A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999 film & play)

SUMMARY (of the play)

William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is made up of several interlocking

plotlines, particularly the convoluted love story of Hermia, Helena, Lysander, and Demetrius,
and the disagreement between the fairy king Oberon and his queen Titania. Connecting these
two storylines is Puck, Oberon’s mischievous fairy jester, who drives much of the action of the
play. The frame narrative of Theseus’ marriage to Hippolyta in Athens is important, as its
orderliness provides a contrast to the chaotic forest where magic reigns and the expected is
constantly subverted.

Act I

The play begins in Athens, where King Theseus celebrates his upcoming marriage to
Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons, which will take place in four days under the new moon.
Egeus enters with Hermia, Demetrius, and Lysander; he explains that he has arranged for
Hermia to wed Demetrius, but she has refused, citing her love for Lysander. For this reason,
Egeus beseeches Theseus to invoke the Athenian law that a daughter must obey her father’s
choice of husband or else face death. Theseus tells Hermia she can either choose to marry
Demetrius, be put to death, or enter into a convent; she has until his wedding to decide. When
Hermia and Lysander are left alone with Hermia’s childhood friend Helena, they tell her about
their plan to elope. Helena, whom Demetrius had once loved but abandoned in favor of
Hermia, decides to tell Demetrius their plan. If he goes after them to stop their elopement and
she follows him, perhaps she will be able to win him back.

We also are introduced to a group of craftsmen who know nothing of acting but are
nonetheless rehearsing a play they hope to put on for Theseus’ upcoming wedding. They
decide on what they call The Most Lamentable Comedy and Cruel Death of Pyramus and
Thisbe.

Act II

Robin Goodfellow, known as Puck, meets a fellow fairy servant in the woods. He warns him to
keep Oberon away from Titania, as the two are fighting; Titania, newly returned from India,
has adopted a young Indian prince, and Oberon wants the beautiful boy as his own
manservant. The two fairy monarchs enter and begin to argue. Oberon demands the boy;
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Titania refuses. When she exits, Oberon asks Puck to find a magic herb called love-in-idleness
that, if spread on a sleeper’s eyes, will cause them to fall in love with the first person they see.
Puck will use this juice on Titania so she falls shamefully in love with a ridiculous animal, and
then Oberon can refuse to lift the curse until she gives up the boy.

Puck goes to find the flower, and Demetrius and Helena enter. Hidden, Oberon watches as
Demetrius insults Helena and curses Lysander and Hermia. Helena proclaims her
unconditional love but Demetrius rebuffs her. After their exit, Oberon, moved by Helena’s love,
orders Puck first to put some juice on Demetrius’ eyes so he will fall in love with her. He tells
him that the man in question will be identifiable by his Athenian clothing.

Oberon finds Titania sleeping on the bank and he squeezes the juice onto her eyes. After they
exit, Lysander and Hermia appear, lost. They decide to sleep in the forest, and the maidenly
Hermia asks Lysander to sleep at a distance from her. Puck enters and mistakes Lysander for
Demetrius, judging from his clothing and his distance from the lady. Puck puts the juice on his
eyes and departs. Demetrius enters, still trying to lose Helena, and abandons her. She wakes
up Lysander and he falls in love with her. Assuming his advances are meant mockingly, she
exits, offended. Lysander runs after her, and Hermia wakes up, wondering where Lysander
has gone.

Act III

The players are rehearsing Pyramus and Thisbe. Puck watches on in amusement, and when
Bottom steps out of the group, Puck playfully changes his head into that of an ass. When
Bottom reenters, the other craftsmen run away in terror. Nearby, Titania awakens, sees
Bottom, and falls deeply in love with him. Bottom is totally unaware of his changed
appearance, and accepts Titania’s affections.

Puck and Oberon delight in the success of their plan. But when Hermia and Demetrius enter,
having stumbled across each other, the fairies are surprised at her antipathy towards him, and
realize their mistake. Hermia, meanwhile, grills Demetrius for Lysander’s whereabouts.
Jealous of her affection for him, he tells her he does not know; Hermia gets angry and storms
off; Demetrius decides to sleep.

Oberon applies the juice to Demetrius' eyes, hoping to fix the mistake, and Puck leads in
Helena, who is followed by a fawning Lysander. When Demetrius awakens, he also falls in love
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with Helena. Both men ply her with affections, but she thinks they are mocking her and
refuses them. Hermia reenters, having heard Lysander at a distance, and is stunned to see that
they now both love Helena. Helena scolds her for teasing her, while Lysander and Demetrius
ready themselves to duel over Helena’s love. Hermia wonders if it is because Helena is tall and
she is short that Helena is suddenly so beloved. Furious, she attacks Helena; Demetrius and
Lysander vow to protect her, but exit to have their own duel. Helena runs away, and Hermia is
left to voice her amazement at the suddenly inverted situation.

Puck is sent to keep Lysander and Demetrius from dueling, leading the men apart so each
becomes hopelessly lost. Eventually, all four Athenian youths wander back into the glade and
fall asleep. Puck puts the love potion onto Lysander’s eyes: in the morning, his mistake will be
corrected.

Act IV

Titania dotes on Bottom and falls asleep with him in her arms. Oberon and Puck enter, and
Oberon recounts how earlier he taunted Titania about her love for the donkey, and promised
to undo the spell if she gave up the Indian prince. She agreed, and so now Oberon reverses the
spell. Titania wakes up and is amazed to see Bottom in her arms. Oberon calls for music and
takes her to dance, while Puck cures Bottom of his donkey head.

