Fyodor on the MND Intro

Greenblatt's MND Intro (Fyodor)

http://www.picturequotes.com/though-she-be-but-little-she-is-fierce-quote-282

Greenblatt’s introduction notes that there’s a dark undercurrent to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, made of “emotional violence, masochism, the betrayal of friendship, the radical fickleness of desire.” He attributes this to the sexual politics present in the story, especially the struggle between men and women. Referencing one play we recently studied, Greenblatt says that here, as in Taming of the Shrew, the struggle is for male domination over women. This is seen best in the testy relationship between Oberon and Titania, with her independence and his attempts to curb it.

The friendships and love between the four young Athenians also succumb to this darkness, thanks to the faeries’ meddling and the ongoing power struggle between Oberon and Titania. The kids turn on one another, and this is usually dealt with in performance in one of two ways – a production can either focus on the comedy, making the insults come off as funny to the audience rather than cruel, or it can emphasize what Greenblatt calls “this play’s more troubling and discordant notes.” This darkness is contrasted with the play’s conclusion, where everything is fixed literally by magic. Greenblatt says that the final outcome doesn’t matter as much to us, the audience, as it does to the characters. Playing it as a lighthearted comedy easily makes us forget the dark things the characters have experienced.

I chose this picture, or rather typographic art, as an example of this underlying darkness. “Though she be but little, she is fierce” (Mid. 3.2.325) is frequently taken out of context. It isn’t a positive description of Hermia, it’s her now-former friend Helena attacking her: “Oh, when she is angry she is keen and shrewd. / She was a vixen when she went to school, / And though she be but little, she is fierce” (Mid. 3.2.323-325). This can easily be played for laughs, and people forget the context of “though she be but little...” but it’s an example of the havoc wreaked on people who were once friends.