![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fairyruneJust finished a paper for my Shakespeare course that was due last week. I kept putting it off because I had no idea what I was supposed to be writing. I finally came up with something, most of it is BS, but it's not a terrible paper. At least I don't think so.
And so, I present (for those of you who are interested), Webster’s Dictionary defines “truth” as “the state or quality of being true; something which is true; accuracy; sincerity, integrity; agreement with fact.” “True” is defined as “in agreement with fact; faithful to another or others, or to a cause or allegiance; genuine, sincere; accurate, correct; correctly and accurately shaped, fitted, placed etc.; properly so called.”
What is “true” and what is not in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream changes fairly regularly. At the beginning of the play, we learn certain facts that are presented as truth: Hermia and Lysander are in love and want to get married. Demetrius is in love with Hermia, and her father wants her to marry him, not Lysander. Helena is in love with Demetrius, but he wants nothing to do with her. Theseus and Hippolyta are getting married in four days, on the night of the new moon. Titania and Oberon, the queen and king of the fairies, are fighting over a changeling baby that Titania has and Oberon wants. At the end of the play, Hermia and Lysander, Helena and Demetrius, and Theseus and Hippolyta all get married at the same time. Hermia’s father is fine with this arrangement. Oberon and Titania make up, and everyone lives happily ever after. The truths we were presented with have changed.
“If then true lovers have ever been cross’d…” is the first mention of true love. Hermia says this to Lysander in Act I scene i. The love that they have for each other can be considered true because it only falters through the “magic” of the fairies. However, Lysander’s love for Hermia does in fact falter. “Content with Hermia? No. I do repent/ The tedious minutes I with her have spent.” In Act II scene ii, Puck’s mistake turns Lysander’s eye from Hermia to Helena. His love for Helena is untrue because it is contrived through unrelated means, i.e. the juice of the flower placed on his eyes. (“And maidens call it ‘love-in-idleness’….The juice of it, on sleeping eyes laid,/ Will make or[sic] man or woman madly dote/ Upon the next live creature that it sees.” Act II scene i) The fact that his feelings are so easily changed brings doubt to the truth of his love for Hermia, though.
“Demetrius, I’ll avouch to his head,/ Made love to Nedar’s daughter, Helena,/ And won her soul.” Demetrius fell out of love with Helena when he saw Hermia and fell in love with her. “For, ere Demetrius look’d on Hermia’s eyne,/ He hail’d down oaths that he was only mine.” This indicates that his love for Helena was untrue to begin with, which may explain why he is the only character who does not have the fairy flower juice removed from his eyes after the shenanigans in the woods. In order for his love to retain at least the appearance of truth, it needs to be contrived. His love for Helena needs to be falsified in order for it to remain steady, so they can live happily.
Oberon uses the juice in an attempt to blackmail Titania into giving him the changeling. She consequently falls in love with Bottom, who has been transformed into a donkey creature by Puck. Titania doesn’t seem to notice his hideous appearance, which supports Helena’s statement in Act I scene I that “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.” Even though this is a forced love, it is still love. Titania positively dotes on Bottom until Oberon removes the juice from her eyes. Then she finds him ugly. “O how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!”
Perhaps the juice allows the wearer to see past physical appearance in order for love to bloom. Demetrius appears to prefer Hermia’s looks to Helena’s, and Titania comes right out and says that she hates the way Bottom looks with the donkey head on. If Helena and Bottom were more physically attractive, the love-juice would not be needed.
The juice can also be said to be truth-altering. It changes what the wearer feels to be true about their feelings, and even about another person. Titania finds it true that Bottom-as-donkey is handsome when the juice is on her eyes, but once it is removed, she believes the opposite is true. Before and after the love-in-idleness juice is placed on his eyes, Lysander is absolutely certain that Hermia is his one and only “true love.” “…my heart unto yours is knit…” However, as mentioned earlier, the juice changes this absolute truth quite easily.
The only love that does not falter is that of Theseus and Hippolyta. They do not go into the woods, and therefore do not encounter the fairies, specifically Puck, who wields the love-juice throughout most A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It is because of this that their feelings for each other remain unchanged.
It is interesting that the only well-known character in the play that is found elsewhere is Puck. In Edain McCoy’s A Witch’s Guide to Faery Folk, he is compared to the Greek god Pan. “In the English legends, Robin [Goodfellow, or Puck,] is the son of a faery father and a mortal mother who loves to play tricks on humans who venture into his woods. Some have claimed to hear his laughter after the trick is successfully completed. He is also adept at animal and bird calls.” Puck is the only one who is an actual character in fairy stories; Titania and Oberon aren’t mentioned nearly as often. In essence, he is the truest character of the play, yet he facilitates most of the falsehoods. However, in his final speech, he calls himself “an honest Puck.” Whether or not Shakespeare knew that Puck would be the only character to live on outside of A Midsummer Night’s Dream cannot be known for sure, but the fact that he is believed to be a real entity in some cultures indicates that Shakespeare may have taken the character from elsewhere and used him for his own purposes. He is the only true character from the play, the only one Shakespeare didn’t create mostly from his own imagination, yet he causes the most alteration of the truth.
