A Midsummer Night’s Dream - William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Introduction:
William Shakespeare was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 23 April,1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. Shakespeare was a prolific writer during the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages of British theatre. During his time in London, Shakespeare’s first printed works were published. They were two long poems, 'Venus and Adonis' (1593) and 'The Rape of Lucrece' (1594). He also became a founding member of The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, a company of actors. He remained with the company for the rest of his career, during which time it evolved into The King’s Men under the patronage of King James I (from 1603). During his time in the company Shakespeare wrote many of his most famous tragedies, such as King Lear and Macbeth, as well as great romances, like The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest. Shakespeare wrote 36 plays, 2 narrative poem and 154 sonnets. He continued to be one of the most important literary figures of the English language.Shakespeare died in Stratford-upon-Avon on 23 April 1616 at the age of 52. He is buried in the sanctuary of the parish church, Holy Trinity.
Themes:
“The course of true love never did run
smooth,” comments Lysander, articulating one of A
Midsummer Night’s Dream’s most important themes—that of the
difficulty of love . Though most of the conflict in the play stems from the
troubles of romance, and though the play involves a number of romantic
elements, it is not truly a love story; it distances the audience from the
emotions of the characters in order to poke fun at the torments and afflictions
that those in love suffer. The tone of the play is so lighthearted that the
audience never doubts that things will end happily, and it is therefore free to
enjoy the comedy without being caught up in the tension of an uncertain
outcome.
The theme of love’s
difficulty is often explored through the motif of love out of balance—that is,
romantic situations in which a disparity or inequality interferes with the
harmony of a relationship. The prime instance of this imbalance is the
asymmetrical love among the four young Athenians: Hermia loves Lysander,
Lysander loves Hermia, Helena loves Demetrius, and Demetrius loves Hermia
instead of Helena—a simple numeric imbalance in which two men love the same
woman, leaving one woman with too many suitors and one with too few. The play
has strong potential for a traditional outcome, and the plot is in many ways
based on a quest for internal balance; that is, when the lovers’ tangle
resolves itself into symmetrical pairings, the traditional happy ending will
have been achieved. Somewhat similarly, in the relationship between Titania and
Oberon, an imbalance arises out of the fact that Oberon’s coveting of Titania’s
Indian boy outweighs his love for her. Later, Titania’s passion for the
ass-headed Bottom represents an imbalance of appearance and nature: Titania is
beautiful and graceful, while Bottom is clumsy and grotesque.
Magic:
The fairies’ magic, which brings about many
of the most bizarre and hilarious situations in the play, is another element
central to the fantastic atmosphere of A
Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare uses magic both to embody the
almost supernatural power of love (symbolized by the love potion) and to create
a surreal world. Although the misuse of magic causes chaos, as when Puck
mistakenly applies the love potion to Lysander’s eyelids, magic ultimately
resolves the play’s tensions by restoring love to balance among the quartet of
Athenian youths. Additionally, the ease with which Puck uses magic to his own
ends, as when he reshapes Bottom’s head into that of an ass and recreates the
voices of Lysander and Demetrius, stands in contrast to the laboriousness and
gracelessness of the craftsmen’s attempt to stage their play.
Dreams:
As the title suggests, dreams are an
important theme in A Midsummer Night’s
Dream; they are linked to the bizarre, magical
mishaps in the forest. Hippolyta’s first words in the play evidence the
prevalence of dreams , and various characters mention dreams throughout . The
theme of dreaming recurs predominantly when characters attempt to explain
bizarre events in which these characters are involved: “I have had a dream,
past the wit of man to say what / dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go
about t’expound this dream,” Bottom says, unable to fathom the magical
happenings that have affected him as anything but the result of slumber.
Shakespeare
is also interested in the actual workings of dreams, in how events occur
without explanation, time loses its normal sense of flow, and the impossible
occurs as a matter of course; he seeks to recreate this environment in the play
through the intervention of the fairies in the magical forest. At the end of
the play, Puck extends the idea of dreams to the audience members themselves,
saying that, if they have been offended by the play, they should remember it as
nothing more than a dream. This sense of illusion and gauzy fragility is
crucial to the atmosphere of A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, as it helps render the play a
fantastical experience rather than a heavy drama.
