In A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare plays with the ideas of sight and reality. Sight, eyes and gaze become crucial themes in this seemingly light piece. They constantly appear in the language of all characters, beyond the obvious role in the magic potion's power. The fact that the play takes place at night is also a crucial aspect of the predominance of vision as a theme. Here, it is the reduced vision, the effect of darkness, that the characters must endure. This nighttime setting creates an unrealistic world of transformation and change. Even when vision seems free, in daytime scenes in the forest, it is tricked by a magic potion. In fact, there is never a pure vision. Distorted vision poses a particularly serious problem in the play because Shakespeare shows us the folly of characters who trust their eyes too much, without the ability to judge what they see. In a space where sight reigns above reason, chaos easily ensues. We live in a world where minds are controlled by the eyes and therefore inadequate in terms of perception. The final solution is to find a compromise between the world of reason and the world of sensory perception. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the Original EssaySight is a theme constantly alluded to in the details of Shakespeare's language. Descriptions of love are often infused with references to sight. When Hermia describes her love for Lysander, she states: "Before the time when I saw Lysander,/Athens seemed to me a paradise" (II, ll.204-205), thus placing the full impetus of her emotion in the power of his eyes. Helena also uses this visual terminology when talking about her feelings for Demetrius: "It is not night when I see your face, / Therefore I think that I am not in the night /...How can- they say that I am alone, / When everyone is there to look at me? » (II.i, ll.221-222, 225-226). Demetrius says “The object and pleasure of my eyes/Is but Helen” (IV.i, ll.170-171) when he realizes that he loves her. Eyes seem to be a favorite subject for many characters, enough to betray a conscious choice by Shakespeare. When referring to Hermia's beauty, her eyes are constantly the subject of praise and jealousy. Helena complains: “Blessed is Hermia, wherever she is,/For she has blessed and attractive eyes./How are her eyes so bright? Not with salty tears;/If so, my eyes are washed more often than his. » (II.ii, ll.90-93). Theseus repeats such references in his speech: "...The lover, equally frenzied,/sees Helen's beauty in an Egyptian brow./The poet's eye, in beautiful frenzy,/He looks from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven” (Vi, ll.10-13) This is one of many quotations dealing with the gaze, and therefore yet another example of the careful inclusion of this. specific subject by Shakespeare The plot is primarily driven by the theme of sight The narrative is constructed by the consequences of displacement, confusion and play with vision. of Titania and Lysander The magic potion that creates all the confusion (and therefore the action) of the play because when "on sleeping eyelids resting/[it] will make a man or woman madly in love/with the next living creature. that he will see" (II.i, l.170-173). The properties of this potion create an obvious potential for references to eyes and sight, creating a plot that lingers over several pairs of eyelids. But the magic potion does not simply respond to thequestion of vision. Oberon is jealous in the first place because he trusts what he sees more than what he hears. Puck warns a fairy to “Be careful lest the Queen be within her reach;/For Oberon is falling and getting angry,/Because she, like her servant, has/A lovely boy stolen from an Indian king” (II.i, ll. 19-22). Titania explains that she is raising the boy out of love for an old friend. But because Oberon sees Titania with a handsome young boy, he ignores the reason behind it and bases his jealousy on what he sees in front of him. Titania adores someone. The reason is insignificant. The sight alone is worthy of vengeance for him. Shakespeare takes care to show us the danger of basing one's decision on sight alone. Part of Vision's reign in game events is its ability to make mistakes when removed from reason. Just as Oberon confides his mistaken vision to Titania's changeling, he assumes that Puck can find Demetrius based on his appearance. Puck is told to assume Demetrius' identity based solely on "the Athenian clothes he wears" (II.ii, l.264). Puck does indeed see a set of Athenian clothing and distributes the potion, but he chooses the wrong person because his only guide is what he sees. Once again, the plot is motivated by an inappropriate hypothesis because it is based solely on sight. It is clear that Shakespeare sees the danger in a world where reason and words are eclipsed by pure vision. The decisions made by Oberon prove this, and they also determine the plot of the play. They are part of the world of magic and fantasy, where nothing beyond sensory reaction is considered, and frenzied consequences ensue. Oberon is not the only character who affects the plot of the play in terms of view. The four human characters all make the decision to flee Athens at night, thus consciously entering a painful world where vision is certainly reduced. Oberon expresses this best when he calls his efforts "the rule of night upon this haunted grove" (III.ii, l.5), alluding to the mysterious quality of the forest at night. Wood is associated with darkness and Athens with light. Helene cries “O tired night, oh long and tedious night, / Reduce your hours! Shine, comfort, from the east, / That I may return to Athens in the light of day” (III.iii, ll.431-433). Athens is also representative of reason and law. Lysander suggests the wood because "...until this place the harsh Athenian law/Cannot pursue us" (II, l.62-63). Oberon also sees this dichotomy, as he predicts that when his victims all wake up, they will "all return to Athens to repair/And think no more of the accidents of this night/But as of the fierce vexation of a dream" (IV .i, ll .66-68). Athens, the kingdom of justice and reason, will allow the characters to reflect and categorize all the strange sights they have seen in the forest. Their judgment will allow them to call it a “dream.” Wood is thus once again embraced as a free space, where reason is suspended. This is certainly a point in the theme of vision. It is a sensory substitute for reason, an alternative that proves both entertaining and inadequate. Reason and vision intersect at several crucial moments, allowing Shakespeare to clearly foreground them as linked subjects. Lysander mixes them up when he explains his change of heart to Helena: “The will of man is influenced by reason;/And reason says that you are the most worthy servant./Things that grow are not ripe that in their season,/Then I, being young, hitherto unripe for reason;/And now approaching the point of human skill,/Reason leads me to your.