Midsummer Night's Dream
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What’s Up With the Title
The title suggests an atmosphere of fantasy, whimsy, and imagination, which is a pretty accurate description of the magical wood where characters experience events that seem more like a dream than reality. Poor Bottom can't even begin to describe what's happened to him in the wood: "I have had a most rare / vision. I have had a dream past the wit of man to say what / dream it was" (4.1.9).
Shakespeare also knows that, after watching the play, we, the audience, might also experience some uncertainty about the difference between reality and illusion. (This is why Puck invites us to think of the play as a nothing more than a "dream" during the Epilogue. Go to "What's Up With the Ending?" for more about this.)
The title is also pretty obvious shout-out to Midsummer's Eve (June 23), or the summer solstice. Elizabethans would have heard this title and thought "party time!" In Shakespeare's day, Midsummer's Eve was all about celebrating fertility (not just the successful planting and harvesting of crops, but also the kind of fertility associated with dating and marriage). It was an excuse to party outdoors and the holiday involved dancing, drinking, and collecting medicinal herbs. For a lot of partiers, Midsummer's Eve was also supposed to be a time of mystery and magic, when spirits ran around causing mischief, and teenage girls had dreams about the guys they'd eventually fall in love with and marry.
Our point? Shakespeare's title captures the festive vibe of the play and even enacts some of its rituals.
While we're on the subject of festivities, we should point out that Shakespeare also works some May Day festivities into his play. Remember when Theseus stumbles upon the sleeping Athenian youths in Act 4, Scene 1? He thinks they're passed out on the ground because they got up early and went into the wood to "observe / The rite of May" (4.1.3). (Note: The rites of May – games, festivities, etc. – were performed throughout May and June, not just on May 1.) "Maying" involved going into the woods in the early morning to gather up blooming tree branches (for decoration) and putting up "Maypoles" to dance around. In the play, Lysander mentions that he once met Hermia and Helena in the wood to "do observance to a morn of May" (1.1.8). May Day revelers also celebrated with big feasts and even elected a "Lord of Misrule" to preside over the festivities. Check out "Characters: Puck" to learn about how he fits the role of a Lord of Misrule.
When was Midsummer Night's Dream set?
The characters of Theseus and Hippolyta come from Ancient Greek legend, so you'd think that the setting is Mythic Greece. But the way the lovers behave is much more like contemporary England; fairies are an English, not a Greek folktale; Bottom and his pals are clearly English and contemporaneous with Shakespeare. So, in essence the time setting is ambiguous and (if you think about it) pretty much irrelevant. Only the law requiring Hermia to marry the man of her father's choice puts the story clearly in the past (unless, of course you choose to set it in modern India or the Islamic world).
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Where was a midsummer night's dream set?
Answer:
It is supposedly set in Athens, the city in Greece. This is presumably because Theseus is a legendary character in the history of that city. However, nobody behaves like ancient Greeks, and Theseus's title ("Duke") is decidedly not Greek at all. Neither are the names of the "rude mechanicals" which are totally English, or the fairies, who come from English and European mythology. We might consider this to be an Athens of the imagination, an Athens imagined by someone who didn't know very much about the place.
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Midsummer Night's Dream
Introduction
The characters are set in a given space and time. Shakespeare draws his material from a large body of social background, historical facts and myth : let us see the Greek background, the May festivities, and the fairies and spirits.
I – Greek background
The play is set in early Greece, in Athens. It is unexpected as so much of the play seems so typically England. Shakespeare was writing at the time where antiquity was the cultural reference, although the English Renaissance was more and more regarded.
But outside inspiration from Italy and Greece, Ovid, Aristofane, Plato, Aristotle were the early writers who set the norms of literature. Many of Shakespeare’s plays are set in these settings (Romeo and Juliet, Merchant of Venice, The Twelfth Night..).
The Greek setting is a serious frame of reference, which the educated audience would immediately recognize. It also provides a warranty of seriousness and sets a distance from 16th century England : it enables Shakespeare to contemplate his society while distancing it in the past, which was important because playwrights were very dependent on sponsors and political power.
