Reversal and Recognition in a Midsummer's Night Dream (Essay Sample)

Reversal and Recognition in ‘A Midsummer’s Night Dream’
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Abstract
This paper intends to serve as an explanation of the techniques of Reversal and Recognition which are basically employed in plays, novels to impart subtlety and poise to the storyline, from the viewpoint of Shakespeare’s famous play, ‘A Midsummer’s Night Dream’.
Keywords: Reversal, Recognition, Shakespeare
Reversal and Recognition in ‘A Midsummer’s Night Dream’
A Midsummer’s Night Dream is touted to be a dark comedy written by William Shakespeare around 1595. It is widely regarded as a right blend of different narrative styles adapted from various classical works like Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Apuleius’s Golden Ass and delivers a high artistic effect. It is extensively interpreted in schools to introduce the children to the concepts of fairies, barns and is a play which is unanimously loved throughout the world. Though the love quadrangle that exists in a night of complete chaos is the central theme, the whole play is replete with numerous allusions, wordplays, poetic comparisons. On a whole, the total complexity of this novel had successfully led to an intense discussion on the same even now. We shall look in brief, the summary of the plot of ‘A Midsummer’s Night Dream’ so that it will be easier for us to discuss the elements of reversal and recognition in the play.
Summary of the play
As we all know, the play opens with the impending marriage of Theseus, the Duke of Athens and Hippolyta, the Queen of Amazons which is going to take place in four days. Though Theseus is impatient and wants the marriage to happen sooner as he won Hippolyta in a battle, she convinces him that the remaining four days will quickly pass and he need not worry. Meanwhile, Egeus, a close friend of Theseus arranges his daughter Hermia’s marriage with Demetrius. Instead of marrying him, she reveals that she is madly in love with Lysander. But Hermia has only two choices: either she has to accept her marriage with Demetrius or she has to spend the rest of her life as a nun in the Goddess Diana’s temple. Thus, Hermia plans to elope with Lysander and reveals the plan to Helena, who is ignored constantly by Demetrius and is hopelessly in love with him. Helena in turn exposes the plan to Demetrius and he starts chasing the couple who by now had eloped from Athens and got lost in the dense forests. The fairies of the forest are Oberon, the king of the jungle and his queen Titania and their servant Puck. Oberon, who overhears the conversation going between Hermia and Lysander and orders his servant Puck to pour the juice of an abnormal flower over the couple’s eyelids so that when they get up in the morning, the juice will aid them to fall in love with the person they first see as soon as they woke up. Unfortunately Puck mistakes the identity and pours it over Lysander, who first saw Helena, as the first person, the next morning and thus he rejected Hermia. Meanwhile, in Athens, many artists were practicing plays to perform on the wedding day of Theseus and Hippolyta. One particular play centered on the tragic love failure of Pyramus and Thisbe. Bottom, the weaver plays the protagonist and Puck, who gets to know this information, replaces the human head of Bottom with that of a Donkey’s. Titania, the queen of Oberon, who was also given the juice by Puck, looks at Bottom, the next morning and falls in love with him. Soon Oberon makes her realize the real look of Bottom and she is appalled by the sight of Bottom and reunites with Oberon. Puck realizes his mistake and replaces the original human head of Bottom, so that he can recite the intended play during the marriage, as originally planned. On the other hand, a tiff occurs between the exchanged lovers and Puck, who wants the amends, reunites the lovers’ with their original partners and both the couple have agreed to be present on the Duke’s wedding day. Hence, Oberon along with his queen Titania and his servant Puck, along with the couple Demetrius-Helena, Lysander-Hermia attends the Duke’s wedding wherein Bottom performs the play that portrays the tragic love story of Pyramus and Thisbe. Everyone enjoys the performance and the fairies in turn, bless all the couples and returns to their original abode, the dense forest.
The Roles of Reversal and Recognition mechanism
Throughout the play it can be seen that there are many literature techniques that are employed and the techniques of reversal and recognition are a few among them. These techniques are mainly imparted to the characters portrayed for the reason that these characters should imbibe and blend themselves with the given situation in hand. The reversal technique is mainly employed to give the character, especially the protagonist, an unexpected turn of events. This turn may either be good or bad and it depends entirely on the circumstances, whereas the recognition method is used to develop and enhance the plot in order to make it move towards the next level. But the basic tenet that lies behind these methods is to enhance and captivate the reader’s interest and also to evoke the necessary emotions in them. Creating twists and unexpected turns are also some of the well known methods to enrapture the interest of the reader.
In particular, here in the play, ‘A Midsummer’s Night Dream’ both the roles of reversal as well as recognition are brought out by the actions of the character Puck. Before Puck enters into the scene, both Lysander and Demetrius are in love with Hermia and Helena is left out. Hermia loves Lysander and is compelled by her father to marry Demetrius. Since both the men don’t love Helena, an insecure feeling arises in her and this feeling only makes her to expose the plan that Hermia plots in order to escape from the clutches of her father. Both Lysander and Hermia love each other in spite of many difficulties and hurdles they both face. They both think that they will get married once they escape from Athens. But the scenario completely changes once Puck’s entry occurs. Due to a small misconception, Puck gives the Love Potion to Lysander and unfortunately for Hermia, Helena arrives before her making Lysander fall deeply in love with her, instead of his beloved Hermia. Now, the situation is both the men are deeply in love with Helena, quite contrary to the original. This comes as a rude shock to Helena, who instead of becoming overjoyed at the prospect of having two men behind her, thinks that both the men are making fun of her. A tiff occurs between the estranged lovers’ and Hermia clearly couldn’t comprehend the real reason behind the twist in the events. The reversal technique is applied here in a more implicit and in an indirect manner. Puck is a mere carrier of the love potion and it is the potion which really brings about the necessary change in the play. By employing this reversal technique, Shakespeare had nicely brou...