Sample: Love Games (Issues 1)
Mollie Bean, student in English L315, Spring 1995

The love problems in A Midsummer Night's Dream affect almost every member of the play, whether they are playing a part or actively playing the love game. These love problems take place in two places, Athens, which represents reality and conformity to social norms, or in the forest, which represents a magical and free world where no rules apply.

In the "green" magical world of the forest, there is one common solution to all of the problems encountered in the name of love: magic. The first love problem in the forest is between a married couple, Titania and Oberon. The audience learns from Puck that,

...Oberon is passing fell and wrath
Because that she, as her attendant, hath
A lovely boy stolen 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 [Oberon and Titania] never meet in grove or green
By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,
But they do square, that all their elves for fear
Creep into acorn cups and hide them there. (2.1.20-32)

This argument between the two lovers has the whole fairy world in an uproar. It seems that in this green world, Titania is allowed to have something that her male counterpart does not. Oberon has no way to force Titania into giving him the boy. There are no royal decrees and no laws that can be invoked to get this boy away from Titania and under the service of Oberon. Oberon tries to argue his way around the situation accusing Titania of thievery as well as having an affair with Theseus. Titania does not give in and tells Oberon, "Not for thy fairy kingdom" (2.1.149) will she give up the changeling boy.

Despite his efforts, Oberon's plans have been thwarted. Oberon tried to use reason, something presumably not of his world, to convince his queen to give into his requests. When that fails,Oberon decides to use magic to produce the results he desires. To Puck he says,

Fetch me that flower; the herb I showed thee once.
The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
. . . 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 from off her sight
. . . I'll make her render up her page to me. (2.1.175-192)

What does Oberon inevitably rely on to solve his problem? According to Oberon, the quickest way to get what he wants is to use magic. He reasons that magic will aid him in getting the fair Titania into a situation that only he can get her out of. This should give Oberon the upper hand and eventually win him the Indian boy.

The magic seems harmless enough, until we see Titania in love with Bottom who has been transformed in to a half man, half donkey. In the suspended reality of the forest, this too is acceptable and would indeed bring more laughs than it would gasps of shock. Oberon does get the boy and gloats in the fourth act about his glorious triumph.

When I had at my pleasure taunted her,
And she in mild terms begged my patience,
I then did ask of her her changeling child,
Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent
To bear him to my bower in Fairyland. (4.1.58-62)

(to Titania) Come, my queen, take hands with me,And rock the ground whereon the sleepers be.
Now thou and I are new in amity,
And will tomorrow midnight solemnly
Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly,
And bless it to all fair prosperity. (4.1.89-94)

Whether or not the audience agrees with his methods, Oberon's tactics to solve his love problem have worked. It should not escape the audience that though the problem has been "fixed," it has come at Titania's expense. Titania was made to look like a fool for something that was totally out of her control. She had no choice in deciding whom she would love when she awoke. She was totally at the mercy of her husband, Oberon. Not only have Oberon's tactics worked, but they seem to have made the relationship between Oberon and Titania that much better. Titania has no words that really lead us to believe that she is anything less than excited about the game she and her husband are playing. She may be plotting her own brand of revenge, but she is certainly keeping it under wraps. The next order of business for the newly reunited lovers is to go off and bless the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. Oh that problems in a marriage in Athens could be so easily worked out.

The definition of "imagination" can be interpreted in many different ways depending on one's point-of-view. For those creatures in the "green" world, there is no need to pretend and imagine the impossible or fantastical because it occurs naturally. By comparing the Athenians with the fairies, Shakespeare highlights the differences in the definitions of imagination.

Oberon utilizes magic to attain his goals: gaining Titania's favor again and the custody of the changeling boy. Magical charms such as pansy juice are part of Oberon's world. There are no constraints on what is "real" or "unreal"; therefore the inhabitants of the "green" world come to believe nothing is what it seems and anything can happen. As Oberon applies the pansy juice, Titania succumbs to its powers,

Oberon: What thou seest when thou dost wake,
Do it for thy true love take.
Love and languish for his sake.
Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,
Pard, or boar with bristled hair,
In thy eye that shall appear
When thou wak'st, it is thy dear.
Wake when some vile thing is near (2.2.33-40).

The juice makes Titania fall in love with ass-headed Bottom. In the context of the "green" world, magic creates limitless possibilities. Shakespeare proves that there is nothing unimaginable in this world. After all, the Queen of the Fairies falls in love with something so beneath her! Surely anything can happen, to mortal or fairy, in the "green" world.

