Part of the dream-like effect in the A Midsummer Night’s Dream might be attributed to the eclectic provenance of the characters. They might be broadly divided into four categories, referred to by Harold Bloom as "modes of representation". The play’s dramatic potential is enriched by the tensions and interactions between the diverse groups.
Drawn from Mythology: Thesus and Hippolyta
These two characters are drawn from ancient myth and legend, from Plutarch’s Life of Theseus.
Their ignorance of the entire series of events, seen by Thesus’s remarks: "I never may believe/These antique fables, nor these fairy toys", create a dramatic irony through their inability to comprehend the events, in their entrenched position in the world of the Athenian Court.
Their presence might be said to represent a form of order. It serves as foil to the disorderliness which is sandwiched between their appearances at the beginning and end. Though Hippolyta ventures a bit closer to the "strange and admirable" truth, she does not get much further, giving an elusive and mysterious sheen to play’s events.
Interchangeable Lovers: Lysander, Helena, Hermia, and Demetrius
These four young characters might be regarded as archetypal lovers "from every time and place" (Bloom). Many critics have noted the similarities between the love expressed in this play and in Romeo and Juliet, also considered an archetypal story of young lovers.
However, during their time in the woods, it is quickly apparent that their objects of love can be quickly interchanged, with no compromise in sincerity. Bloom explains this as "a Shakespearean irony that suggests the arbitrariness of young love, from the perspective of everyone except the lover." Regardless, or perhaps because of its transient nature, the love between the four lovers contribute to the idea of the dream-like quality of love, as well as the play in general.
The Link to Imagination: Puck and the Other Fairies
Bloom describes the fairies as "madly eclectic": "Titania is Ovid’s alternate name for Diana, while Oberon comes out of Celtic romance, and Puck or Robin Goodfellow is English folklore."
Drawn from a wide range of fantasy, the fairies could be seen as a link to imagination where their presence allows for events distinctly impossible, to actually occur. The magic that the fairies possess such as Oberon’s love juice or Puck’s transfiguration of Bottom, are used as a plot device to create disorder, magical elements giving life to the human tensions that the characters already have.
Despite all the humans go through at the hand of the fairies, when they awaken, their impression is but "Like far-off mountains turned into clouds", with no definite memory of fairies, but only a faint impression of their actions. This contributes to a mystical and dream-like atmosphere in the play. Their awakening from sleep could be considered a synecdoche, where the physical awakening is part of a returning of consciousness from the dream to reality.
The Common Folk: Bottom and the Other Rustics
Representing the common folk of the English countryside, the mechanicals, who speak in prose, are a marked contrast to the upper social classes. Through their bumbling antics at preparing their play, and the actual burlesque, they are large element of the humour within the comedy.
Beyond mere laughing, their presence also gives the play a greater scope, allowing "a glimpse of a world that usually resides beyond the horizon of courtly vision."(Stephen Greenblatt) This might be seen if we compare Bottom’s sensitive and insightful thoughts upon awakening with that of the four lovers, In particular, his awareness of its personal and incommunicable nature, and its abstract nature which eludes definition completely:
I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream past the wit of man to say what that dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about t’expound that dream.
Perhaps Bottom's eventual decision to have his dream articulated in a ballad, an art form, could be viewed as a reflection of Shakespeare's capturing and expressing of dreams in the form of theatre within the play. This could not be done with the lovers, who are in a sense stock characters, and not equipped to portray such sophistication as Bottom shows.
Bibliography:
- The Norton Shakespeare: Based on the Oxford Edition edited by Stephen Greenblatt, Walter Cohen, Jean Howard, Katherine Eisaman Maus
- Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human by Harold Bloom
Jing Heng Fong - I'm starting university this year, and look forward to writing and gaining experience at Suite.
