1.

Theseus
Dowden observes; "the central figure of the play is that of Theseus,
There is no figure in the early drama of Shakespeare so magnificent. His
are the large hands that have helped to shape the world. His utterance
is the rich-toned speech of one who is a master of events-who has never
known a shrill or eager feeling-.. ..the heroic man of action in the
hour of his enjoyment and leisure with a splendid capacity for enjoyment.
gracious to all, ennobled by glory, implied rather than explicit, of great
foregone achievement, he stands
true proportion to the tribe
as a centre of the poem, giving their
fairy upon one hand, and upon the other to
the human mortals."
Theseus is the Duke of Athens. He figures in the play as a romantic
person. Majestic and heroic, he has a dignified bearing. He is kind
to
Hermia, but he can be stern if the law so demands.
Serene and tranquil,
there is an austerity about him. He is
harsh to Hermia. He is very courteous. heartless even if he appears
never

that
He is one of those that believe
justice must be tempered by
mercy. He is a kind of benevolent
autocrat. He appreciates a
done. He can praise Bottomgood deed and will not mind the way it is
and his troupe if only to make them
greater interest in the presentation of navc
"no
plays. Thus he declares,
 Introduction to the Play 93
epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no excuse. Never excuse
. s o it is truly: and very notably discharged." He gives thanks
even for such performance because,
"The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing"
In earlier times great clerks intended to. greet him with
well-prepared texts of welcome; and he saw them shiver and look pale
and they "dumbly broke off, not paying me a welcome." Then,

".Out of this silence yet I picked a welcome:

And in the modesty of fearful duty.
I read as much as from the rattling tongue
Of saucy and audacious eloquence.
Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity.
In least speak most, to my capacity."
He prefers simplicity and speaking less.
Theseus is a valiant man of action. A soldier and a hero, he tells
Hippolyta
"I woo'd thee with my swords,
And won thylove, doing thee injuries:
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling."
There is the pride of the heroic man and the humanity and courtesy
of a man with a heart. There is a majesty, a dignity, in his love, though
he does not strike one as an emotional being. With all his critical and
shrewd outlook and behaviour, he does not possess enough of
imagination. His insight into human nature tends him to group the poet
He could say this bluntly because he
wIth the lover and the madman. is unable to believe the fantasy
feels that be is none of these. Hence he
to which the lovers are subjected in the wood :
"More strange than true: I never may believe,
These antique fables nor these tairy toys,
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend,
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
out the
But when the actors fail he thinks he can piece man with
arrogance of a
imperfections with his thoughts." This may be come
a fund of self-confidence. In the last Act, we across many of his
also show that
observations which reveal his wit, irony and humour. They
De 1s full of commom sense and that he has the necessary culture.
confusion of hounds" He is
The Duke loves bunting and "musical
proud of his hounds.
adventures, He killed the
Theseus is also the hero of many Ariadne, the daughter of Minos
Minotaur in Crete and carried awayWhen the Amazons made inroads
King of Crete (IL i, 81:IVL
113),
against them, aided by Hercules and others; and
fought
nto Attica, heencounter their Qeen Hippolyta
that he won the love of
was in this
helped Adratus, King of Argive6, and recovered the
(V i. 113). He
94 A Midsummer Night's Dream
bodies of those slain before Thesbe (V. 51). "With the
i. Lapithae he
in aid ot the Thessalian
said to have chastised the Centaurs, fighting
He is a periect idcal of manly
i. 44).
Perithons, the King of Lapithac (V.
beauty."
2. Lysander
is the lover of Hermia. He iS
a
wealthy person. Evenven
Lysander on
Theseus admits that Lysander is disqualitied
from marryingherHermia
chosen by father. H
that is, he is not the
man
on onc ground, and and
of action. He lacks the shrewdness
tact
to persuade her
her
is a maiu he
old man, says proudly:
father. Instead of persuading the
"You have her father's love, Demetrius;
do you marry him."
Let me have Hermia's :
He has nothing but scorn for Egeus.
With his acute intelligence and reade
Lysander has an alert mind. to the wood S0
of running away with Hermia
wit, he hits upon the ideabounds of the Athenian law. Lysander would
that they can be out of
and quickly, if only Oberon and Puck
have executed his plan successfully
matters.
were not there to complicate
towards others, he
He is gentle and wel-intentioned. Sympathetic
he gave out the secret plan
does not think about the consequences when
not bear to hear the sorrowful tale
to Hermia's friend Helena. He could
of Helena's love for Demetrius.
under the
love for her. Whenbelieve
Hermia is convinced of his genuine she could not that
influence of the juice, he turns away from her,
he deserted her. She tells Demetrius:
The sun was not so true unto the day
As he to me: would he have stolen away
From sleeping Hermia? I'l believe as soon
This whole earth may be bored."
Sae
Hermia is equally confident of his heroism and strength.
believes that Demetrius may have murdered him in sleep.
"Durst thou have looked upon him being awake,
And hat thou killed him sleeping?"
Still Lysander is not higl1ly emotional, He has a sense of chiw
which does not desert him even when he is under the spel
does no
comes in his away when he is challenging Demetr Buthe ot harhart
push heraway,He could only say: "Although I hate her wil ve nevof
her so" Early in the play, he admits that "the course of true o
did run smooth."
Lysander is also resourceful. He a robust optimist. Hetisothe
is t
oflover who is true to his cherished convictions and w realize
spe

