Blog post 5 A Midsummer Night's Dream New Historicism, Cultural Studies

            A Midsummer Night's Dream is a famous play by William Shakespeare. It is comedy. The story is talking about two men Lysander, Demetrius, and two women Hermia, Helena elope to a forest, and the spirit Puck makes trouble. An event, elopement in the story is prominent. It is not accidental. Another famous play Romeo and Juliet also had similar event in it. That presents the current culture of the author’s time.

          In 16^th century, England, the arranged marriage was popular. There was no free love between young men and women. It was more severe between the noblemen. Their children usually were engaged when the children were 12 to 14 years old. The noblemen did that to maintain their power and social status. “The treatment of the crime of 'rapt', the marriage without parental approval, illustrates how magistrates in the 16th and 17th centuries incorporated their own opinions and values into the laws. Control over children's marriages was important both to the families trying to improve their status and to the political and religious authorities. The magistrates of the Paris Parlement, representing the interests of the nobility of the robe, strengthened the authority of the father by adding more severe provisions to the laws and by consistently judging and sentencing in favor of the parents. Thus the robe nobility gained control over marital alliances to benefit their prestige, status, and power.” (Cummings) Of course, that was not happy for the noblemen’s children, but most of them cannot change anything before they married. When the children grew up, they maybe have to do same thing to their children too because they were in the noble family. That was why the elopement is scandal in the noble family, but elopement drama still was popular on the society.

          On the other hand, the play had a happy end, but it was not changed by human power but by mythical blessing. We can know the author was not satisfied for his marriage too. “The hamlet of Shottery was only a mile from the town of Stratford where William Shakespeare lived with his family. Anne Hathaway would have often visited the town and would have therefore had the opportunity to meet William Shakespeare. At this time Anne would have been 26 and William 18. A considerable age difference, with William Shakespeare still under the age of consent (21). It is apparent that Anne Hathaway became pregnant prior to marriage which would have no doubt caused a scandal for both of the families. Not an auspicious start for a marriage or a perfect choice of a wife for the son of an ambitious family. William Shakespeare's father John, in particular, would not have been pleased at the detrimental effect that the gossip would have had on his own social standing in Stratford. A hasty affair would have been arranged.” (William) The author wanted some change of the marriage culture, so he wrote the play to encourage other to do something.

          Elopement is an important event in the play. It is not a good choice of the young men and women, but they have to choose it to look for happiness. We can know the social culture from the play, and the play also expressed author’s opinion on the marriage.

Work Cited

Cummings, Mark Proceedings of the Western Society for French History; Oct1976, Vol. 4, p118-125, 8p

William Shakespeare info web 6.6.2012