Shakepseare

Comparing Shakespeare’s original text of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” to the modernized film text- Shakespeare Retold “A Midnight Summer’s Dream” is as relevant to audiences today as it was in Shakespeare’s time.” How has the film text “A Midnight Summer’s Dream – Shakespeare Retold,” been changed from the original text to effectively engage modern audience. There are numerous ways in which A Midsummer Night's Dream Retold has been changed from the original text in order to successfully engage a modern audience. The setting The setting in the film is a setting we would recognize because we see modern day things such houses, cars driving by and people wearing clothes that we would usually wear ourselves. The film is set in the 21st century in a dream park resort in England, (a fantasy world set within the world of reality), whereas the original text was set in Athens in Greece, nearly one hundred years ago, which clearly shows a huge change from the original setting and also shows how modern day audiences would relate to a dream park resort in England, more than a castle clad in Athens. Obviously, people today, would be more familiar with a park, normal houses and cozy cabins rather than castles and odd architecture that almost nobody lives in these days. In the original text ,set in Athens, there are specific strict laws which require a daughter to die if she does not act according to her father’s will and Athenian law, Hermia was given four days to choose between Demetrius, life in a nunnery, or a death sentence. The modernized film however, has no such law and certainly no execution, so instead problems are sorted out face to face as Hermia does by trying to speak to her Father about her troubled love life and the man she truly loves, and her father trying to make sense what his daughter is saying to him, rather than taking it to the extreme and forcing his own wishes upon her as he tries to so strongly in the original text. The characters When comparing the characters in the original text to those shown in the film, we see the differences between them. For example in the original text, the character of Hermia’s father Egeus is a powerful and demanding character, who is blind to the fact that his daughter is crying her heart out for Lysander, whom Hermia loves and whom Egeus disapproves of. He tells her that she must either marry Demetrius or die. However, in the film Hermia’s father seems a lot more relaxed, calm and fair within the situation, as he only wants what is best for his daughter (like any father would), although he despises Lysander and calmly tries to persuade Hermia to choose wisely. We as an audience can see clearly in his expressions that he thinks Lysander is filthy and disgusting, whenever a conversation is brought up referring to him, (or he pops out of no where during a scene). The characters in the film wear the sort of clothes we wear ourselves, they travel in cars, use words and phrases we can relate to and have electricity and modern day appliances in their houses such as the television and telephone, which are things that were unheard of and did not exist obviously, in original text. Modern audiences can find relevance in this play, because human beings have not basically changed – their concerns are universal and not just stuck in a particular time and place. Their concerns are love, jealousy, insecurity, anger, rage, selfishness and an inability to see reality – love makes people blind. Modern day audiences can find many of these emotions and ideas easy to relate to because, as in any relationship, because they can occur in any relationship. In the words of Lysander: Quote - “The course of true love never did run smooth”. Articulating one of the plays most important themes – that of the difficulty of love. The language The film uses modern language, words and phrases spoken by anyone living in Britain (or any English speaking country). Examples of how the language was effectively changed from the original text include the following: The original text used many words such as “Thee, Thy, Dost” etc…which in modern language became “You, Your, Does” etc, as used in the film, so modern audiences were familiar with what was being said and could follow the story plot a lot easier than reading the original text, (especially if they are unfamiliar with the words and there is no translation.) The plot The film and the original text run on parallel plots otherwise the story would be a different one, so basically they are similar.