The nobility, or upper class of the play who have strict rules and laws they obey. Their world is one of politics, convention, tradition, and order. These characters speak in blank verse.
The high-spirited youth who come from a world of rules, laws, and conventions that parents and superiors force them to obey. But when they wander into the forest, they experience their own desires through the magic of the fairies. The world of the lovers is tumultuous, disobedient, and fickle. Coming from Athens, these youths speak in blank verse.
The fantastical creatures indigenous only to nature – their world is one of whimsy, play, magic, chaos, and sensuality. Titania and Oberon represent the balance between order and chaos, Titania representing the former, Oberon the latter – the disruption of their union 10 causes shenanigans in other parts of the world. The fairies speak in blank verse, though they typically use a tighter rhyme scheme that feels more lyrical.
The “mechanicals” or laborers of Athens are rehearsing a play in the woods, Pyramus & Thisbe, for the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. Chaos ensues when Puck decides to transform Nick Bottom into an “ass.” These characters speak in prose.
How has the MU Theatre production interpreted these differences in character status through costumes and actor portrayal?
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is regarded as a comedy within the compendium of Shakespeare’s works. As a comedy, there are some conventions that span across his work and others of the Elizabethan period that inform our current understanding of this label.
First, the genre of comedy does not necessarily mean the same thing it does now. For Shakespeare, his conception of comedy came from Aristotle’s Poetics, which conceived comedy as simply having a happy ending, as opposed to the tragedy which had a sad, or cathartic ending. Comedies also inclined themselves towards lower socioeconomic class characters, ended in marriage, included acts of physicality and spectacle, and focused on mundane problems (not the passage of power from Monarch to Monarch, or existential questions of “to be or not to be”). While not all “comedies” included these aspects during Shakespeare’s time, this was the general expectation audiences had for something described as “comedy;” for example, satirical comedy was often popular and was the source for many ancient Greek and Roman plays. After Shakespeare, French philosopher Henri Bergson enumerated what makes comedy funny, and for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, we can find humor through one of the oldest sources of comedy: miscommunication and dual identity. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the miscommunication between Puck and Oberon causes the incorrect pairings, and the inability of communication between the lovers is a form of “miscommunication.” As for “dual-identity,” which usually comes from donning a disguise, Bottom becomes both human and animal. What becomes funny, or contributes to dramatic irony, is that Bottom is unaware of his donkey-ness.
Bergson, Henri. “Laughter.” The Project Gutenberg E-Text of Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic, by Henri Bergson.
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, there are multiple themes, or patterns, that persist throughout the play: the “mystery” or “fickleness” of love; the difference between reality and appearances; and the difference between order and disorder. Let’s take a look at each theme individually, where I will provide a few examples:
As a Shakespearean comedy, the play’s central conflict stems from the miscommunication of love. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, love is both the problem and the solution; Shakespeare also shows us the different ways love can manifest, and how our hearts act against reason.
Act I, Scene I: Theseus and Hippolyta’s marriage planning is the first scene of the play! Also is Egeus’ discontent with Hermia’s choice of Lysander, who she claims as her true love, and her willingness to die for love. This is an example of “forbidden love.”
Act I, Scene II: The mechanicals are putting on a performance about two lovers in Pyramus and Thisbe. The play is about heroic love.
Act II, Scene I: Oberon and Titania’s falling out is about their different loves: Titania loves the changeling and his mother, Oberon loves Titania and feels jealous of the changeling – this disagreement is characteristic of “married love.”
Within the play, the idea of what we see versus what is real, or true, is integral to the comedy.
Act I, Scene I: Even though Theseus and Hippolyta are getting married, the reality is…Hippolyta is Theseus’ spoils of war. Also, Demetrius and Lysander are of the same wealth and station – the only thing Lysander has over Demetrius is Hermia’s love; their appearances are similar, but the reality is that Lysander loves Hermia.
The Fairies: The fairies themselves symbolize reality vs. appearance; we never quite know if the other characters (aside from Bottom) ever notice them. Puck also delivers a final monologue that makes the audience question whether what they have seen is real or not.
The Potion & Magic: The potions and magic of the play affect appearances and reality: the potion changes how Demetrius and Lysander view Helena, when in reality neither of them “truly” like Helena, until the end of the play when Demetrius suddenly can appreciate her. Puck’s magic transforms Bottom’s appearance, which affects the reality of how people view him.
The play’s confl ict comes from both the Athenians and the Fairies relationships, which causes chaos.
Theseus, Egeus, Hermia, and Lysander: the central conflict of the play sets up this theme – Hermia’s disobedience of her father and the law lead herself and Lysander to flee into the woods, which causes Helena and Demetrius to go to the woods as well, which initiates the entire conflict.
Oberon and Titania: Both incredibly powerful spirits, Oberon and Titania’s lover’s quarrel causes disruption between the different groups within the play. Representatives of nature, Oberon and Titania’s relationship is symbolic of the balance of nature’s power – when one overthrows the other, chaos ensues, and the natural order is thrown off.