Creative impulses, fueled by emotion, are a ruling factor in both the Athenian and green world. However, as Theseus says imagination is responsible for the acts of lunatics, lovers and poets, the ability to fantasize and create is much more difficult in the Athenian (human) world than in the realm of fairies.

The vehicle by which Shakespeare demonstrates this theme so well is by creating a play-within-a-play. When Oberon thinks of a way to punish Titania, the tools at his hand (magic juices) are custom-fitted to his needs. In contrast, solutions in the human world are rarely perfectly suited to particular problems. Imagination is the key in "smoothing the edges" to these problems. When actors lack imagination, as the tradesmen in Midsummer Night's Dream do, the audience cannot be seduced into the plot of the play.

Six Athenian tradesmen hope to put on a most tragic play, "Pyramus and Thisbe" within Midsummer Night's Dream. Despite the efforts of the six Athenian tradesmen, the lack of imagination made "Pyramus and Thisbe" a comedy rather than tragedy. During rehearsal they have to figure out how to portray certain elements in the play in order for it to seem "real." The first mistake they make is to write a prologue which will remove any sort of drama. Bottom decides to tell the audience his real identity and warn them that any violence or wild animals are fake before the play even begins. He insists to Quince, who will give the Prologue,

you must name his [Snug's] name, and half his face must be seen through the lion's neck, and he himself must speak through, saying thus, or to the same defect: "Ladies," or "Fair ladies, I would wish you," or "I would request you," or "I would entreat you not to fear, not to tremble (3.1.36-41)

Bottom: Some man or other must be present Wall. And let him have some plaster, or some loam, or some roughcast about him to signify wall, or let him hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny shall Pyramus and Thisbe whisper (3.1.66-70).

With this literal translation and ignorance of the art of pantomime and improvisation and the power of words to fire the audience_s imagination, the tradesmen reduced this play into a comedy where the audience is more absorbed with the mistakes and clumsiness of the actors rather than the actual play itself. The Athenians commented as theprologue was given,

Lysander: He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he knows not the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not enough to speak, but to speak true.

Hippolyta: Indeed he hath played on this prologue like a child on a recorder--a sound, but not in government.

Theseus: His speech was like a tangled chain--nothing impaired, but all disordered. Who is next (5.1.126-132)

These are not the types of remarks actors in a tragedy aim for, much less, a scathing one from Hippolyta, "This is the silliest stuff ever I heard" (5.1.223). Unlike Oberon, the tradesmen's creative impulses manifested into a farce rather than lamentable tragedy. They were unsuccessful while Oberon had the power of magic to help him. The only "magic" that exists in the Athenian world is in the mind and heart, making communication of this form of "magic" (i.e., love and imagination) difficult.

There is an unspoken contract between the audience and actors in any play. The audience agrees to sit back and allow themselves to assume anything can happen on the stage (much like a temporary "green" world constructed by humans). The actors, in turn, must believe in their roles and create in their minds whatever environment necessary, to portray their characters effectively. Of course, costumes, stage design and make-up all provide a visual sense of the play's essence, but without a firm commitment to a role, an actor breaks the trust he or she has with the audience. Thus, the audience does not fall into the story and sees the actors as merely actors, not their supposed characters.

For humans, believing in something non-material or physical is a difficult task. An imagination requires someone to let go of their pre-conceived notions of what is real and possible. Clearly, Theseus,who says,

More strange than true. I never may believe
These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends. (5.1.2-6)

is someone more skeptical than receptive to a product of the imagination. Although humans are more foolish, oafish, and "rational" than fairies, these deficiencies can inspire and bring out the best and worst from all people. While Theseus and others like him may scoff at lunatics, lovers, and poets, they miss the opportunity to experience a moment of the "green" world.

Context and paraphrase: When Titania and Oberon meet in Midsummer Night's Dream we learn of their quarrel over control of the changeling boy whom Oberon wants to take from Titania. Here she chides Oberon because she claims that their fight is causing unseasonable changes in the weather. She says that the four seasons are different, thinking of them as servants who wear "liveries"--that is, the uniform of the person they serve--which now are changed so that the amazed world can't tell one season from another. This evil outcome she sees as the offspring or "progeny" of their quarrel, and Oberon and she are the parents.

Significance: This passage shows that Titania is sorry for their quarrel, but is unwilling to bow to Oberon's wishes to resolve it. The passage also confirms that they have supernatural power related to nature. Theseus may rule Athens by law, but Oberon and Titania have control over natural fertility--such actions as falling in love and bearing children--so it is fitting that they bless the newlyweds at the end.

