continued opposition to their union, the two marry with Theseus' blessing.

Helena She is the cruelly abused lover of Demetrius. Before the play begins, he has abandoned her in favor of Hermia. Helena doesn't understand the reason for his switch in affection, because she is as beautiful as Hermia. Desperate to win him back, Helena tries anything, even betraying Hermia, her best childhood friend, by revealing to the jealous Demetrius Lysander and Hermia's plan to escape Athens. With the help of Oberon's love juice, Demetrius finally falls back in love with Helena, and the two are married at the end of the play.

Oberon The King of the Fairies, Oberon is fighting with Titania when the play begins because he wants custody of an Indian boy she is raising. He hatches a plan to win the boy away from her by placing love juice in her eyes. This juice causes her to fall rashly in love with Bottom. During her magic-induced love affair, Oberon convinces her to relinquish the boy, who Oberon will use as a page. Once he has the boy, Oberon releases Titania from her spell, and the two lovers are reunited. Oberon also sympathizes with Helena and has Puck place love juice in Demetrius' eyes so he falls in love with her. After Puck mistakenly anoints Lysander, Oberon insists Puck fix his mistake so that the true lovers are together by the end of the play. In the final scene, he and Titania bless all of the newlyweds.

Titania Oberon's wife, she is Queen of the Fairies. Because of Titania's argument with Oberon, the entire human and natural world is in chaos. Oberon wants the Indian boy she is protecting, but Titania refuses to give him up because when his mother died in childbirth, she agreed to raise the boy. Following Oberon's application of the love juice to her eyes, Titania falls in love with Bottom, and Oberon takes the Indian boy from her. Once he has the boy, Oberon releases the spell, and he and Titania are reunited.

Puck, or Robin Goodfellow Oberon's jester, Puck is responsible for mistakenly anointing Lysander with the love juice intended for Demetrius. Puck enjoys the comedy that ensues when Lysander and Demetrius are both in love with Helena but follows Oberon's orders to reunite the correct lovers. Puck has the final words of the play, emphasizing that the entire play was just a dream.

Nick Bottom A weaver, Bottom plays Pyramus. He is the most outgoing of the group of actors, wishing to play all of the characters in "Pyramus and Thisbe." Puck transforms him into an ass, and Titania falls in love with him. When Puck returns Bottom to his normal self, Bottom can't speak about what happened to him but vows to have Peter Quince write about it in a ballad to be called "Bottom's Dream."

Egeus Hermia's tyrannical father. He capriciously declares that she must marry Demetrius or be put to death for disobedience; according to the law of Athens, daughters must obey their fathers or forfeit their lives. At the end of the play, he is shocked to learn that Lysander and Hermia tried to flee Athens and insists they should be punished. Theseus overrules him, making the lovers marry instead.

Philostrate Theseus' Master of Revels, he arranges the selection of performances for Theseus' wedding. He tries to dissuade the wedding party from choosing "Pyramus and Thisbe" but is overruled by Theseus.

Peter Quince A carpenter and the director of the group of actors who perform "Pyramus and Thisbe," which he has written for the celebration following Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding.

Francis Flute A bellows-mender, Flute plays the role of Thisbe. He is displeased to be given a woman's role because he wants to let his beard grow, but Quince assures him that he can play the part in a mask.

Tom Snout Snout is a tinker and plays the role of Wall in "Pyramus and Thisbe."

Snug A joiner, he plays the lion in "Pyramus and Thisbe."

Robin Starveling A tailor, he represents Moonshine in "Pyramus and Thisbe."

Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, Mustardseed Titania's fairies.

MH

summary of ode to the west wind

The autumnal west wind sweeps along the leaves and "wingèd seeds." The seeds will remain dormant until spring. The wind is thus a destroyer and a preserver. The west wind also sweeps along storm clouds. It is the death song of the year. With the night that closes the year will come rain, lightning, and hail; there will be storms in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. The poet pleads with the west wind to endow him with some of its power, for he feels depressed and helpless. If he were possessed of some of the power of the west wind, he would be inspired to write poetry which the world would read and by which it would be spiritually renewed, just as the renewal which is spring succeeds the dormancy of winter.

M.H