After learning about marriage during the time of Shakespeare I was interested to see how this was reflected in his work. I've always enjoyed that A Midsummer Night's Dream ended happily in marriage, but was taken aback this time around by the sorrow I felt for Helena. There is something disturbing and ironic about Helena and Demetrius' marriage and I think that Shakespeare had more to say about marriage in A Midsummer Night's Dream than any other of his plays. Shakespeare uses three examples in this play to show the driving forces of marriage during his time: love, lust, and companionate arrangement.
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| Hermia & Lysander |
Hermia & Lysander are examples of marrying for love. I think Shakespeare was quite the romantic and the new wave of marrying for love during his time was something he embraced. The relationship between these two characters is Shakespeare's ideal--defying the conventions of the times (fully aware of being punished with death by braking an arranged marriage), running off to be together (followed by the probable consequence of poverty), and motivated by love and the desire to be life-long companions. While no ones relationship is perfect (Lysander lusts after Helena at one point) together they stand the test of temptation and rejection. With Hermia and Lysander you feel a sense of commitment, romance, and excitement. Their relationship seems more sensible, real and complex--more human.
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| Unrequited love |
With Helena & Demetrius Shakespeare shows us that marrying for love can be dangerous, as love is often mistaken for lust. We can relate with this in our own day as choosing a spouse based heavily on love is more than prevalent. Shakespeare illustrates that love should not be the only factor in marriage, especially when love is so easily confused with the "spell" of infatuation. You can't help but feel sorry for poor Helena the entire play, especially when she does end up marrying Demetrius! How long will the spell on Demetrius last? How many marriages begin like that and after the infatuation has ended they find themselves stuck in the bonds of matrimony? Shakespeare must have faced the same problems in his world that we face today.
Theseus & Hippolyta are examples of the arranged marriage, but both of them seemed to have consented to it so that would make it fit better into the companionate marriage.
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| The modern definition |
The marriage seems to be driven by wealth, power, and lust. I believe this would be Shakespeare's illustration of marriage in aristocracy during the Elizabethan era. I also think this is the most disdainful marriage in the eyes of Shakespeare because of the following passage in the last act of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Theseus & Hippolyta wonder about the events in the forest that happened the night before. Theseus dismisses it but Hippolyta trails off with an interesting thought.
HIPPOLYTA: 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of.
THESEUS: More strange than true. I never may believe
These antique fables nor these fairy toys.
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact.
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold—
That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt.
The poet’s eye, in fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to Earth, from Earth to heaven.
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination,
That if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy.
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!
HIPPOLYTA: And all their minds transfigured so together,
More witnesseth than fancy’s images
And grows to something of great constancy,
But, howsoever, strange and admirable.
I believe Hippolyta's last words came directly from the mouth of Shakespeare. He admits that love may be seen as crazy and exaggerated but it is not so irrational as it may seem. Actually, although, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, the lover's experiences with love range from rash & fantastical to pure & undeterred it's consistent with and spans across the vast human experience of love. And love, whether it ends with a committed marriage or sorrow is still more admirable than a safety net of a calculated marriage.