Jealousy:
The theme of jealousy operates in both
the human and fairy realms in Midsummer
Night’s Dream. Jealousy plays out most obviously among the quartet of
Athenian lovers, who find themselves in an increasingly tangled knot of
misaligned desire. Helena begins the play feeling jealous of Hermia, who has
managed to snag not one but two suitors. Helena loves Demetrius, who in turn
feels jealous of his rival for Hermia’s affections, Lysander. When misplaced
fairy mischief leads Lysander into an amorous pursuit of Helena, the event
drives Hermia into her own jealous rage. Jealousy also extends into the fairy
realm, where it has caused a rift between the fairy king and queen. As we learn
in Act II, King Oberon and Queen Titania both have eyes for their counterparts
in the human realm, Theseus and Hippolyta. Titania accuses Oberon of stealing
away with “the bouncing Amazon” . Oberon accuses Titania of hypocrisy, since
she also loves another: “How canst thou thus for shame, Titania, / Glance at my
credit with Hippolyta, / Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?” . This jealous
rift incites Oberon to command Puck to fetch the magic flower that eventually
causes so much chaos and confusion for the Athenian lovers.
Mischief:
In Midsummer,
mischief is primarily associated with the forest and the fairies who reside
there. Accordingly, the fairies of traditional British folklore are master
mischief makers. The trickster fairy Puck (also known as Robin Good fellow) is
the play’s chief creator of mischief. Puck’s reputation as a troublemaker
precedes him, as suggested in the first scene of Act II, where an unnamed fairy
recognizes Puck and rhapsodizes about all the tricks Puck has played on
unsuspecting humans. Although in the play Puck only retrieves and uses the
magical flower at Oberon’s request, his mistakes in implementing Oberon’s plan
have the most chaotic effects. Puck also makes mischief of his own accord, as
when he transforms Bottom’s head into that of ass. Puck is also the only
character who explicitly talks about his love of mischief. When in Act III he
declares that “those things do best please me / That befall prepost’ rously” ,
he effectively announces a personal philosophy of mischief and an appreciation
for turning things on their head.
Transformation:
Many examples of emotional and physical
transformation occur in Midsummer.
These transformations contribute to the play’s humorous chaos, and also make
its happy ending possible. Most of the transformations that take place in the
play derive from fairy magic, specifically the magic of Puck. Perhaps the most
obvious example is when Puck assists Oberon in placing a charm on Titania and
two of the Athenian lovers in order to transform their affections. Instead of
helping the lovers, Puck’s meddling amplifies the tensions that already existed
among them. Puck wreaks further havoc when he physically transforms Bottom,
“translating” his head into the head of a donkey. Bottom’s transformation
inspires terror among Bottom’s companions, who fear that his change bears the
marks of a devil. Although these transformations initially stimulate conflict
and fear, they ultimately help to restore order. By the end of the night, the
Athenian lovers all end up in their proper pairings and are able to return
safely to Athens. Likewise, after Titania awakens from her bizarre coupling
with Bottom, she and Oberon are able to settle their quarrel. The many
transformations therefore enable the play’s happy ending.
Unreason:
The many transformations that take
place in Midsummer give rise to a
temporary suspension of reason. As night progresses in the forest, things cease
to make sense. For example, Hermia falls asleep near Lysander but then wakes to
find him gone. When she eventually finds him again, Lysander does the verbal
equivalent of spitting in Hermia’s face: “Could not this make thee know / The
hate I bear thee made me leave thee so?” . Completely floored by the sudden
reversal of Lysander’s former love, Hermia senses a failure of reason: “You
speak not as you think” . A more humorous version of unreason occurs when
Bottom, recently crowned with the head of a donkey, finds himself nestling with
Titania in her bower. Even though Bottom doesn’t know about his physical
transformation, he’s self-aware enough to see the absurdity of the situation.
