This magazine cover is a project that shows our analysis and understanding of the characteristics of characters from Shakespeare’s famous comedy “A Mid Summer Night’s Dream”. I chose the character Lysander, which is the lover of Hermia and the rival in the love of Demetrius. Lysander’s optimistic and playful attitude stood out to me. Lysander’s undying, persistent, and passionate love towards Hermia also made me understand the reason behind Hermia’s stubborn rebellion against her father’s orders.
I chose a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio in his 20s as a representation of what I believe Lysander would have looked like. I see Lysander as a handsome young male with a sense of mischief in his features. As Leonardo once played Romeo, a character in a similar position as Lysander is, I can see him as the confident lover that wins the heart of a fair lady in MSND.
I am most happy with the quotes I chose for showing the idealistic side of Lysander as I find this characteristic of his stood out the most in the play. Translating his words, he says, true love comes with obstacles, but no trouble lasts forever, like how all sounds only go on momentarily. Lysander’s words display his determination and positive view towards his and Hermia’s relationship.
Through this small project, I realized that people often have different interpretations of the characteristics of these characters as this is a play with only dialogues. This teaches us an important lesson, and that is: we should learn to accept and respect the different opinions of others, after all, “There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes”