The Master Puppeteer

I’ll be honest, I’ve never been particularly fond of Shakespeare. For the most part, I find my mind overworking to rearrange the convoluted language into something somewhat comprehensible, and end up mindlessly drifting away from the subject matter hidden within.

I have no doubt that so much of our understanding of the play comes the actual performance; the emotions, gestures, tone and phrasing the actors put into their lines all serve to provide clues to what the words are actually saying. The grief stricken wails and the maniacal laughter suddenly integrate with the characters heartfelt or diabolical monologues to create the performance.

When we began reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I was fretting about how in the world I would be able to dissect the text thoroughly enough to come to the “better understanding” needed for this blog. I wasn’t looking to it, but having carefully gone through each act as a class and seeing some of them in film, I’ve found a remarkable contrast in the plays meaning that connects to the other pieces of literature we’ve read so far.

What I’m trying to say is that in The Odyssey, East of Eden, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, there is always the running theme of choice; what is the extent to which we have choice over our own actions, and to what extent are we bent to the whim of others. East of Eden of course is written on the premise that we have the power of choice, timshel, in our hands; to choose good over evil is the ultimate distinguisher of character.

However, MND plays a remarkable contrast to this point. The entire play mocks the idea of choice, undermining it at every turn. Let’s start with the basics. From the beginning, we are introduced to a multitude of situations where people are forced into relationships against their will; Hippolyta is captured and forced to marry Theseus, and Hermia is forced by Athenian law to marry Demetrius at the bidding of her father. This is probably the most direct opposition shown to the concept of individual choice. Clearly, these women’s lives are pretty much dictated by their male “superiors”; they have no say because of their status. The men are in charge, and therefor they decide.

But the barriers placed on choice go far beyond Hermia and Hippolyta. We see another case of an overbearing, manipulative relationship in Oberon and Titania. Oberon, for some reason that I honestly can’t explain, decides to manipulate Titania into giving up her changeling boy by putting the drops of the flower potion into her eyes and causing her to fall in love with Bottom. However, his influence continues. Because of his vague instructions to bewitch the “Athenian Man”, he inadvertently causes the drugging of Lysander- who subsequently falls in love with Helena- which throws everything off balance. Lysander abandons Hermia, briefly tearing her heart out as he pursues Helena mindlessly. Eventually, Lysander is cured of the potion and Demetrius finally receives it as intended and then falls in love with Helena.

All of this is very complicated of course, but I see it all boiling down to the fact that the humans are being played like pawns in the Faeries’ game. Oberon, intentionally or not, completely usurps the natural progression of the relationships between Lysander, Hermia, Helena, and Demetrius. At the end of it, he is the only reason Demetrius is in love with Helena at all, and subsequently the only reason why Hermia and Lysander were able to marry. The humans were drugged, manipulated, coerced, subjugated, and more; they had no choice in it.

I could write more about how I find it funny that in the end, Demetrius ends up as a love-zombie and undermines the sexist undertones of the first acts, but thats another blog for another day. I’d like to finish this blog by extending this idea of undermined control one step further. None of the characters in the play- including the ones seemingly unaffected by the love potion and its fallout- have any control whatsoever because they are all mercy to the whim of Shakespeare himself. Of course, this stretches the bounds of analysis immensely, but I believe that the play is supposed to culminate in this way. Tragedies are about pulling away the carefully constructed barriers we place between ourselves and the grim realities of life, death, anger, and more; comedies are meant to exaggerate our tendencies, fantasies, and romanticized notions to show us how they mislead us.

This is how I see the brilliance of Shakespeare; because he is the sole entity- the master clockmaker- he undermines every situation of power, authority, and love. Why can Theseus condemn Hermia to death over “athenian law”? Because Shakespeare wanted it. Why is Hermia forced to marry a man she does not love? Shakespeare wanted it. Why does Oberon manipulate Titania, Lysander, Demetrius, and pretty much the entire cast of characters? Because of Shakespeare. None of the characters are in control of themselves; not their thoughts, their feelings, nor their actions. They are all mindlessly puppeteered by the Bard.

Who knows if this is a belief that Shakespeare held. Maybe he believed in the lack of free will or the idea of a single creator dictating our every move. I don’t know, but he is right about one thing. The more we assume we have power over the things around us, the more we are really submitting ourselves to be puppeted by forces outside our control.