A Midsummer Nights Dream: The Play within the Play - Research Paper Example

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: The Play within the Play Society was changing rapidly in England during the16th and 17th centuries. The country was undergoing a period that was particularly influenced by the revival of arts and thinking that was an extension of the Italian Renaissance period and a beginning of the enlightenment (Campbell, 2004). During this time in history, society was shifting its economy from an agrarian base to something more firmly based on the town market and the production of consumer goods. With this shift also came shifts in the social structure itself as the feudal systems of wealthy landowners and poverty-stricken serfs was opening up to a comfortable middle class. According to Stephen Greenblatt, “This is a world in which outward appearance is everything and nothing, in which individuation is at once sharply etched and continually blurred, in which the victims of fate are haunted by the ghosts of the possible, in which everything is simultaneously as it must be and as it need not have been” (60). Many of these often confusing issues became the subjects of the major literature produced during this era such as in William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Although the exact date of when Shakespeare wrote this play is unknown, with most estimates suggesting it was perhaps around 1595 or 1596, the confusion between tradition and contemporary times is highlighted within this play through Shakespeare's deliberate use of a play within the play. One of the most effective means of reinforcing the major concepts of a story’s plot or of highlighting individual character traits is to include some form of repetition within the text. Shakespeare was a master at this kind of repetition as is seen in many of his plays including Hamlet and Midsummer Night's Dream. However, he uses these forms of repetition for entirely different purposes. In Hamlet, the play within the play is used to both show the audience actions that took place prior to the play's opening as well as to expose the guilty conscience of the king and thus prove to Hamlet that vengeance is justified. In Midsummer Night's Dream, though, the play is used to link tradition to present day in such a way as to demonstrate that despite the perception that times are changing drastically, unsettling many in their comfortable traditional views, human activity and emotion really hasn't changed all that much. To accomplish this seemingly impossible feat, Shakespeare incorporates an entire mini-play within the greater work. This mini-play appears in Act 5 and its action functions to almost duplicate the principle characters and actions found within the larger work. Not only does it reiterate some of the key points of the major work, but this mini-play also functioned to directly address an element of the audience that might otherwise have felt omitted. In Shakespeare's time, everyone attended the plays as a major form of entertainment, but the uneducated lower elements of society didn't always fully understand the high comedy offered by the playwright. By providing this mini-play, even these elements of the audience were able to enjoy the play and understand its message. Thus it is possible to examine this mini-play in order to gain greater appreciation and understanding of the larger play. Within its simple one-scene setting, this mini-play serves to expose the exaggerated romanticism of the lovers, the timeless struggle of young people attempting to marry for love despite the wishes of their parents and the sometimes disastrous problems that can only occur in the confusing darkness of night. Although many of Shakespeare’s plays can be traced to earlier stories as a means of linking them with tradition, this particular play has fewer historical connections. According to Mabillard, Geoffrey Chaucer’s story of the Knight’s Tale in his Canterbury Tales is one probable source for the play - both the master play and the mini-play. The Knight's Tale is told from the perspective of a very noble Knight whose greatest values are centered on the concepts of chivalry and the ‘correct’ position of women within this society. “His courtly preoccupation with truth, honor, liberality and courtesy shines through the noble soldiers Arcite and Palamon, illuminating the wise, righteous, merciful ruler Theseus and highlighting the faultless Lady Emily … Fortune and her false wheel control the plot as regal personas are maneuvered by chance and by the gods” (Dosik 26). The Knight’s story concentrates on the importance of honor and oath-taking between men of the nobility. In spite the importance placed on these characteristics and attributes, the Knight's Tale is full of contradictions. The character Theseus vows he will hold the two captured nobles Arcite and Palamon prisoner forever, but is quick to change his mind when a friend pleads for the release of one. He also chooses to honor the noble escape of the other simply because he admires the man's courage and creativity in pulling off the escape. Arcite and Palamon swear brotherhood forever between the two of them, but they also quickly forget this oath when they each fall in love with Emily who has done nothing intentional to attract either's attention. Thus, Chaucer exposes the hypocrisy of oath-taking in the face of the chivalric conception of love while he also shifts attention from the actual events taking place to a more careful look at the reasons and motivations of the individual characters - elements Shakespeare would incorporate as well. In Shakespeare's mini-play, the characters consistently employ overly flowery language which reduces meaning at the same time that it heightens the comic effect. These are aspects of their characters that are repeated in more subtle behaviors through the main characters of the larger play. For example, in the mini-play, while Pyramus waits for Thisby’s arrival, he says, “And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall / That stands’t between her father’s ground and mine / Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall / Show me thy chink” (V, i, 172-175). His passionate plea to the inanimate wall serves to mock the cloying behavior of Helena earlier in the play. This behavior comes out as early as Act II when she is seen in her pitiful pursuit of Demetrius and is clearly part of the reason for Demetrius' lack of interest. In Act II, scene 1, Helena tells Demetrius, “The more you beat me, I will fawn on you” (204). Among all of the young people comprising the two main couples in the play, there is a common belief in a ridiculous nature of love as a physical thing that will actually cause their deaths if it is not fulfilled. They believe in this idea to such an extent that they can actually make themselves ill to the point of fainting if they can't achieve their goals without ever thinking of the consequences. For Hermena, the consequence would be to marry a man who despises her and treats her poorly all her life rather than seek a more equitable marriage in which true happiness might be possible. Shakespeare brings this idea down a level in the mini-play