Luis Perez

Instructor Kelly

ENGL 441

25 April 2018

A MND In America

The line behind the register is long with people waiting to get their ticket. The audience

gathers in anticipation to sit down to an adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William

Shakespeare. This production, although following the original script, is not taking place in 16 th

century as many would have assumed. The play is still presented to be in Athens; however, it

resembles that of the early 20th century American city of Jackson, Mississippi and it carries the

same patriarchal social norms that were present in both eras. The setting of the woods has also

altered to better fit the meaning behind what the woods represent. Being a distant location full

of foreign beings, people sleeping on the floor, and intoxicative herbs, the woods has been

reimagined as a nightclub where people go to escape the oppressing world back at Athens. The

audience sits as the different settings for both locations explore the hidden themes of sexism

and oppression within Athens, and the life changing experience the characters undergo when

they decide to venture into the completely opposing set that lurks in the nightclub called “The

Woods.”

The first scene opens in Athens, with the same large homes that symbolize the luxurious

lifestyle of the characters that are about to appear. These homes, however, are in the suburbs

of Jackson, Mississippi, with a hostile environment for women living within the city. One of the

larger houses, a gated home with security at the door, is where the first characters are to
appear. The setting focuses on a prestigious-looking living room with an important man in a suit

speaking to his soon to be wife. What unfolds next shows the oppressive state this city is under;

the setting itself has created a world where women are at a disadvantage to the power of men.

A man by the name of Theseus enters, he the mayor of the town. The scene then

presents the patriarchal power that dictates the lives of the women of Athens; from the very

first lines, Theseus is shown to be a power-hungry man who doesn’t see women as people, but

rather as prizes. In the article, “The Soul of Athens: Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s

Dream,” Jan H. Blits explores the idea of how Theseus views marriage as a goal for social status.

In the very first lines of the play, Theseus is mentioning the upcoming marriage between them

and regards the time, “Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour / Draws on apace. Four happy days

bring in / Another moon; but, oh, methinks, how slow / This old man wanes!” (1.1.1-4). It is

obvious that Theseus is growing impatient with time, even though he tries to pull himself off as

being nonchalant: he starts with words such as “happy days” and suddenly change into “how

slow.” This adds to the vibe that men in this setting are impatient and seem to have a custom of

getting things their way. Although he seems to wear his noble image as mayor of Athens, he is

still the sexist man that takes advantage of women. Blits further discuss this, “.despite having

won Hippolyta though conquest, Theseus now awaits his wedding day. In place of rape, he

settles for merriment and mirth...His sexual desire has become civilized or tamed. In sharp

contrast to what we hear of Theseus’s heroic, warrior past, brute force has now given way to

love and law,” (Blits, 20). His sexist ways that exploited women were transformed into the face

of Athenian government and has sealed the liberties of women. Just because he isn’t raping

women on the streets does not mean his oppressive ways towards women has not shifted into
his “way to love and law” as Blits puts it. Theseus would fit perfectly as the mayor of a southern

state in the early 20th century America. He would put on his suit and tie and pretend that

washes away his true sexist identity. In the following interactions Theseus has after talking to

Hippolyta only shows how unchanged of a man Theseus is when it comes to defending the

rights of women. This man is also an authority figure and his awful misogyny is present within

him and the entire city he had authority over.

The following scene presents even more sexism, which show that all the citizens of

Athens are clearly shaped by the setting the mayor contributed in making. A father by the name

of Egeus comes in the scene, complaining to the mayor about his rebellious daughter who had

dared question his male authority. A young Hermia is antagonized for being defiant—for being

a woman with a voice. Even the mayor, the man in charge of maintaining order within his town,

sides with the father, predictably so.

