Download Overview: A Midsummer Night`s Dream

Overview: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare borrows from the history of ancient Greece for the framework of his play A
Midsummer Night's Dream. Using the Greek legend of Athens' king Theseus and the
Amazonian woman Hippolyta, the play features Theseus as the Duke of Athens, which
places the text historically during the twelfth century B.C., at the time of the Mycenaean
rule of Greece.
Events in History at the Time the Play Takes Place
Greece During the Bronze Age (1700–1000 B.C.)
The progression toward the well-known democratic model of government in fifth-century
classical Athens involved a long and gradual process. Prior to this early democracy, the
Mycenaeans, who were early Greek settlers, had established a society based on a royal
hierarchy The Mycenaeans ruled primarily in the Peloponnesus, a peninsula of southern
Greece that included the towns of Mycenae, Pylos, and Tiryns. In central Greece,
Athens and Thebes were the main Mycenaean outposts.
Shakespeare's play depicts a time when this system of aristocratic rule was in place.
According to this system of government. Theseus is able to dictate his wishes to his
subjects. At one point in the play, for instance, he decides the fate of one of the young
female characters—Hermia—with one command. Unlike the democracies that later
evolved, in early Greek societies the king's command was law.
The Palace Lifestyle
The scarcity of records detailing the names and accomplishments of Mycenaean kings
makes it difficult to determine their actual role in the society. However, it is certain that
the towns of Greece were governed in a highly aristocratic fashion during the Bronze
Age, with higher nobles overseeing the major territories in each king's district. This
arrangement helps explain the familiarity that Hermia's father, a prominent citizen of
Athens, had with Theseus in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The epics of the Greek poet
Homer indicate that the relationship between the king and his men was somewhat
feudal in nature: The citizens retained control of their land in exchange for a portion of
the goods they produced. Although most archaeological findings provide clues as to the
nature of the aristocratic lifestyle, the majority of the Mycenaean citizens were probably
of a much lower class. These free peasants held common plots of land allotted to them
by the king. At the lowest end of the social scale resided the slave population. Handled
like possessions, Mycenaean slaves were in fact sometimes skilled craftsmen, and such
characters are found among the mechanicals (a term for persons in the lower, artisan
class) of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
The Role of Women
Women in ancient Greece were expected to bear male children for the community,
which relied on such offspring to replenish their warrior ranks. Homer's Odyssey
suggests that a woman had some degree of choice in whom she would marry. Her
rights were limited, however. Fathers might arrange a marriage to bond two powerful
families together or, according to tales by Homer about the time, a man might capture a
bride for himself or win her in a contest.
It is evident that most women in ancient Greek society were inferior in status to their
husbands. Both royal and slave women depended on the men, and in daily life the two
types of women performed similar household tasks. Men viewed even royal women as
property—“the prizes of contests and the spoils of conquest” (Pomeroy, p. 25)—and
domination of a woman increased a man's prestige. Shakespeare's play incorporates
this view of the female gender; the maiden Hermia is treated like the property of her
father.
The Legend of Theseus
Shakespeare found his Theseus character in the pages of classical folklore. While many
legends surround this hero, perhaps none is quite so remarkable as Theseus's battle
with the Minotaur. After his son has been killed by the Athenians, King Minos of Crete
demands that the city send seven youths and seven maidens every year (or every nine
years, depending on the source) as food for the Minotaur, a half-bull and half-human
monster. Theseus sails to Crete to battle the monster. Upon arrival, though, Minos's
daughter promptly falls in love with him. Her love for Theseus proves valuable to the
warrior in his encounter with the Minotaur. Because the Minotaur inhabits a maze
(known as a “labyrinth”), the monster's human victims usually become lost, quickly
exposing themselves as prey. Minos's daughter gives Theseus a ball of thread so that
he can retrace his steps out of the labyrinth. Armed with this tool, Theseus is able to
slay the monster and find his way out of the labyrinth. He begins his voyage back to
Athens, which has been liberated from the threat of the Minotaur by his bravery.
Unfortunately, the young warrior forgets a promise he made to his father Aegeus (or
Egeus) when he departed—that he would signal a victorious expedition by raising white
flags on his returning ship. After seeing the black flags on the incoming vessel, Aegeus
draws the mistaken conclusion that Theseus was defeated and throws himself into the
sea in grief. The body of water in which he drowned himself thus became known as the
Aegean Sea. Theseus, the legend concludes, succeeds his father to the Athenian
throne and rules for many years.
