In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the moon is the guiding force of madness in the
play which influences the chaotic nature and lunacy of the characters. The moon
seems to preside over the entire play and is a symbol of change. Oberon and
Titania, king and queen of the fairies, are one example of lunatic lovers that
parallel the theme of changeability. Oberon and Titania are quarreling over the
possession of an Indian boy that Titania has mothered since the boy was a baby.
This makes Oberon very jealous. But, Oberon doesn’t help matters much with his
straying after nymphs and admiring Hippolyta. This quarrel becomes so intense
that it begins to affect the seasons on earth. Titania describes it as: The
spring, the summer, The childing autumn, angry winter, change Their wonted
liveries, and the mazed world By their increase now knows not which is which,
And this same progeny of evils comes From our debate, from our dissension; We
are their parents and original. II:I 114-20 The constant changing of the
earth’s state in the seasons creates chaos among mother nature. In order to
solve the quarrel, Oberon wants to teach Titania a lesson by telling Puck or
Robin Goodfellow to use a magical nectar on her and the Athenian man called
Demetrius: Fetch me a flower; the herb that I showed thee once The juice of it
on sleeping eyelids laid Will make man or woman madly dote Upon the next live
creature that it sees. II:I 172-75 In the case of the two lovers, Hermia and
Lysander, they plan to meet by moonlight and elope in Athens. Egeus, Hermia’s
father, wishes for her to marry a man named Demetrius whom he thinks is of high
stature and is fitting for his daughter as a husband. Hermia is very much in
love with Lysander and chooses to directly disobey Athenian law and her
father’s wishes by eloping. Hermia’s willingness to risk banishment from her
homeland shows that love can make a person do irrational things. Helena,
Hermia’s friend, was once the beloved of Demetrius and if she can win back his
love, then Hermia and Lysander will be free to wed. In an effort to gain the
attention of Demetrius, Helena betrays the secret of her dearest friend when she
informs Demetrius that Hermia and Lysander are eloping. This is another example
of a “lunatic lover” in Shakespeare. Helena knows that she must keep
Hermia’s secret, but she cannot help but tell it to Demetrius in order to get
him to notice her. Helena’s love for Demetrius could cost her the friendship
that she has with Hermia but when a person is so much in love sometimes he or
she will risk anything. A mistake made by Puck increases the chaos and madness
in the play. Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius and sprinkles Lysander’s
eyes with the potion instead. Lysander awakens and the first person he sees is
Helena. Under the influence of the potion, he immediately falls in love with
her. A catastrophe is created when Hermia awakens from her slumber and finds
that Lysander has only eyes for Helena. A fight emerges among the two best
friends when Helena says: O spite! O hell! I see you are all bent To set against
me for your merriment. If you were civil and knew courtesy You would not do me
thus much injury. III:II 148-51 . Puck also sprinkles the potion on Titania’s
eyes causing her to act like a “lovesick lunatic”. When she awakens, she
sees Bottom who is now an ass head, and she immediately falls in love with him.
Even though Bottom is an ass head, the potion hinders her judgment and she is
attracted to him anyway. Otherwise, Titania would certainly not be attracted to
the ass head, Bottom, at all. In these lines, Titania talks of the repulsive
Bottom as a very handsome man: Come, sit thee down upon this flow’ry bed,
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy, And stick muskroses in thy sleek smooth head,
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy. IV:I 1-4 The madness of this type
of love is reflected in the line, “reason and love keep little company
nowadays” from Act III, Scene I (145-46). Love is blind to reason and
sometimes love overpowers reason. Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
reemphasizes the connection of the lunatic and the lover, hence the phrase
“lovers are lunatics”: Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, Such
shaping fantasies, that apprehend More than cool reason ever comprehends. The
lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact One sees more
devils than vast hell can hold; That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt. V:I 5-11 The lunatic lovers in
Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night also show the changeability and madness of love.
Viola, who is disguised as a young man named Cesario, is in love with Duke
Orsino. Viola was shipwrecked and wanted to seek employment with Olivia, but she
could not because Olivia did not wish to associate with anyone due to her
brother’s recent death. Viola is employed with Orsino instead as a eunuch.
Throughout the play, Viola stays true to her purpose in helping Duke Orsino win
Lady Olivia’s love. Orsino says that love acts like a demon and can wreck a
person’s life in the following lines: If music be the food of love, play on!
