A Midsummer Night's Dream Literary Analysis

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In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, the characters Hippolyta and Theseus play a vital role in helping the plot move forward and in balancing the play and characters. One of the more recognizable features of this couple is the stableness of their life, especially accentuated due to their common absence from the play, which results in balancing out the chaotic and magic-filled storyline. One of the more recognizable features of this couple to an onlooker is their common absence from the play, which is used as a way to really show how chaotic the other Athenians’ lives are in comparison to Theseus and Hippolyta when you finally get a splash of their normal, somewhat boring lives. In relation to this, they are also opposites…show more content…
In the case of Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, and Helena, their love is all very jumbled and confusing for several different reasons. However, on the flip side, Theseus and Hippolyta are very sure of their relationship and the love for one another. Proof of this is Theseus’ excitement when referencing his wedding and says, “Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour draws on apace. Four happy days bring in another moon. But oh, methinks how slow this old moon wanes” (I.i.1-4). Also, whereas the lovers’ lives are all chaotic due to the magic cast by Puck and the disorder between the odd love affairs, Theseus and Hippolyta are very normal. Their relationship has none of the literal magic that the others have and they live very simply, but still quite happily. This makes Theseus and Hippolyta foils of the other characters, to really show and contrast the chaos in the Athenian lovers’…show more content…
This means that Theseus and Hippolyta are most of the time present in the play when the play needs to further, and the characters are there to help do so. A great example of this is in act four when Theseus and Hippolyta are out with their hunting crew and they fall upon Helena, Hermia, Demetrius, and Lysander sleeping on the edge of the forest. Shakespeare wrote the two characters to find them because it eventually gives an end to the forest fiasco and they bring the four lovers back to the city, which results in everyone's marriages. The original storyline is finally connected when Theseus spots the four of them and says, “But, soft! What nymphs are these?” (IV.i.113). Theseus and Hippolyta are able to further the storyline easily because they are the roots of the play, they were in the original controversy between Egeus and Hermia and their wedding is the general topic of the play, so they are easily able to fit into any situation to help connect the dots in the
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