Hippolyta and the Amazons
At the outset of Shakespeare's play, mention is made of the Amazon queen Hippolyta.
The Amazons were a group of warrior women who, according to legend, lived east of
Athens in Asia Minor, across the Aegean Sea. Their society was limited to warrior
women and female children and was ruled by Queen Hippolyta. Legends of the Bronze
Age describe a number of battles between male heroes and the Amazons. The male
warriors ultimately win all these encounters, and the various accounts of the story of
Theseus and Hippolyta are no different. One version tells of an attack led by Theseus
against the Amazons. Defeating the warrior women, Theseus rapes Hippolyta and
kidnaps her. The Amazons retaliate by attacking Athens but are driven back. Other
accounts maintain that the queen accompanies Theseus willingly. All stories agree that
Theseus later takes a second wife, Phaedra, who is Greek. Tales of the manner of
Hippolyta's death, however, vary. Some accounts say that after being discarded for
another woman, Hippolyta attacks her husband at his wedding feast only to be killed by
a guest. But others contend that she gave her life in defense of Theseus or was slain by
Hercules.
The Play in Focus
The Plot
The opening act of A Midsummer Night's Dream presents the primary plot of the work.
As the curtain rises, the audience finds Theseus, the Duke of Athens, anxiously
awaiting his marriage to Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. A conflict is quickly revealed
when Egeus, an Athenian citizen, beseeches Theseus to reprimand his daughter
Hermia. The distraught father explains that, although the girl has been betrothed to a
young man named Demetrius, she wishes to marry Lysander. While both men seek her
hand in marriage, the choice of a husband does not rest with Hermia, but with her
father.
After listening to Hermia's father. Theseus commands that Hermia choose to marry
Demetrius, join a cloister of nuns, or be put to death. The young girl, though, decides to
elope with Lysander and reveals the plan to Helena, her best friend. Helena, however,
is in love with Demetrius. She plots to tell him of his fiancée's planned elopement with
Lysander in hopes of winning his favor.
The following scene finds a group of Athenians, “the mechanicals,” practicing a play
they wish to perform for the court at the event of Theseus's marriage. The skit is based
on the tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe, but in the bumbling hands of these actors the
drama becomes a comedy. This glimpse of the mechanicals establishes them as comic
characters whose antics will affect the course of the play.
Hermia and Lysander, meanwhile, escape into an area of woods that houses a
community of fairies. Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of the fairies, reign here.
Because of a domestic dispute, Oberon plots with his attendant Puck to play a trick on
Titania by placing in her eyes the juice of a “western flower.” This juice makes those
who have been exposed to it fall in love with the first person he or she sees. But Oberon
and Puck also overhear an argument between Helena and Demetrius. She has told him
of Hermia's betrayal, but instead of shunning Hermia as Helena had hoped, Demetrius
is determined to find the couple and stop the elopement. Oberon feels pity for Helena
and asks Puck to place the flower juice in Demetrius's eyes so that he might fall in love
with Helena.
Oberon drugs Titania with the flower's juice. Afterward, Puck comes across the
mechanicals as they practice their performance. The mischievous Puck alters one of the
actors, Bottom, so that he possesses the head of an ass. Titania awakens and promptly
falls in love with the “ass,” who is then treated like royalty.
The attempt to drug Demetrius fails, however. Puck makes the mistake of dropping the
potion into Lysander's eyes. Oberon realizes that an error was made and drops the juice
into the eyes of Demetrius, creating a situation where both Demetrius and Lysander
now love Helena instead of Hermia. When the four youths again fall asleep. Puck
remedies the mix-up by squeezing an antidote into Lysander's eyes. The lovesick fairy
queen Titania receives a remedy as well.
After awakening, Titania tells Oberon of a dream she had in which she was “enamored
of an ass.” The young Athenians stir, and it becomes clear that they too appear to
believe that the romantic events of the recent past were only dreams. Because
Demetrius was never remedied of his love for Helena, the two couples appeal to
Theseus to take back his previous ultimatum that Hermia should marry Demetrius. The
king consents, and the couples plan for their weddings. Not only will Theseus be wed to
Hippolyta, but also Lysander to Hermia, and Demetrius to Helena.
