The final word on the imagination belongs to Theseus

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The final word on the imagination, however, belongs to Theseus, who remarks about the confusion that has transpired in the woods to his queen Hippolyta at the start of Act V:

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.
(V, i, l.2-7).

Lovers, madman, and creative artists share the same force, the inspiration of imagination and its ability to reach into what cool reason cannot grasp.

Shakespeare uses rhyme and imagery to recreate fairy world in the theatre and to show how important the use of the imagination  is as would have few props.

Shakespeare satirises other playwrites.

The world of the woods has ended – iambic pentameter – and moves into prose as we return to society.

seen as father’s property = patriarchal power / society based on repression e.g. Theseus and Hippolyta- captured.

Oberon orders Puck to fix the issue by applying the remedy to Lysander's eyes so that he will love Hermia again. Oberon is concerned enough about the situation to bother to fix it, he is still more interested in Titania, whom he will be tormenting while Puck is solving the humans' problems.

Theseus, the hero who defeats the Minotaur in the labyrinth

Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons

Although Theseus upholds Egeus' right to determine whom his daughter will marry, Theseus is clearly unhappy about the manner in which Egeus and Demetrius have handled the situation when he tells them that he has some "private schooling for them both" (l. 116).

Act III

Shakespeare goes from serious stuff now to comical/farsical stuff.

Love, according to Helena, is blind, irrational, and oft-times cruel - Things base and vile, holding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity,
Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind,
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.
(I, i., ll.232-235) By the "mind" Helena plainly does not mean reason, but instead, something akin to imaginative fantasy.

They decide to sleep for the night and find their way in the morning. This features an aspect of love not addressed previously in the play—sexual attraction. Lysander wants to sleep with Hermia, who he thinks will soon be his wife, but Hermia tells him to sleep further off in the interests of propriety. Although this is definitely the proper thing to do, Hermia's formality leads to the confusion that follows. Puck, having been ordered to find an "Athenian" and make sure he falls in love with the maid with him, applies the love juice to Lysander's eyes thinking that he must hate Hermia: "Pretty soul, she durst not lie/Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy" (ll. 76-77). Lysander and Helena - The two run off, leaving Hermia by asleep by herself and leaving the audience to question whether this may just be a dream (or nightmare) of Hermia's.

 


The Nature of Power in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’

The nature of power can be seen in many different forms in the this festive comedy set in patriarchal Athens, which are influenced in relation to the different environments in Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. The different environments bring out complimentary aspects of human nature, as demonstrated when the four lovers, Hermia, Lysander, Helena and Demetrius enter the woods for the reason that Hermia wishes to go against her father, Egeus, and spend the rest of her life with Lysander, whom she loves. The play makes social and historical comment. Theseus’ stiff and rigid domain mirrors the image of Elizabethan society in the 17th Century. Love and marriage was a manner of duty; people were married not out of love, but to make social or economic relation between two families. Scene I demonstrates this as it introduces one of the major plot issues of the play.

Ordinarily a love triangle like that of Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius would cause a great deal of trouble just for the sake of love, but it is further complicated by Egeus' insistence that Hermia marry Demetrius, despite her love for Lysander. This conflict highlights a key issue in the amount of control a parent should have over their child. By Athenian law, Egeus has the right to decide whom his daughter will marry, and he is shocked and angered by his daughter's refusal to follow his wishes on the matter as she should, by Elizabethan societal standards, be governed by her father, “as she is mine [Egeus’s]”. However, Egeus completely disregards Hermia's preferences and Demetrius' reputation, which has been grazed by the breaking of his oath to Helena. Theseus claims at this point that he cannot change the law, and he tells Hermia to choose between Demetrius, life as a nun, and death, “either to this gentleman, or to her death”.

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Athens is no environment for imagination but reason, and there is no place for romantic love in marriage in Elizabethan society. The lack of rhyming or spontaneity in Theseus’ measured verse symbolises the way in which, unlike in the woods, it was a place of duty and order, and not imagination, love or poetry. Once left alone, Lysander and Hermia ponder their situation, at which point Lysander reminds his beloved that “the course of true love never did run smooth”. The power of the court and authority of Theseus and Egeus over Hermia and Lysander compels the lovers to elope ...

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