When does someone let their guard down and behave in a way that merits the moniker "irrational person"? The Midsummer Night Dream is a notable example of how Shakespeare conveys the fundamental nature of humanity. The play begins with a scene that attempts to describe the underlying force behind some of the play's irrational behavior. In the duke's presence, a father asks the justice of the Athenian Law to compel her daughter to wed his favored man rather than the man of her choosing. In a brave act, the daughter promises that this will not happen, even if she receives the most severe penalty. A woman betrays her friend just to gain favor with her beloved, a man who used to proclaim her love for her but now hates her. A queen falls madly in love with some low life man dressed in the head of an ass. The duke wins the love of her fair lady through actions of violence, just to mention a few.
Shakespeare merges Love and affection as a theme with actions of utter absurdity to beautifully create the notion that has love irrational, and at most times it the reagent that fuels disorder and chaos. In the end, Shakespeare characters allude to love as just a fanciful illusion. The comedy plays with the reader's perception of the beloved creating a uniqueness which is subjective, personal, and no one can judge it by objective or material standards. Simply, action bred of love cannot be explained by merely looking at it through the eyes of reason. In the play, Shakespeare explores the possibility of tension between reason love and irrationality. On the one hand, Athens' noble ruler Theseus advocates, "cool reason" (5.1.6) and remains very skeptical of the irrationality of poetry and love. On the other hand, Hippolyta uses logic to argue that the uniformity of the lovers' stories proves that the irrational "develops to something of unlimited constancy" (5.1.26).
Through the high contrast to the feeling of love and affection that ought to an envelope in this comedy, irrationality among the characters is a significant concern. At first, reason and the irrational are set out as two rival entities, the one belonging to the world of Athens and the latter to the magical and dream-like world with the fairies and the woodlands. However, as the fairies' actions start to influence the lives of those who dwell outside the woodland realm, the line between dream and awakening is blurred, and the audience is left to doubt his perception and understanding of what is real (Dent 116). Irrationality out of loves influence starts becoming more evident in the way the Duke of Athens wooed her fair maidens love her " with the sword " (1.1.16). the suitor won her love through "doing her injuries" (1.1.17). Considering that she fervently reciprocates the affections and wishes the night to behold their "solemnities" (1.1.10), throws Shakespeare's consideration of rationality into some abyss when contrasted with the norms of winning a woman's heart
A lack of differentiation between two waring noble lord Demetrius and Lysander only enhances the manifestation of irrationality within the play. Lysander is a well "derived" (1.1.99) as Demetrius and their wealth every way "fairly ranked" (1.1.101). The fact that the gentlemen are by comparison similar chooses to prefer one over the other a decision made without the slightest sense of thought, but then again love has no flair for the rational at all, as it is later shown when both men now begin to profess their love for the hated Helena.
To oversee her daughter's irrational decision of loving Lysander overturned by the Duke of Athens Egeus, Hermia's father "begs the ancient privilege" () to "dispose of her" [daughter] () immediately through death as provided in the law. One might Question the effectuality of the Egeus' invoking the death penalty as a deterrent in Hermia's Conviction of loving Lysander and the effect it would have on him if he should lose her own daughter. Egeus invokes the idea of her daughter being "bewitch'd"(1.1.27) as the only possible explanation of how her loving daughter would certainly turn from seeing his as the "god" he is. Shakespeare uses the absolute stubbornness of Egeus to educe the undying affection that would force a father to wish death upon her daughter rather than seeing her makes the wrong choice in her eyes.
Love and irrationality play a subtle tug of war in this comedy. Hermia's response to Theseus inquiry on her supposedly "stubborn harshness" (1.1.38) towards her father's demands, she displays the "lovers…seething brains" (5.1.4). The imagery, which depicts the lover's brain as boiling, works to suggest that it borrows from much imagination, which distorts its vision of reality. Hermia throws caution to the wind, and she is not aware herself. "I know not by what power I am made bold" (1.1.59) and seems to get bolder and interjects Even when Theseus attempts to persuade Hermia into marrying Demetrius by noting that he "is a worthy gentleman,"(1.1.51) she is quick to respond, "So is Lysander." (1.1.52). As a culmination of the dominance irrationality powered by love, Hermia's final choice is to " grow, to live, so die"(1.1.79) before she " yields her virgin patent"(1.1.80) unto the " lordship" of Demetrius. The subject from Hermia's perspective proves that a rational choice would be Demetrius. The character looks like the most accessible path for her to evade spending life in a convent or death. However, she resists her father's will, telling Theseus that she would rather waste her life as a nun rather than unwillingly marry Demetrius. Hermie can point a certain quality of Lysander hence a worthier suitor nor does she jeopardize her life by putting into words of her motivation. Her love for Lysander is not rational but irrational.
Helena soliloquy is the epitome of love's irrationality within the play.
"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" (1.2. 232-235).