How has MU Theatre treated one or multiple of these themes? What is eff ective in the staging that communicates the themes or messages of the play? What music choices aff ect the treatment of the themes?
Consider how Shakespeare’s work is addressing his cultural context, and consider why that might be. Does Shakespeare’s work create a conversation about authority, or does it not?
During Shakespeare’s life and the reign of both Queen Elizabeth I and King James I of England (the VI of Scotland), Shakespeare would have been very acquainted with the political, social, and religious philosophies of his time. Most prominent in English history would be the bloody ideological conflict between Protestant and Catholic sects of English society. Protestantism was instituted by King Henry VIII when he divorced his Catholic wife from Spain, Catherine of Aragon, where King Henry formed his own Church of England which was governed by different (and transgressive) policies at the time. Over the years, King Edward VI, Queen Mary I, and Queen Elizabeth I all had different beliefs over which religion should be allowed in England (Edward VI favored Protestantism, Queen Mary favored Catholicism). Queen Elizabeth I decided Catholicism was tolerable and acceptable, though she still supported Protestantism as the prevailing sect of Christianity in her country. Of the Protestants, a strict sect of Christians called Puritans, believed that Queen Elizabeth had not done enough to rid the Catholic practices from the Church of England, and thought she favored Catholics because of her tolerance.
In addition to the tense religious situation of England, Elizabethans adhered to a strict hierarchy known as the “chain of being,” which was corrupted from its original philosophical meaning, which simply was a description of how divinity, and human, animal, plant, and mineral were all connected. In Elizabethan England, this became a structure for how society was oriented, with God being the highest, angels second, and Kings and Queens third – those who were not nobility were in the fourth category with varying degrees of closeness to God, with peasants being the lowest, just above animals, who were fi fth in this chain. As a rule of this chain, those placed in this “link” unable to move upwards, as it would disrupt the “natural order” of society, which largely prevented English peasants from large uprisings, as it was an aff ront to God himself, as the monarchy was the link closest to God. With the growth of a middle class in Elizabethan England that was more and more literate and educated (who also began to believe in secular beliefs of humanism and free will), this “great chain” that cemented monarchy at the highest of the hierarchy was being challenged. For Shakespeare, he has referenced the chain of being and religion in a multitude of works – however A Midsummer Night’s Dream riff s on the theme of chaos and disorder against a pre-determined structure. For Hermia, she disobeys the Duke, and her own father (in this chain, the father was the head of any family), making her plight rather transgressive. In addition, nature’s representatives, Titania and Oberon, disrupt nature itself. Here, Shakespeare invites us to question our connection to authority.
McEvoy, Sean. “Chapter 1: Shakespeare’s Language (1).” Shakespeare: The Basics, Taylor & Francis Ltd / Books, 2000, pp. 11–35. EBSCOhost.
It is well known that Shakespeare’s plays were performed by all-male troupes in Elizabethan England, with young boys and men playing the roles of women. As for why women could not act on the English stage, scholars point to cultural factors (Protestants, prevailing beliefs about women, etc.) as there was no law to prohibit women acting (which becomes even more puzzling since female nobility often performed in masques). Women were largely viewed as inferior by most in Elizabethan society, as popular medical, religious, and philosophical texts determined women to be in need of protection due to their frail and sensitive nature, and was supposed to be subservient to the men in her life. Even though there was a queen in power, this did not mean women were afforded more or less power than before. As such, women were also viewed as pure and innocent, only able to handle children, therefore women performing onstage in Shakespeare’s plays would have been immoral or unseemly due to the crude, violent, or sexual nature of Shakespeare’s plays. However, that did not mean that women did not watch, partake in the business or creation of theatre – in fact, women began to involve themselves with costuming in Shakespeare’s time. Others assisted in financing, owning, or managing the funds of theatres in Elizabethan England. Women would later find their light on the stage in 1661 when King Charles I decreed it legal and acceptable for women to perform.
Yet, during this time, religious authorities also criticized theatre in general, especially the cross-dressing of young boys for women's roles. Generally, Puritans in England despised the theatre for numerous reasons: the immoral content of plays (humor, sex, and the aforementioned cross-dressing), and the acts that happened in the audiences of plays (prostitution/sexual solicitation, public indecency, public drunkenness), believing them an affront to God. Later, in the 1630s, the Puritans were even able to close public theatres in England. Important to note is the idea of natural order – boys playing women threatened the natural order, but so did women playing their roles onstage.
“Original Practices at Shakespeare’s Globe: Blogs & Features.” Shakespeare’s Globe.
“Shakespeare and the Liberties.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc.
“Invisible but Influential: Women and the Theatre in Shakespeare’s Time.” Saïd Business School.
Doran, S., & Jones, N. (Eds.). (2011). The Elizabethan World (1st ed.). Routledge.
Consider how artists draw from other sources of inspiration; how does MU Theatre draw inspiration from other literary or artistic movements to create a production?
