Online Journals and Responses for Midsummer Night's Dream
< Celine | Christine | Chris | Marc | George | Jessica | Viola | Kristine | Carol >
( These essays
were originally posted at EngSite
and moved to here manually.
Note that the movement may cause mechanical errors in the papers .)
According to what Chris has mentioned in his report, I have some questions after reading it. I agree with most of Chris’s points of view about the doubleness and the fusing of dream and reality. However, I am quite confused by Chris’s thesis statement, “In Midsummer Night, magic power is used to confuse the ‘characters’ in the forest and solve the conflicts before the return to the city”. Who? Is this statement valid to all the characters in A Midsummer Night’s Dream? The magic power that Puck casts upon Lysander and Demetrius confuses both Hermia and Helena to the point that they interchange their identities. As Chris points out that the magic power has provided the ‘character’ the possibilities of parted identity, I wonder in what sense the characters have parted identities. While Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius, their identities have been switched unconsciously. Puck’s love juice doesn’t solve their conflict; instead, it deteriorates their competition complex. Are their identities parted because they fall in love with Helena? Their
identities are not necessarily parted since their attitude toward the
woman they love has never changed. Both Lysander and Demetrius as usual
compete with each other for the woman they both love. As for the fourth part in Chris’s report, the fusing of dream and reality seems to be the main theme of The Midsummer Night’s Dream. This play also poses a question that which is reality, and which is dream as Puck concludes in the end, “And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream” (5.1.425-428). Whom does Puck address to? Or can we say that all the characters and audience has crossed the boundary of theatrical device since the play is, as Chris declares, a dream play. The setting forest is just a reflection of dream, which can be inexistent. The magic power actually confuses those who are not dreaming, such as, Hermia, Helena and the stage characters except Button. The structure of A Midsummer Night’s D is ream like a china box, in which characters may be confused the reality with their dream. However, I may question the parted identities as Chris mentions in his thesis statement. <top> |
I do agree with Chris’s point on the theme of doubling in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. To make a further extension, it can be more complicated than just doubling. Regarding the issue of love of the four lovers, Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena, there are a number of overlaps in their personalities. As Anne Barton, one of Shakespearean critics, suggests that “although they themselves regard each other as strikingly different, objects of passionate love or hate, all four look and behave…. remarkably alike.” Helena is like Demetrius that loves the one who resents her. As Hermia reveals, “the more I hate, the more he (Demetrius) follows me,”(I , i: 199.) Helena echoes with her confession, “The more you (Lysander) beat me, I will fawn on you.”(II . i: 204.) Helena and Demetrius alike love the one that hates them. It seems that the more difficulties in the hunting of love, the more lovers would enjoy because as Lysander declares "The course of true love never did run smooth; But either it was different in blood--."(I , i: 134-35) Like Theseus’ wooing to Hippolyta is a symbol of conquering over difficulties. Woman or Hippolyta is like the moon as in the first Act suggests that is cold and high for man to hold. Therefore, Theseus is showing off his feat of woman or love and declares
And it seems to be 'true love' in Theseus' mind. This concept of love hunting echoes to the play’s title that at this joyful midsummer night of May day, lovers are outcasts from social norms in their pursuing of love in this wild world, the forest. Work Cited Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Herschel Baker ed. The Riverside Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton, 1997: 256-80. <top> |
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is an unusually comedy of Shakespeare. It has a given time and space and it chooses a foreign city—Athens as its social reference. I will argue that such a design may let Shakespeare avoid censure from the political power while commenting on his own society because Shakespeare never fails to apply the social references from his own society into this play. It also raises questions toward the romantic view of love and theatrical performance on the stage. Just as what I suggest in my report, one of the major issues in Midsummer Night is that Shakespeare constructs a world between reality and imagination in which the characters seem to have double visions, double performances and double identities. In the play, the characters through their magical journey from the forest