Whether in the forest or in the city, the male rulers of each are in a war for supremacy. At the beginning of the play, Theseus and Hippolyta's battle is mostly over, except for the wedding games. Hippolyta, according to the list of characters, is the ruler of a tribe of warrior women. Theseus has overpowered her in battle. He now plans to marry her to solidify his victory.

Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword
And won thy love doing thee injuries,
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph, and with reveling.(1.1.17-20)

At the beginning of the play, the battle between Oberon and Titania has only just begun. Like Theseus, Oberon wants something from his wife--to rule the little changeling boy who has come into Titania's custody.

Oberon: Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy
To be my henchman. . . .
Give me that boy and I will go with thee.
Titania: Not for thy fairy kingdom. (2.1.122-24, 148-49)

The audience, knowing that Oberon successfully conquered the Amazons in battle, wait and watch while the fairy world battle unfolds. Theseus chose to overpower his foe with brute strength. What will Oberon do? Oberon chooses a different battle plan. He will use magic to achieve his goal. He sends Puck in search of a flower whose juice will cause a person to fall in love with the first thing they see upon awaking.

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 from off her sight . . .
I'll make her render up her page to me. (2.1.183-192)

Oberon knows that his strength is in his magic. Unlike Theseus, there will be no bloodshed and though there may be some beastiality and humiliation, the audience seems to expect that it will all be harmonious and resolved in the end.

The interweaving of these two stories makes for some interesting thematic implications. In both worlds, each man wants to "pacify" the assertive woman he desires. In the case of Theseus and Hippolyta, Theseus has won Hippolyta's hand inmarriage, probably by defeating her army in battle, thereby acquiring something that belonged to her. In the same way, Titania has something that Oberon wants to call his own in order to remain dominant and in control of Titania. Titania has been given custody of an Indian boy and spends her time doting on him. Titania and Hippolyta have the same power initially over the men that desire them.

It is obvious that both in the green world and in the Athenian world, the men's selfish desires override both Titania and Hippolyta's desires as well as running roughshod over the best interests of the changeling boy and the Amazon people. In fact, this pattern emerges all over the play. The play opens with Egeus heartlessly informing his young daughter Hermia that, despite her desires, it is the father's choice for a husband whom she is required to marry. According to the law, if she does not marry Demetrius, a proven woman-user, she will be forced to die or live in a nunnery for the rest of her life. Once again a man has enforced his will on a woman, against her wishes and even to her detriment. After all, who is to say that Demetrius will stay true to Hermia once he has had her? It certainly is not his pattern.

Many of the women of this play are overpowered by the males in their life. Whether or not Shakespeare was trying to highlight this as a problem, a modern audience certainly would pick up on these themes that show up by comparing the different storylines. Though I wish the play were more evenly balanced in this male/female arena, I don't think the story would have been particularly offensive in Shakespeare's day, unfortunately. To bring this to the stage for a modern audience, I think I would direct the actors playing Hippolyta, Titania, and Hermia to conduct themselves with an air of internally felt superiority. Sly winks here and knowing looks there could go a long way to strengthen the female characters in this play.

The analogy of "eyes" and "visions", as the instruments of love, is interwoven throughout the multiple story lines in Midsummer Night's Dream . It is as if Shakespeare himself wants to change his audience's 'viewpoint' on the subject of loving.

The conflict between the characters Hermia and her father, Egeus, centers around differing perceptions, viewpoints, or "eyes," on particular issues and situations.

Hermia: I would my father looked but with my eyes.

Theseus: Rather your eyes must with his judgment look (1.1.58-59)

Egeus, Hermia's father, is determined to have Hermia married to Demetrius. If she does not abide by his wishes he will have her sentenced to death. (It is only Theseus' "mercy" that adds the option of being sent to a nunnery.) Hermia desperately wants her father to see what she sees--that is, to view and feel things from her perspective. This exchange between Hermia and the ruler Theseus, shows that Hermia is aware of a problem with perspective. If only she could get her father to look at Demetrius through her eyes, surely he would desire him for her.

Helena also 'sees' the problem of differing viewpoints. As Hermia spoke of her wish to Theseus, Helena points out that the act of taking on another person's point-of-view or even changing it is difficult, if not impossible. Helena's eyes and heart are set on Demetrius, who barely acknowledges her presence after becoming infatuated with Hermia. Although love and beauty is often sensed visually (at least initially), Helena, frustrated with Demetrius' cruel treatment of her, remarks about the irony of love,

As he [Demetrius] 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 winged Cupid painted blind (1.1.236-241).

