“CURSO MONOGRÁFICO DE LITERATURA INGLESA: SHAKESPEARE THROUGH PERFORMANCE”.

1^ST INDIVIDUAL PAPER

Character: Hippolyta

Play: The Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare.

Alumno: Karla Díaz de Heredia García

The main purpose of this paper is to analyse the character of Hippolyta in the Shakespearian comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and to see the importance of her presence within the play.

Hippolyta is the queen of the amazons, and she is engaged to Theseus, the heroic duke of Athens who defeated her in a battle with his sword.

Now they are going to get married, and we can see the couple speaking about their nearly wedding at the beginning of the play (in the first act), and we can notice that there is a good relationship between them, in spite of they were enemies in the past. They are anxious for the event, and they are counting the days left for it:

“Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour 1
Draws on apace; four happy days bring in

Another moon. But, methinks how slow

This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires,

Like to a stepdame or a dowager 5

Long withering out a young man’s reneveu”.

(Theseus, act I scene i)

“Four days will quickly steep themselves in night.

Four nights will quickly dream away the time.

And then the moon, like to a silver bow

New bent in heaven, shall behold the night 10

Of our solemnities.”

(Hippolyta, act I scene i)

Theseus confesses to her that he won her love in battle without any pity, but things will run differently now, because he wants her happiness and everything in their wedding will be perfect. This is the reason why Theseus is preparing entertainments and funny shows, to demonstrate to Hippolyta his true love.

She doesn’t appear much in the play, but she plays an important role, because her wedding is the reason for the meeting of all the characters in the play.

She turns to appear in the fourth act, when all the devious events have happened. The two couples of young lovers are trying to explain to Theseus what had happened in the wood, and instead of punishing them, Theseus is disposed to accept their union.

But in the fifth act, when Theseus and Hippolyta are in the palace, she says to him that the story of the lovers is very strange:

“Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of”. 1

(Hippolyta, act V scene i)

“More strange than true. I never may believe 2

These antique fables nor these fairy toys”.

(Theseus, act V scene i)

He doesn’t believe the story, he thinks that the youth have a strong imagination. But while Theseus is so sceptical, Hippolyta thinks that it is quite strange that all of the lovers managed to narrate the events in exactly the same way, it could not be a lie:

“But all the story of the night told over,

And all their minds transfigured so together,

More witnesseth than fancy's images 25

And grows to something of great constancy,

But, howsoever, strange and admirable”.

(Hippolyta, act V scene i)

During the performance of the drama (Pyramus and Thisbe) that some people of the town have prepared for the duke for his wedding’s festivities, Theseus is all the time commenting the play, but Hippolyta doesn’t like it:

“This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard”. 203

(Hyppolita. Act V scene i)

She is constantly doing rough and ironic comments about the play:

“Well shone, Moon!—Truly, the moon shines with a good 251

grace”.

(Theseus. Act V scene i)

I think that the love between Theseus and Hippolyta is the strongest true love in the play, because external influences have used magical elements with the young lovers. Love has emerged in them in a natural way, they met in a battle where Theseus won over Hippolyta, but time has made the true love appear between them.

It’s important to know that they are no part of the magical world. They are the owners of their acts and feelings.

And to conclude, remark that the couple formed by Theseus and Hippolyta is the representation of the order. We can see it when they arrive to the wood and find the youth waking up from a chaotic dream. With their appearance the order is re-established. It is very relevant how they only appear at the beginning of the play, when everything seems to be right, and they disappear when things start to become confuse. To turn to appear at the end, to make disappear all the uncertainty that involves the youth. Because they in themselves represent the control and order.

They come into sight when the sun is coming up, and the magic “dream”, as the night, disappears to welcome the rationality.

And it’s important to notice too the parallelism between Theseus and Hyppolita, and the couple formed by Oberon and Titania. The two couples are connected in the sense that all represent the control in their own environments: the first couple is who manage the life in the civilization, and the second one is who control the magic forest.

Bibliography:

> http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/midsummer/

Consult date: 25/01/07

> http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/midsummer/

Consult date: 25/01/07