to the city not only bear the transfiguration of the minds but also experience of the identities of each other. For example, Hermia and Helena literarily exchange their positions when their lovers are influenced by love juice: Hermia is despised by the both men and Helena is instead wooed by the same male characters. Actually, they are experiencing the identities of each other. Hermia experiences the Helena being scorned before; Helena experiences the Hermia being courted. Helena’s passages suggest the similar idea when she declares that she and Helena was once one heart of two bodies. Lysander, whose name may suggest “lie-sender,” plays the role of the Demetrius that once loved Helena while Demetrius resorts his love for Helena, playing his pervious role of loving Helena. It is like that these two characters also experience of each other’s lives and identities. Except for the transfiguration of minds, the line between fairyland (forest) and the city is blurring, too when the characters return to Athens after they restore their self-knowledge in the woods. Theseus that stands for the order and ration disbelieves the story of the lovers but in the end of the play that Oberon and Titania come to the court to bless the couples’ marriage fuses the worlds of reality and dream into one and yet makes the audience watching the distance between the mortals and fairies. However, Shakespeare does not stop breaking the line between dream and reality but he crosses beyond the boundary of a theater to challenge the essence of performing on the stage by placing Puck to conclude the play with the notion, the play being “No more yielding but a dream” (5.1.428). It brings the question of the theatrical essence and echoes the characters’ performance in every scene of the play being wandering between “dream” and “reality.” Bottom’s opinion seems fair that the experience on the stage is just beyond the understanding of mortal minds (is it true for the audience, too?) and can only be concluded as a dream. Maybe Shakespeare did it to avoid criticism (contemporary ones) for this play or he only wished the audience to enjoy it without thinking too much (?). But such the arrangement is worthy further discussing. <top> |
The mysterious figure hiding behind the manipulating power of the forest play, the Bottom’s play, and the whole play interests me a lot because since A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a confusing play presented between the fictional world and the real world, we, as readers and audience, have to be involved in a great degree with the three plays within the play. Psychologically, the couples in the audience seats might be brought unto the stage to undergo the dramatic heaves on the lovers’ mind performing on stage, and the couples like Theseus/Hippolyta from the Athens and Oberon/Titania from the fairyland appear to be the normative model roles for the rest of the couples. Hence, the corresponding and mirroring relationships among the couples are serving a significant movement to the playwright’s own purpose. If we look for the binary opposition in the dominating couples, we might discover that man/woman code is so unstable at first and then gradually get secured by men. Theseus’ wooing Hippolyta turns from with my sword to his faithful devotion or from the warfare to the peace. This force in the wooing relationship seems quite violent, just like Oberon’s quarrel with Titania which then comes to peace by making her dote on ass-headed Bottom for revenge. What Theseus and Oberon do to their ladies before taming them seems similar. However, if we look at the forest play conducted or manipulated by Oberon and Puck, we can sense the mirroring effects happening on the two couples who run into the wood. The way Oberon conquers Titania to demonstrate his power mirrors how Puck mistakenly takes Lysander for Demetrius. Hermia, who gains the most favor from two men, turns to be the least favored because of Puck’s mindless mischief. Helena is fooled and Hermia is deserted. This displays how men’s or the director’s power greatly exercises upon the operation of their love. After the symbolic men’s conquest over women in the forest play, Oberon realizes what a mess Puck has made and attempts to restore to what it was or what their original love was between the two couples. And on Theseus and Hippolyta’s wedding day, the worse-performed Pyramus and Thesby is disfavored by Theseus not only because of their lack of imagination but also because the unfitting players ruin his watching pleasure, just like what the mistaken couples did to Oberon in the wood. Therefore the way how Oberon cleaned up the mess in the wood mirrors how Theseus wraps the end up by agreeing with the other two couples’ marriages. Therefore, Theseus not only agrees to make sense of the other two couples’ marriage based on his rationale of true love, as his, but also makes his consent to how Oberon directs his forest play which is full of imagination, fantasy, and funniness. At the final scene and Puck’s epilogue, the fairies coming up, physically walking to the audience and Puck giving the whole play a comment nothing more than a dream implies the final union of imagination and reason is actually made by Oberon, the playwright, Shakespeare himself. So, the fictional Oberon, Shakespeare, playing on stage demonstrates his implied power to please the fictional Theseus, Queen Elizabeth to win her heart and nodding consent to Shakespeare’s work and maybe his political voice against the money-oriented marriage in Renaissance’s society. <top> |
