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A Midsummer Night’s Dream & Marriage
Does A Midsummer Night’s Dream affirm or challenge early modern ideals of marriage?

Introduction


Alison Findlay in Women in Shakespeare: A Dictionary defines marriage as “the most important
life-changing event” for women during the early modern period as they were forced to move
away from their homes and family
...




Marriage is rarely presented as a happy event in Shakespeare’s texts, and in many of his works,
such as Othello, The Winter’s Tale, and The Merchant of Venice, marriage is depicted as equal
parts comedy and tragedy
...




Women were seen as property
...
In the early modern period,
a woman was simply an owned object that moved from the house of her father to the house
of her husband
...




During the early modern period, marriage was meant to reflect the hierarchy and the order of
the state - the husband represented the authoritative ruler who was superior to the rest of the
family, while the wife was a subject who was meant to obey her husband’s every whim
...


Oberon and Titania


Oberon and Titania are the only married couple at the start of the play, yet their marriage is
obviously failing
...
Both their own personal commonwealth and the commonwealth of their subjects are in
disarray as a result
...
They expose each other’s extramarital affairs and claim that they are
no longer together, as Titania declares “I have forsworn his bed and company”
...
Since she has rejected this ideal and refuses to recognize him as her husband, his
position is no longer authoritative which results in a chaotic, disordered state
...
The “ideal” husband is threatened by this
disobedience, and the only solution to restore their marriage, and therefore restore peace, is

for Oberon to punish Titania for her misbehavior
...
The specific use of the word “enthralled” implies that she’s a slave to him and to
their apparent love, yet it also implies that she is a slave to her husband since he is the one to
trick her into loving Bottom to begin with
...



Jan Kott described this trickery as a “brutal and gross humiliation” of Titania
...
Yet it is only through this “devastating nightmare” that
balance is restored
...
In the “ideal” marriage,
the wife was subservient to the husbands every command, and although that is not the case in
most marriages today, Oberon’s trickery would have been expected and even applauded during
Shakespeare’s time
...
She refers to herself as “the female ivy
so enrings the barky fingers of the elm” which relates back to the early modern English proverb
“The vine embraces the elm”
...

She is being submissive to and dependent on Bottom, performing the ideals of femininity that
her husband wants to see
...
Titania has returned to being the ideal wife as “she in mild terms begged my patience”
...
She has learned her lesson and is now well-behaving,
chastised, and compliant to her husband
...


Theseus and Hippolyta


Like the authoritarian Oberon and subservient Titania, the relationship between Theseus and
Hippolyta also affirms the early modern ideals of marriage
...
“I wooed thee with my sword and won thy love doing thee injuries”
...
When she speaks, it is curt and to the
point, such as when Theseus laments “how slow this old moon wanes!”
...
She’s
marrying Theseus because she’s being forced to and has no say in the matter, not because they
both chose to get married out of love or even out of convenience
...




Hippolyta also serves another function in affirming early modern ideals
...

During Shakespeare’s era, the “ideal” woman would have strived to be like Queen Elizabeth, and
Hippolyta portrays the exact opposite of this
...
She’s able

to wield weapons and exercise her power like the ideal man
...
This drastic change in both her personality and
status further emphasizes how the ideal wife should be modest, silent, and easily forgotten
about, whereas women who tried to speak up or disobey their husbands, were seen as wretched
creatures who should be punished
...
Whately stated that “in the
ideal, a married couple should be one person” who should share not only their lives, but their
house, their bed, and their souls
...
The interchangeability of the lovers in A Midsummer
Night’s Dream affirms this ideal
...
Throughout the play, their affections change, whether naturally or through fairy tricks
...
There is very little difference
between these characters, as not only do they have the same status, but they even look similar
in appearance as well
...




They lose their identity when they fall in love
...
“Am not I Hermia?” This shows how meaningless the identities of
these characters are, and how marriage is the only solution to it
...




Helena is another example of the “ideal” woman
...
He acts as her
false idol and she worships him, which is exactly how ideal women at the time were supposed
to act
...
I am your spaniel, and, Demetrius, the more you beat me I will fawn on you”
...
As Kott declared, the “metaphor is brutal, almost masochistic” yet these extreme actions of
Helena affirm the image of an ideal woman
...




The only part of the play that challenges early modern marriage ideals, is the elopement of
Hermia and Lysander
...
By running away with Lysander, Hermia
was challenging this ideal and rejecting her father’s choice of husband for her - Demetrius
...
However, this solitary defiance is eventually corrected at the end of the play
when Theseus over-rules the demands of Egeus and allows Hermia and Lysander to marry
...
Despite not agreeing to the arranged marriage that Egeus set-up, Hermia does
eventually “obey” as she follows the orders given by Theseus, yet another male ruler
...
Without marriage, all the
characters throughout the play are chaotic and unruly as love and desire transforms them into
mindless creatures
...
Yet marriage is a civilizing force that
restores order by containing and restraining this desire
...
It turns gentlemen like Demetrius into unchivalrous fools and makes Helena act
authoritatively and masculine, which at the time, was the exact opposite of what was “ideal” for
women
...




The hierarchy itself is overturned without marriage
...
We cannot fight for love, as men may do; we should be
wooed and were not made to woo”
...




The ideals of early modern marriage only allowed for one man and one woman to be together,
as Puck confirms by stating “Jack shall have Jill”
...
Marriage is used as an “excuse” to solve all the problems that the lovers
have, further affirming the “benefits” of marriage during the early modern period

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