When Titania professes her love for Bottom, he responds coolly: “Methinks,
mistress, you should have little reason for that” . By turns disturbing and
amusing, these and other examples of unreason in the play function to amplify
the chaos and confusion traditionally associated with fairies and the forest.
Reversal:
Situations transform quickly into their
opposites throughout the play. Most obviously, the charm Puck uses to transform
the Athenian lovers’ affections creates sudden reversals of love and hate, and
these reversals result in a breakdown of reason. The sudden reversal of
Lysander’s affection for Hermia not only leaves his former lover stunned, but
also shocks Helena, who suddenly finds herself being pursued by Lysander. All
of the madcap foolery that plays out in the forest arises from Oberon’s
original idea to affect just one strategic reversal. In Act II, when Oberon
spies on Helena chasing after Demetrius, Helena comments that her pursuit
reverses the natural order of things: “Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the
chase. / The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind / Makes speed to catch the
tiger.” According to Helena, this state
of affairs creates “a scandal for my sex.” Hearing Helena, Oberon promises to
reverse the reversal, thereby restoring order: “Ere he do leave this grove /
Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love” (II.i.).
Contrast:
The idea of contrast is the basic
building block of A Midsummer Night’s
Dream. The entire play is constructed around groups of opposites and doubles.
Nearly every characteristic presented in the play has an opposite: Helena is
tall, Hermia is short; Puck plays pranks, Bottom is the victim of pranks;
Titania is beautiful, Bottom is grotesque. Further, the three main groups of
characters (who are developed from sources as varied as Greek mythology,
English folklore, and classical literature) are designed to contrast powerfully
with one another: the fairies are graceful and magical, while the craftsmen are
clumsy and earthy; the craftsmen are merry, while the lovers are overly
serious. Contrast serves as the defining visual characteristic of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with
the play’s most indelible image being that of the beautiful, delicate Titania
weaving flowers into the hair of the ass-headed Bottom. It seems impossible to
imagine two figures less compatible with each other. The juxtaposition of
extraordinary differences is the most important characteristic of the play’s
surreal atmosphere and is thus perhaps the play’s central motif; there is no
scene in which extraordinary contrast is not present.
Theseus and Hippolyta bookend A Midsummer Night’s Dream, appearing
in the daylight at both the beginning and the end of the play’s main action.
They disappear, however, for the duration of the action, leaving in the middle
of Act I, scene i and not reappearing until Act IV, as the sun is coming up to
end the magical night in the forest. Shakespeare uses Theseus and Hippolyta,
the ruler of Athens and his warrior bride, to represent order and stability, to
contrast with the uncertainty, instability, and darkness of most of the play.
Whereas an important element of the dream realm is that one is not in control
of one’s environment, Theseus and Hippolyta are always entirely in control of
theirs. Their reappearance in the daylight of Act IV to hear Theseus’s hounds
signifies the end of the dream state of the previous night and a return to
rationality.
The Love Potion:
The love potion is made from the juice
of a flower that was struck with one of Cupid’s misfired arrows; it is used by
the fairies to wreak romantic havoc throughout Acts II, III, and IV. Because
the meddling fairies are careless with the love potion, the situation of the
young Athenian lovers becomes increasingly chaotic and confusing (Demetrius and
Lysander are magically compelled to transfer their love from Hermia to Helena),
and Titania is hilariously humiliated (she is magically compelled to fall
deeply in love with the ass-headed Bottom). The love potion thus becomes a
symbol of the unreasoning, fickle, erratic, and undeniably powerful nature of
love, which can lead to inexplicable and bizarre behavior and cannot be
resisted.
The Craftsmen’s Play:
The play-within-a-play that takes up
most of Act V, scene i is used to represent, in condensed form, many of the
important ideas and themes of the main plot. Because the craftsmen are such
bumbling actors, their performance satirizes the melodramatic Athenian lovers
and gives the play a purely joyful, comedic ending. Pyramus and Thisbe face
parental disapproval in the play-within-a-play, just as Hermia and Lysander do;
the theme of romantic confusion enhanced by the darkness of night is rehashed,
as Pyramus mistakenly believes that Thisbe has been killed by the lion, just as
the Athenian lovers experience intense misery because of the mix-ups caused by
the fairies’ meddling. The craftsmen’s play is, therefore, a kind of symbol for A Midsummer Night’s Dream itself:
a story involving powerful emotions that is made hilarious by its comical
presentation.