This athenian background represents order and reason, all the more appropriate as it serves to emphasize the fantastic aspect of the forest.The story of Theseus and Hippolyta refers to Plutarch and Ovid. Theseus was famous for his adventures and exploits. He got lost in the labyrinth and was saved by Ariane. He killed the Minotaur, married Hippolyta, deserted her to marry Phedra and raped Helen.
Considering Shakespeare’s views of the myth, the reader is not sure who Hippolyta was. In theory, she represents female power, independence. Amazons were rebels and did not accept male supremacy. Males were considered as procreation objects and the male child was usually got ridden of. The Amazons have usurped masculine power and authority. Hippolyta is a concrete woman, she looks passive : the contrary of an Amazon. She is an example of a dominated woman (dominated by her future husband).
Although admired for his courage, Theseus was known for his betrayal of women 5not an example of fidelity). The play is about fidelity and betrayal (the disorder of love) : Theseus could not be faithful to one woman.
Two fathers : Egeus and Neptune. Association between a mortal and a god. It is said that his birth was the result of a female trick : dangers and complexity of love relationship.
It would be possible to interpret the forest as a labyrinth, it is a place where you can easily get lost.
II – May festivities
Feast days : Christmas, Mayday, Midsummer, harvest time. Some ambiguity about "May" : month but also the hawthorn bush (may pole) which blossoms in May. The golden bough : in May, there was a custom to go out to the wood to cut the maypole and bring the spirits of the tree home. For Shakespeare, there is a tradition of going to the woods and bring back flowers as a sign of fertility, luck, hope and protection. Sexual dimension in this game : "the green gown".
Shakespeare was elaborating on a very famous theme : a night out with a ritual about vegetation, return to nature and celebration of luck.The Queen or King of May are covered with flowers. In the play, Oberon is covered with leaves. The Lord of Misrule, Pluck, upsets the order of the ceremony and plays tricks on participants. His confusion of identity can be seen as a way of upsetting order.
This rite does not necessarily takes place in May : it is also on Midsummer night & day. Shakespeare mixes the rite of May and of Midsummer (although similar). Midsummer eve : 23rd of June. It symbolizes the triumph of light over darkness, the beginning of summer, bonfires. The fire is a protection against witchcraft, cattle diseases, all sort of evil. There are no bonfires in the play.
Notion of turning point : end of spring, beginning of summer, longest day and beginning of shorter days. Midsummer is also associated with magic, spirits would be in the air during that night.
III – Fairies and spirits
The Fairies are part of the Elizabethan folk culture. Most people believed that they did exist (especially lower classes). As for their size, we tend to imagine small spirits ; the problem is Titania’s size : she is large enough to be able to hold Bottom in her arms. They have the power of curing most diseases using plants but occasionally they could also do harm.
"They step out of a tradition of infernal connections and dark deeds".Oberon has been taken out of a Huon de Bordeaux, Titania from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (derived from Diana, connected with the moon).Robin Goodfellow (Puck) : in fact Pouke, meaning devil or demon. Puck belongs to a different background from Oberon and Titania : p.37, we learn that he is half animal and half human, with hoofs and arms like the devil, pointed ears and a mischievous look. Yet, he has a neat beard and a benevolent face (opp. to devil). Creatures resembling witches are dancing around him. He has got a huge penis : connection with life. He holds a broom in his left hand : Puck was known to do housework at night.
l.378 : "Not a mouse
Shall disturb this hollowed house
I am sent with broom before
To sweep the dust behind the door".
Puck is half devil, famous for his tricks and pranks. Act II, sc.1 : mischievous but at the same time : "they shall have good luck".
Puck’s ambiguity is remarkable, he has a power of transformation.
Very rich background of myth and folklore that Shakespeare borrowed and re-arranged in the play. It is not gratuitous for it adds up depth in the text. It also adds the fairy dimension, the mystery of a transcendent reality.
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