and out of love like dolls, and like dolls they will go to sleep as soon as they are laid down. (McIntosh 3-4) Since the world is very large, there is plenty of room for mortals and fairies. Both are at home and sometimes seem to have exchanged functions with one another. Also, both mortals and fairies move freely in their own worlds. In this world, the moon governs. (McIntosh 4) The choice of ballad emphasizes the enormous difference between the intellectual and cultural assumptions of Bottom, the author and the audience. Meanwhile the definite movement from spiritual transformation to dream is referred to as art. This mirrors the informing structure design of the play as a whole. The art form now becomes a way containing and triumphing over unbearable reality. Consider, then, we come but in despite. We do not come, as minding to content you, Our true intent is all for your delight, we are not here. (McIntosh 5) A Midsummer Nights Dream is a play concerned with dreaming. Shakespeare reverses the categories of reality and illusion, sleeping and waking, art and nature, to touch upon the central theme of dreams. Dreams are truer than reality because it has a transforming power. Dreams are a part if the fertile, unbounded world of imagination. The Athenian lovers flee to the wood and fall asleep, entering a charmed of dream. After their eyes were anointed, the world of supernatural at once takes over the stage, controlling their lives in a way they cannot guess at. The dreams come true, but are made to appear fruitless. Without knowing the dimension of dream in our lives, there can be no real self-knowledge. (Garber 59-62) Delusion is the prelude to illusion. Lysander should produce this speech at a point when his actions are completely supernaturally or subconsciously controlled without the slightest hint of either reason or will. Reason has no place in the dream state, and when characters attempt to employ it, they frustrate their own e...