Theseus, Hippolyta, and Egeus find the youths sleeping in the wood and wake them up. To the
four of them, the events of the last night seem like a dream. However, Demetrius is now in love
with Helena, and Lysander once again with Hermia. Theseus tells them they shall all head to
the temple for a wedding feast. As they exit, Bottom wakes up and recalls his own fairy dream.

The players sit and voice their remorse about losing Bottom, wondering who will play
Pyramus in their play. Snug enters with the news that Theseus has gotten married, alongside
the pair of lovers, and the newlyweds want to see a play. Luckily, at that moment Bottom
returns, and the gang gets ready for their performance.

Act V

The group of newlyweds is gathered at Theseus’ palace. They are read a list of plays and
Theseus settles on Pyramus and Thisbe, suggesting that although it may be poorly reviewed, if
the craftsmen are simple and dutiful there will be something good in the play. They take their
seats.
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The players enter and begin an awkward and stuttering performance. They have two players
act as a Wall and as Moonshine, which elicits laughter from the audience. Snug enters as a lion
threatening Thisbe and roars, though he reminds the ladies of the audience that he is not a
real lion so as not to frighten them too much. Thisbe runs offstage, and Snug the lion tears her
mantle. Pyramus, acted as Bottom, finds the bloody mantle and commits suicide, with an over
the top “Die, die, die, die, die.” When Thisbe returns to find her dead lover, she also kills
herself. Their performance of Pyramus and Thisbe ends with a dance and much hilarity.

Oberon and Titania enter to bless the palace. They take their leave and Puck gives the closing
remarks to the audience. He says that if the events have offended, the audience should think of
it just as a dream. He asks for applause, and then exits.

FILM ANALYSIS I:

“A Mid summer Night’s Dream” is another entry into Shakespeare’s recent rebirth on film.
Michael Hoffman’s film dose not stay true to the text, but he must take liberties to allow for
this classic story to be entertaining to today’s audience. In this essay I will discuss the
differences between the text vision and the film vision of this story from the historical setting,
the time placement, Hoffman’s personal adaptations, and finally Hoffman’s character
adaptations. In Michael Hoffman’s film of “William Shakespeare’s a Midsummer Night’s
Dream,” Hoffman has made some changes to the location and historical aspects of the play.

Shakespeare drew upon classical mythology, English literature, English folklore and
contemporary English life. So Hoffman had to try his best to update it to today’s views on
mythology, folklore, and life. Hoffman’s film is set in Italy, instead of Greece like in the text.
Hoffman may have chosen Italy instead of Greece, because Italy overall has a universal
romantic feel to it. Also Hoffman may have chosen Italy because it is much more well know to
the general moviegoers. Unlike today, in Shakespeare’s time Greece was the center of classical
history, and would be know to most of the people of his day.

Hoffman did include a Greek theme when he invented the town of Monte Athena located in
Tuscany. The town is made-up but still connects the text with Hoffman’s film. For the parts of
the movie that would be filmed in the woods, they had the filming done indoors at a studio.
They would need room to maneuver people and cameras, so the real outdoors would not do.
The director would not have to deal with the weather, or having enough sun light. Also the
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indoor setting in allowed the fairies to observe the morals, in a believable setting. So now that
I have show you the setting of the film, let me show you how time was a factor in Hoffman film.

In Michael Hoffman’s film the play took place in the turn of the century. Telling the story using
the costumes of Shakespeare’s day would have alienated the viewer of the film. Also modern
clothes would jar the mood, so the actors were costumed in clothes of the 1900’s. The turn of
the century was far enough back to support romance views yet close enough so that the suits
and dresses looked something like our clothes, and would feel “comfortable” to us. Unlike
other films that copied the plot of Shakespeare’s work, but did not use Shakespearean
language.

For example, the film “10 things I hate about you” that is a modern version of Shakespeare’s
“Taming of the Shrews. ” Hoffman’s film follows the Shakespearean format, just like the last
few Shakespearean films: Othello, Much Ado about Nothing, etc. In a historical context it was
the middle of the suffrage movement. So the woman of the time were more independent then
in Shakespeare’s day. Also in Michael Hoffman’s film the used bicycles as a form of
transporting. The bicycle was a new invention that would allow anyone the freedom of
movement. It was a liberating experience that was expressed by the main charters in the film.

So now that I have shown you how time was a factor in Hoffman’s film. Let me show you how
Hoffman adapted the play to his liking. In Michael Hoffman’s adaptation of the play many of
the long speeches were shortened or left out. It is possible that Hoffman had to get the film in
a two-hour time frame that most modern film fit into. Any longer and filmgoers would get
bored, and restless. Usually large audiences see ether the film version or the stage version of
“A Mid Summer Night Dream. “While the film is seen on the screen, the play is seen in real
time, live.

Although in the feel version Hoffman had the ability to use special effects to display he view on
how the magic would look like, instead of walking off stage. Hoffman added a character of Nick
Bottom’s wife. She had only a few lines, in which all were in Italian. Also Nick Bottom’s wife
was looking for her no good husband in the beginning of the film, while Bottom was trying to
be covert, and not be seen by her. I Hoffman possible added this character so have a conflict
between Bottom and his wife, so when Titania falls in love with Bottom, there would be a
cause of the “affair. In Hoffman’s film, when Bottom was transformed in to the ass.
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Instead of putting a mask on Bottom, like in many plays had the ears, hair, and a few other
changes so that you could still tell that it was Kline. Possibly Hoffman thought it would be
good to have an n attractive figure of a man as Titania’s lover, even with an ass’s head. Also
Kline was the perfect candidate to play Bottom. Other than Kline and the actor who played
Oberon, all the other the players in the film seem to be struggling to say the Shakespearean
lines.