Theseus plainly explains to Hermia the situation she’s in and in doing so, he exposes the

controlling sexism fueled by religious ideology that truly runs Athens. Theseus turns to Hermia

and says, “Be advised, fair maid: / To you your father should be as a god, / One that composed

your beauties, yea, and one / To whom you are but a form in wax” (1.1.46-49). He begins by

referring to Hermia in a derogatory term used to establish male dominance: he calls her fair

maid. He unconsciously reminds Hermia of her place as a woman and although asks for

Hermia’s intake, still manages to firstly explain how things work in Athens when men are in

charge. Theseus immediately raised the value of the father when he compared Egeus to a god

and Hermia as one to worship him in that same respect. This Judeo-Christian belief that man is

made into the blessed image of their god has been the basis for many self-righteous ideologies
present in Athens and in early modern America. Theseus then uses biblical imagery to support

his claim: he uses the common mythical view of the creation of man: Theseus describes Egeus

making his daughter the same way an artist would create a wax doll. In their male privilege

world, the daughters must be forever grateful to their creators, or fathers, because their beauty

and other fair characteristics are all the product of their father’s craftsmanship. To them,

women are products men can claim. “As she is mine,” Egeus hisses as he angrily expresses his

ownership over a woman, “I may dispose of her, / Which shall be either to his gentlemen / Or

to her death, according to our law / Immediately provided in that case” (1.1.42-45). Not only is

this showing blatant sexism, but he is showing the legal right men have under Athenian law.

The amount of privilege men have over women in the early years of 20 th century America were

almost as bad as Athens. My production will have the same men speaking in the same tones to

the female characters to create a parallel between the two settings. The only difference would

be their clothes; the original setting had them wearing renaissance clothing while in my

production they’ll have the style of America in the early 20th century. The sexism embedded in

each setting, however, still remains. Men could sleep with women, marry them, and dictate

their lives, all without their actual consent. For Hermia, it would be no different if she were to

be in an ancient castle in Athens or in an office of a sexist mayor from the south—she'd still fall

victim to the patriarchy.

From the passage, Egeus shows the consequences for Hermia if she were to not follow

his orders. He says how she could be sent “to her death, according to our law” and Theseus

immediately supports Egeus by further telling Hermia what is to happen to her. Theseus claims

the only choices she has are “Either to die the death or to abjure / For ever the society of men”
(1.1.65-66). Theseus basically says she needs to marry the man she is ordered to, or she can’t

marry ever—as says the world ruled by men. She is given the option to become a nun; to

become a woman who gives her sexuality up to the Lord. Theseus then says, “To live a barren

sister all your life, / Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. / Thrice blessed they that

master so their blood / To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;” (1.1.72-75). In this set of lines, the

goddess of chastity, Diana, is referenced when he says, “chanting faint hymns to the cold

fruitless moon.” He is explaining the life Hermia will live as a “barren sister” and even

condescendingly praises women who have “master so their blood” so they can live a life of

female “pilgrimage” or life as a virgin. Theseus uses forms of imagery and symbolism to

establish the innocence that comes from a virgin’s life.He uses descriptive imagery of the

fruitless moon and chanting hymns to say how the lives of women are simple and predictable

seeing as everyone knows what that life would intel. He also uses the symbol of blood as a

representation of all females. Women are the ones that bleed more, and therefore women

have historically had a greater connection to blood—and Theseus uses it against them. He

praises women who can control their blood, much like how men in America believe women can

control their menstrual cycles. The modern production will still include this; the men of Athens

and Jackson will use female anatomical features of women and their status against them--to

exploit their gender fully.

Although this society has been biased towards the favor of men in Athens, even within

men there is a hierarchy that exists with elder men being more dominant, as are family

members. Because Egeus has complete control over his daughter, he can surpass the rights of

any younger lover. For Lysander, it does no good to fall in love with a girl who has a destiny
planned already by the patriarchal head of the family. He and Hermia begin to complain to each

other how ridiculous the social customs are for they are now unable to marry. Hermia begins by

yelling, “Oh, hell! To choose love by another’s eyes” (1.1.140). She is fully aware that Egeus is

choosing a love without considering her decision, or her “eyes.” Lysander then goes on to use a

series of metaphors, similes, and imagery to really emphasize just how much a simple freedom

of choice has been squandered in oppressive America. Lysander says, “if there were a sympathy

in choice, / War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it, / Making it momentary as a sound”

(1.1.141-43). If they were granted the simplest freedom in choice, according to Lysander, even

the natural world would rip it apart. Horrific things such as “war” and “death” would surly

eliminate any chance of choosing one’s destiny. The result would be only a tiny chance at

freedom that comes and goes as quickly “as a sound.” This comparison expresses the

hopelessness that two people have; two people are up against an entire oppressive culture.

