Student Question
How does Shakespeare cater to both aristocrats and commoners in A Midsummer Night's Dream?
Quick answer:
Shakespeare appeals to both aristocrats and commoners in A Midsummer Night's Dream through humor, poetic language, and the supernatural. Commoners enjoyed the comedic antics of characters like Puck and Bottom, while the aristocrats appreciated the poetic language and themes. The inclusion of fairies and magic, which were widely believed in during Shakespeare's time, captivated audiences across social classes, allowing them to engage with the fantastical elements of the play.
Shakespeare wrote his plays with both the upper classes and the lower--the "groundlings"--in mind. In his play A Midsummer Night's Dream, both audiences would certainly enjoy the antics of Puck and the other fairies. Of course, the poetic language and the higher thought of the play appealed more to the upper classes who were educated.
One example that serves to explain how Shakespeare appealed to both audiences occurs in the second act after Oberon has set in motion his plan for revenge on his wife, Titiana, Puck mismanages his instructions and "alienates" the wrong choice of husband for Hermia, so that he, Lysander, is now in love with Helena. Lysander tells Helena,
Not Hermia but Helena I love:/Who will not change a raven for a dove?/The will of man is by reason sway'd/And reason says you are the worthier maid./Things growing are not ripe until their season:/So I, being young, till...
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now ripe not to reason;/And touching now the point of human skill,/Reason becomes the marshal to my will,/And leads me to your eyes; where I o'erlook/Love's stories, written in lover's richest book. (II,ii,114-124)
In this passage, the groundlings would enjoy the misadventures of Puck and the resulting action, as would the aristocrats. In additon, though, the upper classes would enjoy the beauty of the metaphors and rhythm and rhyme of the passage as well as the irony of the observation of Lysander that "Reason becomes the marshal to my will." The eye imagery, also, would not go unnoticed by the more educated audience.
In other words, the groundlings enjoyed the action of the play, the humorous situations such as the play that the --put on, and, of course, the hilarity of Bottom's having the head of an "ass," as well as some of the poetry of the play and the themes, but the upper classes would delight much more in the subtleties of the language and the immense expansion of Shakespeare's poetic imagination, as well as the motifs, such as the preoccupation with the significance of dreams and reality, that Shakespeare used.
Modern audiences of all kinds and ages are yet able to enjoy this delightful play. (In one performance that was given Puck ran through the audience, sitting beside children to their delight.) The physical actions of this play is most enjoyable to them as they see Bottom and the fairies and observe the chasing of Helen after Demetrius. Adult audiences, who enjoy the humor of the play as well, also understand the sexual implications of this play and the beauty of the language; thus, they delight in it, as well.
How does Shakespeare appeal to both aristocrats and commoners in A Midsummer Night's Dream?
One way in which Shakespeare appeals to the aristocrats and the commoners in A Midsummer Night's Dream, is the Bard's inclusion of the supernatural—something people of all economic levels during his time believed in completely.
During the time of Shakespeare, the belief of fairies is persistent and widespread. Although Shakespeare may not believe in these mythological creatures himself, he does believe in using them for dramatic purposes.
A belief in the supernatural (anything that goes beyond what is seen as "natural") is not reflected only in what happens to the common folk, but also in what occurs with those of a more elevated class. While the Bottom (the weaver) and the other "players" are taunted and even (in Bottom's case) placed under a spell, the same thing happens to the young lovers, who are also the subject of Oberon's "love juice" as he tries to fix the difficulties between Helena and Demetrius, with comic results.
Shakespeare draws a line between the aristocrats and commoners, except when the supernatural steps in:
[Shakespeare] is also careful to make apparent the distinction between the court and the craftspeople, except, of course, when Bottom is beloved by Titania.
Titania is a member of the aristocracy of the fairy kingdom. Once again, it is only through magic that she and Bottom are involved in a romantic tryst. Her shock at the time they spend together is found in her response when the antidote is administered by Oberon, and she believes she had been "enamour'd of an ass" (IV.i.76), for only a spell of a supernatural nature could bring these two together:
TITANIA:
How came these things to pass?
O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now! (78-79)
A common belief in the supernatural allows the different social classes to interact. And this interaction requires no "willing suspension of disbelief," for during the Elizabethan age, people of all socioeconomic classes believed in the power of the supernatural, as seen also in many of Shakespeare's other plays, including Julius Caesar, Macbeth and Hamlet, to name a few. The presence of ghosts, witches and fairies were elements of drama that allowed for the impossible to take place: for information to be shared between this world and "the next," for illusions to appear before the eyes of otherwise mentally sound characters, and for fear—and humor—to heighten the dramatic experience of theater-goers as they viewed the Elizabethan and Jacobean drama.
Additional Sources:
http://www.enotes.com/midsummer-nights-dream/demetrius-character-analysis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_of_disbelief