February 5th, 2014
Blog Post #2: A Midsummer Night’s Dream Acts IV-V
A Midsummer Night’s
Dream demonstrates the power of love, how uncontrollable it is, and how
irrational it can make people. This is demonstrated through Shakespeare’s use
of the “green world” that is meant to parody love in the real world where,
through the use of magic, people fall arbitrarily and uncontrollably in love
with others and act irrationally. At the same time, however, we see at the end
of the play that, while humans may not be able to control it, love generally
has a way of working itself out since Theseus, Lysander, Demetrius, Hippolyta,
Hermia, and Helena all end up getting married to the people they love.
Theseus,
the duke of Athens, plans on and ends up marrying Hippolyta and also attempts
to negotiate the marriage of Hermia. While he fully supports marriage, he has a
negative view of love as he expresses at the beginning of Act V after
witnessing the ridiculous events that took place in the forest or “green
world.” Theseus himself won the heart of his wife Hippolyta in battle, although
he promises to woo and marry her with festivities and grandeur. With Hermia’s
situation, he cares little for who she actually loves as opposed to the contract
she agreed to, and says at the beginning of the play that if she does not marry
Demetrius like she previously agreed, she would either be killed or would have
to become a nun. Theseus’s viewpoints and actions strongly contradict that of
the author since the point of the play seems to be that humans cannot control
or force love and that it must work itself out on its own terms, however
Theseus’s view of the madness and irrationality of love that he expresses at
the beginning of Act V is shared by the author.
At the
beginning of Act V in lines 2-10 Hippolyta comments on how strange the events
that occurred in the forest were, to which Theseus replies:
More strange than true. I never
may believe / These antic fables, nor these fairy toys. / Lovers and madmen
have such seething brains, / Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend / More than
cool reason ever comprehends. / The lunatic, the lover, and the poet / Are of
imagination all compact. / One sees more devils than vast hell can hold; / That
is the madman.
Here Theseus shows his true colors and presents his true
views of love to the reader. He equates lovers to madmen and lunatics, saying
that love is simply a fantasy that people with reason can never understand. In
the context of the play and the fact that everyone ends up getting happily
married to people that they love, the author makes it clear that while love may
not be reasonable or rational or controllable, it is not insane or a mere
fantasy. Love is a power of its own that works on its own accord – it will work
out in the end but is uncontrollable by human rationality or desire.
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