MIDSUMMERS NIGHTS DREAM

LITERATURE IN ENGLISH II

DIANA LISETH MANIOS ASCENCIO

2011234026

ENRIQUE HOYOS OLIER

UNIVERSIDAD PEDAGGICA NACIONAL

FACULTAD DE HUMANIDADES
PROGRAMA ESPANOL E INGLES
2015

Table of Contents
1. Introduction 3

2. Genre.. 4
2.1 Subgenre ....4
3. Narration. 4
4. Historical background ... 4
5. Plot. 5
6. Order of the Play 6
7. Character List . 7
8.

Inside Story Time..9

9.

Historical Time .9

10. Analysis

. ... 1

10.1.Theoretical Approach ...............................................................................10

10.2 How the Woman is Conceived .................................................................13
10.3 The Role of a Woman in Love15.
11. References ................................................................................................21

1. INTRODUCTION
Midsummers Nights Dream by William Shakespeare is a play with a mixture
of charm, enthusiasm and forced love. The play may be considered as a comedy of
manners, which is concerned with the conventional behavior of men and women
under certain social codes. It is a comedy that is going to develop a cozy plot about
love and lack of affection. It mixes the everyday with the mythological; the magical
with unreal, giving rise to the appearance on the scene of the queen of the fairies,
whose confrontation give rise to the seasons and weather changes in the place.
Terrible conflicts between characters that produce astonishment, terror and
compassion are told, the tragic and comic elements are mixed for that reason the
pain interspersed with comic elements blend release tension.
This comedy was written around 1595- 1596 apparently on the
commemoration of wedding of Sir Thomas Berkeley and Elizabeth Carey, in
February 1596. When Shakespeare wrote this play, Elizabeth I was still Queen of
England.

2. GENRE:

It belongs to the drama as the author gave the floor to the fictions characters
to present their conflicts in front of the reader. This is what can be displayed on the
romantic entanglements, love spells and magic that occurs when passing the play
2.1SUBGENRE:
Its theatrical subgenre is comedy, developing friendly conflicts, sometimes
treated with humor, which often has a positive outcome.
3. NARRATION
There is not a narration because; usually in plays characters are saying what
is happening and what they think through their actions like a monologue. On stage,
the narrator disappears and characters are in charge of making known the dialogue
using the language spoken on stage, the characters are distinguishing and play is
decorated.
4. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
At the time when William Shakespeare writes Midsummer-Night's Dream, in
1595, The Queen Elizabeth of England was 62 years old, 37 years in command of
the English empire, she was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty. Who
gave the fruit to stabilize her reign, the following aspects stand out:
To control almost all adverse to Anglicanism religious groups,

To establish English colonies in the New World,

To end the war with France,

A confrontation with Spain due to the death of Mary Stuart, which was
specific battle where the Spanish Armada had been defeated by the England
Navy and later, the invasion of the Spanish Armada in the English territory
of Cornwall in the southwest of the English territory.

Also, in this time was produced an unrivaled literary flowering in England.

During this period and into the Jacobean era that followed, the English theatre
reached its highest peaks.
5. PLOT
Hermia, in love with Lysander refuses to marry Demetrius, contradicting the
wish of Egeus, her father. Demetrius, meanwhile, is loved by a friend of Hermia,
Helena, who has leave by Demetrius to marry Hermia. According to Athenian law,
the Duke Theseus gives Hermia four days of time to obey the will of her father, after
a day she has to married, die or go into a cloistered away from that way of her
beloved.
Hermia and Lysander agree to leave Athens and they marry secretly where
Athenian laws are different. They have the plan of finding each other in a forest a
few miles from the city. Hermia reveals the plan to Helena, who informs the plan to

