Authority In A Midsummer Night's Dream

Power Trip: The Abuse of Authority in Two Shakespeare Plays

Throughout time, in fiction and in reality, authority figures have used their power to undermine their subjects and anyone caught in the wake of it. In Shakespeare’s plays A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Winter’s Tale, this abuse of power is the main source for the tension found throughout both plays. It is present when entitled men with titles decide to get what they want, regardless of who it can harm or how. While some of the men are safe from any of the repercussions of their tyranny, others have to suffer the consequences of it. These power trips are taken liberally and from various positions, that clearly serve only the interests of the men who take them.

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In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hermia’s father Egeus is drunk with power, seemingly endorsing Demetrius over Lysander simply because he can. Egeus states “And she is mine, and all my right of her I do estate unto Demetrius.” (1.1.97-98). Egeus has no respect for Hermia and her autonomy, overriding it with his power as her father. It causes Hermia great distress, inspiring her to take off with Lysander so she does not have to be subject to her father’s abuse of power. There is a situation parallel to this in The Winter’s Tale. Florizel is seeing Perdita in secrecy, and his father Polixenes goes undercover in order to investigate. Upon goading Florizel to tell his father of his impending marriage, Polixenes removes his disguise and proclaims “Mark, your divorce, young sir, whom son I dare not call. Thou art too base To be acknowledged. Thou a sceptre’s heir, That thus affects a sheep-hook?…For thee fond boy, If I may ever know thou dost but sigh That thou no more shalt see this knack, as never I mean thou shalt, we’ll bar thee from succession…. ” (4.4.405-417). Using his power as father and king, Polixenes threatens to take away his son’s right to the throne, and explicitly forbids him from seeing Perdita anymore. Florizel is distraught, but cannot bear to leave Perdita, so he plans to elope with her with Camillo’s aid. Both situations have fathers abusing their power, leaving their children with little options to pursue their desires. Those lack of options provide the tension central to key plots in the two