So Hoffman instead of using classically trained actors, he allowed these stars like Calista
Flockhart, Anna Friel, and Christian Bale to be in the film, too possibly to gain ticket sales. So
now I have show you how Hoffman adapted his film from the play, let me talk about how he
changed, and added characters into the play. In Hoffman’s film an older man plays Puck. In the
play Puck has been played as a mischievous young child. It is possible that Hoffman did this so
at the end of the play when Puck has his last statement for the audience, the audience will be
more conformable with an older adult, than a young child.

Also Hoffman may have had the belief that the fairies are immoral, so how old someone looks
isn’t important. Hoffman also incorporated the fairies into the film as secretive beings that live
among use, but we do not notice them. Right at the beginning of the film, you can see these
little people stealing everyday objects. They take the objects back to the fairy world, as
wonders of the outside world. Hoffman possibly uses these film moments as a way to
incorporate the faries into the real world, so the view will not just have these fairies pop out of
no were in the film. At the end of the film the fairies go around and bless the wedding.

After the blessing one of the fairies who I believe it is Titania visits Bottom. It may be a way for
Titania to say good bye, and that she stills has a place for him in her heart. Michael Hoffman’s
film is a well done film, but is not in the class of great Shakespearean films like Kenneth
Branagh’s Henry V, Richard III, and Much Ado About Nothing. Branagh who has made
Shakespearean works accessible to a wider audience. Hoffman has made to many changes to
this classic. Although it is a well-done movie, to the die-hard Shakespearean faithful, it would
be to their best interest to see it done on a stage.

FILM ANALYSIS II:

Michael Hoffman's 1999 film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream transports the drama's
action from ancient Athens to an imaginary Italian village named Monte Athena at the turn of
the nineteenth century. In this rendition of the play, Duke Theseus isn't a conquering hero but
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a tired and seemingly ineffectual bureaucrat. Similarly, Hippolyta, his bride-to-be, isn't the
powerful Queen of the Amazons, but a bland, yet beautiful, Victorian feminist. In transporting
the play's action, Hoffman seems to have erased the drama's magic and vibrancy, leaving an
insipid film, overloaded with Victorian gadgetry. As the film's opening narrative announces,
bustles are out and bicycles are in; thus, the lovers chase each other madly through the woods
on bicycles, their tooting horns providing a constant, jarring racket to the performance. Even
the boisterous Bottom, the errant weaver, and the magical fairy kingdom have lost their
charm. This film rips away the drama's magical, gossamer wings, leaving a dull, earthbound
husk in their place.

Somehow this version of the play manages to disperse even Bottom's free flowing exuberance.
While Shakespeare's Bottom is a bluff, self-assured, and good-hearted clown, Hoffman
presents a self-conscious, easily disappointed Bottom. Kevin Kline's rendition of this working-
class character seems out-of-place with his fellow working men when he arrives on the scene
in a three-piece suit — gone is Bottom's sensual, down-to-earth appeal. In a scene added by
Hoffman, a group of boisterous young men pour wine over Bottom as he does an impromptu
performance on the street; Kline's Bottom is humiliated, rendered a laughing stock among his
village folk in a self-conscious manner that doesn't fit with the play's more complex
presentation of Bottom. Another odd addition to the play is Bottom's wife. This shrewish
woman judgmentally watches her husband as he performs for the crowds and disgustedly
dismisses her husband following the scene in which he is drenched with wine. Once again,
Hoffman creates an angst-ridden Bottom whose character does not reflect the original text.

Similarly, Hoffman's rendition of the fairy realm negates its mirth and good humor. Rather
than the free-spirited lovers of life presented in the text, the fairies in the film are sniveling,
petty, irritable party animals. This is especially true of Puck who has been transformed from a
boyish charmer into a crass, middle-aged lounge lizard who revels in peeing in the woods
after drinking too much wine. Similarly, Titania loses much of her psychological complexity in
the film. The text emphasizes that the strong bonds of an ancient female friendship keep
Titania from relinquishing the Indian boy — she wants to care for a dead friend's son —
providing a link with the other female characters in the play, whose lives are also marked by
strong friendships: Hermia and Helena are like "double cherries" on a single stem; and
Hippolyta was once the leader of the Amazons, an all-female society. Hoffman eradicates this
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emphasis on female friendship, presenting Titania as a selfish and shrewish wife, bent on
keeping the Indian boy mainly to spite Oberon.

The effect of Hoffman's changes is that the drama has lost the magic, the mystery, the mayhem
of Shakespeare's original conception. Why? Movie critics agree that Hoffman missed the boat
in one essential way: He didn't trust Shakespeare. Rather than allowing the language and story
of the play to shine, he instead cluttered the performance with gimmicks and gadgets. Rather
than letting Shakespeare's original tale tell itself, Hoffman adds scenes that add little to the
play's exuberance. A key example is the mud-wrestling bout between Hermia and Helena; one
trenchant critic wonders where Jerry Springer is with his whistle at this low point in the
performance.

The film also fails because of its inconsistency. Many critics have noted the disparity of the
acting styles within the film. A collage of American, English, and French actors, of TV stars and
Shakespeareans, the variety of performance styles doesn't add up. Michelle Pfeiffer's rendition
of Titania has been deemed cardboard, and many critics question her ability to deliver
Shakespearean lines effectively. Even the talented Kevin Kline seems miscast as Bottom, often
over performing his role, as is Rupert Everett as Oberon. The obvious clumsiness of their
performances opens a critical door for the audience: Who would we cast instead in these
roles? How do the director's choices match or clash with ours?