Shakespeare’s writings were generated during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, during what is known as the “Renaissance” in Western European history. The “renaissance” is French for “rebirth” and refers to the boom of intellectualism in Western Europe and the cultural shift away from religion as the primary source of knowledge. With a new appetite for knowledge, scholars focused their studies on “the natural world,” or what we know as physics, biology, chemistry, etc. As a part of these discoveries, scholars and artists turned towards ancient Greek and Roman knowledge; Greek and Roman texts, with the invention of the printing press and the rise of literacy in Renaissance societies, became “...the epitome of literary style and elegance intended for the pursuit of moral good,” (Nelhaus 2016).
Most historians point to Italy as the nexus for the Renaissance, where knowledge had flown northwards to England. As Grecian and Roman literature (plays, poetry, novellas, etc.) had reached England, Shakespeare began writing his plays, some even taking place in Greece and Italy (the cultural capital of the Renaissance era). During Shakespeare’s time, traveling troupes of Italian actors would tour throughout Europe, all the way to England – these troupes performed an improvisational form of theatre called commedia dell’arte. In the royal court, another form of theatre called masques originated. While Shakespeare was English, he borrowed aspects of Italian theatre, Classical (ancient Greek and Roman) mythology, and some British iconography and folklore to create A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Jacobus, Lee A. “Renaissance Drama.” The Bedford Introduction to Drama, 8th Edition, 2018, Macmillan, pp. 256-261
Nellhaus, Tobin. “Theatre and the print revolution.” Theatre Histories: An Introduction, 3rd Edition, 2016, Routledge, pp. 185-198
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare sets the play in Athens, Greece and uses the characters of Theseus and Hippolyta and the story of Pyramus and Thisbe to create a world of magic and mythology. Most scholars believe Shakespeare found inspiration for Theseus and Hippolyta in Roman scholar Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans and “the father of Literature’s” Geoffrey Chaucer, and his poem “The Knight’s Tale,” within the English literary cornerstone: The Canterbury Tales. As for the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, and the name Titania, Shakespeare plucks from the epic poem, Metamorphoses by ancient Roman scholar, Ovid. Lastly, Oberon’s name may come from an old French chanson de geste (a medieval narrative poem) called Chanson de Huon de Bordeaux, or from Robert Greene, a contemporary of Shakespeare, who wrote a play called The Scottish History of James the Fourth, where Oberon is listed as “the king of the fairies.”
Commedia dell’arte refers to a theatrical tradition that originated in Italy, and toured throughout Europe in troupes. In performance, members of the troupe don masks representative of an archetype, and perform an improvised comedy. Commedia dell’arte utilized “bits” (repeated jokes/stunts) that came from the archetypes actors would play. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, most of the characters can be placed into a commedia archetype, for example (links lead to Wikipedia pages on each archetype for quick reference):
While not one-to-one comparisons, the similarities are striking. Additionally, many of Shakespeare’s plots echo misunderstandings seen in commedia dell’arte scenes. The references below expand further on the connection between commedia and Shakespeare.
Pierce, Rebecca King. “Commedia Dell’arte & the Tragicomedy: Shakespeare’s Italian Influences.” Washington University Arts & Sciences.
Preeshl, Artemis. Shakespeare and Commedia Dell'Arte: Play by Play, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017.
Masques refer to another theatrical tradition (which also originated in Italy, though were highly popular in the courts of England) that used dance, song, improvisation, masks/disguises, scenery, and even special eff ects. While not always plot-based, they were largely about spectacle and were structure with a masque and the anti-masque; using allegorical figures like gods, goddesses, and British heroes, the masque presented a spectacle meant to entertain the nobility and enforce their position as “rightful nobles” in English, and sometimes the nobility themselves would participate in these romps. While Shakespeare was not particularly a writer of masques, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare includes the fairy dance scene as a kind of masque-like sequence; masque performances were noted for their highly fantastical and whimsical designs that often included designs of fairies, mythical beasts, and religious figures.
Of Shakespeare’s work, it is written in verse, particularly a form called blank verse. Verse refers to rhythmic, or metrical writing, which in Shakespeare’s writing, is in iambic pentameter, a meter of poetry (or verse) which uses ten syllables that alternate from unstressed and stressed sounds (iambic = unstressed, stressed; pentameter = 5 of each). An example from A Midsummer Night’s Dream is:
As noted in the character breakdown, the Athenians and Fairies utilize blank verse in iambic pentameter. While not all dialogue of these characters perfectly expresses the iambic pentameter when spoken, Shakespeare purposefully wrote the play with this structure in mind, sometimes breaking the meter on purpose to emphasize particular emotional states, or to mark important moments within the play. Though a deviation in this structure is the Mechanicals’ use of language outside of performance – when the Mechanicals rehearse, they 20 utilize prose, which is unrhymed and non-rhythmic speech – like normal conversation. Aesthetically speaking, this shows the difference in culture, class, and overall character between the groups within the play. The prose form is lowly or simple, whereas the verse forms elevate the beauty, flow, and pace of the language. The Royal Shakespeare Company has a webpage that digs further into how actors and theatremakers attune themselves to the unique rhythm and musicality of Shakespeare’s language.