Helena states that love is actually blind. Helena loves Demetrius unconditionally while he does not even relate her passion with him to the adoration he has for Hermia. Demetrius' "blindness" to Helena's plight heightens the more unfortunate and tragic aspects of love. While the eyes can identify beauty and loveliness on an external level, love that originates from the mind is capable of erasing any type of deformity. Not everyone's love is reciprocated nor is it always based on trust and respect. To emphasize the blinding qualities of love even further, Shakespeare, through the use of magic, uses a literal example of someone becoming "blind" with love. He provides this example in the safe 'green' world of the forest.

Oberon's quest to regain dominance in Titania's life, by acquiring her precious, changeling boy, has left him searching for a way to teach her a lesson. It is a given that Titania, the Queen of the Fairies, is a beautiful and benevolent figure among the "green" world. No one expects someone divine and delicate to fall in love with an ugly specimen of a human! With the powers of pansy juice, Oberon makes that unimaginable situation come true. For him to gain the changeling boy, Oberon wants to humiliate and "tame" Titania back into his control. When he anoints Titania's eyelids with the nectar, he is in essence striking one of Cupid's arrows, leaving her madly in love with the next thing she sees,

What thou seest when thou dost wake,
Do it for thy true love take.
Love and languish for his sake.
Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,
Pard, or boar with bristled hair,
In thy eye that shall appear
When thou wak'st, it is thy dear.
Wake when some vile thing is near. (2.2.33-40)

Oberon wants her to see something ugly so she will become enraptured with someone she would undoubtedly find unsuitable (if she had a free will). Once Titania awakes, she is blinded by magic from her own 'natural' vision. This artificial power over her eyes forces her to uncontrollably love Bottom, the human with an ass' head.

The same situation occurs when Demetrius and Lysander suddenly, under the influence, fall in love with Helena. The audience is aware, however, that this is 'fake' love. At best it is love induced by magic. The relationship between the two story lines becomes clear. Just as Helena's love for Demetrius is blind in Athens, Titania's love for the repulsive Bottom is blind in the forest. Shakespeare could be pointing to the 'blind' love that Helena is experiencing for Demetrius. Looking at the relationships this way, Titania and Helena both love an ass of a man. Titania, however, is giving herself against her will and under the influence of magic. Helena has already complained that she is helpless to stop her love for Demetrius, regardless of his behavior to her. It seems that in the interweaving of these stories, Shakespeare is showing the reader that the eyes are easily tricked and even able to hold people hostage to a bad situation. Helena, though blind to Demetrius' fickleness, has given her heart to him. She loves him completely.

Through the examination of four couples' interrelationships in the play, Shakespeare shows how fickle and inconsistent feelings and images can be. The metaphoric use of the eye as an individual's "compass of love" provokes deeper questions of how people actually seek and connect with others; why it succeeds and why it falls into disasters at times. Luckily, Titania remained grateful and loving towards Oberon after he applied the antidote to the pansy juice. The mix-up between the four young Athenian lovers becomes solved with Hermia and Lysander rightfully joined together and Helena with Demetrius, who 'blinded' by pansy juice, is in love with her. True to the rules of a good comedy, all the couples end up united happily and harmoniously.

Triple review.
Players: The tradesmen would have been extremely satisfied with their performance for Theseus and his court. Although the Prologue as spoken actually insults Theseus, the intention is complementary:

If we offend, it is with our goodwill.
That you should think we come not to offend,
But with goodwill. To show our simple skill,
That is the true beginning of our end.
Consider, then, we come but in despite.
We do not come, as minding to content you,
Our true intent is. All for your delight (5.1.114-119)

Regardless of their acting expertise, they like to act and want to please their audience. Bottom, with his bubbling enthusiasm and charisma, would have thought he had stolen the show. Snug would have been comforted in knowing he well-informed the ladies of the audience, before performing his lines, of the safety and harmlessness of his character. Although Snug's portrayal of the lion lacked any sense of realism, the effect was comical and it added to the other humorous performances. "Pyramus and Thisbe" was intended to be a tragedy, but the comical tradesmen probably felt they did a great job nonetheless. After all, if the audience enjoyed it, what could be better?