what he felt necessary, It is Lysander who first begns inds

unpleasantly about Demetriusand this unpleasantnessedich
C
Culmination in the proposed duel. But as in al other
fastandmore
Shakespeare makes his women more sensible, more ad
 Introduction to the Play 95
I v s a n d e r is one ol the TO0Ish young men who can he civilized
significant. Lysa
only be Hermia.

3 . D e m e t r i u s

by nature, Demetrius could

transfer his
Insteady and changeable the
I
f r o m Helena to
Hermia overnight without lightest pang
affcctions Iwas he who jilted Helena. He wooed her and won her
conscience.
for Hcrmia;
and this Helena dotes :
of.
before he left her
soul dotes in idolatry
Devoutly dotes, inconstant man."
and
Upon this spotted
Theseus. Now the same Demetrius.
formation did reach even
This rmia, wants to marry her by securing the
heart of
win the he would Id marry
marry not for love but
nable to father. In o t h e r words,
consent of
her
w a n t s the old law to stand
by him. With all his
r e a s o n s . He sentimental.
for other he is emotional and
pressure-tactics,
recourse to
law and to u n d e r the
influence of a whim or an
e v e n kill Lysander Hermia.
He would powerful rival to the hand of
to get rid of a
impulse, if only treats Helena badly in
the
in hinm, he
With n o s e n s e of chivalry
me
thee not : therefore pursue
he tells her : "T love information
wood. Very curtly w a s Helena
who gave him the
that it
not." Yet he forgets
about Hermia's plot:
much the hatred of my spirit,
Tempt not too look o n thee."
For I a m sick when I do of
he wilI leave her alone 'to the mercy
Still if Helena follows him, threatens her:
wild beasts.' Not satisfied with this, he
"If thou follow me, do not believe
the wood,"
But I shall do thee mischief in
a n Athenian youth
whc is blinded not by love or
This ill becomes like a villain, uke
considerations. He tries to behave
u,but by otheer of Hermía and Lysander. Sucn
alicious obstacle, in the lives
Enaviour makes one feel that he does not deserve Helena.