In fact these questions lead us to the film's one saving grace: It forces us to think more
carefully about Shakespeare's original artistic conception. Has switching the setting from
Athens to Italy enhanced our understanding of the play? Or have we lost the rich mythological
resonance Shakespeare created by locating his play in Greece? Does the play's action make
sense when placed in the nineteenth century; for example, does it seem plausible that Hermia
would still be sentenced to death for disobedience to her father? Many of the film's choices
don't seem sensible or coherent, but they make us painfully aware of the richness, the unity,
the magic of Shakespeare's original text. By analyzing the details of this modern performance
of the play, Shakespeare's mastery and magnetism become vividly apparent.

THEMES:

Love
 A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999 film & play)
The dominant theme in A Midsummer Night's Dream is love, a subject to which Shakespeare
returns constantly in his comedies. Shakespeare explores how people tend to fall in love with
those who appear beautiful to them. People we think we love at one time in our lives can later
seem not only unattractive but even repellent. For a time, this attraction to beauty might
appear to be love at its most intense, but one of the ideas of the play is that real love is much
more than mere physical attraction.

At one level, the story of the four young Athenians asserts that although "The course of true
love never did run smooth," true love triumphs in the end, bringing happiness and harmony.
At another level, however, the audience is forced to consider what an apparently irrational
and whimsical thing love is, at least when experienced between youngsters.

Marriage

A Midsummer Night's Dream asserts marriage as the true fulfillment of romantic love. All the
damaged relationships have been sorted out at the end of Act IV, and Act V serves to celebrate
the whole idea of marriage in a spirit of festive happiness.

The triple wedding at the end of Act IV marks the formal resolution of the romantic problems
that have beset the two young couples from the beginning, when Egeus attempted to force his
daughter to marry the man he had chosen to be her husband.

The mature and stable love of Theseus and Hippolyta is contrasted with the relationship of
Oberon and Titania, whose squabbling has such a negative impact on the world around them.
Only when the marriage of the fairy King and Queen is put right can there be peace in their
kingdom and the world beyond it.

Appearance and Reality

Another of the play's main themes is one to which Shakespeare returns to again and again in
his work: the difference between appearance and reality. The idea that things are not
necessarily what they seem to be is at the heart of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and in the
very title itself.

A dream is not real, even though it seems so at the time we experience it. Shakespeare
consciously creates the plays' dreamlike quality in a number of ways. Characters frequently
fall asleep and wake having dreamed ("Methought a serpent ate my heart away"); having had
magic worked upon them so that they are in a dreamlike state; or thinking that they have
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dreamed ("I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was"). Much of the
play takes place at night, and there are references to moonlight, which changes the
appearance of what it illuminates.

The difference between appearances and reality is also explored through the play-within-a-
play, to particularly comic effect. The "rude mechanicals" completely fail to understand the
magic of the theatre, which depends upon the audience being allowed to believe (for a time, at
least) that what is being acted out in front of them is real.

When Snug the Joiner tells the stage audience that he is not really a lion and that they must
not be afraid of him, we (and they) laugh at this stupidity, but we also laugh at ourselves — for
we know that he is not just a joiner pretending to be a lion, but an actor pretending to be a
joiner pretending to be a lion. Shakespeare seems to be saying, "We all know that this play
isn't real, but you're still sitting there and believing it." That is a kind of magic too.

Order and Disorder

A Midsummer Night's Dream also deals with the theme of order and disorder. The order of
Egeus' family is threatened because his daughter wishes to marry against his will; the social
order to the state demands that a father's will should be enforced. When the city dwellers find
themselves in the wood, away from their ordered and hierarchical society, order breaks down
and relationships are fragmented. But this is comedy, and relationships are more happily
rebuilt in the free atmosphere of the wood before the characters return to society.

Natural order — the order of Nature — is also broken and restored in A Midsummer Night's
Dream. The row between the Fairy King and Queen results in the order of the seasons being
disrupted:

The spring, the summer,

The chiding autumn, angry winter change

Their wonted liveries, and the mazèd world

By their increase knows not which is which.

Only after Oberon and Titania's reconciliation can all this be put right. Without the restoration
of natural order, the happiness of the play's ending could not be complete.

Challenging of Gender Roles, Female Disobedience

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The women of the play offer a consistent challenge to male authority. A popular idea at the
time of the play’s writing was that of the “Great Chain of Being,” which outlined the world’s
hierarchy: God ruled over men, who had power over women, who were superior to beasts,
and so on. While we see with the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta the preservation of this
hierarchy, particularly despite Hippolyta’s mythical status as empowered Amazon queen, the
very first scene shows another woman going against this hierarchy. After all, Hermia’s
commitment to Lysander is in direct contradiction of her father’s desires. In the same vein,
Titania explicitly disobeys her husband in refusing his order to hand over the changeling boy.
Helena, meanwhile, is perhaps one of the most interesting women in the play. She attributes
her cowardly and demure nature to her femininity, chastising Demetrius: "Your wrongs do set
a scandal on my sex; / We cannot fight for love, as men may do" (II, i). She does, however, still
pursue Demetrius, rather than the other way around. Although she does not win him through
her pursuit explicitly, Oberon sends Puck to enchant Demetrius with the love potion once he
witnesses her display of love. While her power must still be channeled through a male source,
Helena ultimately gets what she wants.

MAJOR SYMBOLS AND MOTIFS

THE MOON

The dominant imagery in A Midsummer Night's Dream revolves around the moon and
moonlight. The word moon occurs three times in the play's first nine lines of the play, the last
of these three references in a most striking visual image: "the moon, like to a silver bow / New
bent in heaven." One reason for repeating such images is to create the atmosphere of night.