Different characters also have different ideas of what is true, depending on their point of view. Hermia and Helena have been friends since childhood and are both in love with someone. However, since Helena’s love is unrequited, she has a very different view of love than Hermia, whose true love is returned with the same intensity as it is given.
In Act I scene I, Hermia and Lysander commiserate about their inability to be together. “The course of true love never did run smooth;” Lysander is trying to console Hermia by giving her examples of when other true loves were denied. “But either it was different in blood-…/Or else misgraffed in respect of years-…/ Or else it stood upon the choice of frriends-…/Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,/ War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,/ Making it momentany as a sound,/ Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,/ Brief as the lightening in the collied night,/ That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,/ And, ere a man hath power to say ‘Behold!’,/ The jaws of darkness do devour it up:/ so quick bright things come to confusion.” Lysander is trying to cheer Hermia up by telling her how horrible things could be, and that they are not alone in their misery. Hermia cheers up immediately, saying “If then true lovers have been ever cross’d,/ It stands as an edict in destiny./ Then let us teach our trial patience,/ Because it is a customary cross,/ As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,/ Wishes and tears, poor fancy’s followers.” They are having problems because they are in love, and that’s how it always is with true love, so it’s going to be just fine, because true love always wins.
Helena has a slightly less positive view of love, as we discover at the end of the scene. “Things base and vile, holding no quantity,/ love can transpose to form and dignity:/ Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,/ And therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blind;/ Nor hath Love’s mind of any judgment taste: / Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste. / And therefore is Love said to be a child, / Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.” Love makes things seem as they are not, and is not always correctly given. Since Demetrius love Hermia instead of Helena, it must be because he is deceived by love. She seems to be a bit embittered about the concept of love, unlike Hermia, who is very optimistic about it. Helena doesn’t think that love is at all true, since Demetrius claimed to love her, but now claims to love Hermia. In fact, she believes that love is a falsifying emotion.
Love can alter the perception of truth, much like the love-in-idleness juice. This relationship is explained by the story Oberon tells of the creation of the flower: “Yet mark’d I where the bolt of Cupid fell:/ It fell upon a little western flower,/ Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound….” The flower was created by an arrow meant to instill feelings of love in its target. Love can change what one sees as true, as can the juice of the flower.
Truth is an interesting concept in relation to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In essence, truth is closely related to love. Depending on whom any character is in love with at any given moment, their awareness of what is true and what is not about themselves and the people around them can be quite different.
An update on this weekend to come when the Ny-Quil I took last night decides to finally completely exit my brain.
And so, I present (for those of you who are interested), Webster’s Dictionary defines “truth” as “the state or quality of being true; something which is true; accuracy; sincerity, integrity; agreement with fact.” “True” is defined as “in agreement with fact; faithful to another or others, or to a cause or allegiance; genuine, sincere; accurate, correct; correctly and accurately shaped, fitted, placed etc.; properly so called.”
What is “true” and what is not in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream changes fairly regularly. At the beginning of the play, we learn certain facts that are presented as truth: Hermia and Lysander are in love and want to get married. Demetrius is in love with Hermia, and her father wants her to marry him, not Lysander. Helena is in love with Demetrius, but he wants nothing to do with her. Theseus and Hippolyta are getting married in four days, on the night of the new moon. Titania and Oberon, the queen and king of the fairies, are fighting over a changeling baby that Titania has and Oberon wants. At the end of the play, Hermia and Lysander, Helena and Demetrius, and Theseus and Hippolyta all get married at the same time. Hermia’s father is fine with this arrangement. Oberon and Titania make up, and everyone lives happily ever after. The truths we were presented with have changed.
“If then true lovers have ever been cross’d…” is the first mention of true love. Hermia says this to Lysander in Act I scene i. The love that they have for each other can be considered true because it only falters through the “magic” of the fairies. However, Lysander’s love for Hermia does in fact falter. “Content with Hermia? No. I do repent/ The tedious minutes I with her have spent.” In Act II scene ii, Puck’s mistake turns Lysander’s eye from Hermia to Helena. His love for Helena is untrue because it is contrived through unrelated means, i.e. the juice of the flower placed on his eyes. (“And maidens call it ‘love-in-idleness’….The juice of it, on sleeping eyes laid,/ Will make or[sic] man or woman madly dote/ Upon the next live creature that it sees.” Act II scene i) The fact that his feelings are so easily changed brings doubt to the truth of his love for Hermia, though.
“Demetrius, I’ll avouch to his head,/ Made love to Nedar’s daughter, Helena,/ And won her soul.” Demetrius fell out of love with Helena when he saw Hermia and fell in love with her. “For, ere Demetrius look’d on Hermia’s eyne,/ He hail’d down oaths that he was only mine.” This indicates that his love for Helena was untrue to begin with, which may explain why he is the only character who does not have the fairy flower juice removed from his eyes after the shenanigans in the woods. In order for his love to retain at least the appearance of truth, it needs to be contrived. His love for Helena needs to be falsified in order for it to remain steady, so they can live happily.
