William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream": adaptations for children through the centuries

Abstract

Why are adaptations important? How were children introduced to Shakespeare, and how is the Bard perceived by younger generations nowadays? The present final thesis aims to investigate the ways in which the plays written by the greatest dramatist of all times have evolved from the early nineteenth to the twenty-first century by being frequently reworked and retold, with a particular emphasis on children’s adaptations of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” – one of the comedies which have been largely appreciated and dearly loved by kids from any historical period. A selection of ten prose-narrative adaptations purposely written for children, starting with a brief introduction to the world-famous father of the genre, “Tales from Shakespeare”, written by Charles and Mary Lamb in 1807, will be taken into account and thoroughly scrutinised, compared and discussed, each time focusing on different aspects which make them worth of scholarly interest. A focus on a specific set of characters will be favoured: namely, the fairies, Robin Goodfellow and Nick Bottom. With a general introduction to the adaptation and appropriation theory starting from structuralist and poststructuralist studies, followed by some historical information on the tradition of adapting Shakespearean plays, this thesis will also give an overview of the many magical and highly symbolical features of one of the most-adapted and children-friendly comedies ever written, bringing the reader to a mysterious land populated by silly asses and charming winged beings.