Shakespeare's plays were mostly performed by daylight, and he had to create the idea of
darkness or half-light in the imagination of his audience — there where no lights to turn off or
to dim. In addition, these repeated moon references work upon the audience by creating a
dreamlike atmosphere. Familiar things look different by moonlight; they are seen quite
literally in a different light.

The moon itself is also a reminder of the passage of time, and that all things — like its phases
— must change. The more educated people in Shakespeare's audience would have also
understood the mythological significance of the moon. The moon-goddesses Luna and Diana
were associated with chastity on the one hand and fertility on the other; two qualities that are
united in faithful marriage, which the play celebrates.
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ANIMALS

Animal images also appear many times in the play, reminding us of the wildness of the woods
in which most of the play's action takes place, where an unaccompanied female would be at
"the mercy of wild beasts" in a setting where "the wolf behowls the moon." But this is a
comedy; these dangers are not really threatening. The animal references are stylized and
conventional. The only physical animals encountered by the characters (apart from
Starveling's dog) are the less-than-half-ass Nick Bottom and the totally artificial Lion played
by Snug.

The animal references are included in the many images of the natural world that are
associated with the fairy kingdom. These details emphasize the pretty delicacy of the fairies
themselves and make the wood seem more real in the imagination of the audience. Oberon's "I
know a bank" speech in Act II, Scene I is just one example of this.

SEEING

A Midsummer Night's Dream also contains many references to seeing, eyes, and eyesight.
These images serve a double purpose. The repetition reminds the audience of the difference
between how things look and what they are, (reinforcing the theme of appearance vs. reality),
and that love is blind and beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

IMAGERY

MOON

With four separate plots and four sets of characters, A Midsummer Night's Dream risks
fragmentation. Yet Shakespeare has managed to create a unified play through repetition of
common themes — such as love — and through cohesive use of imagery. Shining throughout
the play, the moon is one of the primary vehicles of unity. In her inconstancy, the moon is an
apt figure of the ever-changing, varied modes of love represented in the drama. As an image,
the moon lights the way for all four groups of characters.

The play opens with Theseus and Hippolyta planning their wedding festivities under a moon
slowly changing into her new phase — too slowly for Theseus. Like a dowager preventing him
from gaining his fortune, the old moon is a crone who keeps Theseus from the bounty of his
wedding day. Theseus implicitly invokes Hecate, the moon in her dark phase, the ruler of the
Underworld associated with magic, mysticism, even death. This dark aspect of the moon will
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guide the lovers as they venture outside of the safe boundaries of Athens and into the
dangerous, unpredictable world of the forest.

In this same scene, Hippolyta invokes a very different phase of the moon. Rather than the dark
moon mourned by Theseus, Hippolyta imagines the moon moving quickly into her new phase,
like a silver bow, bent in heaven. From stepmother, the moon is transformed in the course of a
few lines into the image of fruitful union contained in the "silver bow," an implicit reference
also to Cupid's arrow, which draws lovers together. Utilizing the imagery of the silver bow,
Hippolyta invokes Diana, the virgin huntress who is the guardian spirit of the adolescent
moon. In this guise, the moon is the patroness of all young lovers, fresh and innocent, just
beginning their journey through life. This new, slender moon, though, won't last; instead, like
life itself, she will move into her full maturity, into a ripe, fertile state, just as the marriages of
the young lovers will grow, eventually resulting in children.

Later in the same act, the moon alters once again, returning to her role as Diana, the chaste
goddess of the hunt. Theseus declares that if Hermia does not marry Demetrius as her father
wishes, she will live a barren life, "[c]hanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon" (73).
Hermia has until the next new moon to make her decision, so the new moon becomes both a
symbol of Theseus and Hippolyta's happy union and of Hermia's potential withered life as a
nun (or even a corpse), if she does not comply with her father's whim. In a play that celebrates
love, marriage, and fertility, the chaste moon is not a welcome image. Therefore, Theseus
urges Hermia to marry Demetrius, her father's choice of a husband, rather than spending a
barren life in a convent. By the end of the scene, the moon presents herself in another guise: as
Phoebe, the queen of moonlit forests. In this role, her "silver visage" will both light and conceal
the flight of Lysander and Hermia, as they seek a happy and productive life away from the
severe authority of Athens. As the play progresses, the moon will continue her
transformations, accompanying all of the characters through their magical sojourns.

Guiding Theseus and Hippolyta as they prepare for their wedding, the moon also shines over
the quarreling Oberon and Titania, who seek a way to patch up their failing marriage. As
Oberon says when he first sees Titania, they are "ill met by moonlight." Notice how the fairy
world is directly connected with the cycles of the moon: As "governess of the floods" (103),
the moon, which is pale in anger because of Titania and Oberon's argument, has indirectly
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caused numerous human illnesses. And Titania invokes a weaker, more passive and "watery"
moon that weeps along with the flowers at any violated chastity.

On a more comical level, moonshine is also relevant to the players. As they prepare their
performance of "Pyramus and Thisbe," which is also drenched in moonlight, they wonder how
they will manage to represent the moon. Bottom has the brilliant idea of leaving a window
open during the performance so that the moon can shine in. Quince doesn't like the potential
dangers of this natural solution — what if it's an overcast night — and suggests, instead, that
one of the actors personify Moonshine by wearing a bush of thorns and carrying a lantern.
Thus, Robin Starveling appears in the final act of the play as the Man-in-the-Moon, showing
Shakespeare's dexterity in playing with all of the cultural representations that coalesce
around a single image: From slender, virgin huntress to full, ripe mother to dark, mysterious
crone to comical man-in-the moon, Shakespeare represents the moon in its full complexity.

