This Is Shakespeare

by Emma Smith

By contrast, A Midsummer Night’s Dream gives us two lovers who are similar rather than different, with equal social and personal claims to love Hermia – and, for that matter, Helena. The plot twist, aided by Puck’s bungling application of a love potion, turns the men’s joint attention away from Hermia to Helena: again, they are in indistinguishable lockstep. Even Lysander himself can claim only to be as worthy as Demetrius. In place of romantic comedy’s usual valorization of its individual couples, A Midsummer Night’s Dream suggests that any combination is as good as any other (although it’s striking that, contrary to the playfulness with sexuality that marks Twelfth Night, written five or six years later, here it seems unthinkable to Shakespeare that Puck’s mischief might result in – horror! – same-sex desire).