how does wisdom emerge out of the folly and mockery in A Midsummer Nights Dream?
Answers
There are many who would argue that the wisdom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream does not just simply emerge from folly, as a babe emerges from his mother’s womb, but that it is found amidst and throughout the folly. Much wisdom is revealed throughout the play, spoken in jest or as a telling comment on the proceedings on stage. Examine the following:
The course of true love never did run smooth. Lysander says this to Hermia near the very beginning of the play, and wiser words have rarely been spoken. He is assuring his love that just because there are difficulties, even insurmountable obstacles between them, it does not mean their love isn’t real or meant to be. This proverb reminds us all that even true love isn’t always easy-breezy.
So quick bright things come to confusion. If we translate “quick bright things” as people, the reference is that people tend to overthink, or to move and react too quickly, and usually end up in trouble because of it. Wisdom requires a balance between these two extremes.
Or if we consider “quick bright things” to be the explosive kind of “love at first sight” that is more common than a deep, abiding “true love,” Lysander is pointing out in his monologue that there are plenty of obstacles in the world to snuff it out, “war, death, or sickness” being among them. If he and Hermia can overcome, it indicates their love must be of the rarer, true kind. For as wisdom points out, it can’t be true love if a little war, death, and sickness can get in the way.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, /And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. How many times have people fallen into a love that makes no earthly sense? How many times have they messed up their love lives by refusing to see what is literally right in front of them? Helena laments here that love should be about what is in the heart, not what beauty lies on the surface.
And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays. In today’s parlance, this phrase could be translated as a popular cliche, “Love can make you crazy.” It is a truism we see in stories, movies, and personal life; Shakespeare made himself immortal exploring this theme.
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends. This is Theseus’s scathing indictment of “the lunatic, the lover and the poet” who, as modern writers would put it, “tend to make mountains out of molehills.” He is advising Hippolyta not to be taken by these lovers and their tales, as not every story is unvarnished truth.
I will hear that play;
For never anything can be amiss,
When simpleness and duty tender it. In spite of his skepticism regarding tales, Theseus is generous in wanting to see a play put on for him by Bottom and his troupe of workers. In modern vernacular, we would say “it’s the thought that counts.”
As the play concludes, the audience is left with the understanding that the characters of this play have learned a valuable lesson about love and kindness towards one another. One could even say the fairies have learned this too, as they are intent on repairing the damage they've done in the night. The overriding message at the end is that love is a precious and valuable thing and should be respected