Athenian nobles: Theseus was warned early on about "Pyramus and Thisbe" by the Philostrate who described it as,

A play . . . , my lord, some ten words long
(Which is as brief as I have known a play),
But by ten words, my lord, it is too long,
Which makes it tedious; for in all the play
There is not one word apt, one player fitted. (5.1.65-69)

Against this warning, Theseus chooses this troupe to perform since "never anything can be amiss/ When simpleness and duty tender it" (5.1.88-89). Throughout the entire play, Theseus watches with good humor and does not criticize them as harshly as Hippolyta and Lysander do. He seems to understand how it takes much imagination and work to put on such a tragedy and accepts their performance without expectations of success. Since the play soon turns into a comedy rather than tragedy, the audience members begin to comment on the play's inadequacies and mistakes. After Pyramus' emotional passage, Moonshine exits and Pyramus falls. Unfortunately, the effect is incredibly hilarious and brings about inquiring remarks among Lysander, Demetrius, Theseus, and Hippolyta:

Demetrius: No die, but an ace, man, for him, for he is but one.

Lysander: Less than an ace, man, for he is but dead, he is nothing.

Theseus: With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover and yet prove an ass.

Hippolyta: How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisbe comes back and finds her lover?

Theseus: She will find him by starlight. (5.1.323-331)

While Theseus is more gentle with his mocking of the play, Hippolyta is definitely less amused. She and the others seem to be focused on the technical aspects of the performance (mispronunciation, wrong entrances and cues, delivery of lines) while Theseus is enjoying these actual mistakes. Perhaps he has more imagination in him than the others (even though he says only people with imaginations have "such seething brains" in 5.1.4).

Shakespeare's audience: If I were actually one of the "groundlings," the common peasant population that made up a large part of his audience at the Globe theater, I would have enjoyed the play-within-a-play scene. First of all, these tradesmen are very much like everyday working persons without much of the "pretensions" and "expertise" actors are supposed tohave. This makes the tradesmen more identifiable and appealing to the audience. The performance of "Pyramus and Thisbe" trying to be a tragedy yet turning into a comedy full of physical humor (the human wall, the lion's roaring, Thisbe dropping her mantle) is funny enough, but the commentary made by the Athenian nobles added to the hilarity. They are observing and articulating many of the thoughts the audience probably has as well which brings them closer to the characters since they are both viewing "Pyramus and Thisbe." Also, this scene is close to the end of the entire play, which is fitting, since it is an opportunity to see the entire cast on stage. With this play nearing the end of the wedding celebration of Theseus and Hippolyta, it has a cohesive effect on closing the play with an enjoyable ending (before the actual end).

When the four young Athenians change environments, from Athens to the forest, they are removing the societal barriers that initially restrict them. Lysander and Hermia flee to the woods on their way to another city where they can marry. Helena leads Demetrius there in hopes to convince him of her love. Both couples have needs and they are aided by Oberon once he sees them in his domain. He has power over them because of this precise reason: in his world anything is possible. If he wants to help someone, he will use his powers. After seeing Helena upset over Demetrius, Oberon says to Puck,

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. (2.1.268-274)

With the physical separation of these two worlds, Shakespeare opens up new possibilities and outcomes. The forest is seen as a place of impulse and magic while Athens represents order and societal rules. This contrast helps create comedic moments in a play where confusion between lovers becomes even more complicated when mistaken identity and pansy juice are thrown in. In the forest, the characters behave other than they normally would in Athens which undoubtedly adds more unpredictability to the plot than if the setting were just centered in Athens. Now Demetrius, who previously was adamantly not in love with Helena, suddenly becomes enamored of her, once anointed with the pansy juice,

O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!
To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne?
Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show
Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow! (3.2.140-143)

Obviously, Helena is incredibly confused and bewildered at the sudden changes in Lysander and Demetrius. Although Oberon arranges an antidote for Lysander and makes them all consider their experiences like a dream, when the lovers go back to Athens, Demetrius is ready and eager to marry Helena. Because Demetrius is no longer willing to marry Hermia, it possible to over-rule the patriarchal tyranny of Egeus' right to name his daughter's husband.

Critic Jan Kott reads Midsummer Night's Dream as an erotic, cruel, brutal play in which, I suspect, he believes the women in general and Titania in particular are victims. Since the play is within the genre of comedy and remains light-hearted without focusing on any more heavy matters than tomfoolery and opposing parental figures Kott should realize that no one is being harmed; in fact, all parties involved are better at the end of the play than they were at the beginning. Titania and Oberon are back together, Hippolyta is no longer an unwilling bride, the lovers have been straightened out and paired off, and the players are able to perform their triumphant play.

Kott seems to imply that the choice of the ass as the particular animal into which Bottom was turned was Titania's. On the contrary, Robin Goodfellow makes the selection mischievously. Oberon has given him orders to place the love potion on Titania's eyes so that the first thing she lays her eyes on, "Be it lion, bear, or wolf, or bull, / On meddling monkey, or on busy ape" (2.1.187-88), she will fall in love with it. Oberon says nothing about an ass, or about turning a person half into an animal to be the object of her love. Titania has nothing to do with the decision, and if we are to believe the fairy juice works as it 's supposed to, she can make no conscious decision whether she wants to have sex with the ass or not. She is under the spell of magic and therefore not responsible for her actions.

