Theseus is the heroic duke of Athens. Not only his position but also his personality is royal too. His principles depend on humanistic values and he lives his love deeply but not irrationally. He is not selfish, narcisist or arrogant so that he is the royal Duke of Athens. This makes him more respectable and friendly. Especially, he acts very polite towards Hippolyta and his valuable expressions about love makes Hippolyta feel a happy woman.

He represents power and order. This character is important in the play because Hermia’s father wanted his daughter Hermia to get married with Demetrius who comes from royal Athenian family, instead of Lysander. Moreover, all families can want and apply on this according to Athens’ law, so if daughters in the same situation reject this, they will be sentenced to death formally. In this play, she rejects this, but Theseus is such a wise man that he gives four days to Hermia to think about the situation. Although there are laws, he can make these laws flexible. In addition to this, Theseus and Hippolyta are always entirely in control of theirs. Their reappearance in the daylight of Act IV to hear Theseus’s hounds signifies the end of the dream state of the previous night and a return to rationality. (http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/characters.html).

Theseus is in relationship especially with Hypolita who is the legendary queen of the Amazons, engaged to Theseus. Like Theseus, she symbolizes order. He is a tolerant person and humanist particularly in sense of love. Other characters around Theseus respect and trust him. They regard him not only as a Duke but also as a person who is tended to solve his public’s troubles. These make him a noble and a respectable man. Theseus' laws have overcome the bloody, passionate side of love: the man himself appears to have ceased his earlier, youthful amours to settle down with a wife, Hippolyta, vigorous enough to match his own martial nature. Indeed, he discounts the entertainments as those which he has already heard or told -- they are old news to him, settled affairs, and he needs hear of them no more. (http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/themes.html).

The role of Theseus contrasts between the love of the young lovers and the love of the Duke. We cannot understand the difference of something unless we see the contrary between the two. Therefore, his absence would affect the events for instance his tolerant decision about Hermia gives the opportunity to end the play happily. Maybe Theseus seems as if he is not an extremely important character in the play but we can understand his importance when we remove him from the play. If he had never appeared in the play, there wouldn’t have been any alternative and she had been sure about her decision and of loving Lysander, then, she would have chosen to die thus, this would make the play tragic. Not only the plot but also the type of play would have changed comedy to tragedy.

References

• A Midsummer’s Night Dream, analysis of major characters”, Sparknotes. Eds. Phillips, B. and Stallings, S. 26^th Nov. 2006.

<http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/characters.html>

• A Midsummer’s Night Dream, analysis of major characters”, Sparknotes. Eds. Phillips, B. and Stallings, S. 26^th Nov. 2006.

<http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/themes.html>

{Home}

Academic year 2006/2007
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Ipek ONur
Universitat de València Press
onur@alumni.uv.es