Hudson remarks: "In the pairs of loves there are hardiy any
two
characteristic. 1nc
ddeeP and firm enough to be rightly called
doings, even mor than those of the other human persons, are marked
Diec dream-like freakishness and whimsicality which distinguishes tc
Ferhaps the two ladies are slightly discriminated as individua
n
the case of Demetrjus and Lysander the lines are exec
****BBehnaovi
nd ormer being perhaps a shade-the more
çaustic and spiteful
C latter somewhai the more open and candid."
Charlton observed:"Demetrius is tirst suspect of disl
ysander's metal is not without good sound drass
pleadin
Demetrius
pleadin who actsas a foil to Lysander. Moreover, but for Helenas
n e m e t r i u s in the wood, Oberon would not have intertered
human affairs. In
I n aa way, Demetrius brings on the dream; an
is about
one of the whom Puck received the vaguest possible instructions.
n triumphs of Shakespeare's dramatic art that the
the entire
entire
* Centres round a character who appears not to D
 96 A Midsummer Night's Dream

4. Hippolyta
Wooed by Thee
Hippolyta is the Queen of Amazons. She was,impression
with the sword. She is gentle and quiet, giving the
thas
is not a live character in the play. Mostly silent, she utters
only thieShe
sentences in the whole play. She is not infatuated;
she doesn en
care to express her for Theseus. Titania speaks of her as,

the bouncing Amazon,

Your buskined mistress and your warrior love."
She is an Amazon by common consent. But the only reference in the tex i
the passage where she gives an incident from her past:
Iwas with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Crete they bayed the bear
With hounds of Sparta; never did I hear
Such gallant chiding."
The cries of the hounds appeared sweet and musical to her ears
"I never heard
musical a discord, such sweet thunder."
She is credulous too. She does not doubt
lovers. Pride of place has prejudiced her against anything narrated by the
the rustic
she states that "this is the silliest stuff I ever have heard." actors; and
She does not
possess a sense of humour. She is the only character in the
"I am weary of this moon: ould he play to say:
would change."
5. Hermiaa

Hermia is an
emotional character, madly in love with
There is nothing spectacular unique
or about her. She has Lysander.
and no
no
insight. Theseus tried to persuade Hermia to accept her originality
wish. But very cheerfully she agrees to live a "barren fathers
Lysander is so great and deep that she is prepared tosister. Her love Ior
Before she saw Lysander, Athens appeared like a suffer for his sake
that she fell in love with him, contrary to her paradise. But ater
has such 'graces' that the father's wishes. Her love
As
paradise has begun appearing like a hell.
Charlton remarks: "Hermia is
Is
even more alive" than Helena. "She small, dark and quick of tone
is soon driven out of maideny
patience, though she is schooling herself to bear with her
cross. Her temper is as sharp as her custOti
touchily matters of her stature and her
in tongue, and excites iuse most
when she went to school and even in
the complexion. Sne nolitet
World, sbe has not quite mastered her drawing rooms o e into
fray, The customary comiç instinct to bring
ng her nails
net ectod
confusions in the scene whereplay of misapprehension ected
hension and
ana unexped
enhanced the four lovers are at odds, is mousy
enorn
nousiy

by at
the sprightly sketch of the girlish moodsodd
of Hermia's jealousy" and feluine attitudes
attitudes
a
Hermia is a conventional character. This lad
hassphery eyes fair and beauteou eyes
(II, . 99), This is(I, i. 99). They are the blessed and at
significant; for in the comedies
lovers love with their nedies of Shakespcare
This is a love which she ofattraci
eyes, Hermia's eyes are blessed and
attractiv

