Any play or literary work by Shakespeare is a masterpiece of a kind. Regardless of the genre, tragedy or comedy he is able to unmistakably affect the reader to the depth of the soul and reveal the biggest fears and secret desires of human as he is a renowned expert of a human soul. "Hamlet" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" are his plays that were probably meant to disclose different meanings however there are numerous similarities found in both works.



"Hamlet" is a tragedy that is full of blood and grief from the beginning to the end. As the play unfolds one can see how the main character is battling with fate and his free will. He is of high moral principles and a strict Christian thus he believes that God has already created a plan for him but at the same time he does not wish to compromise with evil as his father directs him. Again we see controversy in this situation, as by killing his father's murderer he would do good and safe the King's good name. On the other hand he as a Christian knows that he should not kill and thus is trapped between the two painfully deciding which one to choose. In "A Midsummer Night's Dream" Shakespeare depicts a comedy-like situation which however does not appear funny for the heroes. In this play the author places characters in conditions where they too cannot choose too much. Hermia and Lysander a couple who wants to get married are not able to control their own lives because the law is greater than their will in Athens. Evidently Shakespeare refers to this theme in most of his works because he himself could not come to a conclusion whether human life is predestined or can be changed. In one play he does not allow his heroine to marry who she loves and in another he does not let the hero kill his uncle and this fact proclaims that the author believes in the forces that ultimately control our lives, forces that are unseen but definitely existent.

Another similarity that can be found in both plays is duality of the world. Both works are infused with imaginary scenes that surround characters. In "Hamlet" for instance his father is a ghost, a citizen of a different world in which ordinary humans cannot enter. The notion of the King being a ghost could mean that fate is truly present in real word, and what has to happen will happen even in a different way. Shakespeare also shows that fate is inevitable for everyone by describing Hamlet as an intellectual who thinks through his actions by contrasting his nature with the ghost appearance. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is also full of fairy tales characters that bear a certain meaning as everything in Shakespeare's plays. The fantastic creatures add to the ridiculous spirit of the play by letting them rule the scene and make people act in accordance with their will.

Hamlet and Lysander represent people who follow rational and reasonable thinking, while Shakespeare laughs at them making their lives controlled by other authorities and thus denies the ultimate power of reason and logic. The author in both plays clearly states that such things as love and passion are totally out of reach of human understanding and beyond reason. Love is blind and irrational often causing hatred in the heroes of Shakespeare's plays, but all of them still seek it and fight for it although they hardly understand its nature and consequences.

The major difference between the two plays lies in the very nature of them. One is a tragedy and another is a comedy-like play although it cannot be entirely considered one. The action in "Hamlet" is caused by hatred and mutual mistrust of the characters, while in the other play heroes are saturated with love and passion for each other, although not correctly coinciding with each other. Therefore the initial setting is totally opposite and brings about different issues. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" proclaims that love is a mere illusion that can't be explained while "Hamlet" concentrates on eternal fight between good and evil, free will and destiny. None of the plays however provide an answer or possible solutions to those questions but rather make a statement that humans are designed to discover everything on their own. Irony and hope are essential to the two plays possibly implying that our life is multilayered and simple at the same time, sad and happy; like his heroes we should just live it without over analyzing things, because as Shakespeare shows-it does not help after all.