by Diamonique Gurny (Blogging Circle 4)
I was quite excited to find faeries (to use the archaic spelling) in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Not only because I love faeries but because, being Wiccan, they are something I believe in – as weird as that is to admit nowadays. However, during Shakespeare’s time I’m sure, faeries were a serious thing to many people. People desperately tried not to offend them. Today still, in Norway, people ask the faeries’ permission before building roads and houses. They can be devilishly mischievous if offended.
Midsummer, or Litha as we Wiccans call it, is a very important holiday. Although it is the height of the summer, and the Wiccan Lord/the Sun is at his greatest strength, it is also a time to remember that the dark part of the year is coming. The days slowly begin to grow shorter as winter approaches. It is also an important time for people who believe in faeries because it is said to be one of their greatest holidays. The veil between the human world and the faerie kingdom is at its thinnest, just like during Halloween, or Samhain as Wiccans call it. This is pretty apparent in Shakespeare’s Midsummer. For example, when Titania and Oberon meet, they explain their feud and what has happened in the human world because of it:
2.1.104-120* – Titania: “The human mortals want their winter here. No night is now with hymn or carol blessed. Therefore the moon, the governess of floods, pale in her anger, washes all the air, that rheumatic diseases do abound. And thorough this distemperature we see the seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose, and on old Hiems’ thin and icy crown an odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer, the childing autumn, angry winter, change their wonted liveries, and the mazed world by their increase now knows not which is which. And this same progeny of evils comes from our debate, from our dissension; we are their parents and original.”
The last sentence of Titania’s rant reminds me of another pagan holiday: that of Beltane. Beltane occurs on May 1st. The mythology (story) of Beltane is that the Wiccan God (the Sun) is his most fertile and he unites with the Goddess (the Earth) in a sacred marriage. From their union, summer blossoms and grows stronger until Midsummer when the Earth’s fertility is at its height. Because Oberon and Titania are fighting, the Earth’s seasons are being negatively affected. Whatever the divine couple does seems to affect the Earth in some way. There is a famous spiritual axiom that pertains to this: “as above, so below. As within, so without.” It is from the Kybalion, a book about Hermetic philosophy. The same axiom is mentioned in the Lord’s Prayer: “thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” It basically means that whatever happens in the spirit world, happens in or affects the material world; and that whatever happens inside a person, happens outside in society. Because Oberon and Titania’s relationship is currently in turmoil, so is the Earth’s seasons and temperatures. Faeries are often thought to be nature spirits, it makes a lot of sense.
Dissension is not only between Oberon and Titania but between almost all the male/female pairs in the play so far: Hermia and Demetrius, Helena and Demetrius, Hippolyta and Theseus, Egeus and Hermia. As it is in the faerie world, so it is in the human world.
*Because I do not yet have the textbook, I am using a pdf of the play so I apologize if the numbering is different from your version.
Diamonique, great post this week. The connection between the fairy world and the human world made me think deeper into the meaning and purpose of why Shakespeare decided to create two events that happen in both worlds. Perhaps, he is trying to convey to his audience that conflicts arise in different ways, however, the resolution or the act of coming to a resolution is somewhat uniform? I also loved reading how you connected Paganism to the play and the very interesting holidays that have correspondence to the text. I think the use of illustrating the similarities helped your argument that the fairy world greatly effects the Athenians; In particular, your analysis regarding the changing weather that was directly effected from the conflicts the supernatural world experienced.
You have such an insightful perspective on the spiritual themes in Midsummer. I did not realize the connections the play has to Wicca, but after reading your explanation I agree and I saw how it ties in to other themes we have discussed in class. Shakespeare highlights a spiritual world that is not Christian, which is yet another method of challenging patriarchal social norms. The events of the fairy world are a major portion of the play. In fact, they dictate the events in the mortal world. By creating a world under the terms of a different epistemology, or a different way of knowing, Shakespeare presents alternatives to the traditional.
Thank you! And I really loved your comment. It made me think even more about the topic I wrote about. It’s like what we were talking about it class. Is Shakespeare challenging the norm by having characters like Helena, Titania, and Hippolyta: bold, rebellious women? We went through a lot of evidence that it is possible he did this on purpose. But I did not even think about how Shakespeare’s pagan themes could also be challenging the norm, like you mentioned in your comment. I always thought that people back then sort of lived in a double world. I thought they lived with the pagan beliefs and “superstitions” of their ancestors still in the backs of their minds but just practiced Christianity out in the open. I have no evidence for this as of right now except maybe from Shakespeare himself: if Shakespeare’s audience, and Shakespeare himself, really believed in the faeries as much as the pagans did, I doubt they would include the faery king and queen in a comedy.