Setting of the play:
A Midsummer
Night’s Dream takes
place partly in the city of Athens, and partly in the forest that lies beyond
the city’s walls. This split between city and forest is thematically
significant. The city of Athens is depicted as a place of civilization, law,
and order, while the forest is a place of wildness, anarchy, and chaos. As if
to underline the idea of Athens as a place of law and order, the play opens
with Egeus bringing a legal dispute before Theseus. As duke of Athens, Theseus
stands as the city’s chief legal authority. His primary responsibility is to
uphold the law, which he attempts to do when he rules that Hermia must obey her
father and marry Demetrius instead of Lysander. In contrast to this display of
Athenian rule of law, the forest appears decidedly unruly—which is to say,
ruled by fairy mischief. The forest is a place where social norms break down,
as exemplified in the increasing chaos and confusion that afflicts the Athenian
lovers as well as Titania and Nick Bottom.
Even as Shakespeare sets up
an opposition between city and forest, the events of the play complicate this
opposition. Athens supposedly symbolizes civilization, and its system of law
and order indicates a degree of rationality. Yet the grim punishment Theseus
threatens in the event of Hermia’s disobedience seems completely out of
proportion for her crime. Her crime, after all, is simply loving Lysander—a
man, it should be noted, who possesses a similar status as her father’s favorite,
Demetrius. Considering that from a socioeconomic perspective the two rivals are
well matched, it makes rational sense that Hermia should be able to marry
whichever suitor she wants. Thus, Egeus and the patriarchal law he cites can be
seen as cruel, uncivilized, and irrational. A similar reversal occurs in the
case of the forest. The forest is a space marked by chaos, and indeed, lots of
chaotic events occur in the forest over the course of the play. Yet these
events have the unexpected result of restoring proper order among the young
lovers, ensuring them all a safe return to Athens. Where Athenian law and order
fails, forest mischief ultimately succeeds.
In telling the story of several sets
of lovers who must overcome obstacles and misunderstandings before they are
finally united in marriage, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is
an example of Shakespearean comedy. The play’s central couples, Hermia and
Lysander and Helena and Demetrius, begin the play facing two classic obstacles
of Shakespearean comedy: parental disapproval and misdirected love. Hermia’s
father forbids her to marry Lysander, insisting that she marry Demetrius
instead. According to Athenian law, Hermia faces death or exile if she disobeys
her father. Meanwhile, Helena loves Demetrius, but his love is currently
directed at Hermia. These initial obstacles become confused and compounded when
the couples enter the forest. The fairy Puck’s mistaken enchantments result
first in Lysander loving Helena, and then in both men loving Helena, a reversal
of the play’s opening. But by the next morning, the confusion has been
resolved. Lysander’s enchantment has been removed while Demetrius’s enchantment
remains, and the couples are for the first time happily balanced. The couples’
final barrier is overcome when Theseus overrules Hermia’s father’s wishes, and
the play ends as all Shakespearean comedies do: with a wedding.