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! It had a dying fall. I:I 1-4 At this point in the play,
Orsino is not in love with one particular person. He is in love with love
itself. He uses words such as “excess,” “surfeiting,” “appetite,”
and “dying fall,” which shows that the Duke is sentimentally in love with
love. Orsino thoroughly enjoys giving himself up to the exquisite delights of
his own passions, and uses Viola (Cesario) to do his courting of Lady Olivia for
him. Also in that same speech, Orsino refers to the metaphor of the sea that he
loves: O spirit of love, how quick and fresh art thou, That, notwithstanding thy
capacity Receiveth as the sea, naught enters there. I:I 9-11 The sea is vast and
symbolizes Orsino’s capacity for love. The sea is also changeable, unstable,
and constantly shifting. At the end of the play, Orsino’s love shifts from
Lady Olivia to Viola (Cesario). He has been working up to this. The Fool
comments on the changing attraction and compares Orsino’s love to that of an
opal. An opal is a gem stone that constantly changes color according to the
nature of the light: Now the melancholy god protect thee, And the tailor make
thy doublet of changeable taffeta For thy mind is a very opal. II:IV 80-82
Another incident of love causing madness occurs when Maria concocts a scheme
involving a letter and Malvolio. Malvolio discovers a letter that says should it
fall by accident into the hands of the author’s beloved, he should be aware
that the woman who loves him is “above” him, but she begs him not to fear
her “greatness”: Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have
greatness thrust upon ‘em. II:V 149-50 Malvolio is to wear yellow stockings
that are “cross gartered” to win the love of Lady Olivia. This attire is
considered a symbol of a low-class serving person. Also, yellow is a color that
Lady Olivia detests the most. Malvolio does these outrageous things because he
wishes to woo the countess, Lady Olivia. In Act III, Scene 4 (61) Olivia reacts
by saying, “Why, this is very midsummer madness!” Malvolio’s crazy
behavior of wearing the yellow stockings also shows that love is blind to
reason, and a person will do just about anything to impress the one he loves. In
Act III, Scene I, another lunatic action done by a lover occurs. The Lady Olivia
falls in love with Cesario who is really the woman, Viola. When Cesario comes to
court Olivia for Orsino one evening, Olivia tells Cesario that she will not have
him. Then as Cesario is about to leave, Olivia is curious to know what he thinks
of her so she tells him to stay. This shows the changeability and madness in
Lady Olivia’s character. Surprisingly, Olivia makes a passionate declaration
of love for Cesario when she boldly refused to court any man because she was in
mourning of her brother’s death. Olivia says: Cesario, by the roses of the
spring, By maidhood, honour, truth, and everything... I love thee so... Nor wit
nor reason can my passion hide. III:I 146-49 Cesario cannot answer her plea for
love or the disguise would be revealed so Cesario chooses to reject Olivia. Lady
Olivia is now reduced to the same state as Orsino in terms of his courtship with
her. They both pleaded for love and were rejected. Also, a homosexual love
affair occurs between Antonio and Sebastian. Antonio cannot ignore his feelings
for Sebastian but at the same time, he is now sure how Sebastian will react.
Antonio would like to be Sebastian’s servant but that is not possible because
Sebastian dare not take Antonio to Duke Orsino’s court due to the “many
enemies” that are there. Antonio says that he will always treasure his
friendship with Sebastian and decides to go with Sebastian anyway despite the
danger. Antonio recognizes the dangers ahead if he follows Sebastian to
Orsino’s palace, but after the horrors of the shipwreck, future “danger
shall seem sport.” This is another example of blindness and madness of love.
Antonio knows the dangers of traveling to Orsino’s palace, but he is willing
to do it anyway because of love. Throughout all of this constant madness and
lunatic love affairs in Twelfth Night, the Fool observes the incidents and
manages to refrain from being involved in the madness. The Fool always seems to
be one step ahead of everyone else in the play. He saw through Viola’s
disguise before any of the other characters: Foolery, sir, does walk about the
orb like the sun; It shines everywhere. I would be sorry, sir, but the Fool
Should be oft with your master as with my mistress. III:I 40-43 The continual
usage of “sir” and the emphasis applied to the word when talking to Cesario
hints at the Fool’s knowledge of Viola’s disguise. The rest of the
characters in the play are the Fool’s entertainment, and he enjoys watching
the lunatic lovers. In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare shows how silly people can
really be and through the Fool’s perspective we can observe the madness of the
love affairs and the vagaries of sexual attraction in the play. In conclusion,
the lovers in both A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night are lunatics
and show that love is blind to reason.