Lysander then decides he’s not going to let someone else dictate the love of his life and

therefore conjures up a plan to take Hermia for himself. He tells her of his plan and because she

was in love with him, Lysander knew he could make Hermia do anything for him. He asks

Hermia to elope with him. He tells her of an aunt and how they can run to her home to marry

each other without being oppressed. He proposes, “From Athens is her house remote seven

leagues, / And she respects me as her only son. / There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee, / And

to that place the sharp Athenian law / Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then / Steal forth thy

father’s house tomorrow night, / And in the wood, a league without the town,” (1.1.159-165).

He emotionally manipulates Hermia into going against her father’s wishes, so that his own

wishes can be fulfilled instead. He also makes it clear that this is the only way for Hermia to
show that she loves him; he starts off with “if thou lovest me” followed by a specific command

he wants her to accomplish. Lysander unknowingly shifts the patriarchal power to another man,

while simultaneously making it look like it was for the innocence of love. This passage is also

key in how it uses setting to describe the social grip that only exist within the borders of Athens.

Lysander claims his aunt’s house is “seven leagues” from Athens. A league is used to

measure distance from one place to another. Distance also creates boundaries for laws--seeing

as laws end when the city ends-- and Lysander was all too familiar with this. Lysander knew that

the “sharp Athenian law” had its limits. He used setting to establish the physical limitations of

the patriarchal society. Even just a small house in the middle of nowhere can be untouched by

such an authoritative government. This is also the first time the woods were introduced in the

play. The location of the woods is also of utmost importance when considering how differently

things are ran there. The woods are also separated by a league, or a measurement of distance,

further suggesting that whatever is going to happen within this setting, it won’t mimic the

customs of Athens.

Hermia and Lysander decide to meet up in the woods and found themselves in a

nightclub where many fairies lurk around, governed by the club owners who know how to get

natural herbs that can cause people to act in a strange way. This is a setting unlike anything the

Athenian citizens have been exposed to. Once there, it doesn’t take long for the two lovers to

lose themselves and fall into a love calamity fueled by intoxication that the club owners

bestowed on the young lovers. The club owner, Oberon, notices that there is a negative vibe

coming from within his club. While everyone else is having a good time, he spots a man who
won’t give a girl the time of day. Because the nightclub does not adhere to the same sexist

customs of Athens, the club owner felt sympathy for the woman.

He fetches one of his employees and tells him of what he saw, “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...” (2.2.260-263). The way he refers to the two youths just shows that this man

isn’t as sexist as those who govern Athens. He refers to the young Helena as “A sweet Athenian

lady” and calls the jerk she’s after a “disdainful youth.” The contrast in respect only further

shows the difference in social culture that the nightclub “The Woods” has. Oberon also has his

employee “anoint” the eyes of the young man—anoint him with an intoxicating drug that may

help him fall for Helena. Oberon orders his employee, “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” (2.1.169-172). He is asking his employee to drug a club

go-er with Molly, or pure MDMA, while they’re asleep. The effects of this drug can lead to an

increase in the need for pleasure as Oberon describes it makes you want to get with “the next

live creature” that crosses your path.

“The Woods” is a club in which four individuals go and experience something completely

different from what they were used to in Athens. The characters see and act in ways they

thought were never possible. Because of a mix-up, Lysander also became high with Molly and

began chasing young Helena instead of Hermia. Hermia saw just how much of a sexist pig her

man was after getting a little boost of sexual desire. Being sober, Hermia sees how foolish

Lysander is acting, “Why are you grown so rude? What change is this, / Sweet love?” (3.2.263-

264). To which Lysander angrily responds, “Thy love? Out, tawny Tartar, out! / Out, loathed
medicine! O hated potion, hence!” (3.2.265-256). Lysander ironically refers to the love of his life

as “loathed medicine” or any poisonous drug, without realizing that it is a drug that has caused

him to act so strangely. This is the significance behind the woods as setting. The woods are the

opposite setting of Athens in that they look different and people act as though they aren’t

themselves when they’re in the woods.

