Duality in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Duality in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

by Omar García Pérez

"...we fairies…do run …
by the triple Hecate's team
from the presence of the sun,
following darkness like a dream..."

In this essay, I will talk about how duality and antithetical elements are portrayed in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This work is believed to have been first performed between 1595 or 1596; it is said that it was written for the celebration of a wedding (Taylor: 1973:221), and it is known that it was first published in the late 1600 (Holland, 1998:110), an epoch which, according to Jacobson (2004:7), was “a highly creative period” in Shakespeare’s career.

The play belongs to the genre of comedy, and it reflects a literary trend that incorporated many allusions and references to the social, cultural and even political heritage in Europe.

One of the most immediate references, without doubt, is The Knight's Tale, the first tale of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The direct connection between Chaucer’s tale and the work in question has been explained by authors like Halliwell (1841:11-12), and though it is not the focus of this essay to study it in detail, it is important to notice it because, one the one hand, it allows us to identify an association between the Father of the English language and the Father of the English literature, and second, it may thus suggest the idea that Chaucer’s dualism in works like Troilus and Criseyde (Lawler, 1980:143) may have had an influence of Shakespeare, who was acquainted with Chaucer’s works (Driver, 2009:232).

Having established this, the story might be seen in a dualist approach. As it has been pointed out in literature courses, the whole play is filled with biformity, and this is a feature that one can even see in the title itself. Having coined over 2,000 words to the English language, no one doubts that Shakespeare was certainly a master of morphology. If, thus, one ponders about the title of his play, from a syntagmatic semantics approach, it can be said that the root “summer…” first gives the idea of hot, whereas “night”, is inseparably associated with the notion of cold. The prefix “mid-” before “midsummer” gives a clue that the story’s plot will take place “in the middle” of a situation where different parties or antagonist paradigms are set.

Dualism gives the idea of contrariness or opposition within a same context, and, as the story goes on, we encounter this trend in every situation. But, apart from the satirical side, it would be interesting to inquire whether these dichotomies have symbolic impressions and even allegorical elements.

The most notable ones might be related to love and hate. There is a corresponded love on the part of the first couple (Lysander & Hermia) but also an unrequited attraction (Helena & Demetrius). It could be said that the first couple really felt true love, and was willing to be together and united. Then it all becomes the opposite, but the resulting situation is later referred to as an illusion. Due to magic charms and a mistake, Lysander, as well as Demetrius, are misled and fall into a false love. Their eyes are not opened, but rather, blinded. This false love is the cause of strives, even between those women who formerly were best friends and wished the best for the other; i.e. Hermia and Helena. What was formerly friendship not became enmity and jealousy.

The references to Roman characters (e.g. Venus, Diana) and Greek ones (e.g. Hercules, Amazons, Cupid), in the midst of these constant quarrels between the Athenian characters, not only demonstrate that there is a point of reference to the classics, but somehow bring to our minds the constant strives between mythological characters (in the case of an unreal realm), and the Second Macedonian Wars (in the case of an historical one). This leads to another dichotomy which has to do with the real and the unreal. Figures of European folklore like (fairies, elves) appear along real common people like weavers, joiners and tailors. Fantastic and authentic events happen in the same plane, the dream per se, and the reality of the story become one single story. The abstract is presented along with the physical. Titanian and the fairies, which are all supposed to be invisible characters, come to be seen by Bossom.

The diachronic is depicted within the synchronic. The past is presented as if it were the same time in the past. This is seen when the Duke of Athens, Theseus, (who is historically known as a past founder-hero in Ancient Greece), appears along with Philostrate, the Master of the Revels (holder of a position in the British royal household at the time of Shakespeare’s life).

What could be called “maternal love” appears along with “paternal” lovelessness. Titania (who is thought to actually be an “adoptive” mother to “the Indian boy”), is caring towards him, whereas Oberon wants the child to be his “henchman”. When Oberon, by means of the magic juice, causes Titania to fall in a false love with Bottom, Oberon takes away Titania’s maternal-like love for the Indian boy and replaces with an awful one towards an ass (Shmoop, 2014).

What’s more interesting of all these antithetical situations is that, apparently, all the bad events and all the problems happen at night, when everything is dark. In this sense, there is a contrast between the light and the darkness.

In conclusion, the handling and recurrence to duality in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is prevailing and becomes very evident by approaching to the play from a symbolic form. Both the form and content of this work show the extraordinary ability, control and domination that Shakespeare had to master the English language as an artistic medium to express symbolically a great amount of literary knowledge and cultural erudition.

Bibliographic References

• Bristol, Michael D. (2011). Shakespeare and Moral Agency.  Continuum Shakespeare Studies. New York. A&C Black. ISBN: 9781441120472
• Driver, Martha W.; Sid Ray. Shakespeare and the Middle Ages: Essays on the Performance and Adaptation of the Plays with Medieval Sources or Setting. McFarland
• Halliwell, James Orchard (1841). An introduction to Shakespeare's Midsummer nitgth's dream by James Orchard Halliwell. London. Will. Pickering.
• Holland, Peter (1998). The Oxford Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream. The World's Classics.
• Lawler, Traugott; (1980). The one and the many in the Canterbury tales. Archon Books.a
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• Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream. 10^th edition. Collins Edition. The Project Gutenberg. (2003). Accessed: August 2014 http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/2ws1710h.htm
• Shmoop. 2014. A Midsummer Night's Dream > The Challenging. Accessed: August 2014 http://www.shmoop.com/midsummer-nights-dream/changeling.html
• Taylor, Marion Ansel (1973). Bottom, Thou Art Translated: Political Allegory in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Related Literature. Rodopi.
• Vickers, Brian (2003). William Shakespeare: The Critical Heritage Volume 6 (1774-1801).  Routledge.