The following are extracts from the introduction of the Oxford
edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream which may come in useful for the exam.
Unless I have explicitly mentioned a critic, all quotes in this section are
cited from Peter Holland.
Ulrich Braker ‘The characters of the Interlude in this dream – they’re the ones for
me’.
If
we cannot understand the text the fault lies in the reader, not the text, since
‘the dream attempts to reveal rather than conceal. (referring to Jung’s
approach)
Oberon
and Robin make it possible for the characters –and the audience- to see the
play as a dream…a true dream experience, not a similitude.
It
is clear that in 2.2.62-7 Lysander has sex al fresco in mind…Lysander has
presented Hermia with the problem of his sexual desire, and her dream enacts
her anxiety about it.
He
argues (3.2.70-3) that ‘Hermia displaces the fear of Lysander into fear for
Lysander and fear of Demetrius.
There
are similarities between The Taming of the Shrew’s Sly (who is transformed
into a gentleman and made to sit and watch the play TOTS) and our Bottom.
Sly
‘Am I a lord, and have I such a lady?
Or
do I dream? Or have I dreamed till now?’
The
play’s ‘emphasis on fairy benevolence seems to have been Shakespeare’s
invention.
In
the structure of separate worlds…in MSND Puck’s position is more oddly isolated
than anyone else. He only speaks to fairy and Oberon. This detachment allows
for and justifies his amusement in human behaviour.
The
interconnection of the discrete worlds of the Dream is an interlocking network
of comic contrasts.
As
Leggatt suggests, ‘Each group, so self absorbed, is seen in a
larger context, which provides comic perspective’.
Hippolyta
has been conquered, defeated into marriage. Productions have varied greatly in
their representations of the degree of her consent. Hippolyta’s speech is ‘a
speech ambiguously of reassurance to Theseus of the rapid passing of time or
reluctant recognition that the time of her independence has nearly ended’.
He
argues that ‘Theseus’ antagonism towards virginity, a state that denies male
power’ are expressed in his failed attempts to praise the state “the cold
fruitless moon” (MSND)
Hippolyta,
alone of the three brides, speaks during Act 5…her open mockery “the silliest
stuff” produces an exchange with Theseus that marks both a certain antagonism
with him and a disagreement on the nature of art. (“The best in this kind…”).
The
complex interlocking of two pairs of lovers in a pattern of chaos and confusion
is a staple of romance. What both Hermia and Helena deny…is the notion of male
promiscuity and inconstancy, the trait Theseus, above all, embodies.
The
lovers need to be set against the courtship world of Elizabethan
England…Lysander’s anger and surprise at Egeus’ actions would match comfortably
with Elizabethan conventional behaviour…as…the initiative with establishing a
couple…lay with young people in all but the very highest reaches of early
modern English society.
It
seems at times as if they (lovers) are turned into puppets by their couplets,
made to speak in particularly limited ways by the style imposed on them’. In a
BBC production lengthy parts of 3.2 were spoken overlappingly by the lovers.
Throughout
Act 5 H and H never speak.
Jonathan Goldberg, noting that after the
night in the woods ‘they return to Athens as bodies, married, barred from
discourse’, also emphasises that the play marks, but does not necessarily
condone, their place in patriarchal culture’.
Lysander
and Demetrius share with Theseus an intellectual snobbishness. The feebleness
of their wit emphasises the extent of our sympathies with the mechanicals.
The
dream has consequence, the marriages have taken place but the pattern of patriarchy
has not altered.
No comments:
Post a Comment