A Midsummer Night's Dream--Lecture Part One: Settings and Conflict--Athens (Societal) and the Woods (Natural, Magical)

• Athens is a place we recognize as civilized society--with law, war, marriage preparations and working people.
• The woods represents a natural, magical world in which beings (both human and supernatural) play out their passions.

Summary of Part One

I. In Athens, marriages are ruled by considerations other than the feelings between the bride and groom. (Click on the underlined passage to go to this part of the lecture.)

The analysis introduces the following literary terms to show the effects of Shakespeare's verse: allusion, ellipsis, inversion, simile, metaphor, conceit, and pun. (Click on an underlined word to see it defined with another example in the Glossary.)

II. In the woods, the king and queen of the fairies--Oberon and Titania--are quarreling over a changeling boy, whom Oberon plans to get by magic.

III. Athenian workmen plan a play for Theseus' wedding about the tragic love of Pyramus and Thisbe, practicing in the woods.

To respond to Lecture Part One, click here to call up the questions for this segment. Copy the question into a word processor, write your response and then submit it as indicated by your instructor.

I. In Athens, marriages are ruled by considerations other than the feelings between the bride and groom.

A. Duke Theseus and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, are marrying because Theseus has conquered Hippolyta in battle. She must marry him.

B. Hermia and Lysander love each other, but Hermia's father, Egeus, wants her to marry Demetrius. According to Athenian law, which Egeus calls on Theseus to enforce, Hermia's choices are to marry whomever her father chooses or to die. Theseus adds a third alternative: to live as a virgin nun ("to abjure / Forever the society of men," 1.1.67-8).

Lysander makes three main arguments in his favor:

NOTE: In quoted passages, any wording in boldface is especially important to understand. At the end of most long passages, you can click on a button to hear the passage.

I am, my lord, as well derived as he,
As well possess'd; my love is more than his;
My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd,
If not with vantage,as Demetrius';
And, which is more than all these boasts can be,
I am beloved of beauteous Hermia.
Why should not I then prosecute my right?
Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,
Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,
And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,
Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,
Upon this spotted and inconstant man.

(1.1.101-112--384K)

• Lysander is as good a match as Demetrius: from as good a family ("as well derived"), having as many possessions, being as rich (if not richer), and loving her more than Demetrius.
• The strongest argument to Lysander is that Hermia loves him. But this doesn't seem to be very important to the other men or to the law.
• Demetrius is fickle: having paid court to Helena and won her love, he now rejects her though she loves him.

Lysander <-> Hermia <-Demetrius<- Helena

The initial relationship of the four young Athenian lovers is mimed by students in English L220 (Introduction to Shakespeare) in Fall 1995.

If Theseus followed Lysander's line of argument and let Hermia marry Lysander, the couples would line up as follows:

Lysander = Hermia     Demetrius = Helena

and only Demetrius would be unhappy (even though he SHOULD marry Helena, according toLysander).

But parental law is greater than Lysander's apparently logical view. The only choices Hermia has are to marry Demetrius (which makes only Demetrius happy), to die or to be a nun (which makes no one happy).

When Hermia and Lysander are alone, Lysander proposes that they run away and marry in his aunt's home under another set of laws, and Hermia agrees. They tell their plans to Helena, who resolves to tell Demetrius. She knows this is a dumb thing to do, but here is her theory about love. (We will be referring to this theory throughout our discussion to see if the play supports it.)

Helena states:

How happy some o'er other some can be!
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she;
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;
He will not know what all but he do know;
And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,
So I, admiring of his qualities.
Things base and vile, holding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;
Wings and no eyes figure [="represent"] unheedy haste:
And therefore is Love said to be a child,
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled,
As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
So the boy Love is perjured everywhere;
For ere Demetrius looked on Hermia's eyne,
He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;
And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt,
I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:
Then to the wood will he to-morrow night
Pursue her; and for this intelligence
If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:
But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
To have his sight thither and back again.
[Exit]
(1.1.232-57--1,148K)

 

Helena,who tends to be a poor judge of her own worth because of Demetrius' sudden disdain, speaks with amazing clarity and self-insight here. She begins with a general statement of self-pity: "How happy some o'er other some can be!" = 'isn't it funny how some can be happy and others unhappy.'

NOTE: I'll put Shakespeare's words in quotations and my paraphrase in single quotation marks.