It is what Laurel Moffatt, writer of the article “The Woods as Heterotopia in A

Midsummer Night’s Dream,” refers to as “an antithesis.” She agrees that the woods have been

used to escape the oppression back in Athens. However, Moffatt feels as though even though

they are two separate entities, the woods have a larger impact on the play itself, “The woods

are an antithesis of sorts to Athens...as what Michel Foucault terms a heterotopia...The woods

serve as an escape from Athens, yet simultaneously, the woods and the events occurring within

them...have much to do with Athens,” (Moffatt, 182). I do believe that the woods are an

escape, as Moffatt stated, but I argue that this nightclub has proven to be in its own world that

cannot travel back to Athens.

Especially considering the day after the four characters went out for a night out in the

club. The mayor finds the young lovers in the alley behind the club and they are so full of drugs

they don’t even know if the mayor speaking to them was real of a hallucination brought on by

the drug. Demetrius asks, “Are you sure / That we are awake? It seems to me / That yet we

sleep, we dream. Do you not think / The Duke was here and bid us to follow him?” (4.1.109-93).

Even another character, Bottom, who also had a little too much “love potion” found himself

waking up and feeling as though he envisioned some strange things the night before. He

ponders to himself, “...Methought I was—there / is no man can tell what. Methought I was—
and methought / I had—but man is patched a fool if he will offer to say / what methought I

had...” (4.2.204-06). This passage by Bottom is written in prose, almost like a fictional story that

captures the confused thoughts of a man who partied too hard. He announces that anyone

would call him a “fool” if he were to say what he had experienced. This isn’t common among

people who use hard drugs like molly. The drug makes them feel as though they went through a

vivid dream that they forget once they come back to Athens. The woods and Athens are

completely divided.

Ronald F. Miller, writer of “The Fairies, Bottom, and the Mystery of Things” tugs a little

more on the idea of the woods having that dream-like effect and how indefinite the world

within the woods can be. The woods seem to have an impossible charm on people and its grand

power, as Moffatt will agree, seems to leak beyond the physical place as well. Miller states,

“The [club workers] are a continual and unavoidable reminder of certain indefiniteness in the

world of the play—an indefiniteness culminating on the suggestion by the fairy prankster Puck

that the play itself may have only been a dream:” (Miller, 254). He then quotes the lines of

Puck, or the club employee, who is a master at drugging people unbeknownst to them. He can

make anyone trip out on a drug to the point where they think reality has shifted, or that their

perceived reality or “the play itself” is but a dream. Miller and Moffatt both believe that the

woods have a strong effect outside the setting, but Miller feels as though this is more of a

mental thing; accepting that there are indefinite things in this world, as he puts it, will help the

audience realize how much of a change is present within the woods.

The audience has seen the production and have a new take on the perspective of setting

and how that plays into the plot and theme of the whole story. The setting of Athens has
opened a world of oppression and female inferiority; one that can be more understood in early

modern America. The patriarchy that dictates women have been to be alive and thriving in

Athens as well as the south in America during the early 1900’s. The setting of the woods has

also explained further just how dissimilar this place is to Athens and how it poses as the

opposite setting for the oppressive town. Both the nightclub and the sexist, all-American town

fully grasp the reality of what makes both places unique and how they affect the lives of

Athenian citizens.
 Works Cited

Blits, Jan H. The Soul of Athens: Shakespeares A Midsummer Nights Dream. Lexington

Books, 2003.

Miller, R. (1975). A Midsummer Night's Dream: The Fairies, Bottom, and the Mystery of

Things. Shakespeare Quarterly, 26(3), pp.254-268.

Moffatt, Laurel. “The Woods as Heterotopia Ina Midsummer Night's Dream.” Studia

Neophilologica, vol. 76, no. 2, 2004, pp. 182–187., doi:10.1080/00393270410033321.

Shakespeare, W., Greenblatt, S., Cohen, W., Gossett, S., Howard, J.E., Katharine Eisaman

Maus and Mcmullan, G. (2016). The Norton Shakespeare. New York: Norton.