Demetrius. Demetrius follows Hermia into the forest and Helena continues to follow
Demetrius; so that the four are in the forest.
That night, king and queen of the fairies Oberon and Titania, who inhabit the
forest, have quarreled because of a page. Oberon asks the sprite Puck, to bring him
some magical flower whose juice poured on Titania's eyes while she is sleeping, it
will make her fall in love of the first person or animal that sees when she wakes up.
In the forest, Oberon hears to reproach Demetrius with Helena who walks
following him, for that reason he orders Puck to pour some of that love potion on
Demetrius's eyes when Helena is near to him, with the idea of helping the girl.
Puck taking Lysander as Demetrius puts the juice in Lysanders eye, and as Helena
is the first person who Lysander sees, he declares her his love, but Helena is irritated,
she thinks that he is bothering her. Oberon notices Pucks error and he pours the
juice in the eyes of Demetrius, so that now, the two are courting Helena.
The two women fight while men are prepared to fight for Helena. Meanwhile
Oberon has put the juice on the eyelids of Titania, who, upon awakening, found Nick
Bottom with a donkey's head. He was practicing with a company of Athenian
artisans a drama to be represented to celebrate the wedding of Duke Theseus and
Hippolyta the queen, and Puck has put on the donkey's head. Titania falls in love for

him for its beauty. Later, Oberon feels sorry for Titania, and after recovering the
kidnapped page, he rubs the eyes of his wife with an herb that releases the charm.
Oberon orders Puck to seek out human lovers, he meets while they are
sleeping next to each other, he squeezed the plant on their eyes that undoes the
charm, so when they wake up again they love as before. Theseus and Egeus are
presented; the fugitives are forgiven and couples get married. The drama ends with
a scene of Pyramus and Thisbe recited by Nick Bottom grotesquely and his
companions to the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta.
6. ORDER
The play is divided in five acts, and this in turn scenes. The book begins with
an introduction, which is the whole act first. This first act is developed in Theseuss
palace. When Theseus announces his marriage with Hippolyta. Demetrius and
Lysander are in love with Hermia, but Hermia just wants Lisandro, but Egeus wants
Demetrio. While in the house talking to perform the work of "Pyramus and Thisbe"
at the wedding of Theseus Then, continues from the second to the fourth act. The
escape of Helena and Lysander is developed. In the forest sprites and elves appear.
While Helena appears in love with Demetrius. The outcome is followed in fifth and
last act. This outcome takes place in the palace of Theseus. This last act ends with
the wedding of Theseus with Hippolyta , of Helena with Demetrius and Lysander

with Hermia, also, the play of "Pyramus and Thisbe" is presented. In addition, this
play

has a linear structure which unfolds as the story takes a beginning, middle

and end.
7. CHARACTER LIST
Puck: Also known as Robin Goodfellow, Puck is Oberons jester, a mischievous
fairy who delights in playing pranks on mortal.
Oberon: The king of the fairies, Oberon is initially at odds with his wife, Titania,
because she refuses to relinquish control of a young Indian prince whom he wants
for a knight.
Titania: The beautiful queen of the fairies, Titania resists the attempts of her
husband, Oberon, to make a knight of the young Indian prince that she has been
given.
Lysander: A young man of Athens, in love with Hermia.
Demetrius: A young man of Athens, initially in love with Hermia and ultimately in
love with Helena.
Hermia: Egeuss daughter, a young woman of Athens. Hermia is in love with
Lysander and is a childhood friend of Helena.

Helena: A young woman of Athens, in love with Demetrius. Demetrius and Helena
were once betrothed, but when Demetrius met Helenas friend Hermia, he fell in
love with her and abandoned Helena.
Egeus: Hermias father, who brings a complaint against his daughter to Theseus,
Egeus has given Demetrius permission to marry Hermia.
Theseus: The heroic duke of Athens engaged to Hippolyta. Theseus represents
power and order throughout the play. He appears only at the beginning and end of
the story,
Hippolyta: The legendary queen of the Amazons, engaged to Theseus. Like
Theseus, she symbolizes order.
Nick Bottom: The overconfident weaver chosen to play Pyramus in the craftsmens
play for Theseuss marriage celebration. Bottom is full of advice and self-confidence
but frequently makes silly mistakes and misuses language. His simultaneous
nonchalance about the beautiful Titanias sudden love for him and unawareness of
the fact that Puck has transformed his head into that of an ass mark the pinnacle of
his foolish arrogance.
Peter Quince: A carpenter and the nominal leader of the artisans attempt to put on
a play for Theseuss marriage celebration.

