In Shakespeare’s A
Midsummer’s Night Dream, there were several noticeable themes that would be
interesting to research. In the online group forum of Slack, Gaylie Bowles and I
discussed several themes that kept popping up throughout the text. These themes
included love, gender roles, and the setting of the play.
Love was a major theme we noticed, and that would be
interesting to research for its varying appearances and qualities throughout
the play. There is natural love and supernatural love at play, but sometimes
they coincide and make those watching or reading believe that they are one and
the same. Oberon procures a love potion, a paste to be put on the eyelids of a
person, so that the first thing they see when they awake, they grow attached
to. He does this as a joke and stab at Tatiana, who refused his love, to get
back at her. Upon awaking, she fell in love with a man with the head of a
donkey. This alludes to a natural like love caused by supernatural
circumstances, which would be interesting to explore through scholarly
articles.
Also interesting is how gender is portrayed in this
play, and how gender roles are perceived. A line that stood out to me was “And
though she be but little, she is fierce” (3.2.342). This line I think perfectly
accentuates how gender is portrayed – women are strong and have power, though
they are not perceived as such. Hermia and Tatiana exude power and authority,
though others would deny it (the men). These strong themes of feminism would be
cool to explore throughout a few of Shakespeare’s plays, because, in this play
at least, the women are not degraded once out of the city. Out in the wild,
they have great power and are equals to the men, which would an interesting
thread to explore in other plays.
Setting also played a major role, and it would be neat
to view different performances of this play to see how the setting interacts
with the themes and characters as much as I believe it does, based on what
happens in the play. Much of the drama is caused by marking the wrong Athenian
for the love potion, therefore causing a spiral of unhappiness and misery. The
Athenians wore their clothes boldly, and though they were sneaking off to get
married where they could live freely together, Lysander and Hermia had no other
thought than keeping their connection to their identity. It would be
interesting to see how identity interacts with the other themes that we found
while reading, and then to place their identities within the context of the
setting.
I agree Rachel, love was a huge theme in the play, and while I didn't categorize it as natural and supernatural, that would be a very interesting way to look closer at the play. Would you also include the love demonstrated between Theseus and "Hippo" who symbolize authority but also order? What does it mean that as symbols of order their love is of the natural sort, never affected by supernatural elements(love potion or otherwise)?
ReplyDeleteRachel, I love where you're going with the difference between natural love and supernatural love. Your line, "There is natural love and supernatural love at play, but sometimes they coincide and make those watching or reading believe that they are one and the same," really hooked me. Would you address the love felt by Hermia, Helena, Lysander, and Demetrius? Is that kind of love purely natural, or purely supernatural, or affected by both?
ReplyDeleteLove is valid as a theme to look at but quite general. Same with the supernatural angle. I'd like to see you talk about the themes in terms of the formal elements that give life to the drama.
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