Most of Shakespeare's images have similarly multiple layers of significance: Their relevance
changes with their context, so no image maps simplistically onto a single meaning. Despite the
multivalent meanings of the moon in this play, it is still a vehicle for unity, shining on all four
groups of characters as they transform themselves in the course of the drama. Drenched in
moonlight, this drama is aligned with Hecate's mystical, underworld visions; with the chaste,
huntress Diana; and with Phoebe's rich fertility. But it is also aligned with the more comical,
folkloric image of the man-in-the-moon, who, in the guise of Robin Starveling the tailor, lights
the action of "Pyramus and Thisbe." Part of Shakespeare's skill as a playwright was in skillfully
representing all aspects of a potent cultural icon, without destroying the unity of his carefully
wrought artistic creation.

IMAGINING LOVE

Exciting and new, or even tedious and worn-out, love in all its variations is presented in A
Midsummer Night's Dream. But what is love? What causes us to fall in love? How does love
relate to the world of law and reason? These questions are broached in all their complexity in
Shakespeare's midsummer dream. Love is the primary concern of the play, which begins as
Theseus and Hippolyta prepare for their upcoming wedding, but the picture painted of love is
not necessarily romantic. Instead, the play shows the arbitrariness of desire, along with its
depth, the sighs and tears that often make lovers miserable.
 A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999 film & play)
As Lysander tells Hermia, the course of true love never did run smooth. Often swift, short, and
brief, love is besieged by class differences, by age differences, by war, by death, and by
sickness. Helena's love is plagued by a different demon: indifference. The more ardently she
loves Demetrius, the more thoroughly he hates her. And there seems to be no reason for his
disdain: She is as beautiful as Hermia, as wealthy, as similar to Hermia as "double cherries" on
a single stem. Helena's meditations present love in its guise as the childish, blindfolded Cupid,
a constantly repeated image in this dream, who playfully transforms the vile into something
pure and dignified. The image of blind Cupid is repeated when Titania falls in love with
Bottom, the ass. Oberon's love-potion works much as Cupid's arrows are reputed to do: by
impairing vision. The juice charms Titania's sight, so she is unable to see her lover for what he
really is.

Love's arbitrary, irrational nature is the subject of one of Theseus' speeches. In Act V, he
famously creates a connection between the imaginations of lovers, lunatics, and poets: All
three see beyond the limitation of "cool reason," and all are beset by fantasies. While the
lunatic's imagination makes heaven into a hell, the lover shapes beauty in the ugliest face. The
poet, meanwhile, creates entire worlds from the "airy nothing" of imagination. In Theseus'
opinion, all of these fantasies lack the stamp of truth; does this mean Theseus' love for
Hippolyta is equally specious? The Duke would probably say no — without reasons or
evidence to back up his claim — but his comments lead us deeper into the question of what
constitutes love. If his love for Hippolyta is based on seemingly clear vision, what has caused
him to fall in love with her rather than with someone else? A deep understanding of her
personality? A reverence for her compassion or her kindness? The play doesn't tell us, but its
overall logic suggests a loud "no" to both questions. In this drama, love is based entirely upon
looks, upon attractiveness, or upon the love-potion that charms the eyes. Thus, for example,
Hermia accounts for Lysander's surprising loss of affection by assessing her height; she is
shorter and, therefore, less appealing than Helena. Like too many teenage girls in
contemporary society, Hermia is plagued by doubts about her desirability. It's not surprising
that body image is such a vexing issue in Western society when love is so often based on
appearance, rather than essence.

Even when love is mutual and seemingly based in clear vision, it is often hampered by family
disapproval. For Lysander and Hermia, love is marred by her father's desire for her to marry
Demetrius. The law is on Egeus' side. All of the relationships in the play, but this one in
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particular, emphasize the conflict of love and law. The "ancient privilege of Athens" allows
Egeus to "dispose" of his daughter as he wishes; she is his property, so he can "estate" her to
anyone. His words show the violence that often supports law and points out a discord within
the seeming concord of love (to paraphrase a saying of Theseus' in Act V). According to
Theseus' edict, Hermia needs to fit her "fancies" to her father's "will" (I.1, 118), suggesting that
Hermia's love needs to be combated by her father's authority; otherwise, the law of Athens
will sacrifice her on the pyre of reason.

Yet, as noted earlier, her father's choice of Demetrius seems as fanciful and arbitrary as
Hermia's choice of Lysander. Although Theseus is less willing than Theseus is to condemn
Hermia to death or to celibacy, Theseus is guilty of linking violence and love: He wooed
Hippolyta with a sword and won her love by "doing her injuries." Although Hippolyta seems
subdued, even passive, in the play, the violence that led to their love is a constant presence.
This play's representation of love is not the saccharine view presented in many modern love
ballads; instead, Shakespeare returns us to our animal natures, displaying the primitive,
bestial, and often violent side of human desire.

As Bottom astutely notes, reason and love keep little company with one another. The
characters in this drama attempt to find a way to understand the workings of love in a rational
way, yet their failures emphasize the difficulty of this endeavor. Shakespeare seems to suggest
that a love potion, even though seemingly crazy, is a better way to explain the mysterious
workings of sexual attraction than is common sense: Love and reason will never be friends.
Nor will love ever be a controllable addiction. What fools mortals be, Puck philosophizes. And
perhaps we are fools for entering into the dangerous, unpredictable world of love; yet what
fun would life be without it?

