1. A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Art’s Illusory Sacrifice James L. Calderwood Presented by Marc

2. Introduction (1) Like Romeo and Juliet and Love’s Labour’s Lost, the placement of temporary disorder within a protective envelope of art and social order that seals all issues at the end occurs also in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Like Romeo and Juliet and Love’s Labour’s Lost, the placement of temporary disorder within a protective envelope of art and social order that seals all issues at the end occurs also in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The disparate world of nobles, workmen, and fairies are united in festivity, and dissention and alienation fade into wisps of half-remembered dreams. Maritally, socially, artistically, the knot is tied. The disparate world of nobles, workmen, and fairies are united in festivity, and dissention and alienation fade into wisps of half-remembered dreams. Maritally, socially, artistically, the knot is tied. The Theseus principle of rational order seems at the end to be fully confirmed; everybody gets home free, and a spirit of complacency is in the ascendant. The Theseus principle of rational order seems at the end to be fully confirmed; everybody gets home free, and a spirit of complacency is in the ascendant.

3. Introduction (2) Concord / discord: reconciliation b/w reason and imagination, art & reality Concord / discord: reconciliation b/w reason and imagination, art & reality Man / woman: Theseus / Oberon rights an imbalance in nature, compelling Hippolyta / Titania to be true to her sex Man / woman: Theseus / Oberon rights an imbalance in nature, compelling Hippolyta / Titania to be true to her sex Final Union b/w reason and imagination: Final Union b/w reason and imagination: The imaginative transformation that Oberon wrought in the forest Theseus confirms in the palace and temple The imaginative transformation that Oberon wrought in the forest Theseus confirms in the palace and temple

4. Thesis Statement Calderwood is concerned about metadrama, which specializes in its own forms of dissolution and transformation. In the epilogue, Puck tells the audience that if they like they can reverse the creative movement from dream to art. Puck’s suggestion confirms an interchangeability of dream and drama. Calderwood is concerned about metadrama, which specializes in its own forms of dissolution and transformation. In the epilogue, Puck tells the audience that if they like they can reverse the creative movement from dream to art. Puck’s suggestion confirms an interchangeability of dream and drama.

5. Metadrama Analogy: Analogy: 1. actual play (Bottom’s) / metaphoric play 1. actual play (Bottom’s) / metaphoric play (Oberon’s) (Oberon’s) 2. Theseus (patronizing remark) / Oberon 2. Theseus (patronizing remark) / Oberon (interior dramatist) (Shakespeare) (interior dramatist) (Shakespeare) 3. breakdown of sexual relationships 3. breakdown of sexual relationships  dissolving past identity (Helena / Hermia)  dissolving past identity (Helena / Hermia) 4. Pyramus and Thisbe (reality destroys the 4. Pyramus and Thisbe (reality destroys the dramatic fiction) / forest drama (digests reality) dramatic fiction) / forest drama (digests reality)

6. Audience Audience’s contribution: Theseus having said that the workmen’s play can be amended by imagination. Hippolyta replies, “It must be your imagination then, and not theirs.” Audience’s contribution: Theseus having said that the workmen’s play can be amended by imagination. Hippolyta replies, “It must be your imagination then, and not theirs.” Dramatic beauty and value are born of the intercourse b/w the various imaginations of dramatist, actors, and audience. Dramatic beauty and value are born of the intercourse b/w the various imaginations of dramatist, actors, and audience. The journey into the forest is a journey both outward to external nature and inward to human nature, both of which coalesce benevolently in the final concord of this discord. The journey into the forest is a journey both outward to external nature and inward to human nature, both of which coalesce benevolently in the final concord of this discord.

7. Language Bottom’s lacking the midwife of speech dies aborning and dream remains merely dream  Shakespeare has translated the incommunicable subjective dimension of human experience into external dramatic form where it becomes publicly available. Bottom’s lacking the midwife of speech dies aborning and dream remains merely dream  Shakespeare has translated the incommunicable subjective dimension of human experience into external dramatic form where it becomes publicly available. The poet’s proper task is to wed the audience to itself through the ceremony of dramatic art, not to stand himself before the alter. The poet’s proper task is to wed the audience to itself through the ceremony of dramatic art, not to stand himself before the alter.

8. Communion Oberon’s invisibility to Theseus, though what Oberon has performed in the forest Theseus accepts in Athens. (the experience of destruction and irrationality and creativity and imagination) Oberon’s invisibility to Theseus, though what Oberon has performed in the forest Theseus accepts in Athens. (the experience of destruction and irrationality and creativity and imagination) Theseus’ denial of fairy toys and lovers’ dismissal of their forest drama as mere dream allow themselves the gratification of feeling that “the will of man is by his reason swayed” (2.2.115)  truth’s exposure from the dramatic dream passes out of drama and dream into the real world of Athens that denies its relevance Theseus’ denial of fairy toys and lovers’ dismissal of their forest drama as mere dream allow themselves the gratification of feeling that “the will of man is by his reason swayed” (2.2.115)  truth’s exposure from the dramatic dream passes out of drama and dream into the real world of Athens that denies its relevance

9. Conclusion Shakespeare regards “lingering memory” as very shadowy indeed, a memory that perhaps works most when least we know it. Though the aesthetic experience may exercise “royal authority” in the ordinary world, his whole play suggests that it does not enter that world with pageantry but rather with the gamesomeness of Oberon’s tripping fairies, for the final image of the assimilation of art to reality and of imagination into reason; while Puck offers to the audience the play itself, to dissolve, as the lovers did their experience, into a vision “no more yielding but a dream.” Shakespeare regards “lingering memory” as very shadowy indeed, a memory that perhaps works most when least we know it. Though the aesthetic experience may exercise “royal authority” in the ordinary world, his whole play suggests that it does not enter that world with pageantry but rather with the gamesomeness of Oberon’s tripping fairies, for the final image of the assimilation of art to reality and of imagination into reason; while Puck offers to the audience the play itself, to dissolve, as the lovers did their experience, into a vision “no more yielding but a dream.”