The grim and dark side of "A Mid-summer Night's Dream".

Shakespeare is renowned for his general nature of writing. His characters

“are the genuine progeny of common humanity” (Johnson). It is an eternal

truth that good and evil stand at the same time and Shakespeare

represents the dark and grim side in human nature and civilization perfectly

in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream’’ which are described below-

Darkness of love: Love is one of the central themes of the play “A Mid-

summer Night’s Dream”. Shakespeare portrays the darkness of love as the

grim and dark side of the play. Actually He shows the darkness of love by

making love blind. When someone falls in love, then he/she does not see

the faults of their beloved.

As like this, In the play “A Mid-summer Night’s Dream” Helena did not see

Demetrius’s fault. Though she understood that Demetrius cheated on her

but Helena was desperate for seeking Demetrius’s love. Though Demetrius

was ignoring Helena but Helena was continuously trying to convince

Demetrius to marry her. This is shown by Shakespeare as blind love and

as well as the darkness of love.

We can also added that Shakespeare tries to portray the human nature that

how much human nature be so cruel. We find cruelty in the character

Demetrius and foolishness in the character Helena. Demetrius is too much

cruel towards Helena. He makes a relationship with Helena and breaks up

with Helena and moves his affection towards Hermia. Though he knows

that how much Helena loves Demetrius but he does not make it count. So,

here we find the cruelty of love also. This is also marked as the darkness of

love.

Darkness of human nature: Shakespeare exhibits the darker and

inconsistency issues of human nature through sex, love and comedy.

Infidelity and insanity of human beings appear in this drama apparently

through the fairy world. Fairy culture depicts the anarchical situation of a

society where people are so malicious and gross. We clearly see the

cruelty and inhumanity in the discourse between Oberon and Titania and

this magical world believe in freedom of sex and love without marriage

which can break the moral structure of an individual society and can

destroy the harmony of the transition period. Thus this play shows the

horrifying situation when the perceived structure of the outer world breaks

down and how separateness and stability of identity are lost.

Except the fairy world Shakespeare portrays the grim side of human

behave of Athenian society. Demetrius shows his cruelty to his former lover

Helena in the dark wood in act 2. Demetrius dumbs his lover because of

higher status of Hermia’s father Egeus and Egeus himself choose

Demetrius because he was more powerful than Lysander. So Egeus and

Demetrius are the symbol of our greediness and selfishness. And Lysander

shows his meanness through his sexual aggression to Hermia in act 2

scene 2.

Treachery: In this play Hermia is betraying with her fathers wishes when

Egeus wants Hermia to marry Demetrius but she runs away with Lysander

the man she wants to marry. Hermia's treachery leads a doubtful future

where there is no matter what the consequences will. Helena also betrays

with Hermia by telling Demetrius about her elopement plans. Because she

is in love with Demetrius and thinks that by helping him, she may get quick

attention from him.

Monarchism: Shakespeare represents the practice of excessive

colonialism and greediness of English people in postcolonial period. In this

play fairy king Oberon and queen Titania involved in a conflict over the

possession of Indian boy which is an allegory of monarchism of

Elizabethan period over the Indian subcontinent. And these monarch never

considered what Indian people want, they just grab the land and rule to fulfil

their desire and lust.

Misogynist: Misogynist is another grim or dark side of the comedy “A Mid-

summer Night’s Dream”. Misogynist basically means the dehumanization of

a woman. In the play we find some misogynist characters like Theseus,

Egeus and Oberon. We can see the male dominance aspects among them.

At the very beginning of the comedy it starts with a male dominance tone

and the misogynistic behaviour is represented by Theseus by saying that,

                                  “But I will wed thee in another key,

                        With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling.”(Act 1,Scene 1)

By this lines Theseus says that though he won the triumph but he did not

make any gap in their marriage. In this scene we find misogynistic voice.

Another most prominent misogynist is Egeus. He forced his daughter to

marry according to his choice. He literally takes his daughter to the king for

asking the king. Theseus declared that,

                                       “Either to die the death or to abjure

                                      For over the society  of men”.(Line 70-72)

This lines strongly shows misogynist behaviour. He proposes Hermia that

either she have to die or she have to passed her whole life as a nun for

disobeying their decision. Though Hermia disobeyed their decision but this

scene make misogynistic theme.

Marital manipulation : Oberon orders to puck to use a magical drug to

sexually manipulate his wife Titania. For this reason she fall in love with a

common laborer whom Puck has already given a donkey's head. But there

are no sexual acts between Titania and Bottom. Basically it is a demeaning

things to do with Oberon's wife by Oberon. Titania doesn't get any kinds of

benefit from her husband because of their marital manipulation.

Fairy mischief : In this play, mischief of fairies begins their journey from

the forest. Puck is the main creator of mischief who use the magical spell at

Oberon’s order. Puck's mistakes create the most chaotic effects. He also

makes mischief of his own harmony, as when he changes Bottom’s head

into ass. In Act III he declares that “those things do best please me / That

befall prepost’ rously”, means he proudly announces his personal

philosophy of mischief.

Despite its overall whimsical nature from the beginning of this play is full of

dark and ominous mood where the characters behave in an irrational way

that lead to anarchy, chaos, and confusion. By this most truthful and brutal

violent play. Shakespeare describes the dark and oppressive deeds of

human beings and inconsistency of gender and status within a society. In

the transition period, most of the people started to follow the Protestantism

but they still believe some myth and supernatural beings like Catholicism.

In this restless status, English people start to showing their interest in new

ideas, sometimes it turns into negativism. As a neo classical writer,

Shakespeare mingled this negative elements with modernism by using

mythical character.

A group work by

Sarmin Antora, Maryam Hossain and Joy Patwary.