CHARACTER ANALYSIS:

In William Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, characters make countless

failed attempts to control fate. Many of the male characters, including Egeus, Oberon, and
Theseus, are insecure and characterized by a need for female obedience. The female
characters also display insecurity, but resist obeying their male counterparts. These
differences emphasize the play's central theme of order versus chaos.

Hermia
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Hermia is a feisty, confident young woman from Athens. She is in love with a man named
Lysander, but her father, Egeus, commands her to marry Demetrius instead. Hermia refuses,
confidently opposing her father. Despite her self-possession, Hermia is still affected by the
whims of fate during the play. Notably, Hermia loses her confidence when Lysander, who is
bewitched by a love potion, abandons her in favor of her friend Helena. Hermia also has
insecurities, particularly her short stature in contrast to the taller Helena. At one point, she
becomes so jealous that she challenges Helena to a fight. Nevertheless, Hermia shows respect
for the rules of propriety, as when she insists that her beloved, Lysander, sleep apart from her.

Helena

Helena is a young woman from Athens and a friend of Hermia. She was betrothed to
Demetrius until he left her for Hermia, and she remains desperately in love with him. During
the play, both Demetrius and Lysander fall in love with Helena as a result of the love potion.
This event reveals the depth of Helena’s inferiority complex. Helena cannot believe both men
are actually in love with her; instead, she assumes they are mocking her. When Hermia
challenges Helena to a fight, Helena implies that her own fearfulness is an attractive maidenly
attribute; however, she also admits that she inhabits a stereotypically masculine role by
pursuing Demetrius. Like Hermia, Helena is aware of propriety's rules but willing to break
them in order to achieve her romantic goals.

Lysander

Lysander is a young man from Athens who is in love with Hermia at the start of the play.
Egeus, Hermia's father, accuses Lysander of “bewitching the bosom of [his] child” and ignoring
that Hermia is betrothed to another man. Despite Lysander's alleged devotion to Hermia, he is
no match for Puck's magic love potion. Puck accidentally applies the potion to Lysander's eyes,
and as a result Lysander abandons his original love and falls in love with Helena. Lysander is
eager to prove himself for Helena and is willing to duel Demetrius for her love.

Demetrius

Demetrius, a young man from Athens, was previously betrothed to Helena but abandoned her
in order to pursue Hermia. He can be brash, rude, and even violent, as when he insults and
threatens Helena and provokes Lysander into a duel. Demetrius did originally love Helena,
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and by the end of the play, he loves her once again, resulting in a harmonious ending.
However, it is notable that Demetrius' love is rekindled only by magic.

Puck

Puck is Oberon’s mischievous and merry jester. Technically, he is Oberon’s servant, but he is
both unable and unwilling to obey his master. Puck represents the forces of chaos and
disorder, challenging the ability of humans and fairies to enact their will. Indeed, Puck himself
is no match for the force of chaos. His attempt to use a magic love potion to help Hermia,
Helena, Demetrius, and Lysander achieve romantic harmony leads to the central
misunderstandings of the play. When he tries to undo his mistake, he causes even greater
chaos. Puck's failed attempts to control fate bring about much of the action of the play.

Oberon

Oberon is the king of the fairies. After witnessing Demetrius’ poor treatment of Helena,
Oberon orders Puck to repair the situation through the use of a love potion. In this way,
Oberon shows kindness, but he is . He demands obedience from his wife, Titania, and he
expresses furious jealousy over Titania's adoption of and love for a young changeling boy.
When Titania refuses to give up the boy, Oberon orders Puck to make Titania fall in love with
an animal—all because he wishes to embarrass Titania into obedience. Thus, Oberon shows
himself to be vulnerable to the same insecurities that provoke the human characters into
action.

Titania

Titania is the queen of the fairies. She recently returned from a trip to India, where she
adopted a young changeling boy whose mother died in childbirth. Titania adores the boy and
lavishes attention on him, which makes Oberon jealous. When Oberon orders Titania to give
up the boy, she refuses, but she is no match for the magic love spell that makes her falls in love
with the donkey-headed Bottom. Although we do not witness Titania's eventual decision to
hand over the boy, Oberon reports that Titania did so.

Theseus

Theseus is the king of Athens and a force of order and justice. At the beginning of the play,
Theseus recalls his defeat of the Amazons, a society of warlike women who traditionally
represent a threat to patriarchal society. Theseus takes pride in his strength. He tells Queen
 A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999 film & play)
Hippolyta of the Amazons that he “woo’d [her] with the sword,” erasing Hippolyta's claim to
masculine power. Theseus only appears at the beginning and end of the play; however, as king
of Athens, he is the counterpart of Oberon, reinforcing the contrast between human and fairy,
reason and emotion, and ultimately, order and chaos. This balance is investigated and
critiqued throughout the play.

Hippolyta

Hippolyta is the queen of the Amazons and Theseus’ bride. The Amazons are a powerful tribe
led by fearsome women warriors, and as their queen, Hippolyta represents a threat to the
patriarchal society of Athens. When we first meet Hippolyta, the Amazons have been defeated
by Theseus, and the play begins with the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta, an event that
represents the victory of "order" (patriarchal society) over "chaos" (the Amazons). However,
that sense of order is immediately challenged by Hermia’s subsequent disobedience to her
father.

Egeus

Egeus is Hermia’s father. At the start of the play, Egeus is enraged that his daughter will not
obey his wishes to marry Demetrius. He turns to King Theseus, encouraging Theseus to invoke
the law that a daughter must marry her father’s choice of husband, at penalty of death. Egeus
is a demanding father who prioritizes his daughter's obedience over his own life. Like many of
the play's other characters, Egeus' insecurities drive the action of the play. He attempts to
connect his perhaps uncontrollable emotions with the orderliness of law, but this reliance on
law makes him an inhumane father.