Through love, a player in the affection can perceive that which the world sees as valueless being worthwhile. Scholars recognize it as a subjective experience and one that does not conform to an outside perspective according to Helena. She asserts that for love to "look with the eyes" would mean that there would exist anobjective or material motive for a person to fall in love. However, to love with the mind proposes that love does not rest on what everybody else sees. Helena feelings towards Demetrius graduate from love becoming an unhealthy obsession to the point of being willing to receive bodily harm and emotional torture, telling Demetrius to " use, spurn, and strike"(2.1.197) her she would still "fawn"(2.1.196) on him. As unworthy as she feels about herself to receive Demetrius' love and affection she feels it is a "place of higher respect"(2.1.201) even if Demetrius would "run…and leave [Helena] to the mercies of wild beasts" (2.1.216-218) rather than a confession of love Helena speech sounds like the desperate and pathetic pleading of a recurrent victim of home abuse who is begging her partner to come back to her. Subjecting herself to this level of treatment is a far cry from the norm, even when there is the slightest feeling of love.Love itself is so irrational and yet prevailing
In a bizarre world created by Shakespeare, Titania, the estranged queen of the fairies has become smitten with the commoner nick bottom. It is bewildering for her to fall in love with someone who has the head of an ass (3.2.34), leave alone her stature as a queen, her reputation, and pride. Titania offered Bottom no choice in the matter and forced to "remain here whether thou wilt or no" (3.1.153), though Nick Bottom seems to enjoy the benefits of a having a fairy queen in love with him. The emotional tug of war between love and irrationality plays a beautiful dance again in this scene. Again the " lovers and madman's seething brains"(5.1.4) are seen overcoming the slightest bit of common sense when Titania, void of the wellbeing of Nick's Bottom welfare in her heart, confines him within the woodland and yet claim that it is an entire show of love.
If people become accused of irrational love or loving unreasonably, it is without a doubt Oberon, King of the Fairies. Oberon is genuinely in love with his wife, Queen Titania, who is the Queen of the Fairies. Everything seems well with the king and queen until the king starts to harbor moods of disbelief for his wife same as jealousy (2.1.61) as she has found a new 'toy.' No doubt therefore that both men and women understand the implications of something taking their significant other's attention. It can be a troubling experience. At the beginning of scene 2, Puck the mischievous servant of King Oberon describes the nature of Kings Fury when he discovered that the Queen had been having amorous an affair.
"For Oberon passing fell and wrath,
Because that she as her attendant hath
A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king;
She never had so sweet a changeling;
And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train,
to trace the forests wild,
But sheer force withholds the loved boy,
Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy" (2.1.1.-27)
As detailed in Puck's oratory observation of the unraveling situation between the king and queen, the behavior of the king is in no doubt full of irrational thought. After all, it is he who has been "versing love, to amorous Philidia" (2.1.61-68) and since it never happens that the king and queen never " meet in grove or green" (2.1.28) forces the king to Puck to make the concoction that would make Titania fall in love with the first animal that she lays her eyes upon waking
In a classic portrayal of the proverbial woman scorned, Helena, from the receiving end of unrequited love chooses to betray her friend Hermia to Demetrius. Lysander and Hermia, while preserving their love, decide to flee and escape from the perils of the law (4.1.153) before leaving they share their secret with Helena, unloved and lonely (Kehler 43). In her craving for even the slightest bit of affection from Demetrius, she divulges the scoop on the lover's plight to him. Demetrius, on the other hand, had used his close relationship to Egeus to break of Lysander and Hermia putting their jeopardizing their love too. Cynically Demetrius "ere look'd upon Hermia's eyne," (1.1.242) used to hail "down oaths" (1.1.243) that he belonged to Helena. The emotional play between the two couples is an appalling exhibition of the irrationality that Shakespeare has leveled on the play
In conclusion, terming the play A Midsummer Night's Dream as a negating the irrationality for breaking order agrees with Theseus' state of mind and Bottom's statement that "reason and love keep little company together" (3.1.136-137). While conversing with Hippolyta after listening the lovers' account of their time in the woods, Theseus states, "he never may believe, these antique fables, nor these fairy toys" (5.1.3). As Theseus' rationality moves him to state: reason cannot distinguish between "lovers and madmen" (5.1.4), even with a clear difference of intent. The reader's imagination allows for the understanding of the irrational, thus enabling the mind to make the distinction between different people's determination, for example, Hermia is neither bewitched nor insane nor cruel nor stubborn, she is just a dame in love, the force behind her actions. The play suggests that the natural world is beyond reason's control and yet within the law. Thus justice cannot limit itself to cause; it requires the imagination to understand people's intent when they act irrationally, and apply the law accordingly.
Works Cited
Holland, Peter. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Oxford: Oxford university press, 2008. Print.
Kehler, Dorothea, ed. A midsummer night's dream: critical essays. Vol. 1900. London: Psychology Press, 1998. Print
Dent, R.W. "Imagination in A Midsummer Night's Dream." Shakespeare Quarterly 15.2 (1964): 115-129.
