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Wednesday, October 29, 2008
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following darkness like a dream...
folks, here's something else i think you might want to take some time to think about. we've already talked a little about the 'dark elements' in amnd. here's a bit more to add to that!You'll need to decide for yourself just how
sinister the spiritual powers in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" really are.
Oberon and Titania have
manipulated Theseus and Hippolyta.
The boy over whom the fairy king and queen quarrel is the son of an "Indian King" and a "votaress of [Titania's] order", evidently a celibate who was forced by a warlord. (Elsewhere in the play, Oberon calls Queen Elizabeth "the imperial votaress", because she was supposedly celibate.)
Oberon is simply wrong to demand the child of Titania's dedicated servant who died giving him birth.
Shakespeare has changed Greek myth to have Oberon assist Theseus in deserting "Perigenia whom he
ravished" (raped, date-raped, took advantage of, or whatever.)
Perigenia is Perigoune (say peh-ree-gou-NAY), daughter of a robber. She hid in an asparagus patch while her father was killed, and afterwards she and Theseus fell in love and had a son who was legendary ancestor of an ancient Greek community.
The battle between Oberon and Titania has devastated nature and hurt people. Neither one cares. Note in particular the picture of sheep killed in a flash flood, rotting and being eaten by crows.
Puck "
misleads night-travelers, laughing at their harm." This is the will-o-wisp, the eerie light that leads night travellers off the road and into the marsh. Today we suppose that this is swamp gas.
The fairies enact a charm around the sleeping Titania, to ward off the ugly and dangerous creatures of the night -- worms, poisonous snakes, spiders, newts, beetles. "Philomel(a)" is the nightingale (some say swallow); her story from classical mythology involves
rape,
mutilation, and
cannibalism. Note that the "one sentinel" fairy silently betrays his mistress to Oberon, who says to Titania, "Wake when some vile thing is near.".
Titania tells her fairies to cut the legs off bees and pull the wings off butterflies to create creature comforts for Bottom.
Titania tells Bottom, "Thou wilt remain here, whether thou wilt or no."
Puck remarks that only one male human in a million keeps his promises.
As the spirit of
chaos and unreason, Puck says, "And those things do best please me / That befall preposterously!"
Puck promises to prevent birth defects in the newlyweds' babies. Can/do the fairies also cause these?
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