A Midsummer Nightmare: Prewriting

By: Unknown on 12:53 PM

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An example of the elevated diction used to describe love in ShakeSpeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

 I finally took the opportunity to read Shakespeare's, A MidSummer Night's Dream. For a long time I have heard about this play in casual conversation, it would spring up in a passing comment or flit by in a piece of a movie scene. Well, while it wasn't exactly what I expected (Strangely the sublime, intangible concept it is always hovering just beyond complete understanding and realization) however, it certainly had some choice lines and interesting points.

I would enjoy taking a closer look at the stereotypical portrayal of love(See picture above). At some point, Europeans at least, (I am less familiar with the literary traditions of other groups of people)  decided that love required more eloquence. It became common practice to write love poetry or to sing Odes about your beloved, and the subject (love generally, or yours specifically) demanded a sort of elevated diction (or your best attempt, as was clearly often reality). This concept is present in the writings of Shakespeare, Samuel Coleridge, Elizabeth Browning, and many others. I believe this is because love, like that unintelligible, half-baked, preconceived notion, is associated with the sublime and thus in an effort to seek the extraordinary people turned to language to pursue what was ordinarily out of their reach. I think it would be interesting to examine this psychological phenomenon by comparing Shakespeare's descriptions of love and lovers with those of some of the other well known writers.

Another aspect of the play that drew my attention was topic of gender roles. I have often heard that there are lots of arguments for feminism in many of Shakespeare's works. While that is true, these are sometimes brought to light through characters who argue against feminism. The quote pictured above was an example of one of these. This metaphor of a rose as a symbolic objectification of a woman has several disturbing implications. For example, "But earthlier happy is the rose distilled / than that which, withering on the virgin thorn" suggests a divided future for a woman. If she wishes to be happy she must yield her agency and choice to a man. notice the impersonal verb "distilled". However, if she chooses to maintain her ability to choose she does so by sacrificing happiness and companionship. I could spend several pages unpacking this metaphor and denoting the implications its message would have on the lives of women.

Finally, as I am in a dance class this semester I was interested by the element of dance that frequently pops up in reference to the fairies and their ability to control the seasons and maintain order. Often times dance used to be use as a social mechanism. Dances were performed in a specific way and used to celebrate a sense of community. Underlying their celebratory nature is also an affirmation of society's structure and thus, it's rules and regulations. I am considering writing a paper analyzing this play through that lens.