One of the notorious features of Shakespeare’s genius is the ability to interlace comedy and tragedy. For the framework narrative of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, he chose the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. This is the most “stable” part of the comedy in the sense that there is nothing to prevent this couple to marry and live happily together. But the original story of Theseus and Hippolyta is not as happy as it was presented by Shakespeare. They have a son (Hippolytus), but Theseus abandons Hippolyta soon afterward, and his second wife becomes the reason of Hippolytus’ violent death. It was a quite strange gesture not only to choose this marriage as a frame for the comedy narrative but also to leave a subtle hint about their future son in the last scene. Knowing of the implications of this marriage changes the overall mood of the story. It introduces a darker note in Shakespeare’s interpretation of love and fate in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Love and death are prevailing subjects in both A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet, but they are presented in a strikingly different way. Tricks of fate can save one’s happiness or destroy it. There are certain moments in A Midsummer Night’s Dream that could turn this story into a tragedy but ended up happily with the help of magic. On the contrary, Theseus and Hippolyta’s marriage is not disturbed throughout the play. It is intended to be a framework of multiple narratives that eventually solves all characters’ problems. But the original myth about Theseus and Hippolyta would hardly serve this purpose because their story is rather tragic. Instead, it makes us think about the fragility of human’s happiness.
Although A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy about love, death is always present in different scenes either as an actual threat or as a means to express feelings. In fact, the value of love is exaggerated to such an extent that it becomes equal to the value of life. Hermia disobedience could end up with death or expulsion, just because of her father’s whim: “As she is mine I may dispose of her: / Which shall be either to this gentleman / or to her death […]” (Shakespeare, Act I scene I). When she founds that Lysander no longer loves her, thoughts of death come immediately as she asks Demetrius: “If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep, / Being o’er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep, / And kill me too” (Shakespeare, Act III scene II). Either it is a real situation or a play staged for the wedding, tragedy seems to be inevitably associated with death. It is true for most of Shakespeare’s plays, partly because death was much closer to his contemporaries than it is for modern people. High infant mortality (“only half the children survived to the age of fifteen”), the lack of proper medical treatment, and severe epidemics made people familiar with death (Greenblatt 3). Moreover, people were much less confident about their future and attributed great power to God or fate. That explains why a character’s life is usually so fragile in Shakespeare’s plays.
Mordecai Marcus explores the usage of love-death metaphors in the play and presents both extremes as means to keep the balance of comedy and tragedy. For Theseus and Hippolyta in particular, as he states, marriage becomes a way to convert “aggression into sexual love, which under the aegis of marriage will purge Theseus as rapist and Hippolyta as warrior” (Marcus 271). Although the past lives of these characters are controversial, their marriage resolved it into the happy present. From the conversation between Oberon and Titania in the first scene of II act, it is evident that even those characters who are supposed to bless Theseus and Hippolyta’s marriage beds do not believe in their true love. Therefore, this couple was not intended to be a demonstration of happy family life, though their infidelity is not emphasized with satire.
Edward Dowden suggests an alternative role of Theseus in the play. He is presented not as a lover but as “the master of events”; his attitude is that of “the heroic man of action in his hour of enjoyment and of leisure” (Dowden 256). He contrasts this character with Romeo, who was given over to passion, and Hamlet, who was given over to thought. Theseus was given the role of “master of events” because he preserves the cool attitude of a spectator; his speech about “the lunatic, the lover, and the poet” shows it (Shakespeare, Act V Scene I). Despite everything that might happen to him in the past, he is a respected man. But the end of myth about Theseus and Hippolyta tells that his cool attitude towards feelings and striving to justice caused his tragedy. He quickly lost his passion for Hippolyta and married another woman. Then he cursed his own son because of her false accusations.
Maybe Shakespeare’s play is not intended to present Theseus and Hippolyta in this light and the fact that he used these particular mythological characters implies no special meaning. Still, a reader’s perception of the play changes after knowing this fact. It becomes evident that love and death constitute a fragile balance, and this balance cannot be secured even with the blessing of King and Queen of Fairies.
- Dowden, Edward. “Theseus as the Central Figure.” Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition, edited by Judith M. Kennedy and Richard F. Kennedy, The Athlone Press, 1999, pp. 142-144.
- Greenblatt, Stephen et al. The Norton Shakespeare. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016.
