A Comparison of A Midsummer Nights Dream and Romeo and Juliet :: comparison compare contrast essays

Various parallels in Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream tend to support the theory   that the two plays are closely related. It is the purpose of this paper to show that wherever parallels exist, the relationship is probably from A Midsummer Night's Dream to Romeo and Juliet. A close analysis of the spirit of the two plays, and of the different attitudes towards love and life that they present, leads us to the conclusion that A Midsummer   Night's Dream is the natural reaction of Shakespeare's mind from Romeo and Juliet.    It will be unnecessary in this paper to present all the evidence bearing on the dates of composition of the two plays.   There can be little doubt that the first version of Romeo and Juliet appeared about 1591.   The date of the first version of the Dream is more problematical.   The only bit of external evidence is the mention of the play in Francis Meres's2 Palladis Tamiain 1598, but the strongest bit of internal evidence-the supposed reference to the death of Robert Greene, in Act v, I, 52-3:    The thrice three Muses mourning for the death Of Learning, late deceased in beggary--       would fix the date at 1592-3.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Assuming, then, that the Dream was written soon, perhaps immediately, after Romeo and Juliet, let us see if a comparative study of the two plays will not support our hypothesis.    Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth, Turn melancholy forth to funerals       says Theseus in the first scene of the Dream, and later in the first scene of Act v:    Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend More than cool reason ever comprehends. The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact       These two speeches of Theseus, to whom Shakespeare has given much of his own clear-eyed serenity and benignity, are, it seems to me, significant manifestations of the poet's own mental attitude when he