At the same time, Bottom awakens from his ass-like state, believing that he too has had
a fantastic dream. He quickly finds the other mechanicals to practice the play they are to
perform at the approaching wedding feast. The final act of the play presents this
performance to both the Athenian court and to Shakespeare's audience.
The Romantic Comedy of the Athenian Youths
A Midsummer Night's Dream opens with the promise of a happy ending. Theseus
complains that the slow moon “lingers [his] desires” (Shakespeare, Midsummer Night's
Dream, 1.1.4) to wed Hippolyta. From the onset, the expectation of a union between the
individuals is apparent. It is this trust in a satisfactory conclusion that Shakespeare's
audience bears in mind when confronted with the troubles facing Hermia and Helena.
Perhaps due to the unmarried status of their queen. Elizabeth I, playgoers in
Shakespeare's time did not wish to see female characters in a play remain unloved. As
one author explains, audiences were “loathe to see the charm of an attractive heroine
`withering on a virgin throne'” (Holzknecht, p. 181).
In addition, Elizabethan audiences would not accept a romantic comedy in which all
couples were not happily matched by the close of the curtain. Shakespeare hints to his
audience early in the drama that they need not worry. Helena remarks in the opening
scene of the play that “through Athens I am thought as fair as she [Hermia]”
(Midsummer Night's Dream, 1.1.227). Her suggestion of equality instills in the viewer a
desire for both girls to marry their respective loves.
Sad Helena and distressed Hermia are eventually transformed into “lovers full of joy and
mirth” (Midsummer Night's Dream, 5.1.27), but the passage toward this happy
destination is not direct or entirely natural. The play concludes with Demetrius still under
the influence of the magical flower nectar. In order for the union between this character
and Helena to work, he must remain under the spell of this power. Demetrius remarks,
upon returning to the palace, “Are you sure / that we are awake? It seems to me / That
yet we sleep we dream” (Midsummer Night's Dream, 4.1.189–91). He is, indeed, the
only character who does still sleep. The audience's quest for a union of all the young
lovers, though, as well as its ability to immerse itself in the fanciful plot, allow
Shakespeare to employ the nectar as an effective match-making tool. After all, his
Elizabethan audience's primary desire was to see a happy ending.
Because of the centrality of the wedding theme, it is possible that Shakespeare
composed the play with a specific marriage in mind—perhaps the marriage of Elizabeth
Carey and Thomas Berkeley on February 19, 1596. The bride's father was Lord
Chamberlain, the patron who owned Shakespeare's production company.
Sources
Shakespeare borrowed from Roman poet Ovid's work Metamorphoses when he created
A Midsummer Night's Dream. The setting, theme, and several characters in
Shakespeare's drama were influenced by the Roman poem. Study of classic literature
was a central element in the education of a young English male of Shakespeare's era,
and Ovid's work was widely studied at the time.
Metamorphoses is a collection of more than two hundred Greek myths and legends.
Included are elements such as the character of Theseus, the Pyramus and Thisbe
myth, and concepts of physical transformation. Shakespeare's character Bottom, for
example, is given the ears of an ass, a fate also suffered by the fabled King Midas in
Ovid's work. In drawing on Metamorphoses. Shakespeare used a significant work. The
collection has been called “the most important source of mythical lore for all writers
since Ovid's time” (Goold in Ovid, p. xii).
Shakespeare was also influenced by English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Some 150 years
earlier. Chaucer had told a story quite similar to A Midsummer Night's Dream in “The
Knight's Tale” one of the verse narratives in his book Canterbury Tales. Shakespeare
used Chaucer's general plot as well as several character names.
“The Knight's Tale” A Midsummer Night's Dream
Theseus—Duke of Athens
Theseus—Duke of Athens
Hippolyta—Amazon Queen
Hippolyta—Amazon Queen
Palamon and Arcite—young knights
Demetrius and Lysander—male youths
Emily—female love interest
Hermia—female love interest
Egeus—Theseus's father
Egeus—Hermia's father
Philostrate—Arcite's alias
Philostrate—palace official
The cast of fairies can also be traced to several sources. When Henry VIII converted his
nation from Catholicism earlier in the sixteenth century, he eased a fear among
England's citizens that a person might be labeled a heretic (a rebel against Catholic
teachings) on the basis of statements that person made or the stories he or she told.
This in turn allowed for a surge in fairy stories. Many English households blamed minor
mishaps or lost possessions on the work of fairy magic.