will not give up even if t atens

atensher to
threca be
 Introduction to the Play 97
aithering on the virgin thorn' and to 'die in single blesedness. She tels
the Duke with deep conviction :
"So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
Ere I will yield my
virgin patent up
Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke
My soul consents not to give sovereignty."
And yct her voice is
"More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
She is bold and yet polite. She can be fierce when the situation so
demands of her to be violent. She accuses Helena with vehemence :
"Youjuggler! You canker-blossom!
You thief of love ! waat bave you come by night
And stolen my love's heart from him?"
Conscious of her owh shortness, she retaliates Helena by
addressing her as "thou painted maypole." She wants Helena to note
that her "nails can reach unto her eyes." These fits of temper are only
occasional. The meek Helena does not understand, her friend's temper
when she says:
"She is a vixen, when she went to school;
And though she be little she is fierce."
But earlier in the same scene she spoke warmly and affectionately
about her friend:
"We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,
Have with our needles created both one flower,
Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,
Both warbling of one song, both in
one key,
As if our hands, our sides, voices and minds
Had been incorporate.
As Hudson observes: "Hermia besides her brevity of person, is
the more tart and more pert in temper and shrewish in speech while
Helena is of a milder and softer disposition, with less of confidence in
herself" Hermia and Helena, says Charton,"are Shakespeare's first
ttle flappers, straight from a ladý's seminary."
Hermia can be friendly with any one, even with a rival. That is why
she made Lysander divulge the plan to Helena. She is considerate and
she addresses Helena.
"Farewell sweet playfellow, pray thou for us:
And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius"
Yet there is a practical strain in her. Shrewd and full of common
Sense, she does understand the inconsistency of men. This gves hera
vantage point. She tells her lover, "let us teach our trial paticnce" Like
the later heroines of Shakespeare's comedies, she has a powerful and
COntroling will. To some extent, Hermia is the only well-developed
Character in the play.
 Midsummer Night's Dream
98 A

6. Helena she dotee

that
deeply. I t is said has
Helena loves Demetrius The love made her n
him-devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry. simplicity; and by nature
and senseless. She is full of meekness and
is incapable of understanding human
beings properly and corre
it is that she discloses Lysander's plan to Demetrius with the
Hence Even at the 'expense of pain'
of accompanying him to the wood.
pines for his company.
She has no consideration for ha
Helena is weak and sentimental.
friend Hermia, and so she divulged the plan to Demetrius.
Demetrie
would be happy if he can thwart the plan ; and if he succeeded in thar
she would have lost both Demetrius and Hermia. She lacks judgement
and she has no great insight and no strong will. She follows Demetrins
to the wood without any idea or plan.
Charlton remarks that Helena appears to be weaving her first love
into silken dreams, and endeavouring to restrain her more mettlesome
companion from stealing out of the widow. to try kisseson the
mouh.. .Helena is pale and tall, the traditional emblem of forlorna
maiden love, a sweet lady, sweetly doting upon an inconstant man. All
she asks is to be allowed to fawn and follow her lover as his spaniel."
Hermia and Helena are the "two lovely berrries moulded on one
stem." Both are fair, though Helena is reportedly fairer and taller
Charming, gentle and mild, Helena is faithful, sincere and emotional
She is like a spaniel; her attachment is abiding. Rejected by her lover,
shedevelops self-pity and says to Hermia:
"O, were favour so,
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I
She is determined to do anything to be like Hermia:
go."
Where the world mine, Demetrius being bathed,
The rest rd give to be to you translated.
0, teach me how you look; and with what art
You sway the motion of Demetrius
heart P"
She teels that her bad luck is the result of her insufficiency.S
does not believe that there is something worth with
loving her. In her infatuation she puts the blame as theDemetrius
blindness oflove,
on the god of love :

