Verified Document

Midsummer Night's Dream The Stuff Term Paper

The soul of girl/woman Jenna is returned to normal at the end of the film, and the girl's knowledge about working as an adult editor on a magazine, the true nature of her chief junior high school tormenter, and Matt's worth as an older man make her a more mature thirteen-year-old, thus the delving into fantasy make the real world 'better,' as in "Midsummer," and more moral and thus more orderly than it was before. Jenna's old self is given new insight about what is right, and her thirty-year-old self benefits from her injection of youthful enthusiasm as Jenna as an "awkward 13-year-old who gets her wish and awakens as a 30-year-old" manages to "fix the empty life her shallow adult self has created" (Johns 2004).

Thus in both the film and the play, the intervention of the supernatural improves the world, making it temporarily disorderly in a human way, only to bring it back to a greater state of moral order at the end. But the lessons learned about reality...

Because the use of the supernatural convention of affection or body switching makes the viewer question how truthful his or her own affections are towards a beloved, and also how much age really matures the inner, wounded adolescent soul. Although these movies are fantasies and comedies, the lessons they teach are anything but fantastic, and are often sobering.
Works Cited

Greenblatt, Stephen. "Resonance and Wonder. "Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 43. 4. Jan. 1990: pp. 11-34

Shakespeare, William. "A Midsummer Night's Dream." MIT Shakespeare Homepage.

19 Apr 2008. http://shakespeare.mit.edu/midsummer/

Thirteen Going on Thirty." Directed by Gary Winick. 2004.

Johns, Ian. "Thirteen Going on Thirty." The London Times. 5 Aug 2004. 19 Apr 2008. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article465488.ece

Sources used in this document:
Works Cited

Greenblatt, Stephen. "Resonance and Wonder. "Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 43. 4. Jan. 1990: pp. 11-34

Shakespeare, William. "A Midsummer Night's Dream." MIT Shakespeare Homepage.

19 Apr 2008. http://shakespeare.mit.edu/midsummer/

Thirteen Going on Thirty." Directed by Gary Winick. 2004.
Johns, Ian. "Thirteen Going on Thirty." The London Times. 5 Aug 2004. 19 Apr 2008. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article465488.ece
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Shakespeare's Play Twelfth Night
Words: 1206 Length: 4 Document Type: Term Paper

Feste in "Twelfth Night" The Role of Feste's Music in "Twelfth Night" "Twelfth Night" is a play with multiple characters who do not see themselves clearly. Some just really don't understand who they are or what they really want. Examples of that are Olivia and Orsino Another, Malvolio, adopts postures that are superficial, trying to be something he is not. Still another, Viola, has to don a disguise because of circumstances. One

Carroll Shakespeare Allegory As a
Words: 2415 Length: 6 Document Type: Essay

But if I'm not the same, the next question is 'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!" (Carroll, 8) Carroll uses Alice's experiences as a means to persuading his readers to demand similar questions of themselves. At this juncture, we are unclear on Carroll's motives in altering Alice's perspective. However, as she descends deeper into Wonderland, she finds this knowledge is invaluable for recognizing its inherent

Shakespeare Two of Shakespeare's Comedies,
Words: 2917 Length: 11 Document Type: Research Proposal

Imbalance, even in love, can produce negative and unwanted effects that affect more than two people. The tempest is another Shakespearean play that is set both in the real and fantastic world. The two real are interwoven and deliberately confusing. The action of the play is swinging back and forth in time. Prospero, the Duke of Milan, is recounting for his daughter Miranda the events that led to their living

Love and Society in Shakespearean Comedy
Words: 731 Length: 2 Document Type: Term Paper

Shakespearean Social Comedy -- Saturnalian inversion or soulful exploration of social outsiders? Barber's book, Shakespeare's Festive Comedy argues for a socially harmonious interpretation of Shakespeare's comedic plays. In contrast, the scholar Richard A. Levine's Love and Society in Shakespeare's Comedy proposes a socially subversive reading of the Shakespearean comedy, as kind of hidden tragedies of 'outsider' figures, rather than Saturnalian revelry. This contrast between the two authors may orginate in the

Ben Jonson Intertextualities: The Influence
Words: 22973 Length: 80 Document Type: Essay

" James a.S. McPeek further blames Jonson for this corruption: "No one can read this dainty song to Celia without feeling that Jonson is indecorous in putting it in the mouth of such a thoroughgoing scoundrel as Volpone." Shelburne asserts that the usual view of Jonson's use of the Catullan poem is distorted by an insufficient understanding of Catullus' carmina, which comes from critics' willingness to adhere to a conventional -- yet incorrect

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now