A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, endures due to its timeless themes of love, magic, and transformation, as well as its universal appeal to audiences of all ages and cultures. The play’s cleverly woven plot, richly drawn characters, and poetic language continue to captivate audiences and inspire countless adaptations, interpretations, and productions around the world. Additionally, the play’s exploration of the power of imagination and the blurred lines between reality and fantasy resonates with audiences, making it a beloved classic that continues to be celebrated and enjoyed over 400 years after its creation.
While watching the 1935 Midsummer last week, I spotted something interesting. Act IV, Scene 1, we’re starting to wrap up the story. Oberon has drugged his wife Titania and taken what he wanted (the changeling boy), and now he begins to have something resembling guilt about it. (It’s far from a healthy relationship if you ask me, but that’s a different story. )
So, he wakes her up and releases her from the love potion. Here’s where it gets interesting, depending on how we read the text.
Option 1
OBERON And now I have the boy, I will undo This hateful imperfection of her eyes: And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp From off the head of this Athenian swain; … Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.
TITANIA My Oberon! what visions have I seen! Methought I was enamour’d of an ass.
OBERON There lies your love.
TITANIA How came these things to pass? O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!
Here, Oberon asks Puck to turn Bottom back to normal. Then he wakes Titania, who presumably sees a human. Sure, she’s still grossed out by it, but she can walk away from the experience, thinking that the whole “donkey” thing was just a weird dream.
Option 2
OBERON There lies your love.
TITANIA How came these things to pass? O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!
OBERON Silence awhile. Robin, take off this head.
Oberon tells Puck again to fix Bottom. It’s perfectly in character for the boss to tell the mischievous sprite twice before he does something, so I’m not looking at this as a mistake of Shakespeare’s. But this second one implies that he hasn’t done it yet. This means that Titania wakes up and sees Bottom in his full donkey-headed glory, which means it wasn’t a dream. Poor Titania will be in therapy over that memory, I’m sure.
Which Do You Prefer?
According to the text, the second line implies that the first wasn’t enough, and therefore, #2 is the “correct” interpretation. But we could snip out “Robin, take off his head” and give Titania a break.
Which have you seen most often in performance? Which do you like better? I think this is a modern addition to how we look at the scene, I don’t think it crosses Oberon’s mind. It’s not like he waits for Puck to fix Bottom’s head before waking her up. If he wanted her to see him that way he could have waited before giving Puck the order. But that’s part of the fun and why we keep doing this, looking for little things we can change that make big points about the character.
There are many Shakespeare movies that I know about, have written about, have seen screenshots and clips of. But sitting through all of them is a challenge for many reasons. I’m slowly chipping away at a very long list. Happily, I can now move a certified classic to the WATCHED list.
Max Reinhardt’s 1935 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream deserves its place in Shakespeare Film history. It picked up two Academy Awards (on four nominations) and featured a cast of names still known today – James Cagney, Olivia de Havilland, and Mickey Rooney to name just a few. Watching it now is a weirdly nostalgic experience for a Gen Xer like me. As we get to the big hysterical finish, all I could think of was how much it reminded me of watching the Three Stooges or Little Rascals. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but if you remember those shows (even if you watched them with your parents or grandparents!), maybe you’ll see what I mean.
Let’s talk about dreams for a second. They’re used in metaphors way too often. “Oh, this new job is a dream!” We use dream to mean “the ideal thing I wanted.” Not that. I mean real dreams. Real dreams to me are more like, “Nothing makes sense, and yet I’m oddly ok with all of it. Why am I suddenly back in high school, why are my coworkers here, why is there a freestanding toilet in the middle of the auditorium stage?” While you’re in the dream and not asking any of those questions, it all seems normal. Only after you step out and wake up do you think, “Well, that was weird.”
When I thought of that analogy for this movie, I intended it to be negative, but why not make a Dream movie that feels like a dream?
Let’s Make This More Visual
I’m sure many of us have seen productions of The Winter’s Tale, famous for its “Exit, pursued by a bear” stage direction, featuring no bear.
Not so fast! The forest of Athens seems to be home to actual bears now. My best guess is that somebody spotted Helena’s line, “No, no, I am as ugly as a bear; For beasts that meet me run away for fear:” and thought, “Ok, Helena is running away from a bear.”
“Now I will believe that there are unicorns!”
Unfortunately, that’s a line from The Tempest, not Midsummer. I have no idea how this one got here. The word unicorn doesn’t appear in the play that I can find.
How Were The Fairies
Now, let’s talk about the fairies. Most of the fairy budget was spent on Titania’s retinue. They sparkle, they glow, and they have lengthy dance numbers. At one point, they’re literally floating into the sky by the dozens:
Wow! If this is the entrance for Titania, I wonder what Oberon’s entourage will look like?
