Shakespeare After All -- Contrapunctual Love in "A Midsummer's Night's Dream" In the introduction to her text, Shakespeare after All, scholar Marjorie Garber engages in the paradoxical task of making an argument that essentially Shakespeare's plays have no 'argument.' Garber states that although the different characters may argue amidst themselves, Shakespeare's plays take no final position as to what is the correct moral approach to life. Arguments about human behavior are submitted "contrapunctually" in Garber's phrase. For example, the reaffirmation of the patriarchal order and patriarchal control of marriage in "A Midsummer's Night's Dream," as expressed by Hermia's father in Act I of the play, is subverted by the marriage between Hermia and her beloved Lysander. Yet conventional gender dynamics are affirmed contrapunctually affirmed through the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta, as well as the newly submissive Titania to the antics of Oberon.

For example, one seamless or non-Garber-like reading of the play suggests that the chaos of the forest simply and clearly asserts the feminine will of choice in marriage. The play begins with Hermia's father Egeus stating to Theseus that Lysander has turned his daughter's affections from the man he wishes her to marry, Demetrius. Lysander, "with cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart, / Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me," her father. (I.1) Hermia's decision to marry Lysander drives her to leave her father, refuse to "fit" her fancies to your father's will" as she is ordered to by Theseus, as Hermia and her beloved Lysander abscond to the forest. (I.1) Ultimately, their actions...

"Egeus, I will overbear your will;" says Theseus, eventually using kingly power to affirm what the lover's flight to the forest has created in their hearts. (V.1)
Yet Hermia's act also has a conservative aspect to it, for it brings 'right' the original promise made by Demetrius to Helena. The forest enchants both the male lovers, and Demetrius is still enchanted by Puck's love spell, which is why he adores Helena. What took place before the forest's charms was actually more 'wrong' than what the spells of Midsummer created. Now all is harmony once again, and what the women wanted in the first place is allowed and Helena, "she, sweet lady," is rewarded for her doting "devoutly dot[ing], dotes in idolatry/Upon this spotted and inconstant man [Demetrius]." (I.1)

Thus, to see the play as an affirmation of feminine dominance of love would be wrong, for the woods merely asserts the relations between the lovers before the play began. Also, the male lovers would never have been charmed by Puck had they not unwittingly gotten in the way of Oberon and Titania's own romantic wrangling. True, Oberon shows compassion when he sees Helena's self-abasement before Demetrius, and insists Puck ensure that Demetrius falls in love with her. But Oberon also uses his magic to shame Titania into giving up "a little changeling boy," that strikes his fancy, "to be my henchman." (II.1) Titania initially refuses out of respect and love for the memory of the mother of the boy, a "votress of my order." (II.1) Male domination of…