Bottom

Perhaps the most foolish of the players, Nick Bottom gets wrapped up in the drama between
Oberon and Titania. Puck chooses Bottom as the object of Titania's magic-induced love, as per
Oberon’s order that she fall in love with an animal of the forest to embarrass her into
obedience. Puck mischievously turns his head into that of a donkey, as he decides Bottom’s
name alludes to an ass.

Players

The group of traveling players includes Peter Quince, Nick Bottom, Francis Flute, Robin
Starveling, Tom Snout, and Snug. They rehearse the play Pyramus and Thisbe in the woods
 A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999 film & play)
outside Athens, hoping to perform it for the king’s upcoming wedding. At the end of the play,
they give the performance, but they are so foolish and their performance so absurd that the
tragedy ends up coming off as a comedy.

SHAKESPEAREAN LOVE CONCEPT:

"A Midsummer Night’s Dream," written in 1600, has been called one of William Shakespeare’s
greatest love plays. It has been interpreted as a romantic story in which love ultimately
conquers all odds, but it's actually about the importance of power, sex, and fertility, not love.
Shakespeare’s concepts of love are represented by the powerless young lovers, the meddling
fairies and their magical love, and forced love as opposed to chosen love.

These points undermine the argument that this play is a typical love story and fortify the case
that Shakespeare intended to demonstrate the powers that triumph over love.

Power vs. Love

The first concept presented of love is its powerlessness, represented by the “true” lovers.
Lysander and Hermia are the only characters in the play who are really in love. Yet their love
is forbidden, by Hermia’s father and Duke Theseus. Hermia’s father Egeus speaks of
Lysander’s love as witchcraft, saying of Lysander, “this man hath bewitched the bosom of my
child” and “with feigning voice verses of feigning love ... stol’n the impression of her fantasy.”
These lines maintain that true love is an illusion, a false ideal.

Egeus goes on to say that Hermia belongs to him, proclaiming, “she is mine, and all my right of
her / I do estate unto Demetrius.” These lines demonstrate the lack of power that Hermia and
Lysander’s love holds in the presence of familial law. Furthermore, Demetrius tells Lysander
to “yield / Thy crazéd title to my certain right,” which means that a father must give his
daughter only to the worthiest suitor, regardless of love.

Finally, Hermia and Lysander’s eventual wedlock is due to two things: fairy intervention and
noble decree. The fairies enchant Demetrius to fall in love with Helena, freeing Theseus to
allow Hermia and Lysander’s union. With his words, “Egeus, I will overbear your will, / For in
the temple, by and by, with us / These couples shall eternally be knit,” the duke is proving that
it is not love that is responsible for joining two people, but the will of those in power. Even for
true lovers, it isn't love that conquers, but power in the form of royal decree.

Weakness of Love
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The second idea, the weakness of love, comes in the form of fairy magic. The four young lovers
and an imbecilic actor are entangled in a love game, puppet-mastered by Oberon and Puck.
The fairies’ meddling causes both Lysander and Demetrius, who were fighting over Hermia, to
fall for Helena. Lysander’s confusion leads him to believe he hates Hermia; he asks her, “Why
seek’st thou me? Could not this make thee know / the hate I bear thee made me leave thee
so?” That his love is so easily extinguished and turned to hatred shows that even a true lover’s
fire can be put out by the feeblest wind.

Furthermore, Titania, the powerful fairy goddess, is bewitched into falling in love with
Bottom, who has been given a donkey’s head by mischievous Puck. When Titania exclaims
“What visions have I seen! / Methought I was enamored of an ass,” we are meant to see that
love will cloud our judgment and make even the normally level-headed person do foolish
things. Ultimately, Shakespeare makes the point that love cannot be trusted to withstand any
length of time and that lovers are made into fools.

Finally, Shakespeare provides two examples of choosing powerful unions over amorous ones.
First, there is the tale of Theseus and Hippolyta. Theseus says to Hippolyta, “I wooed thee with
my sword / And won thy love doing thee injuries.” Thus, the first relationship that we see is
the result of Theseus claiming Hippolyta after defeating her in battle. Rather than courting and
loving her, Theseus conquered and enslaved her. He creates the union for solidarity and
strength between the two kingdoms.

Fairy Love

Next is the example of Oberon and Titania, whose separation from each other results in the
world becoming barren. Titania exclaims, “The spring, the summer / The childing autumn,
angry winter, change / Their wonted liveries, and the mazéd world / By their increase, now
knows not which is which.” These lines make it clear that these two must be joined in
consideration not of love but of the fertility and health of the world.

The subplots in "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" demonstrate Shakespeare’s dissatisfaction

with the idea of love as a supreme power and his belief that power and fertility are the prime
factors in deciding a union. The images of greenery and nature throughout the story, as when
Puck speaks of Titania and Oberon meeting neither “in grove or green, / By fountain clear, or
spangled starlight sheen” further suggest the importance that Shakespeare places on fertility.
Also, the fairy presence within Athens at the end of the play, as sung by Oberon, suggests that
 A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999 film & play)
lust is the enduring power and without it, love cannot last: “Now, until the break of day /
Through this house each fairy stray / To the best bride-bed will we / Which by us shall
blessed be.”

Ultimately, Shakespeare’s "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" suggests that believing only in love,
creating bonds based on a fleeting notion rather than on lasting principles such as fertility
(offspring) and power (security), is to be “enamored of an ass.”