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is winged Cupid painted
Nor hath love's mind of blind.
seatedCannot any judgement
her lovetasse
seated, in spite ofblame
her
her lover because is firm and deep
Though meek andsentimentality.
Hermia for having "nogentle, a in n
an angry mood of auarrel sheuchblamof
bashfulness." She asks her :modesty, no maiden shame,
What, will you hear
Impatient answers from
eager not to get gentle
Yet she is my tongue? quarrel.She
wants Lysander and Demetrius to herself entangled in any
save her from
Hermia
 Introduction to the Play 99
inmy shrewishness;
"] have no gift at all
for my cowardice:
I am a right maid
strike me."
Let her not
she flies for safetu
as an opportunity arises,
as soon
And But Helena is whimsical, impulsive and emotional. She is blind to
act rashly as she did indeDind to
conscquences and she does
the
the coemetrius. Here it is Helena who is blinded by love. She folc
Tollows
the wood in an impulsive way; and in that she "impeaches
bemetrius into
her modesty."
Demetrius threatens to do her harm. But the supreme self.
CCiare:
sel
rtue
Yourvirtue
confidence that her love has given her, makes her declare: "Your
he
is nearby:
is my privilege." And when
"Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,
For you in my respect are all the world;
Then how can it be said I am alone.
When all the world is here to look on me?"
But Demetrius is determined to desert her. Even then her
confidence is not shaken. Shc says
We cannot fight for love, as men may do;
We should be wooed, and were not made to woo.
I'l follow thee, and make a heaven ofhel
To die upon the hand I love so well."
There is no hatred, no trace of ill-will in her. Her passionate love
human affairs.
for Demetrius has made Oberon take an interest in
Oberon is moved by her plaint and calls her a nymph.
to her heart. Inherently
Sweet, humble and modest, Helena is loyaland ideals. Swayed by
to her ideas
good, she stubbornly clings fortune smiled on
misfortune, she has learnt not to trust fortune if ever
her. When Demetrius is finally restored to her, she says

"1 found Demetrius like a jewel

Mine own and not mine own."
in Helena a character that is
Evidently, Shakespeare is delineating
to come frequently in this tragedy.
7. Bottom
Bottom is the reel of thread used by weavers. Shakespeare took
name and called the weaver Bottom. Signiticantly enough
his technical character presented by the play.
OLtom is the only fully developed
he has an inherent goodncss
Dumptious and conceited man as he was, and audacity. Though hes
Or woria.
heart, He has enough of self-assurance
fitted for the work-a-day
placent, he has an innocent heart
of using words. He uses 'generally to
way
2
m has a queer
'severally' This particular form of humou, wu
mean "individually or
bear an exactly opp0site Sens
Onsists of either using words whichusing words which have a diiteren
uat which is intended, as here
or 'obsceneiy
s e , but a similar sound to that which is intended, as in carier paay
illiterate clowns of Shakospeare's
, 1 common.to
 A Midsummer Night's Dream
100 is call.
masters of this trait which now
called
are great
Dogberry and Verges
malapropism. abilities for work. He cancan undert
underte
A born leader, he has great companions he
work without any trouble, His ing
even the most strenuous
admire him and worship him. He is a G Gulliver befor
more ignorant, tyrants who chancing
"He is one of those village
those Lilliputians.
cleverer than their fellows are looked up to as more th
be a little his self-conceit
and developed and
mortal." This attitude strengthened proceeds to exhibit the same
self-assertion. In a better environment he
makes him behave like an ass.
kind of behaviour, and this
Though he is confident of playing any role well, he would prefer
or a part to tear a cat in
the tyrant's part: "I could play Ercles rarely,
role "Tl speak in a monstrous little
to make all split." If it is Thisbe's
voice." He can roar like the lion: "IWill aggravate my voice so that
will roar you as gently as any sucking dove, l Wll roar you as 'twere
any nightingale." This actor, who dreams himself fit for any role, also
tells us; "My chief humour is for a tyrant." He is a little tyrant over his
companions. He can rave and rant ike the old tragic actors. He orders
his companions about : "Call forth your actors by the scroll." And his
final command is, "Take pains; be perfect." But all the while Quince
proceeds in a subtle way and persuades him to take over the role of
Pyramus. This is done through flattery, and all tyrants love flattery and
flatterers.
Bottom's superiority as a leader and as an actor is unquestioningly
and ungrudinaly accepted by his companions. When they have difficulties
he is appealed to, and very gravely he resolves them. The wall cannot
be brought, says Snug and looks up to Bottom who replies that "some
men or other must present wall." The ladies may be afraid of a lion.
Bottom states decisively that
the lion must explain itself in a prologue :
am no such thing;
I other men are': and there, imeed,
am a man as
let him name, "his name and tell them plainly, he is Snug, the joiner.
This advice clinches the issue and
waverings of the actors.
puts an end to the doubts anu
.Chambers remarks: "Bottom's dramatic ideal is formed upon the
ranting blo0d-and-thunder melodramatic style of tragedy, which was
popular when Shakespeare began to write, and which finds an arisue
Cxpression in the work of Marlowe." Bottom at least felt that he ca
play the role and that he could act a tyrant much The compan ons
cannot proceed in his absence: "No, he hathbetter.the best wt o too
handucraft man
he is the very
in Athens" Quince
remarks: "Yea, the best porsousat
paramour for sweet voice." Bottom's fondness
malapropism makes even Quince use 'paramour' for They all
pay compliments to his remarkable power of paragou
acting
Bottom's metamorphosis does not cause any confusion in
calmly and gravely he tells Snout; "What do you see? You see an1ahimd
ass-head
of your own, do you?
he cannot be This is the height of self-complaceney a which
shaken,
inthe rustic story andThein transformation licatio
of Bottom is the co
mplication