In old English society the name Robin Good-fellow, or Puck, represented the figure of a
mischievous spirit. He belonged to the second of four fairy classes: (1) trooping fairies,
(2) hobgoblins, (3) mermaids, and (4) giants, monsters, or hags. Although hobgoblins
could sometimes be endowed with evil traits. Shakespeare's Puck retains the merry
jesting qualities found in most ballads, legends, and dramas of the time. A similar
character is found, for example, in Ben Jonson's Love Restored, produced in 1616.
Prior to the sixteenth century, fairies were considered to be of average or aboveaverage human stature. The small size of later English fairies can be directly attributed
to the inventions of Shakespeare. Quickly adopted by other writers, this notion of
miniature size eventually developed into national folklore.
Events in History at the Time the Play Was Written
Elizabeth I
From her ascent to the throne in 1558 to her death in 1603. Queen Elizabeth I ruled
England with a political genius that few monarchs before her had possessed. Although
she has been described as difficult, pompous, and strong-willed, Elizabeth identified
herself wholly with her nation. Unmarried, she used her single status to play her suitors
off one another and do her bidding. Eventually Elizabeth would confess that England
was her only spouse. She became totally identified with the nation and left it
independent and united, though she had no heirs. Many scholars interpret Oberon's
mention of a “fair vestal throned by the west” (Midsummer Night's Dream, 2.1.158) as a
direct reference to the virgin queen. Bottom's waking speech discusses the enticing yet
impossible notion of possessing such a figure. For the population of England, Elizabeth
was the ultimate, unattainable love.
Elizabeth's court was not without its social intrigue, however. During her reign, royal
patronage (support for select individuals favored by the queen) reached new heights.
Elizabeth transformed local noblemen and gentry into advisors known as courtiers who
depended on her favor to prosper. Still, she won an allegiance that few monarchs have
equaled. This quality, combined with her lengthy rule, made her one of the century's
leading figures. In acknowledgment of her rule, the second half of the 1500s came to be
known as the Elizabethan Age.
Shakespeare's own company was not supported by the Elizabethan court but was
privately employed. It still seems to have labored under certain obligations to the court,
however, including the production of two new plays each year—a comedy and a tragedy
(or historical play).
Elizabethan Drama
Both comedy and tragedy were composed of a mixture of classical and medieval
traditions. Developed from earlier Latin models, comedies of the Elizabethan era
involved the lives of noblemen, and their often romantic plots centered around confusion
over love. Typically, actors representing the higher classes spoke in verse, while
characters of a lower class had prose speeches, a method used in A Midsummer
Night's Dream. While the fairy nobles and the Athenian court members all speak in
blank verse in the drama, the mechanicals speak only in prose.
Reception of the Play
It is likely that A Mid-summer Night's Dream was first performed as a private production
for nobility and occasionally performed publicly by Shakespeare's company, Lord
Chamberlain's Men. Aside from this, little is known, as is true of most dramatic
productions prior to the Commonwealth period that began in 1648. The existence of a
separately published work or spin-off entitled “The Merry Conceited Humours of Bottom
the Weaver.” however, indicates that the play was originally well received. A
Midsummer Night's Dream has since then taken its place as one of Shakespeare's
unfailingly successful plays. The popular comedy has been regularly staged over the
years.
Marriage
Elizabethans, confined by gender (in the case of women) as well as class expectations,
did not exercise much control in marriage. That Queen Elizabeth defied Parliament and
public opinion by refusing to marry and bear children set her apart from most
Englishwomen. She shocked the world with her statement that “in the end, this shall be
for me sufficient, that a marble stone shall declare that a Queen, having reigned such a
time, lived and died a virgin” (Elizabeth I in Jones, p. 88). It would be some time, in fact,
before the general public came to terms with her defiance of so-called female
responsibilities.
The concept of marital duty ran deep throughout Elizabethan society. It taught that a
man, according to the edict of God, should care for his wife as if she were a part of his
own flesh: she, in turn, should consent to the rule of her husband. Furthermore, love for
a spouse could only be earned through the proper enacting of one's role. Passion,
thought to render the mind senseless, was regarded as an emotion to be avoided and
suppressed. Hermia's father rebukes Lysander for an unearned and therefore false
profession of love for his daughter, stating, “Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung
/ With feigning voice verses of feigning love” (Midsummer Night's Dream, 1.1.30–1).