as Pyramus immediately throws himself on his sword when he discovers Thisby’s torn and bloody cloak in the dark before he even considers the possibility that she may simply be injured somewhere nearby. Most of the ‘tragedy’ that occurs in the mini-play of Pyramus and Thisby occurs because of the relationships among the older generation mimicking the strife between tradition and the changing society. The anger between the families prevents the young people from meeting each other in a safer environment while the wall becomes the physical symbol of these factors that stand between them. For these reasons, they are only permitted to converse through a simple chink in the wall, only at night when its dark, only in this remote location in which it is common to find lions hunting for their next meal. This symbolizes the many dangers and challenges the young couple would need to face when running against tradition to take their part in the unpredictably changing culture at the same time that it mimics the situation of Hermia and Lysander. Hermia is flaunting tradition when she insists that she wants to marry Lysander even though her father wants her to marry Demetrius. According to tradition, Egeus' wishes regarding his daughter's marriage should be honored simply because he is the authority of the family, but by showing Hermia's greater knowledge of Demetrius' behavior regarding women, Shakespeare suggests that perhaps some of the changes that were taking place were for the greater good of mankind. Hermia knows that Demetrius has “Made love to Nedar’s daughter, Helena, / And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes, / Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry, / Upon this spotted and inconstant man” (I.i.107-110) and thus Hermia's marriage to Demetrius would disgrace her as well as her family name. Shakespeare's masterful ability to blend these plays together in this way thus speaks to every level of the audience - highly educated and uneducated - about the dangers and potential rewards, the resistance and inevitability of the changes that were taking place through the actions of the main play simplified and made manifest in the mini-play. The confusion of darkness or the unknown is a role in itself as it serves to complicate the lives of the young lovers in both the major action and in the mini-play. In the mini-play, of course, it is the darkness that keeps the two lovers separated until it is too late to pursue any form of 'happily ever after.' Thisby flees from her appointed meeting place with Pyramus by a lion, a creature believed to only hunt in the dark, suggesting that tradition will continuously attempt to thwart new changes. Pyramus, surrounded by darkness, finds Thisby’s cloak torn and wet with blood and falls to the traditional courtly love rashness which requires him to immediately fall on his sword so he might join her in death. Thisby returns in darkness and believes her lover to be merely asleep in the crypt and is crushed by this same darkness as she discovers him dead instead. In a similar way, it is the ‘creatures of the night’ in the form of the wood fairy court that aggravates the difficulties taking place between the four young people in the main play as they also wander around in the dark night. Oberon’s love potion inaccurately dispensed gives Lysander extra courage in pursuing the object of his affection as well as forces him to shift his affections from Hermia to Helena. In Act II, scene 2, he says, “I do repent / the tedious minutes I with her have spent. / Not Hermia but Helena I love. / Who will not change a raven for a dove?” (111-114). The resulting separation of Lysander and Hermia as well as the revelations his attentions give to Helena regarding her own behavior equals the separation of Thisby and Pyramus in the mini-play even though the situation in the main play is only temporary while the deaths in the mini-play are permanent. The reason for this is that the spirit of the mini-play is kept deliberately light so as to keep it from bringing the mood of the main play into a tragedy. Shakespeare's message comes out as only imperfect decisions can be made in darkness, but decisions must be made and can work out all right in the end. This message was intentionally created to address the events of the time and to lend support to the English queen. The English Renaissance flowered during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who encouraged these kinds of more enlightened views yet had to pacify her more traditional advisors. “Elizabeth is often regarded as rather brilliant. She had a quick mind, was not extravagant, and recognized that her throne was not as secure as her counselors might lead her to believe. She was strong and certainly capable of making hard and difficult decisions; however, perhaps because she was a woman, she was less functionally arrogant than most of her contemporary monarchs” (Judkins). Although society didn't change enough to provide women with any greater independence or more legal rights as might have been expected under a strong queen, the earliest seeds of gender equal rights were planted during this period. “Although she was Queen of England, [Elizabeth] shared some of her rule with Parliament, a body made of men chosen to represent the various areas of England” (Judkins). Shakespeare's careful demonstration of the need for both tradition and new ideas to work together to achieve satisfactory results takes place at both the high and the low levels and perfectly reflects this careful balancing act of the contemporary political and cultural environment. Thus, through its focus on the problems that can be caused by the unknown, the overemphasis on traditional ideals as well as new ideas and the need to find a balance between new and old thinking, the mini-play serves to focus the audience on the more important elements of the larger play and brings them in line with the prudent thinking of the day. Shakespeare’s brilliance in being able to use a moment of surface nonsense such as this mini-play to highlight the more important elements and broader themes of his larger play is unequalled. By incorporating this mini-play at the end of the larger play, he makes sure that his audience, high and low, leaves the theater with a quick summary of the events of the larger play so that they can immediately begin to connect it with the larger issues outside the theater. Works Cited Campbell, Gordon. Renaissance Art and Architecture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print. Chaucer, Geoffrey. Canterbury Tales. New York: Penguin Classics, 2003. Print. Dosik, Diana. Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale and Miller’s Tale. Phillips Academy, Andover University, 2006. Print. Greenblatt, Stephen (Ed.). The Norton Shakespeare. New York: Norton, 1997. Print. Judkins, David. “Life in Renaissance England.” Texas: University of Houston, (2008). Web. June 4, 2011. Mabillard, Amanda. “Sources: A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Shakespeare Online. (2000). Web. June 4, 2011. Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The Complete Pelican Shakespeare. New York: Penguin Classics, 1969. Print. Read More