It helps to rearrange the inverted word order here.  Without the inversion, we get 'How happy some [people] can be 'over' [or 'compared to'] other some [people].' This seems arbitrary to her because (she states as a fact) everyone in Athens thinks she is as pretty as Hermia, but because the one exception is Demetrius, the man she loves, it doesn't matter what public opinion seems to 'prove.'

She also recognizes that she is crazy to dote on Demetrius!

And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,

So I,admiring of his qualities.

Things base and vile, holding no quantity,

Love can transpose to form and dignity.

Paradoxically, love is based on looking, yet Helena deduces that the god of love, Cupid, is blind. (By using an allusion to Cupid, a figure in classical myth, Shakespeare imports all the pictures and associations we have--from literature or candy boxes! Notice how different the associations would be if Shakespeare chose as the personification of Love the sexy goddess Venus, instead of her mischievous son, Cupid!) What the lover sees is controlled by the "mind" (in the sense of imagination or faith rather than as a logical engine).

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.

Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:

And therefore is Love said to be a child,

Because in choice he is so oft beguiled,

As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,

So the boy Love is perjured everywhere;

Despite her lucid analysis of Demetrius' behavior and her own, Helena's conclusion is that she will betray the confidence of her friends (Hermia and Lysander) by telling Demetrius of their flight--not because she expects him to change his mind, but because she thinks he will thank her for the news and she will have sight of him to the woods and back. Masochism strikes again as she acknowledges with the pun of a "dear expense" with "dear" meaning 'expensive' as well as 'beloved.'

To summarize, problems of love in Athens are external (that is, coming from outside the relationship)--for example, when Egeus exercises his right to decide whom his daughter will marry, or when Theseus' conquest of Hippolyta in war leads to her engagement to the victor. But the root cause for the young Athenians is faithlessness, a problem within the lover that must be solved in the woods--the place of emotion, as we shall see.

We have also used the following literary terms to show the effects of Shakespeare's verse: allusion, ellipsis, inversion, simile, metaphor, conceit, and pun. (Click on an underlined word to see it defined in the Glossary.)

Return to Summary of Part One 

II. In the woods, the king and queen of the fairies--Oberon and Titania--are quarreling over a changeling boy. In other words, fighting over the kids is disturbing the husband-wife relationship. Oberon's attendant, Puck, explains:

The king doth keep his revels here tonight.

Take heed the queen come not within his sight;

For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,

Because that she as her attendant hath

A lovely boy, stol'n from an Indian king;

She never had so sweet a changeling;

And jealous Oberon would have the child

Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;

But she, perforce, withholds the loved boy,

Crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy.

And now they never meet in grove, or green,

By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,

But they do square [fight]; that all their elves, for fear,

Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there.

(2.1.18-32--484K)

B. As a result:

• Titania has "forsworn his bed and company" (62).
• Titania and Oberon exchange jealous accusations (64-80), including involvements with Theseus and Hippolyta (thus explaining their presence near Athens).
• Titania explains upsets in the weather as resulting from their dissension (81-117).

Thematic Hint: Remember Helena's emphasis on the eyes and minds of lovers and her conclusion: "Things base and vile, holding no quantity,/ Love can transpose to form and dignity" (1.1 232-33).

1. He anoints Titania's eyes so that she will love a monster and give him the changeling:

Having once this juice

I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,

And drop the liquor of it in her eyes:

The next thing then she waking looks upon

Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,

On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,

She shall pursue it with the soul of love:

And ere I take this charm off from her sight,

As I can take it with another herb,

I'll make her render up her page [the changeling boy] to me.

(2.1.183-95--318K)

Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:

A sweet Athenian lady is in love

With a disdainful youth: anoint his eyes,

But do it when the next thing he espies

May be the lady. Thou shalt know the man

By the Athenian garments he hath on.

Effect it with some care, that he may prove

More fond on her than she upon her love.

(2.1.257-66--248K)

Return to Summary of Part One 

III. Workmen are coming to the woods in order to practice a play for possible presentation at the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. They are well-intentioned, though rather oafish. Their play is about the unhappy love of Pyramus and Thisbe. We see their practical, overly literal realism in contrast to the passion of the woods and the courtly romance of Theseus and the young Athenian lovers.

To respond to Lecture Part One, click here to call up the questions for this segment. Copy the question into a word processor, write your response and then submit it as indicated by your instructor.