Model
Digital Document
Publisher
Florida Atlantic University
Description
Many scholars who study Plato and Shakespeare together focus only on erotic
love between lovers or nonsexual love between others. A closer study of A Midsummer
Night’s Dream shows that Shakespeare uses Plato’s concepts of the soul in addition to the
Forms, the guide, as well as staging the varieties of love that can exist between two
individuals and the dangers of loving the physical more than the mind. Shakespeare takes
these ideas embedded in Symposium and Phaedrus and not only crafts his play
accordingly, but also creates his own versions through his unique interpretations. These
alterations appear reflected in the play’s sequence of events, the characters’ actions, and
the merging of the faerie and human realms.
love between lovers or nonsexual love between others. A closer study of A Midsummer
Night’s Dream shows that Shakespeare uses Plato’s concepts of the soul in addition to the
Forms, the guide, as well as staging the varieties of love that can exist between two
individuals and the dangers of loving the physical more than the mind. Shakespeare takes
these ideas embedded in Symposium and Phaedrus and not only crafts his play
accordingly, but also creates his own versions through his unique interpretations. These
alterations appear reflected in the play’s sequence of events, the characters’ actions, and
the merging of the faerie and human realms.
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