Throughout the play, it is pointed out that Bottom has only the head of the ass. Bottom is not endowed with the "sexual potency" or the long and hard phallus of an actual donkey. As a matter of fact, instead of taking advantage of Titania's sudden affection for him as an animal would, Bottom says, "Methinks, madam, you should have little reason for that." (3.1.144-45.) He still retains the mental functions (and humility) of a human being. His only symptoms of being a donkey are craving the things a donkey likes to eat and itching a little bit with the hair on his face.

Also, Titania is a fairy: she is driven by emotional needs and drives. The first thing a fairy would want to do, upon finding herself enamored of something, would be to express herself physically without any regard to the customs and moral laws that humans follow. Since fairies are passionate and excitable, we expect Titania to make love to someone (or something, in Bottom's case) for which she feels so deeply.

Because the play was written by Shakespeare, it is not actually Puck who selects an ass as Bottom's new head, but the bard himself. Are we to suspect that Shakespeare wants us to believe that the play is about Titania's desire for bestiality with the long-, hard-phallused donkey? I think not.

This selection of Elijah Moshinsky's BBC production portrays Act 2, Scene 1, the scene in which Titania and Oberon meet in the forest and fight over the changeling boy. The text tells us that Titania and Oberon are having a vicious fight, complete with insults, the fairies picking sides, and the retraction of sexual favors. (Titania says, "I have forsworn his bed and company"[2.1.64].) This fight occurs within the forest world, an emotional, passionate place ruled by these two emotional, passionate fairies.

Moshinsky uses color and light as primary indicators of mood, and his forest is a dark, shadowy place. The trees and ground are dark and almost undiscernible from the background. When the camera focuses on Oberon, atop a dark horse and accompanied by his fairy cronies, we see a man with dark hair, surrounded by men in dark clothes, tinged in green. Titania, in contrast, is wearing white, with fair hair, and glows within the dark background of the forest. She carries the changeling boy, cradling him in her arms as if he were a small baby. The costuming indicates that Oberon is the Òbad guyÓ in this situation, and Titania is not.

Colors play an important role in helping the audience perceive how the fairies feel. The forest is dark because its rulers are fighting and the kingdom is in turmoil. Oberon is dark because he is unhappy, particularly with Titania. His body and face are tinged with green because he is jealous: he does not have the one thing he, the king of the forest, wants: the changeling boy. Titania is white and fair because she is happy: the changeling boy is in her possession and that is more important to her than her husband's happiness.

Oberon rides a horse because he wants to appear dominant to Titania, who walks barefoot and wears a flimsy dress. By riding the horse and surrounding himself with the dark-clothed, intimidating fairies, he tries to look as powerful as possible.

But as Oberon sends his henchmen to fetch the boy, they stop in their tracks when Titania begins to speak. She holds the boy as if she were his mother, turning away from them as if their threats meant nothing to her. Titania shows no tinge of green, only the white of purity and happiness. This maternal power of her light and love is much greater than that of Oberon's darkness and jealousy.

Moshinskys use of staging, costuming, and color is important to the juxtaposition of emotions is this scene. Titania is flourishing and satisfied in her role of mother, emotions shown through the use of white light, the flimsy costume, and the cradling of the boy. Oberon is miserable and emasculated by his inability to force his wife to do what he wants. His feelings are demonstrated through his position atop a horse, the darkly clothed fairies surrounding him, and the green light that washes him.

Bottom remains one of the most endearing characters of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream . His worst fault seems to be that he ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time. In Act 3, Scene 1, Bottom has a run in with the mischievous Puck. Already up to no good with his lord Oberon, Puck is unable to keep his hands off of things and, just for fun, turns Bottom into a half man, half donkey. In these two stagings, Bottom has just been changed into this beast-like state. The directors of these two productions, in particular through costuming and stage business, have succeeded in showing two different interpretations.

In the production with James Cagney, the audience finds a distraught Bottom lamenting his current state of being. In this production, the direction of the scene shows Cagney seeing a reflection of himself in a pond. When he sees this image, he is overcome with sorrow. Part of the stage business is that Bottom strokes and caresses his donkey nose, trying to console himself, while he is crying. As part of the stage business, Bottom crawls away from his image on all fours, imitating what a true donkey would do. Bottom delivers his lines sorrowfully, and his emotions are aided by what seems to be an elegant ass's head with droopy, sad, almost female eyes. He says that, "I will sing, that they shall hear I am not afraid" (3.1.125-126). In this production, this line is interpreted as irony. Bottom says that he is not afraid, but everything that has happened since he discovered his state shows the audience that he is indeed very afraid and almost hopeless. James Cagney's interpretation emphasizes this despair felt by Bottom by having Bottom sing his song like a funeral march.

