A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The characters of Theseus and Hippolyta
I.
Who are Theseus and Hippolyta?
Theseus is the Duke of Athens and therefore has a huge amount of power over the mortals
in Athens at the beginning and end of the play. Hippolyta is the queen of the Amazons who
has been won in battle by Theseus. At the start of the play there are due to be married, and
at the end of the play in Act 5, they are married and celebrating their nuptials with Hermia
and Lysander, and Helena and Demetrius by watching the Mechanicals perform ‘Pyramus
and Thisbe’. Theseus and Hippolyta only appear in a few acts and scenes throughout the
play however they are still important characters. In Act 5 Theseus’ meta-dramatic speech
and Hippolyta’s response to him arguably represent the theme of reality versus imagination
in the play.
II.
Context
In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale from The Canterbury Tales there mentions a Duke called
Theseus. This is interesting because although the name Theseus features in other texts of the
period, he is only referred to as a ‘Duke’ in this text. The Knight’s Tale also mentions that he
‘wedded the queene Ipolita’ after he conquered her land.
In 1579, a man called Sir Thomas North translated into English Jacques Amyot French
translation of Plutarch’s essay: The Lives of real life- and mythical soldiers and statesman . In it
there is mention of Theseus’s battle with the Amazons and that he married Hippolyta who was
known as Antiopa. In North’s translation, he also mentions Theseus as sexually promiscuous.
This is referenced in the play when Oberon asks Titania: ‘Knowing I know thy love to
Theseus?/Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night/From Perigenia, whom he
ravished,/And make him with fair Aegles break his faith,/With Ariadne and Antiopa?’ It is
implied that Theseus has been with all three women mentioned and has been unfaithful to them
all.
Further Reading:
Nicholas Tredell , Shakespeare A Midsummer Night’s Dream- A reader’s guide to essential criticism,
Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, pages 4, 5
III.
What do critics say?
One of the earliest pieces of criticism about Theseus and Hippolyta comes from August von
Schlegel in the early 19th century. He asserts that Theseus and Hippolyta act as a ‘splendid
frame for the picture; they take no part in the action but appear with a stately pomp’.
Dowden however in the late 19th century gives Theseus far more importance and calls him ‘the
central figure of the Dream’. He says that ‘he is to be studied as Shakespeare’s conception of the
heroic man of action in his hour of enjoyment and need’.
However if we jump to the 1980s which saw a rise in feminist criticism, some critics’ attitudes
towards the character of Theseus are much less sympathetic. Shirley Nelson Garner sees
Theseus along with Oberon as breaking the bonds between women for example when Theseus
separates Hippolyta from her fellow Amazons. This enables the ‘restoration of patriarchal
hierarchy’ at the end of the play.
David Marshall addresses the issue of Hippolyta’s lack of lines and speech in the play. In Act 1
Hippolyta only speaks once and then she has few lines at the end of Act 4. In Act 5 she has more
lines however they are mostly to comment on the Mechanicals’ performance of ‘Pyramus and
Thisbe’. Marshall says that Hippolyta speaks ‘with dignity, reason and diplomacy- as is
appropriate for a queenly prisoner of war but her words are restricted and non-committal’.
IV.
Further reading
Nicholas Tredell , Shakespeare A Midsummer Night’s Dream- A reader’s guide to essential criticism,
Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, pages 18, 27, 90, 91
V.
Analysis
1. Act 1 Scene 1
The play opens at the palace of Theseus where he enters with Hippolyta and Philostrate who is
master of the revels at Theseus’ court. Theseus says to Hippolyta: ‘Now fair Hippolyta, our
nuptial hour/Draw on apace; four happy days bring in/Another moon’. His first lines show his
impatience to marry his future bride. However Hippolyta replies: ‘Four days will quickly steep
themselves in night; /Four nights will quickly dream away the time’. The implication here is that
Hippolyta is certainly not as eager to marry Theseus. This is because we find out that Theseus
has taken Hippolyta prisoner after defeating the Amazons in a battle. He says ‘Hippolyta, I
woo’d thee with my sword,/And won thy love doing thee injuries’. This can also be read as sexual
innuendo with the use of the noun ‘sword’. Either way, the audience is given the impression that
Hippolyta is not at his palace of her own free will. However different directors have chosen to
read these lines in many different ways. In a production in San Francisco in 1966, the character
of Hippolyta was brought on stage in cage highlighting the extent of status as a prisoner.
However in Peter Hall’s 1959 televised production, Hippolyta seems far more in harmony with
Theseus as she sits beside him, and moves across the stage in unison with him. This shows us
how individual directors can interpret particular lines differently.
