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| The significance of the title of A Midsummer Night's Dream |
The Significance of the title of A Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare for his tragedies or history plays usually chose titles after the name of the hero like Henry IV, Macbeth, King Lear, etc., but for his comedies, he chose explanatory or proverbial titles like Much Ado About Nothing, Measure for Measure, Twelfth Night, etc. A Midsummer Night's Dream also is such light-hearted and broad title that indicates the gay spirit of the festival associated with St. John's Day that is 24" June. Though in the play the action occurs between April 29 and May 1, the play is so named because the Midsummer day, the festival of St. John, was formerly one of the main and most happy anniversaries of the Christian year, next, perhaps, only to Christmas. It was a day of a number of ceremonies and festivities. Bonfires were lit, and the houses were painted green. There were numerous processions with garlands amidst the singing of carols; and, of course, there were pageants and shows along with the enactment of plays. Thus the play is so-called because it was designed for representation on a Midsummer night. There were bizarre superstitions concerning Midsummer day. It was believed that witches and spirits were active in a rather peculiar way, and strange things happened; things quite as bizarre as the transformation of Bottom and the exquisite effect of the love juice. The Elizabethan audience must have accepted the curious occurrences in the play with a lot of satisfaction. It is obvious that the dramatist wanted to stress on the dream nature of the play. Gervinus comments, "The piece is called A Midsummer Night's Dream: the Epilogue expresses satisfaction, if the spectator will regard the piece as a dream; for in a dream time and locality are obliterated; a certain twilight and dusk is spread over the whole". Shakespeare stresses this point with great emphasis. He wants us to accept the play as a fanciful creation, where imagination has run amuck, chasing every whim and freak, creating havoc with the realities of existence. A dream can rarely be explained in logical terms. We should not look for logic in the fantastic world of a dream-comedy. The play demands of us to accept happenings that do not occur in real life. The fairies, the love-juice, the transformation of Bottom could not be explained in logical terms. But in a dream, they seem highly probable. The characters of the play stress that all that is happening around them is a dream. Titania speaks of "visions" that she has seen of being "enamoured of an ass", while Theseus thinks that the Athenian lovers would "Think no ore of this night's accidents/ But as the fierce vexation of a dream" on returning to Athens.
The main characters of the play act as if they are under the influence of illusion and enchantment. We constantly get the feeling that their thoughts, speech, and actions are influenced by some extraneous force, and that they are not responsible for them. Demetrius and Lysander forget Hermia and start loving Helena. Even Titania, the Queen of the fairies, falls in love with an ass. So enamored is she that she does not mind parting with the changeling boy, whom she had earlier completely refused to hand over to Oberon.
All this happens due to the effect of the love-juice that is smeared in their eyes. When people are wrongly bounded by the love-juice, like Lysander who is mistaken for Demetrius, Oberon has an equally unbelievable antidote to release them from the spells. He does release Titania of her spell as well. Once he has the changeling boy, it would have been unacceptable to let Titania continue to be in love with an ass. Lysander's falling in love with Helena in any case was a mistake, since he has already in love with Hermia. Demetrius is a different matter. Though he too loves Hermia, his love is switched over to Helena, because Hermia does not love him and Helena does. Shakespeare's comedy required a joyous ending all around; which meant marriage for everyone in love. This is achieved through the love-juice. But once the situation becomes romantically unacceptable, there is always the antidote that is available to set things right. Thus, the play may be a dream, but the dream is essentially romantic and comic.
Bottom is undoubtedly a substantial character, but he too has "a most rare vision". One of the main features of the play is that the dramatist has given free play to his fancy, without trying to be pedantic. The fairies are nothing more than a personified dream:They are harmless in relation to mortals, though they cannot be said to be without mischief. The world of the fairies belongs to the dusk and twilight, mainly because this is the period of our finest dreams. The entire power of the fairies works through the medium of dreams or of such fanties which are quite similar to the dreams.
Even the atmosphere of the play has a dream-like quality about it. The entire play is steeped in the moonlight. There are numerous references to the moon by the various characters of the play. Hecate is the goddess of the moon, and the fairies that draw her chariot run away from the sun. Thus she is linked with those powers that are the antithesis of sunlight and its two offshoots, daylight and reality. Since they follow "darkness like a dream", moon and dreams become virtually synonymous. It thus. becomes obvious that the title of the play is very apt, if we accept the play as if we ourselves are experiencing the dream. The atmosphere and the mood of the play is also suggestive of midsummer festivities, superstitions and folk-lore. A special mood is required to accept the play in such terms. It is only then that the actions and characters of the play become part of the special atmosphere of the night of the midsummer day.
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