Graduation Year
2021
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
English
Reader 1
Tessie Prakas
Reader 2
Aaron Matz
Terms of Use & License Information
Abstract
Shakespeare is engaging with many wider concepts within A Midsummer Night’s Dream. These concepts include classicism, British folklore, and different political and religious structures. With fairies as his focal point, Shakespeare reckons through these many different concepts and their relationship to English society. This is accomplished through the alterations made to the fairies and their effects on the play. Shakespeare takes his inspiration of folkloric fairies and transports them into classical Athens. In doing so he enacts key changes that separate them from their source material. These changes place the fairies in a place of legitimacy in relation to the other characters in the play. The fairies are given aristocratic status and benevolent personalities. They are also given the ability to traverse any space of the play on top of their inherent magical abilities. These alterations are what allow the fairies to take on such a key role in the resolution of the conflict of the play and has widespread implications for their political and religious power.
Recommended Citation
Dart, Alison, ""Spirits of Another Sort": The Fairies that Transcend Power Structures in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream" (2021). Scripps Senior Theses. 1637.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1637
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
