One of the recurring themes in A Midsummer
Night's Dream is that love overrides all rational thought. In fact, some of
the central themes are the foolishness of love, the foolishness of mankind, and reason
vs. rationality. Theseus is one character that Shakespeare uses as the voice of reason
all throughout the play. However, in this one little opening speech of Theseus's, we see
that he is allowing his physical desires to reign over his rational mind. Because
Theseus is in love, when he is thinking of Hippolyta, his passions are a priority rather
than reason. Therefore, one good idea for a thesis arguing about Theseus and the theme
or rationality vs. irrationality would
be:
- Theseus symbolizes the rational mind, yet
just like other characters, even his passion overrides his reason, showing us that a
dominant theme in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is
rationality vs. irrationality.
We
especially see that Theseus is allowing his passion for Hippolyta to trump his
rationality in his lines:
[F]our happy days bring in
Another
moon; but, O, methinks, how slow
This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires.
(I.i.2-4)
Logically, the days
have not passed any slower than normal. All days consist of 24 hours, yet his passion is
making the days feel longer, showing us that his passion is distorting both his reason
and his sense of reality. In addition, we know that it is his passion that is making him
feel the days are longer because of the line, "She lingers my desires" (4). In this
line, "[s]he" refers to the moon, while "desires" refers to sexual desires. Since
Theseus and Hippolyta are waiting for the new moon to rise to hold their wedding day, we
see that Theseus is feeling like it is the moon that is prolonging time, but in reality,
time is passing just as normal.
Hence we see that even for the wise
Theseus, passion can trump rationality and even distort reality.
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