Loves a Bumpy Ride - Essay Example

Love’s a Bumpy Ride William Shakespeare is typically thought of today as a serious that requires extensive, sober study if one is to understand his works. Of his most well-known plays today, most are tragedies or histories, with a few that extend outside of these bounds. However, Shakespeare was capable of presenting his ideas in a lighter frame of mind, such as in his play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Even in his less serious mode, however, Shakespeare cannot avoid including major themes within the substrate of the story. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, for example, he uses several characters to explore the meaning of love. Through the characters of Hermia and Lysander, he illustrates the idea of young love while Titania and Oberon demonstrate old love. The love between Helena and Demetrius is shown to be a shallow love for different reasons. Helena is desperate for a husband before she officially crosses over into the realm of ‘old maid’ while Demetrius’ love is based only upon the uncertain nature of fairy magic. Even the reason for the party being all together, the wedding ceremony of Theseus, the Duke of Athens to the Amazonian Queen Hippolyta, is exposed for its lack of depth as Hippolyta is little more to Theseus than a spoil of war. Through the various characters within his play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare manages to convey a number of different conceptions of the meaning of love, demonstrating how each has its elements of reality as well as its elements of absurdity. The concept of young love is demonstrated through the relationship of Hermia and Lysander. Although Hermia wants to marry Lysander, her father wishes her to marry Demetrius, apparently for no other reason than to assert his own authority. Rather than subject herself to this disgrace because, as Lysander has pointed out, Demetrius has already proven himself unworthy as he “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). Any emotion that springs up between Hermia and Demetrius then can be founded on nothing remotely resembling her conception of a pure love. The apparent purity of young love between Hermia and Lysander is brought into question though with the application of Oberon’s pansy-juice causing Lysander to change his mind about who he loves. Because he doesn’t forget his past love for Hermia, this calls into question the strength of even the purist love to resist the course of life events. 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). Although the two young people finish the play by getting married, Shakespeare has demonstrated how even the most ardent, pure and innocent love can be quickly and easily damaged by a change in the wind. As contrast to this young love, Shakespeare brings in the characters Titania and Oberon, fairies who have been married for long ages already. While the simple fact that they are still together should testify to the constancy of love, their bitter squabbling is echoed in the poor weather of the country and illustrates the absence of love in a relationship well-aged. “Their squabbling is trivial: a dispute over Titania’s ‘changling’ boy whom Oberon desires … The comparison between the two worlds is even more ironically exact when Oberon accuses Titania of an improper interest in Theseus; while she in turn accuses him of harboring base thought about Hippolyta” (Taylor 263). To settle the dispute, Oberon resorts to tricking his wife into succumbing to his wishes before he will permit her to be restored to her normal exalted state. Through this portrayal, Shakespeare seems to be indicating that even in marriages grown heavy with age, there is no excess of love being expressed as each character tends to think only of their own wishes and contrives against the other to gain the upper hand. The ‘love’ between Helena and Demetrius can also be seen in contrast to the young love of Hermia and Lysander. Helena only seems to love Demetrius more the worse he treats her. In Act II, scene 1, Helena tells Demetrius, “The more you beat me, I will fawn on you” (204) to which Demetrius tells her “Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit, / For I am sick when I do look on thee” (II.i.211-212). Perhaps because of their premarital tryst, Helena seems to be completely spellbound by Demetrius, giving up her entire soul to try to do what he will again adore. However, as is apparent from the quote above, the more she throws herself at Demetrius, the more he seems to resent her attention. From his reaction to Hermia, to whom he becomes more ardent the more vehemently she rejects him, it seems that Demetrius’ concept of love involves the joy of the chase more than the ultimate conquest. In terms of his marriage to Hermia, he tends to speak in terms of ‘sovereignty’ and ‘right’, referring to Hermia in terms of property or an object rather than begin concerned with the feelings of love. This conception of the feelings of love as something applicable only to the female half of the relationship is reinforced in the more aristocratic ‘love’ that exists between Theseus and Hippolyta. This love takes on more of a courtly definition as it exists in terms of conquest and obeisance. The two of them meet as enemies joined in battle and Hippolyta becomes the spoils of war when Theseus is able to overcome her female warriors. Hippolyta’s feelings regarding the upcoming wedding are not revealed, but Theseus makes it clear that he is anxiously awaiting the wedding night when he will finally be able to take full possession of her. Not concerned with her feelings, he immediately orders the master of revels to “stir up the Athenian youth to merriments / Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth” (I.i.12-13) so everyone can celebrate “with pomp, with triumph and with reveling” (I.i.19). Even in this order, there is a hint of male victory in battle rather than a woman’s heart rightly won. “The love of Theseus and Hippolyta, and by implication that of the august bridegroom and bride whose wedding was being celebrated, is decorously presented on a different level. About to be married, Theseus is free of the sighs, the silences, the variable humors of the lover of romance who has not yet won his mistress. His passion is controlled, his love dignified and elevated” (Siegel 140). By contrast, Hippolyta, a woman who once completely upset the ‘natural’ order of life by demonstrating “a dangerous example of unwomanly conduct, a violation of that traditional order under which women are born to thralldom and penance / and to been under mannes governance” (Wright 456), is brought under proper submission to male dominance. Thus, there are numerous definitions of ‘love’ presented within Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but none of them are presented as necessarily more valid or more likely to produce happy results than another. The romance between Hermia and Lysander is shown to be a young love, full of its uncertainties and susceptible to sudden change. The love between Titania and Oberon, though aged and presumably mellowed, has degenerated into a general long-term struggle over trivial matters underlain by a deep-seated affection and jealousy for the other’s attentions. Although both Demetrius and Helena are under the impression that they are in love by the end of the play, Demetrius is still operating under the spell of Oberon’s juice while Helena seems completely innocent of what love should mean for her. Finally, the love expressed between Hippolyta and Theseus is portrayed within its more courtly setting, full of dignity, restraint and as a symbol of power gained or lost. Whatever else might be said of the play, it is certain that it demonstrates the truth of the statement, ‘the course of love may never run smooth.’ Works Cited Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The Complete Pelican Shakespeare. New York: Penguin Classics, 1969. Siegel, Paul N. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Wedding Guests.” Shakespeare Quarterly. Vol. 4, N. 2, (April 1953): 139-144. Taylor, Michael. “The Darker Purpose of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. Vol. 9, N. 2, Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama (Spring 1969): 259-273. Wright, Celeste Turner. “The Amazons in Elizabethan Literature.” SP. Vol. 37, (1940): 433-456. Read More