How does Shakespeare use the image of the moon in A Midsummer Night's Dream?

Answer 1

Often in Shakespeare's plays, one word seems to come up over and over. In Romeo and Juliet, it's "stars". In Macbeth, it's "blood". In Othello, it's "honest". In Midsummer Night's dream, it's "moon". Consider:

At the very beginning of the play, Theseus says that he and Hippolyta will be married at the new moon. "Four happy days bring in Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slow This old moon wanes!" Hippolyta replies, comparing the new moon to a "silver bow, new-bent in heaven."

Egeus claims that Lysander has bewitched Hermia by singing at her window by moonlight, among other things. It is interesting that the moon is here associated with the magic of love. Theseus will use the moon to describe lovelessness by evoking nuns "chanting hymns to the cold fruitless moon", which is the opposite.

Quince proposes that the mechanicals should rehearse a mile from the town, and by moonlight. There shouldn't be much moonlight if it is only a couple of days from the new moon, but Shakespeare wanted it both ways. Later the mechanicals will wonder whether the moon shines on the night they are to perform. Snug says it does, but come on, man! it's new moon, and there will be no moonlight. Maybe that's why Starveling ends up playing the part.

Then we get the fairies. Oberon's first line is "Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania!". The fairy who talks to Puck says that she wanders "swifter than the moon's sphere", Titania also talks about "moonlight revels", and Oberon, in describing love-in-idleness to Puck says that Cupid was flying between the "cold moon and the earth" and also talks about "the chaste beams of the watery moon", which reminds one a little of Theseus and the cold fruitless moon. Oberon will tell Titania later that they can go around the earth "swifter than the wandering moon", echoing the fairy.

Titania will talk later about the watery moon when she says, "The moon methinks looks with a watery eye; And when she weeps, weeps every little flower, Lamenting some enforced chastity" echoing quite closely what Oberon said earlier. She also has the fairies use butterfly wings to sweep moonbeams out of Bottom's donkey eyes.

Hermia uses the moon to express impossibility: "I'll believe as soon This whole earth may be bored and that the moon May through the centre creep and so displease Her brother's noontide with Antipodes." Is the moon likely to fall through the earth and reappear on the same side as the sun? She thinks not.

The presentation of "Moonshine" in Pyramus and Thisbe is the cause of much mirth in the audience, especially Demetrius, who is always rudely interrupting the actors. "This lanthorn doth the hornéd moon present" results in hoots of laughter, since "horns" were always associated with cuckolds, as well as with "horniness". Hence Demetrius says "He should have worn the horns on his head", a sign of cuckoldry.

Anyway, Starveling is able to retire with good grace, and even gets a compliment from Hippolyta: "Well shone, moon. Truly the moon shines with a good grace." Of course, it might well be a tongue-in-cheek compliment. After all, what kind of acting does it take to "shine"?

Puck closes off the moon-imagery by saying "Now the hungry lion roars, And the wolf behowls the moon."

It's a dangerous time, the night-time, when wolves are out and so are the fairies. Love-songs work better, and it is a time of reveling, a time associated with horns and horniness. At the same time the moonlight is cold and watery and chaste. The moon moves swiftly and you cannot pin it down. Either way it is magic.

Answer 2

Shakespeare uses the image of the moon in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" to symbolize change, mystery, and transformation. The moon is often associated with magical elements and is used to create an ethereal and dreamlike atmosphere in the play. Characters in the play, such as Titania and Oberon, are also influenced by the moon's phases, reflecting its power over human emotions and behavior.

Answer 3

The themes of illusion and dreams are constantly coming up. Hermia has a dream about a snake. The potion Love-in-idleness creates illusory love. Bottom is given the appearance of a donkey. When he wakes he believes that it was all a dream. So do the lovers, although Hippolyta finds it strange that they all had the same dream. Finally the play Pyramus and Thisbe is an illusion and deals with the illusory nature of stage productions--hence the amusing fear of the mechanicals that an obviously fake lion will "affright the ladies"

Answer 4

I think it is supposed to have been set in Midsummer Night.