Titania’s language emerges as flowing and poetic she ends in a sing-song rhyming couplet, supplicating her lover. Upon first observing Bottom, even in his transformed shape, she exclaims, “Mine ear is much enamoured of thy note / So is mine eye enthrallèd to thy shape And thy fair virtue’s force perforce doth move me / On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee” (3.1.122-125). Perhaps the greatest example of the dream-like qualities of love emerges in the awakening of Titania to Bottom, with whom she immediately falls in love. The scene in Act V clearly echoes Shakespeare’s idea of love, presented in multiple parts of the play. Likewise, at the end of the play, even the newly formed relationship between Helena and Demetrius closely parallels the ideals of romantic love.
For instance, the relationship between Hermia and Lysander seems quite romantic at the beginning of the play, as the young lovers escape to the woods to elope in secret. Throughout the play, Shakespeare portrays how the experience of love often seems like a dreamlike experience and cannot be proven, as Theseus would like, with facts and rational arguments. Indeed, his love life emerges as entirely devoid of any of the truly romantic or dreamy qualities of love.
Moreover, in failing to place any stock in imagination or dreams, Theseus unwittingly removes any hope for romantic love. Theseus discards this notion, along with the realm of the artist, the woods. Thus, although Quince distorts his intended meaning, his words still represent his own original, creative art form. He fails to recognize that using words in novel, unexpected, and humorous ways can develop into a form of art in its own right. In effect, by rejecting both Quince’s prologue and the woods, Theseus rejects the imagination and creative energies of the artist, both of which abound in the woods. In the second instance, Theseus finds himself completely unable to comprehend the woods, the realm of imagination and dreams. Quince’s true meaning, while capable of being deduced, is initially concealed. In the first instance, Quince employs the English language, which Theseus comprehends, but his sentence structure yields an entirely different meaning. Theseus considers both falsities, since they misrepresent or fail to adhere to the “rules” of his factual world. Therefore, the disordered nature of Quince’s speech mirrors the distorted, dream-like world of the woods. Just as he rejects Quince’s “lies” in the prologue, Theseus rejects what he supposes to be the lies of the lovers. He contends, “I never may believe / These antique fables, nor these fairy toys” (5.1.2-3). He fails to trust in the seemingly fanciful tales of the lovers and rejects all notions of magic in the woods. In the first scene of Act V, Theseus further reveals that he does not believe in the fantasy world of the woods. Of course, In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Athens represents the physically grounded world of facts, while the woods represent the metaphysical world of the poet’s imagination. Shakespeare emphasizes such aspects of Theseus’ character to contrast Theseus and his world of facts to the world of the poet, the world of creativity, dreams, and fanciful notions. In other words, he stands in opposition to the poet, the artist who transcends the material world in order to make sense of the supernatural world. He rejects anything fanciful, preferring physical, proven knowledge. In this instance, Theseus’ character emerges as one decidedly reliant on truth and fact. Theseus seems bothered by such untruth, relating it to a “tangled chain,” or a web of lies. Theseus reveals that by using incorrect grammar, Quince unknowingly speaks what he does not mean essentially, he speaks an untruth. Later, he adds, “His speech was like a tangled chain – nothing/ impaired, but all disordered” (5.1.124-125). As expected, Theseus proves highly critical of Quince’s disorganized dialogue, proclaiming “This fellow doth not stand upon points” (5.1.118). He innocently transforms a courteous introduction into a rather offensive preface.
By utilizing incorrect grammar, Quince’s words take on a whole new meaning. Specifically, Quince’s disordered prologue to the play mirrors the distorted reality characterizing the dreamy, nighttime woods overall, the interjected play underscores Shakespeare’s larger aim of exhibiting the necessity of imagination and dreaming to the maintenance of loving relationships and to the creation of art.Īs Quince introduces the play, the audience realizes his failure to correctly punctuate his statements. His play within a play, found in Act V, expands on his themes and portrays the relationship between the audience and the performers on stage. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare plays with the themes of love, art, imagination, and dreaming to forge an overall meaning for his work.