In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, all the major characters experience the challenge of forming their own identities. Although at the end of the play, the characters seem to find themselves through external recognitions, these self-positions are only temporary reconciliations, that the threat of identify collapsing still exists. The term self in A Midsummer Night’s Dream contains a very complex sense. It is not only a sense of existence of one’s self, but also a sense of social position, which is necessarily defined externally rather than an inner self-recognition previously mentioned. The self-identification in this play is in fact the searching of one’s social position, which will further lead one to his/her own inner self recognition. Namely, the inner self in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is constructed from an external force, and once the external world changes, the inner self recognition will also be challenged and shattered. The play begins with Theseus’ triumphant claim of his marriage to Hippolyta, and he claims,
This claim shows not only Theseus’ masculinity in comparing wining a wife as winning a battle, but also implies that the marriage to Hippolyta is to secure Theseus’s social position as a leader in a male-dominant society. Namely, it is necessary for Theseus to conquer the Queen of Amazon, who is both a woman and a warrior, to prove himself as both a war hero and also a great lover., and with such ability to play this doubling role at same time, different from other characters who need to find their identities in the play, Theseus has found a position for himself with Hippolyta’s recognition in the very beginning of the play. Different from Theseus, Oberon, the king of fairies, receives the challenge directly from his queen Titania, who refuses to give the Indian boy to Oberon. Titania’s refusal to Oberon is not merely a domestic argument between husband and wife, but is a direct threat to Oberon’s authority as a male and a king. In other words, the external challenge from Titania shatters the inner self recognized by Oberon himself, and only by re-taming Titania as a submissive queen, Oberon is able to re-identify, and also to secure his social position. Moreover, different from Theseus who secures his position through male violence, Oberon achieves his purpose through the magical power. These different solutions, nevertheless, are not so different in considering their purpose, which is to force the others to change their inner selves through the external power. <top> |
Many critics have discussed the theme of illusion in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The theme of imagination, illusion, appearance and reality is given in this play. As we have discussed in class, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as a kind of metadrama in Elizabethan time, displays that drama creates not only a kind of illusion but also a kind of reality. Midsummer presents the illusion and the reality that are interrelated at the same time. The movement between illusion and reality causes possibilities of fluid identities. A person’s social identity is developed with family relationship, love, friendship and so on, like Shakespeare’s other plays, in Midsummer characters suffer from losing their identities temporarily in terms of shifting of space. The movements between two spaces cause disruption of self-identity and identity loss. Not only do the different spaces cause a kind of identity confusion but also ungoverned imagination produces “real illusion” in this play. The Elizabethan audience knows that what they see is an illusion and they have to connect this illusion to the reality because the audience has to re-identify the characters who plays two roles on stage, which is already in the illusion. In this play, the characters like Bottom, Flute, Snug and so on play two roles on stage and the audience has to re-identify the character with another character, first Bottom then Pyramus, Snug and then Lion. There seem to have two identities in one person, and the audience constantly shifts from one identity to the other. However, this kind of shifting identification shakes the certainty of self-identity. Another
interesting point that departs from the idea of illusion and reality is
the function of eyes in this play. Eyes infect the imagination, which
begins to distort our visual perception. For instance, in this play, the
lovers see not so much the reality as the appearance they themselves create.