The Bottom played by Benny Hill is quite different. The first difference I noticed was in the costuming. The head of the ass in this production is really quite funny and childish. There is nothing elegant about this donkey. He looks very funny with a more 'homemade', less refined look. With this head, the audience can see immediately that this situation is funny, not tragic. Also in contrast to Cagney, Hill's Bottom does not see his reflection. By not allowing Bottom to see himself, the director helps the audience treat Bottom as ignorant of his terrible condition. Bottom, therefore, has no reason to lament his condition. In fact, Hill never even touches his nose, so there is no reason to think that anything is really wrong. That is why he states,

I see their [his friends] knavery. This is to make an ass of me, to fright me,if they could. . . . I will walk up and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear I am not afraid. (3.1.122. 124-126)

Hill's Bottom believes that his friends are just trying to annoy and unnerve him. HillÕs delivery of these lines is in stark contrast to Cagney's delivery. His voice is impish and carefree, and this Bottom is skipping, throwing his arms around like a child in a playground. Instead of a funeral march, Bottom's song is portrayed as a skipping-rope song.

My reaction to these two Bottoms was as different as the two portrayals. For Cagney's Bottom, there was a sense of compassion for this poor fellow. As he wept, I wanted to see him comforted. On the other hand, Hill's Bottom was cheery and fun. I felt no sorrow for him, only like I was in on the joke. Hill's interpretation reinforced the idea that in the forest strange things may happen, but it is a safe place where the audience can believe that at least in the end, everything will be okay. From the Cagney clip, I really was left wondering if Bottom would ever recover from the despair he was experiencing.

These two productions of Act 4, Scene 1--Titania's awakening--are very different in setting, costuming, lighting, and most importantly, intent. Each director had very different interpretations of Oberon awakening Titania from her fairy-juice-on-the-eyes spell.

The 1935 version shows a glittering, light-filled fairy world where a childish, fair-haired Titania sleeps peacefully. Oberon sing-songs his lines to call her awake, and when she does, she's horrified by her "dream." She's obviously upset that she dreamt she was "enamored of an ass." When Oberon bids her, she looks down and sees that it wasn't a dream--Bottom is lying right there with the ass head--and she cowers toward Oberon, afraid. Oberon looks at her, declining his head in shame. She thinks for a moment, looking back and forth from Oberon to Bottom, and the look on her face betrays what she has realized: that she knows Oberon is responsible. But then she looks him up and down, gives a forgiving smile, and all is forgotten.

In the BBC version, Oberon's method of awakening Titania seems very sexual. He kisses her eyes and mouth, bidding her to awake in a low, gravelly voice. She awaken s, and unlike Titania 1935, laughs heartily when she remembers her dream of the ass. Oberon laughs with her. However, she is shocked when she sees Bottom lying beside her, and screams and clings to Oberon. He laughs, holding her as she cries, but this clip does not show the realization that Oberon had put one over on her. This Titania seeks Oberon for comfort.

Yellow light washes the BBC scene, and instead of the glittering, elaborate costumes of the 1935 version, these fairies are earthy and spare. The directors seem to want to give two very different, distinct impressions: BBC's director portrays the fairies as natural and earthy, while the 1935 director portrays them as magical and heavenly. This is evidenced by the relationships between the two different pairs of Titanias and Oberons. The BBC pair are very sexual and comfortable with their bodies: Oberon kisses Titania's face, Titania clutches Oberon's body for comfort. But the 1935 pair's bond is more paternal. Oberon seems to be a father or God-like figure to Titania instead of a husband. Nothing in the way they touch connotes sexuality.

The staging in the first production holds a camera angle at the level of Oberon and Titania, looking down on Bottom who is still sleeping. This implies that the director wants the audience to perceive the fairies as God-like, looking down at the mortal Bottom, or at least better than Bottom. In the second production, however, Titania sees Bottom while she is still lying next to him as Oberon looks down at both of them. The director here wants the audience to perceive Titania as at the same level as Bottom--foolish. Each director uses the scene of Titania's awakening as a way to show the audience his perception of Titania.