After their initial interaction Hippolyta remains a silent presence on stage while Theseus exerts
his power over his court. Hermia’s father, Egeus, has come to him as he wishes her to marry
Demetrius rather than the man she wants to marry- Lysander. Theseus says to Hermia: ‘To your
father you should be as a god…/To whom you are but as a form in wax/ by him imprinted’. To a
modern audience this seems shocking as it implies that Hermia should obey her father over her
own wishes, however an Elizabethan audience would recognise that couples should have their
parents’ blessings before they married. Contrary to belief however, they did not believe in
forced marriages. Here we see Hermia voicing her own wishes when, in response to Theseus’
assertions that ‘Demetrius is a worthy gentleman’, she says ‘So is Lysander’. Much of the lines in
this scene are blank verse in iambic pentameter. Hermia’s line ‘So is ‘Lysander’ is 5 syllables.
Theseus then replies ‘In himself he is’ which is another 5 syllables, meaning that put together
their lines are 5 iambic feet. The purpose of Theseus structurally finishing Hermia’s line in terms
of meter is perhaps to show that Theseus sees himself as omniscient and as having the last word.
Theseus lays down the law and tells Hermia she must marry Demetrius or ‘You can ensure the
livery of a nun’ as a ‘barren sister’. He tells her she must decide by the ‘next new moon’ and ‘to fit
your fancies to your father’s will; Or else the law of Athens yields you up’. He leaves the stage
with Hippolyta and does not reappear in the play again until Act 4. However his actions can be
considered important as it is because of his decree to Hermia that she must marry Demetrius,
that she and Lysander run away into the woods to find the freedom to get married and the rest
of the plot unfolds.
2. Act 4 Scene 1
The next time we see Theseus and Hippolyta is in Act 4 Scene 1 when they discover the lovers
sleeping on the ground together. This is after the confusion in the woods and after Puck has
placed the antidote in Lysander’s eyes meaning he is back in love with Hermia. The love juice has
remained in Demetrius’ eyes meaning he is still in love with Helena. When Theseus sees the
lovers sleeping together he asks the men ‘I know you two are rival enemies:/How comes his
gentle concord in the world?’ When Lysander and Demetrius tell Theseus of their night in the
woods, he decides to let the couples marry who they please: ‘Egeus, I will overbear your
will;/For in the temple, by and by, with us/These couples shall eternally be knit’. This is
important as it provides harmony and symmetry towards the end of the play. Just as at the of
Act 1 Scene 1 where Theseus says to Hippoyta ‘Come my Hippolyta’, at the end of this scene
Theseus says again to Hippolyta: ‘Come, Hippolyta’ and she follows him silently.
3. Act 5
Act 5 opens with Theseus and Hippolyta talking about the lovers’ tale of their night in the
woods. Hippolyta says: ‘Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of’. It can be
interpreted here that Hippolyta has finally made her peace with being married to Theseus as
she uses the personal pronoun ‘my’ to refer to him implying a little more familiarity and
affection towards him. Theseus then gives his meta-dramatic speech which tells us a lot about
his character and how he views the world. Firstly he says: ‘More strange than true. I may never
believe these antique fables, nor these fairy toys’. Here he implies that to him, the lovers’ story
of their night in the woods is so far from what can be considered reality, that he cannot believe
them. He says that: ‘The lunatic, the lover, and the poet/Are of imagination all compact’. Here he
equates the madman, those in love, and those who write works of fiction together as he believes
they are all ruled by an overactive imagination. The fact that he uses the word ‘lunatic’ here is
interesting as well as to an Elizabethan audience, this was a word which applied to those whose
madness was brought on by changes in the moon. The lovers of course experienced the
confusing night in the woods under moonlight. He says that: ‘Lovers and madmen have such
seething brains,/Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend/ More than cool reason ever
comprehends.’ This is important as Theseus defines himself as a man of logic- ‘cool reason’
therefore he is implying that the lovers night in the wood is just another fictive experience in the
play- just like the Mechanicals play in Act 5. As Roodi suggests: ‘The audience knows better than
Theseus, and so his disbelief is ironic. Shakespeare suggests that imagination and the
suspension of disbelief are required of Theseus in order for him to see more clearly.
In response to Theseus’ disbelief, Hippolyta says: ‘But all the story of the night told over,/And all
their minds transfigur’d so together…/And grows to something of great constancy; /But
howsoever, strange and admirable’. Here Hippolyta is questioning how the lovers can all speak
of the same story if it was just a dream. She concludes that there must be some truth in their
story. Roodi states: ‘Hippolyta’s conclusion is more sophisticated, as she manages to combine
both reason and imagination. She finds that that their minds are ‘transfigured so together’ is
proof that the experience was something outside of themselves rather than separate internal
imaginings. As an overall estimation, ‘Strange and admirable’ hints at how Shakespeare would
like his audience to receive the play as a whole’.