the story of Titania as thisight he

wel.
 Introduction to the Play
101
tral to the entire play. 1
self-esteemnever deserts
becomn Titania
hecvhen Ttanitnd makes love to him, he feels that it is him.
plainly and bluntly.
bl When the
Duck says natural. He
speaks ou Lion are left to bury the deadBottom, humorously that
Moonshine and
down
Pyramunarted
Pyramus is dead, up and submits:
gets fathers,"
their He imposes"No,
a I assut
dance too
Bottom,
on
you;
the the
who
audience
Pyramus dead, /ou; the wallis
There may have been some real actors whom Shakespeare presents
The Harrison remarks; "Shakespeare
methods of professional actors so thatcaused
Bottom.
throughthe their chiefmeplayer,his
chanicsa
to ape the a
Nick Bottom by name, took on
Wea a burly fellow, omething of the
ure of the great Ned Alleyn,. as Shakespeare had observed him at the
weaver,

the synopsis of a new play as it was outlined by one

listening to it min
Rose,
poets. Alleyn was always for the chief part, whateverr t might be
be
of his
chief humour was for a tyrant, something lofty in Ercle's vein,
but his writing The nmost lamentable comedy and most cruel death of
nd in Thisbe for Quince's company, Shakespeare irreverently
and
Pyramus which rolled so sonorously over Alleyn's
narked some of the phrases
ma
tongue."
wOuld naturally copy those
Malone observes: "Shakespeare
was first acquainted. The ambition of the
first with which he
manners he was happily ridiculed in Bottom the
theatrical candidate for applause
"Bottom the weaver is the
representative
But as Knight states,
weaver."
human race. His contidence in his
own power is equally
of the whole the lion, too' or whether
whether he exclaims, Let me play
profound, afraid; or whether,
alone. "That they shall hear, am not his voice
he sings surrounded with spirit, he cries out; with
conscious that he was situation Bottom is the
is PeasebloSsom. In every
of authority, "Where self-love which the simple
cannot

same-the same personif+cation of

conceal, and the wise
can with dificulty suppres.
8. Bottom's Friends
of the mechanicals, 1hey have
technical
Bottom's troupe consists the wedgeshaped blocks
is Quince or Quoins, meaning here. Snout s
Dames. Quince and so he is a carpenter
of wood employed building;
for or compact
tinker's trade. Snug means tight
ne nozzle suggesting the luted church-organS and
Flute repairs the
ana be 15 therefore joiner. such
nothing to do withtailors
a
the name Starveling has
aomestic bellows. Only leanness of tailors. Abostthe
proverbial
PoTessions, It implies the
it is said that it takes nine to make one man. laughter and amuse
Starveling evoke
our
Qunce, Snug, Flute and merely respect Bottom, they reverse
hiun

their ignorance. They do

e observes,
Philosotrate
y history, As
rCatest genius known to human
these are all
Athens here
"Hard-headed men, that work in
Which never laboured in thetr
minds till aow
their unbreathed memories
have toiled
And now
With this same play against yournuptial.
here are labourers who had nointellectual training