Oberon uses the juice in an attempt to blackmail Titania into giving him the changeling. She consequently falls in love with Bottom, who has been transformed into a donkey creature by Puck. Titania doesn’t seem to notice his hideous appearance, which supports Helena’s statement in Act I scene I that “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.” Even though this is a forced love, it is still love. Titania positively dotes on Bottom until Oberon removes the juice from her eyes. Then she finds him ugly. “O how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!”
Perhaps the juice allows the wearer to see past physical appearance in order for love to bloom. Demetrius appears to prefer Hermia’s looks to Helena’s, and Titania comes right out and says that she hates the way Bottom looks with the donkey head on. If Helena and Bottom were more physically attractive, the love-juice would not be needed.
The juice can also be said to be truth-altering. It changes what the wearer feels to be true about their feelings, and even about another person. Titania finds it true that Bottom-as-donkey is handsome when the juice is on her eyes, but once it is removed, she believes the opposite is true. Before and after the love-in-idleness juice is placed on his eyes, Lysander is absolutely certain that Hermia is his one and only “true love.” “…my heart unto yours is knit…” However, as mentioned earlier, the juice changes this absolute truth quite easily.
The only love that does not falter is that of Theseus and Hippolyta. They do not go into the woods, and therefore do not encounter the fairies, specifically Puck, who wields the love-juice throughout most A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It is because of this that their feelings for each other remain unchanged.
It is interesting that the only well-known character in the play that is found elsewhere is Puck. In Edain McCoy’s A Witch’s Guide to Faery Folk, he is compared to the Greek god Pan. “In the English legends, Robin [Goodfellow, or Puck,] is the son of a faery father and a mortal mother who loves to play tricks on humans who venture into his woods. Some have claimed to hear his laughter after the trick is successfully completed. He is also adept at animal and bird calls.” Puck is the only one who is an actual character in fairy stories; Titania and Oberon aren’t mentioned nearly as often. In essence, he is the truest character of the play, yet he facilitates most of the falsehoods. However, in his final speech, he calls himself “an honest Puck.” Whether or not Shakespeare knew that Puck would be the only character to live on outside of A Midsummer Night’s Dream cannot be known for sure, but the fact that he is believed to be a real entity in some cultures indicates that Shakespeare may have taken the character from elsewhere and used him for his own purposes. He is the only true character from the play, the only one Shakespeare didn’t create mostly from his own imagination, yet he causes the most alteration of the truth.
Different characters also have different ideas of what is true, depending on their point of view. Hermia and Helena have been friends since childhood and are both in love with someone. However, since Helena’s love is unrequited, she has a very different view of love than Hermia, whose true love is returned with the same intensity as it is given.
In Act I scene I, Hermia and Lysander commiserate about their inability to be together. “The course of true love never did run smooth;” Lysander is trying to console Hermia by giving her examples of when other true loves were denied. “But either it was different in blood-…/Or else misgraffed in respect of years-…/ Or else it stood upon the choice of frriends-…/Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,/ War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,/ Making it momentany as a sound,/ Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,/ Brief as the lightening in the collied night,/ That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,/ And, ere a man hath power to say ‘Behold!’,/ The jaws of darkness do devour it up:/ so quick bright things come to confusion.” Lysander is trying to cheer Hermia up by telling her how horrible things could be, and that they are not alone in their misery. Hermia cheers up immediately, saying “If then true lovers have been ever cross’d,/ It stands as an edict in destiny./ Then let us teach our trial patience,/ Because it is a customary cross,/ As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,/ Wishes and tears, poor fancy’s followers.” They are having problems because they are in love, and that’s how it always is with true love, so it’s going to be just fine, because true love always wins.
Helena has a slightly less positive view of love, as we discover at the end of the scene. “Things base and vile, holding no quantity,/ love can transpose to form and dignity:/ Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,/ And therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blind;/ Nor hath Love’s mind of any judgment taste: / Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste. / And therefore is Love said to be a child, / Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.” Love makes things seem as they are not, and is not always correctly given. Since Demetrius love Hermia instead of Helena, it must be because he is deceived by love. She seems to be a bit embittered about the concept of love, unlike Hermia, who is very optimistic about it. Helena doesn’t think that love is at all true, since Demetrius claimed to love her, but now claims to love Hermia. In fact, she believes that love is a falsifying emotion.
Love can alter the perception of truth, much like the love-in-idleness juice. This relationship is explained by the story Oberon tells of the creation of the flower: “Yet mark’d I where the bolt of Cupid fell:/ It fell upon a little western flower,/ Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound….” The flower was created by an arrow meant to instill feelings of love in its target. Love can change what one sees as true, as can the juice of the flower.
Truth is an interesting concept in relation to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In essence, truth is closely related to love. Depending on whom any character is in love with at any given moment, their awareness of what is true and what is not about themselves and the people around them can be quite different.
An update on this weekend to come when the Ny-Quil I took last night decides to finally completely exit my brain.