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Francis Flute: The bellows-mender chosen to play Thisbe in the artisans play for
Theseuss marriage celebration
Robin Starveling: The tailor chosen to play Thisbes mother in the craftsmens play
for Theseuss marriage celebration
Tom Snout: The tinker chosen to play Pyramuss father in the craftsmens play for
Theseuss marriage celebration.
Snug: The joiner chosen to play the lion in the artisans play for Theseuss marriage
celebration.
Philostrate: Theseuss Master of the Revels, responsible for organizing the
entertainment for the dukes marriage celebration.
Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mote, and Mustardseed: The fairies ordered by Titania
to attend to Bottom after she falls in love with him.
8. INSIDE STORY TIME
The play takes place in a day, a night and a morning. First in Athens where
they are debating who will marry Hermia and choosing the characters of the play, at
night all characters go to forest except the Amazon Queen and the Duke of Athens.
The next morning the three married couples and play of Pyramus and Thisbe is

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shown. Although for the four love stories, it was just a dream of a long summer
night.
9. HISTORICAL TIME
The play is based on ancient Greece, more exactly in Athens.
10. ANALYSIS
One theme important for analyzing the play is going to be Gender, because
Midsummer Night's Dream dramatizes gender tensions that arise from complex
familial and romantic relationships. When the play opens, a young woman fights
her father for the right to choose her own husband , a duke is set to marry a woman
he recently conquered in battle, and the King and Queen of Fairies are at war with
each other, representing a battle of the sexes so intense that it disrupts the natural
world.
Through the play, also it shows some stereotypes about traditional gender
roles when it comes to romance. For example, while men are usually expected to be
aggressive, women are expected to remain passive and docile.
Taking into account the previous aspects named, I decided to analyze how
Shakespeare presents that men and women have differences in the notion of LOVE
through his work Midsummers Nights Dream. The theoretical approach for

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analyzing this novel will be feminist theory by Simone de Beauvoir who was a
French writer, intellectual, existentialist philosopher, political activist, feminist and
social theorist.
To begin with it is necessary to know loves concept according to (Beauvoir,
1949) The word love has not at all the same meaning for both sexes, and this is a
source of the grave disagreement that separate them. Due to love is merely an
occupation in the life of the man, while it is life itself for the woman. It means what
woman gives total devotion (not mere surrender) with soul and body, her love is a
faith; love becomes a religion for her, woman has no other faith.
On the contrary, a man only wish to possess a woman, annex them; at the
heart of their lives, they remain sovereign subjects; the woman they love is merely
one value among others; they want to integrate her into their existence, not submerge
their entire existence in her.
Therefore, woman accepts the traditional feminine destiny: husband, home,
children; or they live in difficult solitude, many women do not abandon themselves
to love unless they are loved in return and the love they are shown is sometimes
enough to make them fall in love.
When a woman falls in love, she sees through the mans eyes. It is in mans
eyes that the woman believes she has at last found herself; the woman in love can

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open her eyes, look at the man who loves her and whose gaze glorifies her; through
him nothingness becomes plenitude of being, and being is transfigured into value.
Therefore, here is the slave, queen, flower, doormat, servant, courtesan, muse,
companion, mother, sister woman, depending on the lovers imperious orders, she
complies with delight her submission. Also, when a woman is in love she can kill
any friendship insofar as the woman in love encloses herself in the universe of the
loved man; jealous exasperates her solitude, thus constricting her dependence even
more.
In contrast, Of course for men too suffering is linked to love; but their
heartbreaks either do not last long or are not all consuming. The man in love is
authoritarian and when he has obtained what he wanted, he is satisfied; A lover who
has confidence in his mistress shows no displeasure at her absences or if she is
occupied when away from him, he feels sure that she belongs to him.
Now, after knowing the theory de Beauvoir in her work "The second sex". The
previous notions about a woman in love are going to be analyzed deeper in the play
Midsummer Night's Dream. First, we have in the play a social reflection about the
paterfamilias, also written as paterfamilias. The paterfamilias was the oldest living
male in a household. He had complete control of all the family members especially
the ones related to marriage one example of this theme in the play is:

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Quote 1.
EGEUS
I beg the ancient privilege of Athens:
As she is mine, I may dispose of her,
Which shall be either to this gentleman
Or to her death, according to our law
Immediately provided in that case . (1.1.42-46).
Egeus has arranged for his daughter, Hermia, to marry Demetrius, but Hermia
refuses because she is in love with Lysander. Egeus is enraged because, according
to him, he can "dispose" of Hermia as he pleases. Hermia has struggled against her
father. It shows the kind of situation in which young Elizabethan women often found
themselves. In Shakespeare's day, young, unmarried women were considered their
parents property and were encouraged to obey their parents' wishes when it came
to choosing a husband.