When Lysander’s and Demetrius’s eyes are anointed with the love juice
by Puck and both turn to woo Helena, she suspects what she sees is not
real. Helena does not believe what she sees and she regards all these
as a “play.” It is interesting that because of her unwillingness to suspend,
Helena is not in a part of the play but witnesses a play plays in front
of her. I think in this respect it is quite disturbing for the audience
to distinguish the line between the real and the fictional. Turn back
to my previous point about the coexistence of illusion and reality; maybe
a-play-within-a-play can be real and unreal at the same time.
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Viola Ou: "Man / Women: Theseus / Oberon rights an imbalance in nature, compelling Hippolyta / Titania to be true to her sex" |
Talking of order and disorder, I am not sure what an imbalance is between the two royal couples. I do not think the king Theseus eventually rights an imbalance and successful forces the queen to recognize her female characteristic and to be true to her sex. In the beginning, the queen Hippolyta does not echo her husband’s views. In contrast, she speaks opposite phrases to Theseus as she owns power and stands at the equal level as Theseus has. Although she is going to marry Theseus, she still own a soul of the queen of Amazon. Therefore, when Theseus declares that he can not wait the marriage celebration, Hippolyta responses that “the moon, like to a silver bow…” (I. i. 9). As I see, the relationship between Theseus and Hippolyta is counterbalance. Even when in the close of the play, Hippolyta does not give up her words against Theseus. Once Theseus talks to her about the music of his hounds, Hippolyta attacks back and replies her own wonderful experience of the hunting with Hercules and Cadmus and of the hounds of Sparta (IV. i. 105-18). She does not follow what Theseus says blindly, but has her independent thought. It is Theseus that tries to ingratiates his wife because after her speaking, Theseus replies that his “hounds are bred out of the Spartan” (IV. i. 119). It seems that Theseus tries to show his power and strength and prosperity of Athen. However, Theseus’ exaggeration of his hunting dogs shows that Theseus falls into a trap so that Hippolyta verbally wins the power of control. The confronting of their conversation also can be seen in Act V scene one. Theseus firmly thinks the experience of the four young lovers is not true. It is nothing but fantasies. He says, “as imagination bodies forth / The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen / Turns them to shapes, and gives to them nothing / A local habitation and a name” (V. i. 14-7). Hippolyta, on the other hand, insists their experience is true. It is strange and admirable. In the whole play, Hippolyta makes a clear distinction between herself and Theseus In fact, Hippolyta tries hard to maintain herself not to be verbally and spiritually occupied by Theseus even if she is wooed by sword and violence. Work Cited Shakespeare,
William. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Herschel Baker ed. The Riverside
Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton, 1997: 256-80. <top> |
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Kristine Chen: "The Play within Play in A Midsummer Night's Dream" |
When A Midsummer Night's Dream begins with Theseus's coming wedding to Hippolyta, Theseus asks Philostrate:
Theseus's call for merriments is fulfilled by the Athenian tradesmen's play within play in Act 5. In fact in Act 4, all the conflicts of the play has already been solved. The Athenian's play in act 5 does not complements the main action of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The play within the play serves the function to reaffirm the order first the character's own identity, and second, the social order based this. Before the tradesmen present their play, Theseus comments on the Athenian lovers' accounts of their dreams in the woods:
Theseus believes what the lovers told are the account out of imagination. Later, he comments the tradesman's burlesque, "The best in this kind are but shadows;/ and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them. "(211-13). To Theseus, there is always a distinction between the solid reality and imagination. The Athenian tradesmen's play in some ways is a simple representation in association with Theseus's voice. What these players always keep in mind and also reminds their audience, is that their play is not real. They are not really the characters they play. The wall is not a real wall. The moon is not the real moon. The lion is not a real lion. It makes the audience laugh, and also distance the audience into the involvement of the play. The should-be tragedy thus becomes the "lamentable comedy". The story of "Pyramus and Thisbe" in many ways echoes what happened in the woods: Pyramus and Thisbe's hindered love and escape echoes Lysander and Hermia's. The threatening of lion reminds us the dangers and violence that once confronted by the characters in the dark woods. The faithful Pyramus's farcical suicide is in contrast to Lysander's and Demetirus's change. However the actors' burlesque way of presentation and their repeated reminding of the distinction of real and imagination distance not only the audience's involvement, but also these lovers' identification with the plot. The play offers another version but also a position as a looker-on of a similar version of their experience, without involving in. Lysander and Demetrius can comment on the play with Theseus Hippolyta, as the audience of the play within play, and once again consolidate their identities in the rational world. Thus in this farcical play within play, the distinct of reality and imagination is affirmed. The audience distance themselves from the action of the play. In merriments everyone their position and the order in the real world are reaffirmed. The concord is reestablished by the redefining the discord in the burlesque. Work Cited Shakespeare,
William. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Herschel Baker ed. The Riverside
Shakespeare. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton, 1997: 256-80.