Uhhh… yeah. There’s a lot of these guys. They even have a band at one point, and you seriously wonder if the original Star Wars Cantina scene got the idea from this movie.
Later, though, they do get a costume change…
For some reason that I genuinely don’t understand, they suddenly all have wings. Black, scary wings. It’s very much like the part in The Tempest when Ariel suddenly transforms into a Fury, but I don’t recall such a scene in Midsummer. Just all of a sudden, they went from “little people in Halloween masks” to “I don’t know what’s going on but I don’t like it, keep those things away from me.”
What of our stars, Oberon and Titania?
Oberon gets the better deal here. Titania gets to sigh and oooh and ahhh with hand on cheek a lot. She sounds a great deal like Glinda from Wizard of Oz. Oberon, meanwhile, is a walking special effect. Not only does he have this cool crown of branches (that, in fairness, reminds me of Groot from the Marvel movies), but he’s always surrounded by stars. This is another one of those dream-like things. Why are there stars around him? How are they there? Are they actual fireflies? Are they really there or an illusion? If he swatted at them would they move? We don’t get any answers, of course. This is just how he goes about life.
But that’s ok, Titania gets to one-up her Oberon…
Titania flies wherever she wants. Oberon rides a horse. Again, there’s that dream world logic. Some people fly, some walk, some ride horses. But, are you ready for this?
Oberon can fly, too. SO WHY IS HE RIDING A HORSE?
The Mickey Rooney Show
You can tell how old someone is by how they remember Mickey Rooney, a wonderful actor with a record-breaking career that includes credited roles in 10 decades, from the 1920s to the 2010s.
As our Puck, he was just 14 years old and honestly does a spectacular job for someone so young. There’s a lot of creative license in how to play Puck, and Rooney plays to his strengths. He’s a child, running around and causing mischief. When he’s in the mood to act like an animal, he makes animal noises. When he finds things entertaining, he laughs with genuine glee. When an adult tells him what to do, he enthusiastically goes about trying to do it properly, though he doesn’t always succeed. All while delivering a lot of Shakespeare, in makeup and costume. Sometimes he flies. According to the trivia he actually spent much of production with a broken leg and had to be wheeled around the set!
Experience It For Yourself
Honestly, just see this one if you can. There are places where you really think you’re watching Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and the entertainment is to be found in mocking how bad it is (seriously, I can’t do justice to the “goblin fairies’). There are random ballet sequences just inserted at will. The special effects deserve their own award for just how broad a spectrum they covered. People fly, people fade in and out of existence, Bottom transforms back and forth before our eyes. Then there are the dimestore masks, and this fairy being carried off into the sunset:
I repeat, it’s like a dream. When it’s done you’re left thinking, “What in the world was that? Did it make sense or not? I can’t really tell.”
I continue playing with ChatGPT in as many varied ways as I can imagine. Last night I asked it to write me a blog post on “Christmas in Shakespeare’s Plays.” Here’s what I got. Let’s dissect!
The celebration of Christmas has a long and varied history, and it has been depicted in literature and art for centuries. In the plays of William Shakespeare, Christmas is often portrayed as a time of joy, celebration, and reflection.
Fine, I guess. Generic.
One of the most well-known references to Christmas in Shakespeare’s plays is in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” In this play, the character Bottom describes a dream he had in which he was transformed into an ass and danced at a Christmas feast. This humorous portrayal of Christmas is a lighthearted example of the way in which the holiday was often depicted in Elizabethan England.
…what? After all these years I’ve still got some pretty hefty impostor syndrome when it comes to Shakespeare, so whenever it said Bottom references “dancing at a Christmas feast” my first thought was, “He does? Why don’t I remember that?” So I went looking:
I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was: man is but an ass, if he go about to expound this dream. Methought I was–there is no man can tell what. Methought I was,–and methought I had,–but man is but a patched fool, if he will offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream: it shall be called Bottom’s Dream, because it hath no bottom; and I will sing it in the latter end of a play, before the duke: peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall sing it at her death.
I even went into the Quarto versions. I’m aware that just searching “Christmas” isn’t going to yield a hit, but so far I see nothing even close. I asked on Twitter, and others didn’t seem to know, either. Hmm. Ok, moving on.
In “Henry V,” Shakespeare references the Christmas season in a more serious manner. The play takes place during the Hundred Years’ War between England and France, and it tells the story of King Henry V’s victory at the Battle of Agincourt. In one scene, the king speaks to his troops on the eve of the battle, reminding them that it is Christmas time and encouraging them to fight for their country.
