Midsummer Night's Dream Figurative Language

Throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare uses several powerful metaphors and similes to compare and contrast character motives and ideas, as well as to foreshadow important aspects in the story. Perhaps the most powerful and prominent aspect of Shakespeare’s writing is his excellent use of figurative language. He uses a myriad of symbols, motifs, metaphors, and vivid imagery in A Midsummer Night’s Dream that enrich and illustrate the story. Shakespeare metaphorically uses the moon to tie conflicts together and unite the characters in a common struggle. He uses the moon to a point were it becomes more than just a setting or part of the imagery. It becomes personified metaphorically and is a major influence of desire, deceit and disorder

amongst the characters. The prominence of the moon in the story is what ties together what might have otherwise been a scrambled, less cohesive plot. Shakespeare establishes some of the most important themes early in the play, which is why I focused on the opening passage between Theseus and Hippolyta.

The play opens at the palace of Theseus, the Duke of Athens. The opening passage shows Theseus as he impatiently waits for his wedding date to his fiancé, Hippolyta. He remarks how slow “this old moon wanes! She lingers my desires, Like to a step-dame or a dowager, long withering out a young man’s revenue” (Act. I.I, 4-6). Theseus is impatiently waiting for his wedding date, and compares the passing moon to an old widow wearing out the last of her inheritance. The tone of this passage establishes a gender conflict in the beginning of the story that will unravel throughout the rest of the play and resurface between Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, and Helena. His statement also establishes the moon as a manifestation of his lust for Hippolyta. He implies that the passing moon is also an obstacle to his desires, since the night of his wedding cannot come soon enough for him. The moon provokes themes of lust while concurrently representing chastity or abstinence.
In contrast to Theseus, Hippolyta responds that “four days will quickly steep themselves in night; four nights will quickly dream away the time; And then the moon, like a silver bow New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night Of our solemnities” (Act. I.I. pg 1). This creates a stark contrast between the motives of characters, especially between men and women. Hippolyta takes sort of a sarcastic defense against Theseus’s lustful impatience, stating how quickly the nights will come and go. She compares the moon shooting over the sky like an arrow shot from Cupid, hinting at her submission to Theseus while at the same time commenting on how she isn’t in a rush to marry him.
This theme is particularly illuminated through Shakespeare’s metaphorical use of the moon.

As suggested by the title, the moon is a very prominent part of the story that carries a lot of meaning about love and romance. This passage is particularly important because it lays the foundation for one of the largest conflicts that will arise throughout the story. One of the biggest sources of tension in the story is between genders and focuses on male dominance. When Hippolyta responds that “Four nights will quickly dream away the time,”(Act I.I. 7-9) she places a special emphasis on the night, and how they are dreamt away and forgotten. This makes me think that she wants to “dream away the time” she has to spend with Theseus. There is an obvious misalignment between Theseus and Hippolyta’s desires. While Hippolyta compares the moon to a witness that will oversee their faithful union, Theseus personifies the moon as an obstacle to getting what he really wants from his

fiancé.
The moon is a concept that comes up again and again, and seems to be associated with a host of themes. The moon influences the characters with greed, lust, illusion, disorder, and romance, all of which manifest in the characters coupled conflicts. Shakespeare uses the moon as a symbol of love, and all of the nasty, negative things that come about because of it. He uses it in a way as to make commentary on real life relationships and romance. The way he compares the moon to a step-dame or dowager says a lot about how he may have felt about women and their motives in relationships. The comparison he makes portrays women in a negative, selfish, and greedy light.
Another reason Theseus undoubtedly wants to marry Hippolyta is for sexual gratification.

The moon serves as a symbol of chastity in this aspect. When Theseus talks to Hermia about going against her fathers will, he says that she should not “live a barren sister all your life, chanting faint hymns to the cold, fruitless moon” (I.I.72-73). He is trying to persuade her to comply with her father, Egeus and marry Lysander. The theme of male dominance is particularly present in this scene, as shown through Hermia’s desperate attempts to persuade her father to let her be with Lysander instead of Demetrius. Not only is she restricted to whom she can marry; she can be killed or sent way for disobeying her father’s

command.
In conclusion, Shakespeare uses several metaphorical allusions to the moon throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream that act as a cohesive element, binding the characters and their conflicts together under a unified theme of disorderly love. The moon is used as a means of social commentary on the hardships and difficulties that love inevitably brings and illuminates the differing perspectives and motives that couples sometimes have. Shakespeare also shows how the same entity can carry very different meanings and interpretations among characters and people in general. The moon, for example, influences the characters in a variety of ways. In one sense, the moon acts as a male influence for lust, while serving as a symbol of chastity for the women in the play. The moon acts as not only as a spectator, but maybe more than a spectator, and influencer or purveyor of disorder.