Second, we have how the woman could be conceived.

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Quote 2.
THESEUS
Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword
And won thy love, doing thee injuries,
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph, and with reveling. (1.1.17-20).
In Shakespeare's play is reflected that men see the woman as a positions for
showing their power. As noted Beauvoir (1949) (Theseus marries the Amazonian
Queen he won in battle and Oberon humiliates Titania and takes away her foster
child).it is a patriarchal norm."
Quote 3.
THESEUS
What say you, Hermia? be advised fair maid.
To you your father should be as a god,
One that composed your beauties, yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax
By him imprinted and within his power
To leave the figure or disfigure it. (1.1.47-52)

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Theseus says that fathers are like "gods" and daughters are like globs of wax, Here,
Theseus is sinister because he says that Egeus had the power to make Hermia in his
own image, he also has the "power" to "disfigure" her (body/face) if he wish it. In
conclusion, Egeus is her owner.
Quote 4.
OBERON
Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord?
Another owner

TITANIA
Then I must be thy lady (2.1.65-66)
Third, the role of the woman in love.
Quote 5.
HELENA
Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!
Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex.
We cannot fight for love, as men may do.
We should be wooed and were not made to woo. (2.1.245-249)
Here, Helena points out that, even though it is not socially acceptable for women to
be aggressive in the pursuit of love, she does not care. On the one hand, Helena acts
like a creepy stalker when she chases Demetrius around after the guy is made it

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perfectly clear that he is not in love with her. That is to say, she only sees through
Demetriuseyes.
Quote 6.
PUCK
My mistress with a monster is in love
Titania waked and straightway loved an ass.
fall in love with the donkey-headed Bottom,
and give up her foster child to Oberon. (3.2.6; 36-39)
Another example, that a woman in love only sees through lover's eyes.
Quote 7.
LYSANDER
Demetrius, I will avouch it to his head,
Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,
And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,
Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,
Upon this spotted and inconstant man. (1.1.108-112)
This is an example of unstable love that a man may feel.

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Quote 8.
HERMIA
"Puppet!" why so? Ay, that way goes the game.
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures; she hath urg'd her height,
And with her personage, her tall personage,
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him.
And are you grown so high in his esteem
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole? Speak!
How low am I? I am not yet so low
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes. (3.2.304-313)
This is the fight between Helena and Hermia, it is an example when a woman is in
love she can kill any friendship.
With all examples presented are clear highlights the theory feminist by
Simone Beauvoir in her work The second Sex created in 1949, about the difference
between the notion of love by women and men. This is

found in the play

Midsummers Nights Dream By William Shakespeare in 1595. Aspects that in

our present society can be reflected like stereotypes about traditional gender role.
This is a reason, of why is so magic and rewarding to read play Shakespeare which

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there are themes that are not going to change such as, love. Because the word love
has not at all the same meaning for both sexes.

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The day when it will be possible for the woman to love in her strength and not in
her weakness, not to escape from herself but to find herself, not out of resignation
but to affirm herself, love will become for her as for man the source of life and not
a mortal danger. For the time being, love epitomizes in its most moving form the
curse that weighs on woman trapped in the feminine universe, the mutilated woman,
incapable of being self-sufficient. Innumerable martyrs to love attest to the injustice
of a destiny that offers them as ultimate salvation a sterile hell.
Simone Beauvoir-1949-France.

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11. Bibliography

Beauvoir, S. (1949). The Second Sex. France: Gallimard.

Hidalgo, P. (1997). Shakespeare posmoderno. Espaa: Universidad de Sevilla,
Secretariado de publicaciones.
Shakespeare, W. (2014). Sueo de Una Noche de Verano. Mexico,D.F: Penagos,
S, A. DE C.V.