It’s Christmas Time? <asks Google to remind me when St. Crispin’s Day is> October. Again, I’ll plead ignorance and ask, is there a connection here? Would you call Agincourt “Christmas time”? Ok, one more.
“Twelfth Night” is another play that features Christmas as a prominent theme. The play is set in Illyria during the Christmas season and follows the misadventures of the character Viola, who disguises herself as a man after being shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria. In one memorable scene, the character Sir Toby Belch gets drunk and sings a song about Christmas, declaring it to be “a time for joy, a time for love, a time for peace on earth.”
This is just a no. Twelfth Night is named for when the play was performed, not for the plot. It doesn’t mention anything related to Christmas or the Christmas season at all. And, much like Bottom’s Dream, I have no clue what song of Sir Toby’s it’s talking about. The word “peace” pretty much only appears in the play when people are saying “Hold thy peace.” Joy doesn’t appear at all. No version of “a time for” anything appears at all.
Overall, Shakespeare’s plays depict Christmas as a time of joy, celebration, and reflection. Whether it is through humorous references or more serious themes, the holiday is an important part of the fabric of Elizabethan England and continues to be a beloved tradition today.
And we wrap up with the generic, basically repeating the intro paragraph. This is what I used to teach my kids as the “middle school format”. Make a statement, say what your essay will show. Three paragraphs demonstrating your point. Conclude by restating your original argument.
At first glance I only picked up on Bottom’s Dream and thought, “Oh, interesting, I wonder what bug caused that.” But upon further reading and realization that it’s entirely wrong and just flat out making stuff up, my whole attitude toward the program has changed. A student tasked with looking for Christmas references in Shakespeare’s works could be given this response and assume every word of it is true. I sent me feedback to the creators (which you’re supposed to do, that’s one of the reasons it’s free for people), but I don’t expect it’s something they can address. Where do you even look for the source of something like that?
I realize that’s an awkward title, but there’s a lot of relevant information to impart and I wanted to hit the important bits. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a very long play title. This is the second review of books I received from David Zwirner. For the first, Othello, see here.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is an interesting play to me, the casual fan. Often thought of simply as “the one with the fairies”, the one that’s safe (and adorable!) to have five year olds perform, running around in their sparkly wings, reciting famous lines they don’t understand. But it’s got that darker side, too. It’s also the story of a husband whose wife is not sufficiently obedient, so he drugs her and takes what he wants. But then there’s also the overarching theme of dreams and reality and telling the difference between them, of putting on masks and presenting yourself to the world as someone or something that you’re not, voluntarily or not.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that there’s a whole lot of room when it comes to interpreting A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Which brings me to our review. I gave the back story in the previous Othello blog post, but David Zwirner is an art gallery. These books are not new academic treatments of Shakespeare. The text, though well laid out and visually appealing, is the same text we’ve all seen before – line numbers, glossary terms, and so on. No extra commentary.
These books are about the art. It’s like walking through a museum, where Dream is the theme. You turn a corner and you see a painting, and next to it, the relevant scene from the play. (That’s not an entirely accurate analogy as this is the full text of the play, not just excerpts). And you admire the portrait and you examine the text and you discuss and interpret their connection. What is the artist trying to say here?
https://www.davidzwirnerbooks.com/product/william-shakespeare–marcel-dzama-a-midsummer-nights-dreamWhat do you think? The color palette and repetitive geometric patterns are pretty consistent throughout all the images. The moon makes many appearances, as do the fairies and the classic Pan-like satyr Puck. Anybody else getting like an Audrey Hepburn vibe off that first one, the way she’s got the thing wrapped around her head? Is that who I’m thinking of?
I feel a little bad, because I’m not completely sure how to usefully review a book like this where it’s all about the art. Art is something you want to see and experience for yourself. I run a blog specifically, and about Shakespeare specifically, because that universe is almost entirely about the words. I can copy and paste and type new words all day long. But I don’t have the experience or education in art to adequately describe this book. Hence, the best I can do is present my own opinion and maybe some badly framed images.
So I was thinking today about a future where we have people on the moon. You know, typically Friday afternoon stuff. Like you might read in a Robert Heinlein novel. I was talking about the next generation being the ones who might live on the moon, who might be the first to perform Romeo and Juliet on the …. wait a second.
How you gonna swear by yonder blessed moon when you’re standing on the fool thing?
For that matter, how is Hamlet going to ask Polonius, “You see that cloud?”
Here’s the game. Which of Shakespeare’s plays are going to need to do some editing once they’re performed on the moon? For bonus points, put on your director hat and tell us how you’re going to creatively get around those lines. Is Romeo going to swear by yonder blessed Saturn?
