Ryan Reeder
William Shakespeare
English 232:Sec. 400
13 October 1997
In his classic comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare employs various devices to create an ethereal, dreamlike play. This theme is shown at the beginning, the end, and through different manifestations, in numerous parts of the play. Whether a character is actually dreaming, fantastical events are occurring, or dreams are being related to other major elements in the play, Shakespeare weaves for us a story which ends leaving the audience wondering if it was the characters or the audience themselves that had been dreaming.
One principal manifestation of this theme are the constant references to dreams, the moon, moonlight, night, and sleep in the play-each of which is clearly associated with dreams. The opening lines of the play portray Theseus and Hyppolyta using the moon to discuss the proximity of their upcoming marriage. As Hyppolyta says "Four nights will quickly dream away the time/And then the moon, like to a silver bow/ New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night/ Of our solemnities" (I.i.8-10). From this beginning, the references continually surface and resurface. Lysander and Hermia plan to meet "when Phoebe doth behold/ Her silver visage in the watery glass" (I.i.209-210). The guildsmen plan to meet "by moonlight" (I.ii.98). Titania and Oberon are "ill met by moonlight" (II.i.60). Titania asks her fairies to "sing me now asleep" (II.ii.7). The guildsmen wonder whether the moon doth "shine that night we play our play" (III.i.50). Oberon commands Puck to cure the mortals so that "all this derision shall seem a dream and fruitless vision" (III.ii.370-371). Bottom has "an exposition of sleep come upon" him (IV.i.39). Concerning his dream, Bottom could "discourse wonders" to his friends (IV.ii.29). And Pyramus wisely observes that "night. . .ever [is] when day is not" (V.i.171). In addition to these examples, there are at least seventy-four different situations that deal directly with dreams, moons, night, or sleep. The number of specific references number in the hundreds. Why would Shakespeare make so much use of this repetition if not to create some overall theme?
Beyond the mentioning of the words themselves, there are many ways Shakespeare uses dramatic elements to further the idea of dreams. Among these is his characterization of the four Athenian youths, Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena. Although they tend to point out the differences in each other, "she hath made compare between our statures" (III.ii.290-291), they seem to all have the same, vague, flat characterization-the kind typical of characters in dreams.
The plot of the play is filled with fantastical events. Bottom's head being transformed into that of a donkey, Puck's ability to "put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes" (II.i.172-173), fairies, love-potions, changelings, elves, and so forth are all elements of fantasy. These impossible events are things that do not occur in the real world, hence, they must be discovered in other worlds-such as those of fairies or of dreams.
There are more relationships between the fairy-world and the dream-world. The visions of the night terminate with dawn, when sleep flees from the eyes. In the same way, Puck tells us that fairies have a similar curfew-"For fear lest day should look their shames upon/ they wilfully themselves exile from light/ And must for aye consort with black-brow'd night" (III.ii.385-387). Even Oberon, who boasts in reply that "I with the morning's love have oft made sport" (III.ii.389), flies "after night's shade. . .swifter than the wandering moon" (IV.i.96,98) when the "morning lark" (IV.i.94) calls, not to return until the next nightfall. Because of the fairies' morning exile, all the fantastical events take place at night, when fantastical, dream-like events can and do occur.
Another part of the play deals with the many characters who actually do sleep. Titania, Bottom, and the four lovers sleep a total of ten times during the play, with six unusual events occurring as they sleep, as well as one unusual dream. The love potion is administered three times-to Lysander, Demetrius, and Titania. The antidote is administered twice-to Lysander and Titania. Then Bottom awakes "with [his] own fool's eyes" (IV.i.84). When the characters arise, they invariably recall the previous events as "things. . .small and undistinguishable, like far-off mountains turned into clouds" (IV.i.187-188) At the end of the play, the audience is meant to feel the same sensation.
The one unusual dream is interesting to note, because it seems to connect different parts of the plot. After Lysander arises, pursuing Helena, Hermia awakes, crying out for Lysander to "pluck this crawling serpent from [her] breast," which, though it "eat [her] heart away," Lysander "sat smiling at his cruel prey" (II.ii.146,149-150). When she awakes from this nightmare, and finds Lysander removed, she leaves to find him. When she encounters Demetrius, she accuses him of having slain Lysander, adder-like, while he was sleeping (III.ii.70-73). And, as Hermia recalls her dream and applies it to real life, even so is the audience expected to take Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream and apply it, subconsciously perhaps, as Hermia did, to their lives.
Despite the constant references to dreams already mentioned, this theme still takes a backseat to the principal theme in the play. Love. Love is a common theme of most of Shakespeare's comedies, as well as several of his tragedies. However, in this play, Shakespeare relates this theme with that of the dream. Lysander and Hermia, discussing the nature of love, comment that it is "Swift as a shadow, short as any dream," (I.i.144), and that patience is "As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs" (I.i.154). This ephemeral nature of love is displayed throughout the play where, due to the fantastical love-potion and its antidote, one character's love toward another becomes as fleeting as their dreams.
The theme of the dream, then, as has been shown, is an element which runs through and dominates the full length of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It is found in its words. It is found in its characters. It is found in its plot. It is found in its fantasy. It is found in its theme. It is even found in its title. From beginning to end, the dream is there. In Puck's closing comments, he encourages the audience to believe that they "had but slumber'd here/ while these visions did appear./ And this weak and idle theme [referring to the play itself]/ No more yielding but a dream" (V.i.423-426). This comment is effectively placed as the capstone of the play, reminding the audience until the very end of The Dream Theme.
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