|
Shakespeare\'s understanding of a wide range of human experience as well as different levels of consciousness enables him to adapt his style to his characters and their worlds. A Midsummer Night\'s Dream is unique in that its different sets of characters speak in different ways. And their styles of speech tell us things about them.
The ducal court and the romantic lovers speak a conventional courtly poetry, filled with mythical allusions and witty rhetorical gamesmanship. Its conventionality tells us as much about the characters as anything else. The lovers\' well-fitted rhymes speak of a complacency, not a creative fire, at the core of their feelings. Note Lysander\'s first words to Hermia:
\"How now, my love! Why is your cheek so pale?
How chance the roses there do fade so fast?\"
(I, i, 128-129)
Considering Hermia has just been threatened with death, the rose metaphor seems a little flip. The deeper, threatening emotions of the situation are masked by the poetic rhetoric. But because Shakespeare presents the lovers as comic, not tragic, figures, we can enjoy the intricacy of their metaphors and rhymes while we laugh at their shallowness.
Except for their acted parts in the play at the wedding, the workingmen speak in prose. Shakespeare gives them a sense of being down-to-earth, appropriate to their occupations and simple hearts. When they try to speak poetically, the results are laughable. They continually misuse and mispronounce words, but Shakespeare treats them gently and their simplicity triumphs over their pretensions. Similarly, the silly verse they spout in \"Pyramus and Thisby\" satirizes bad acting but will probably leave you agreeing with Theseus that the actors\' intentions are what matters.
The most eloquent and beautiful poetry in the play belongs to Oberon and Titania. Suddenly you feel the force of real poetry, not its false representatives. Shakespeare clearly aligns his poetry with magic, and Oberon\'s use of language seems to work like a magic spell. He names flowers with full recognition of their magical potentialities--including the power of the sound of their names.
\"I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite overcanopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk roses, and with eglantine.\"
(II, ii, 249-52)
This famous passage is really just a list of flowers, but Shakespeare is able to infuse the naming with poetic magic, highlighting the rhythmic and sensual qualities of the language.
|
