A Cubist Perspective of Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights...

A Cubist Perspective of Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream The great cycle of the ages is renewed. Now Justice returns, returns the Golden Age; a new generation now descends from on high. - Virgil, Eclogues 1.5 As Virgil stated so many years ago, history is a cyclical phenomenon. The experiences of one age tend to be repeated in future generations. Knowing that, we should not be surprised to find the seeds of modern styles and philosophies sprouting in earlier ages. Elizabethan England was a society undergoing major social changes. In religion the country had recently left the fold of Catholicism to establish the Church of England. While England during this time was a major world power, she†¦show more content†¦The Cubist artist wanted to show multiple views of one object at the same time. This attempt to represent multiple viewpoints simultaneously was opposed to the renaissance artists attempt to establish a single viewpoint#. In Midsummer Nights Dream, a play that belongs to the period of the late renaissance, William Shakespeare has managed to incorporate the same elements we use to define Cubist art. As Alexander Leggatt points out, this play is divided into four different groups of characters; the lovers, the older Athenian citizens, the fairies and the rude mechanics.# Each of these groups proceeds through the play as a separate plane or playing field that intersects the other fields in proscribed and largely ceremonial ways. The interaction of the different groups helps to define each group and at the same time keeps them separate. At the center of the play, the object which is divided up and examined in multiple perspectives is love. The four groups each show a different aspect of love and the interaction within and among the groups