<top> |
| The
fluidity and the similarity of identities are strikingly complex in A
Midsummer Night's Dream. The two couples, Lysander/Hermia and Demetrius/Helena,
and their dreamy adventures in the woods demonstrate not only the possible
changing of self but also the possible reflection of self in others. Therefore,
the distinctions between Lysander and Demetrius, between Hermia and Helena
and between their love and objects of affection become vague and ambiguous.
They can either exchange identities or see one self in the other. However,
at the end the "coupling" settles to a more stable and rigid frame
due to the need of recovering to a patriarchal social order in which the
male dominance and the heterosexual marriage are the supporting devices.
The similarities between Lysander and Demetrius are shown in Act I scene I when Egeus comes to Theseus to accuse Lysander for stealing Hermia's heart from Demetrius:
From these two passages we can see that basically Lysander and Demetrius are pretty much the same considering their character (gentleman) and their background (rank and possession). The only and probably the most crucial differences between them are (1 Demetrius has Egeus, Hermia father's voice and permission, (2 Lysander has Hermia's love. Nevertheless, since theses two conditions are matters of favor and choice, situations are easily altered when they enter the different realm of imagination and illusion. Similar ambiguity can be seen in the two female characters Hermia and Helena. Helena more than once expresses the wish to become Hermia, obtaining her face and temperament. ("My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,/my tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody./Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,/The rest I'd give to be to you translated."). Furthermore in Act III , scene ii, when Helena blames Hermia for making her a joke among them three, she evokes their old time relationship as "two artificial gods,/Have with our needles created both one flower,/Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion, /Both warbling of one song, both in one key,/As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds,/Have been incorporate. So we grew together,/Like to a doubly cherry, seeming parted,/But yet a union in partition;". These amazingly intimate comparisons suggest the mirror images of both Helena and Hermia. More clues are hinted in their same denial of self when they find out they are abandoned by their beloved man. Helena in Act II, scene ii utters self condemnation such as "No, no, I am as ugly as a bear" and Hermia later also bitterly admits that "And are you grown so high in his esteem,/Because I am so dwarfish and so low?" These self-questioning and refashioning on the one hand reveal the fluidity of identity that the two female characters can be so much alike and replaceable by each other. On the other hand considering the fact that their self-denial happens when the male rejects their value, female and their construction of self identity indeed depend a lot upon the patriarchal system. That is also why near the ending the confusing and chaotic displacement of identity and grouping has to be recovered to a norm. Hermia marries Lysander and Demetrius finds Helena attractive again despite the ambiguous similarity between Hermia and Helena. (Their names are similar, too!) Maybe what's even more disturbing is the consistent male dominance throughout the play. From Theseus' conquer over Hippolyta, Egeus' deperate grab of daughter Hermia to Oberon's trick/punishment of Titania, the world of A Midsummer Night's Dream, no matter where it is, Athens city or fairy forests, females are struggling hard to establish their identities and places in the society <top> |
Last Update: June 2, 2003