Like other Shakespearian comedies, Midsummer focuses on
the characters’ situations rather than their emotions. For example, in the
play’s first scene, rather than dwelling in despair because they are forbidden
to be together, Hermia and Lysander focus on a solution and make a secret plan
to escape. Later, the fairy king Oberon witnesses Helena pledging her devotion
to Demetrius and immediately decides to intervene when Demetrius harshly
rejects her. Both the lovers’ decision to go into the forest and the fairies’
decision to intercede in the lovers’ lives create situations that confuse and
trouble the lovers. However, as audience members we are never seriously worried
that the outcome will be anything but happy because the play’s fantastical
situations and overwrought language distance us from the lovers’ pain. Secure
in our knowledge that the magical mistakes will eventually be repaired and that
order will be restored, we can enjoy watching the drama unfold. The style of A
Midsummer Night’s Dream is
droll and exuberant. The play features ample wordplay, underscoring the
nonsensical mischief of the plot. Take the scene where Lysander and Hermia walk
through the forest, preparing to rest for the night. The couple improvises on
the multiple meanings of the word “lie”: to sleep, to have sex, and to speak an
untruth. Hermia jokes with Lysander about protecting her virtue: “Lie further
off yet, do not lie so near” (II.ii.).” Lysander responds by clarifying and
further complicating the word’s meaning, noting that once they are married,
“Then by your side no bed-room me deny, / For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie”
(II.ii.). The fact that the first syllable in Lysander’s name rhymes with “lie”
only serves to heighten the humorous effect of the lovers’ wordplay. Similarly,
in Act III, scene I, Bottom says ''I see their knavery: this is to make an ass
of me; / to fright me, if they could.'' Bottom is using the word “ass”
figuratively, as a synonym for fool. But the word literally applies as well,
since Bottom’s head has been transformed into that of a donkey, or ass. The
ample use of wordplay gives the play a sense of clever silliness, and maintains
the comic mood even when the action is troubled. The audience may be so busy
deciphering the many possible interpretations of the characters’ speech, we
don’t get upset by the predicaments they find themselves in.
Shakespeare also uses poetic
language to create melodramatic moments that both reinforce and mock the play’s
central theme of romantic love. Oberon speaks some of the play’s most poetic
passages when instructing Puck to use the love potion on Titania. Describing
the flowers that blanket the bank where Titania sleeps, Oberon says, “Quite
over canopied with luscious woodbine, / With sweet musk-roses and with
eglantine” . The irony here is that Oberon reveals his tender feelings for his
queen even as he plans to manipulate and humiliate her. Oberon’s other
manipulations lead to some of the play’s most overwrought language, as the
enchanted Lysander and Demetrius profess their love for Helena. Lysander vows
that he would “run through fire” for her sake , and that Hermia, his former
object of affection, now brings “deepest loathing” to his stomach . The lovers’
desperate passion creates comedy, as the audience knows their feelings come
from a false source, but the hyperbolic language also raises the question of
whether such fickle feelings as love can, indeed, be true.
Prose
vs. Verse:
Like Shakespeare’s other plays, the language of Midsummer consists
of both verse and prose. Also like Shakespeare’s other plays, the division
between verse and prose in Midsummer follows
class lines, with the lower-class commoners demonstrating less refinement in
their language. Thus the Athenian nobles and the fairies typically speak in
verse, whereas the Mechanicals typically speak in prose. Shakespeare frequently
uses the contrast between these modes of speaking for humor, as when Titania
declares her love for the donkey-headed Bottom in sumptuous verse, only to be
answered in Bottom’s common speech. The only instance where this class division
between verse and prose gets reversed occurs during the performance of “Pyramus
and Thisbe,” where the Mechanicals speak in verse and the nobles comment on the
play in prose. Here again, Shakespeare uses the contrast for comedic effect,
emphasizing just how absurd the results are when commoners attempt to adopt a
nobler register.
Shakespeare also uses
different types of verse to create contrast between the human and fairy
nobility. Whereas the human nobles tend to speak in iambic pentameter, the
fairies tend to speak in slightly shorter lines of iambic tetrameter. These
shorter lines have a rhythm more closely associated with ballads and other song
forms, and Shakespeare links the singsong quality of the meter to the fairies’
carefree, even mischievous nature. One particularly powerful example of how
Shakespeare uses differences in meter to meaningful effect comes near the end
of Act III, when Puck removes Lysander’s spell. Puck begins by speaking in very
short, rhyming lines: “When thou wak’st, / Thou tak’st / True delight / In the
sight” . As he continues, however, his lines get longer, ending with a line of
unrhymed prose: “The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well” . Of
all the play’s characters, Puck most represents the shape-shifting magical
world of the forest, and his progression from tight, rhymed verse to long,
unrhymed prose signifies the end of fantasy and the return of the mundane.
Conclusion:
In the story of several sets of lovers who must overcome
obstacles and misunderstandings before they are finally united in marriage, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is an example of Shakespearean
comedy.
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