For the rest of the play, we see Theseus mocking the Mechanicals play with Lysander and
Demetrius although it seems as though Hippolyta is more sympathetic to the Mechanicals’
efforts. Whilst a modern audience may see the aristocrats’ actions as extremely rude, an
Elizabethan audience would actually have been used to all the interruptions during plays so they
would not have been particularly perturbed by the sarcastic comments. In fact, many dramatists
of the period complained that audience members would regularly make loud and offensive
comments about their plays to show off!
Theseus last lines in the play are at the end of the Mechanicals play after they all partake in a
Bergomask dance. He calls the couples away to bed saying: ‘Lovers, to bed; ‘tis almost fairy time’
which can be read as him making a sarcastic comment at the lovers’ expense. His words are then
proved to be ironic to the audience as the minute he, Hippolyta and the rest of the lovers exit
the stage, Puck and the rest of the fairies enter.
Further reading on metadrama:
https://marnielangeroodiblog.wordpress.com/about/
VI.
Summary – Theseus and Hippolyta
Key points to remember:
1) Theseus is the Duke of Athens
2) Hippolyta is the Queen of the Amazons who was won by Theseus in a battle against the
Amazons.
3) Theseus has a great deal of power in the play- it is he who decrees that Hermia must
marry Lysander or be sent to a convent, spurning the couple to run away into the woods.
4) Theseus is also the character who provides harmony and symmetry to the play at the end
by ‘overbearing’ Egeus’ will and allowing the lovers to marry the partners they choose.
5) Theseus sees himself as a logical man and favours ‘cool reason’ over imagination.
6) Hippolyta does not say a huge amount throughout the play but her words in response to
Theseus’ speech at the beginning of Act 5 imply that she is able to combine both
imagination and reason.
7) Many directors interpret the relationship between Theseus and Hippolyta in different
ways. As Hippolyta has so few lines, it is up to the director to define how she feels about
her relationship with Theseus.
8) The sources for Theseus and Hippolyta perhaps come from Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale
and North’s Plutarch.
9) Schlegel sees Theseus and Hippolyta as just a ‘splendid frame’ yet Dowden sees Theseus
as ‘the central figure of the dream’.
10) Feminist critics view Theseus as a much less sympathetic character.
Personal Assessment
(Some questions may have more than one correct answer)
1) Who are Theseus and Hippolyta?
a) The King of the Fairies
b) The Queen of the Fairies
c) The Duke of Athens
d) The Queen of the Amazons
2) Why is it difficult to determine how Hippolyta feels about her marriage to Theseus?
a) She has few lines
b) Directors can read their relationship in different ways
c) She seems to submit and follow Theseus
d) She never outwardly and explicitly says that she doesn’t want to marry
Theseus.
3) Which acts and scenes feature Theseus and Hippolyta?
a) Act 1 Scene 2
b) Act 1 Scene 1
c) Act 4 Scene 1
d) Act 5
4) Why is Theseus important in the play?
a) He is the king of the fairies
b) His decision that Hermia must marry Lysander spurns them to run away
into the woods
c) He represents ‘cool reason’ in the play
d) He enables the play’s happy ending by allowing the lovers to marry their
chosen partners.
5) Who does Theseus and Hippolyta have involvement with in the play?
a) The lovers
b) Egeus
c) Bottom and the Mechanicals
d) The fairies
6) Which are the sources from which Shakespeare may have taken inspiration?
a) Ovid’s Metamorphoses
b) The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius
c) North’s Plutarch
d) Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale
7) In Theseus’ speech in Act 5, what does he suggest?
a) That lovers, poets and madmen all have overactive imaginations
b) That the lovers are idiots
c) That Hippolyta is a fool for believing the story.
d) That he finds it impossible to believe their story
8)
What words does Hippolyta use in response to Theseus’ speech?
a) The lovers’ story has ‘great constancy’
b) The lovers’ story is ‘strange and admirable’
c) The lovers’ is an ‘antique fable’
d) The lovers’ story is a ‘shaping fantasy’
9) What does Schlegel say about the role of Theseus and Hippolyta in the play?
a) They are the most important characters
b) They are a ‘splendid frame’
c) Their role is pointless
d) They are the play’s central figures.
10) What does Dowden say about the role of Theseus in the play?
a) He has ‘dignity, reason and diplomacy’
b) He is a sexual predator
c) ‘patriarchal hierarchy is restored’ at the end of the play.
d) He is the ‘central figure of the dream’
Answers
1) C,D
2) A, B, C, D
3) B, C, D
4) B, C, D
5) A, B
6) B, D
7) A, D
8) A, B
9) B
10) D