As in ancient Athens when the play is set, marriage in Shakespeare's day was a social
relationship involving the community as well as the couple. It was rarely desirable to
marry out of love for one's partner. Instead, families arranged marriages for their
children, paying particular attention to matters of age, social rank, and, of course,
wealth. Both the family name and the accumulation of property depended on a proper
union. The couple, as adults, willingly recognized their role in this social institution.
When Hermia denies her union with Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream, she
jeopardizes the future of her entire family. Therefore, her father's anger is not entirely
unwarranted. Until her marriage, a female child in Shakespeare's day lived according to
a code of obedience to the male head of the household. When, in the play's setting of
ancient Athens, Hermia's father remarks that her acceptance of his wishes is “due to
[him],” he is also stating a fact of Elizabethan society (Midsummer Night's Dream,
1.1.36).
In the end, though, Hermia does win the right to marry the husband of her choice.
Because Queen Elizabeth broke social protocol by refusing to marry, certain deviations
from the standard became more accepted during her time. The queen's independence
perhaps inspired Shakespeare to have Hermia break with the past and attain a partner
of her own choosing. These social issues—the unfairness of forced marriages and the
idea of permitting young people to select their own mates—were tackled in other plays
of the era, too, such as The Miseries of Inforst Marriage, by George Wilkins.
Dream Study in Sixteenth-Century Europe
In sixteenth-century England, there was a wealth of books on the topic of dreams. The
most notable of these was Oncirocritica by a scholar named Artemidorus. He suggested
that a dream might have a number of different meanings depending on the
circumstances of the dream and the dreamer's life. Artemidorus thus introduced the
idea that a dream had to be interpreted, a belief that contrasted with earlier theories that
a dream was by nature either good or evil. Another important work, the Dream Book of
Daniel, was written by an unknown author. Printed in English in 1542, this book, like
others of the era, focused on the difference between divine and devilish dreams. Going
further, the scholar Macrobius attempted to classify dreams, paying most attention to
those that led to higher knowledge or special insights. Church leaders also focused on
“higher” dreams.
In Shakespeare's play, the dream world is a transforming place, from which the
dreamers return greatly changed and more in harmony with their world. Their dreams
lead them toward an enlightenment of sorts, perhaps to a greater self-knowledge. This
use of dreams in the play reflects the great degree to which dream study captured the
popular English mind in the 1500s. In fact, the folk calendar included a few holidays
related to prophecy and dreams. Among them was Midsummer Eve and Day (June 23–
24), a holiday also associated with fairies, love, and madness. Midsummer Eve was
sacred to lovers, who celebrated the holiday by dancing around bonfires, calling on
spirits to aid them in matters of love, and trying in various ways to divine who their future
mates might be. At noon on June 23, for example, a maiden might take a mirror to a
water well and reflect the sun's rays into the water. Such a maiden would be careful not
to speak because that would break the spell. In a few minutes, the image of her future
mate was supposed to appear.
FURTHER READINGS ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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Amos, H. D., and A. G. P. Lang These Were the Greeks. Chester Springs:
Pennsylvania Dufour Editions, 1979.
Camden, Carroll The Elizabethan Woman. Houston: Elsevier, 1952.
Garber, Marjorie B. Dream in Shakespeare, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale
University Press, 1974.
Holzknecht, Karl J. The Backgrounds of Shakespeare's Plays, New York:
American Book, 1950.
Jones, Norman. The Birth of the Elizabethan Age. Cambridge, England:
Blackwell, 1993.
Kay, Dennis. Shakespeare, His Life, Work and Era. London: Sidgwick and
Jackson, 1991.
Ovid. Metamorphoses. Edited by G. P. Goold. In Ovid in Six Volumes. Vol. 3.
Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press, 1984.
Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical
Antiquity. New York: Schocken, 1975.
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Edited by R. A. Foakes.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Moss, Joyce, and George Wilson. "Overview: A Midsummer Night's Dream."
Literature and Its Times: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the Historical
Events that Influenced Them, vol. 1: Ancient Times to the American and French
Revolutions (Prehistory-1790s), Gale, 1997. Literature Resource Center,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=LitRC&sw=w&u=j079907044&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CH1
430002663&it=r&asid=c537888f0b0bea7cf5f1c187982ac493. Accessed 20 Mar.
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|H1430002663