952 shakespeare, William
animal mask—the ass’s head that Puck manifests
upon him. He has had what for some would be a
life-altering experience, yet he does not learn or
change. For his part, the weaver is a glutton, inca-
pable of apprehending or appreciating the rare treat
of sexual conjugation with the fairy queen. Crude
and gross, “bottom” in his nature, he represents the
appetitive side of sex.
Bottom becomes a pawn in Oberon’s war with
Titania for possession of the Indian boy, as Oberon’s
enchantment of Titania’s eyes leads to her falling
into ravenous lust with him. She does not merely
fall in love with him but beds him in her fairy bower.
When Oberon permits Titania to recover her senses,
she is disgusted at what had attracted her sexually,
and she happily returns to Oberon, whose ruse has
led to him winning both the boy and Titania. Win-
ning control is more important to him than the fact
that Titania has bedded another.
When Bottom appears as Pyramus in the
mechanicals’ wedding entertainment, he and Thisbe
stand on either side of the wall, played by Snout the
joiner. There is no mistaking the low, crass humor
of their whispered love talk through the “chink” in
the wall, a hole formed by Snout between thumb
and index finger. Pyramus says, “And thou, O wall,
O sweet, O lovely wall, / Show me thy chink, to
blink through with mine eyne. . . . Thanks courte-
ous wall.” Pyramus curses the wall, for Thisbe is not
there. When she enters, she says, “O wall, full often
hast thou heard my moans / For parting my fair
Pyramus and me. / My cherry lips have often kissed
thy stones, / Thy stones with lime and hair knit up
in thee.” And then further in the scene, as the two
lovers prepare to meet near Ninus’s tomb: “O, kiss
me through the hole of this vile wall,” says Pyramus.
Then Thisbe, “I kiss the wall’s hole, not your lips at
all” (5.1.173–200).
The end of the fifth act of A Midsummer Night’s
Dream has the three newly married couples retir-
ing to their rooms; sexual union has been given the
authority of law. Furthermore, the fairies appear to
bless the unions and to ensure that the night’s conju-
gal activities will be fertile. This gesture is analogous
to a religious benediction, elevating sex between the
couples to a spiritual level.
Ellen Rosenberg
SocIaL cLaSS in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The world of A Midsummer Night’s Dream may
initially seem to be a kaleidoscope of transgressed
rules and roles, sexual desire and pursuit, adoles-
cent rebellion, botched magic potions, and “bad”
theater. Critical examination of the play, however,
organized along the lines of social classes and nar-
rative frames, reveals Shakespeare’s tightly crafted
dramatic architecture. Shakespeare’s Athens is hier-
archically ordered, and each social class is delineated
in terms of function, obligation, and significance to
the society at large. The play’s social classes organize
the plot’s narrative frames. Even the fairies have
their place.
Theatrical productions of A Midsummer Night’s
Dream often feature double casting of certain roles:
Theseus and Oberon; Hippolyta and Titania; Phi-
lostrate and Puck. The reason behind this traditional
theatrical practice is that these pairs are often viewed
as representing parallel worlds and issues. In their
respective worlds and classes, they fulfill similar roles.
Act 1 opens on Theseus’s anxious preparations
for his marriage, four days hence, to Hippolyta, his
vanquished foe, whom he had conquered in battle.
Theseus is the duke of Athens, and his social class
is that of the nobility. He is, therefore, the character
who represents justice, civil government, and order,
and his authority is the highest in the play. In terms
of the status of the genders, Theseus represents
the heroic citizen ideal of classical Greece: a native-
born Greek, a male, a statesman, and a courageous
leader—a soldier who has gained honor in battle and
whose good reputation in perpetuity is guaranteed.
Women of the ancient Greek world had second-
class status, so in choosing Theseus—who has
defeated Hippolyta in battle and who will wed and
bed her by the end of the play—Shakespeare has
positioned the genders in their “rightful places.”
Shakespeare’s use of the mythical Greek king The-
seus in this role is ironic, for in ancient mythology,
though he is a great hero, he is a notorious woman-
izer. Hippolyta is an aristocratic Amazon, so she is
of the same class as Theseus, though she will never
have power or authority, no less citizenship, in male-
dominated Athens. Her only power in the play is to
ensure that Theseus will wait the four days until the
nuptials are performed to consummate the marriage.