This student production of Act 2, Scene 1 of Midsummer Night's Dream is a way for these students to express their ideas about the play's themes and the characters they are portraying. Although there are no costumes and the actors are not professional, the students still manage to effectively express their conceptions of the play's message.

Director Carrie Farris explains that their scene should show the "real" world and the "green" worlds interacting for the first time. This interaction should depict their thesis that love is inconstant in reality, but "the magic can certainly make it seem like it's here to stay." However crude, the woods in which the students filmed their scene served their purpose; lush and green, the trees give the effect of the "natural" world of the fairies the young lovers Helena and Demetrius have ventured into. The use of the flower to represent the magic of the fairies is also a simple device, but transferring it between the humans and the fairy clearly indicates that there has been contact between them. And by Oberon's words, we know Demetrius is probably in for a heck of a surprise.

Krista Loller's interpretation is that of a whining, clingy Helena who "is willing to do whatever it takes to get him." Loller constantly fondles and touches Grady Cochran's Demetrius, even though he clearly pushes her hands away several times. She even drops to her knees at one point and crawls to him as he tries to get away from her. Her voice is almost annoying, and even though Loller writes that we should see "Helena's deep love for Demetrius and her strong determination to win his favor," her Helena seems more like she's trying to wear him down through sniveling persistence.

Carrie Farris, exhibiting surprisingly good acting talents as Oberon, characterizes the fairy king as playful but sympathetic to Helena's plight of being spurned by Demetrius, the man she loves. Crouching amid the grass, her Oberon watches the goings-on between the two lovers, obviously interested in the humans because they are potential playthings. His sympathy for Helena is demonstrated through him picking up the flower she has discarded when she walks away and saying that she shall get her man. Farris writes that Oberon "really becomes interested in [Helena's] plight when she mentions her own bestial fantasies about being used by Demetrius as his dog." Farris portrays this interest by facial expressions upon hearing the line spoken by Helena. This interest follows along with Farris's characterization of Oberon as "mischievous and fun."

Grady Cochran describes his Demetrius as the "typical 'male dog' stereotype," a man who takes out his frustration on a woman who loves him. Although his is being cruel to Helena, insulting her time and time again, there are moments when he "once again lusts after Helena." Cochran's plan for sometimes holding Helena close and leering at her lustfully comes through clearly in the scene. When he says that he will push Helena away, he really is just unwinding his fingers from hers. Her words disgust him, but he is sexually turned on by the way she touches him and her submission to him. Cochran's estimation of Demetrius being "ruled solely by his sex drive" certainly shows in his portrayal of the young lover: the audience could believe that Cochran's Demetrius would sleep with Helena, giving her false hope, despite his disgust for her.

Although these students and their production are by no means professional, they are still able to effectively portray their evaluations of their characters.

If I were an assistant director in the feminist-American version of Midsummer Night's Dream , I would heighten the racial and sexual conflicts by casting both Oberon and Theseus as Caucasian men and both Titania and the captive Amazon queen Hippolyta as black women. Theseus would symbolize the imperialist-colonial oppression against his "new conquest" the former ruler of her nation, Hippolyta. Similar to the tradition of slavery in American history, I would have Theseus treat Hippolyta as a "feather in his cap," the crowning jewel in his series of conquests. It is one thing to accumulate large amounts of wealth and assets; it is another more oppressive and humiliating sort of "possession" when men force women to marry them against their wills.

The battle between the sexes would also be echoed in other scenes with Titania and Oberon and Egeus and Hermia. I would have the two patriarchal figures, Theseus and Egeus,, speak in a very patronizing, condescending, and domineering tone to Hermia and Hippolyta since they are the "property" of the men (one being a daughter and the other being the new wife). Egeus and Theseus come from the same socio-economic and ethnic background, so they would dress similarly and very elegantly. Since their culture (perhaps antebellum-South) would represent the dominant one in this historic context (18th or 19th Century United States), the set design in the "Athenian" world would look like a porch in a grand Southern mansion on a plantation.

The character of Hippolyta, in this interpretation of the play, would have to express her resistance of male domination and rage while being forced to acclimate to this new dominant culture. Although she is costumed in the Southern-American style (dress and corset as opposed to her native woven fabrics), she can subtly voice her protest by altering the way the American dress looks (by cutting it shorter) and by speaking with with a noticable accent (meaning a resistance to acculturation). In the last act with the presentation of "Pyramus and Thisbe," Hippolyta can further voice her opinions by critiquing the play Thesesus chooses. Her persistant critical observation of the play can suggest her dissatisfaction with romantic tragedies since her own plight is far more tragic than a silly play. As she says in Act Five, "This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard" (5.1.223).