Who’s Who
Hobgoblins, Changelings, and Fairies! Oh My!
Fairy lore had long been a part of England leading up to the sixteenth century.
Elizabethans believed fairies were supernatural beings without souls that existed in a place
between heaven and hell. They could be helpful to you in your home or they could make your
life miserable, depending on their mood. Fairies were closely associated with the home and
cleanliness. It was said if you kept a neat house a fairy might
reward you. Another way to be in favor with fairies was to
leave them things such as beef, bread, bathwater, and their
favorite milk and cream. Many people followed the practice
of leaving bits of these items out at night to please the fairies
in hopes they would reward them with help around the house
or curing an illness, but some participated simply to avoid
angering them, as many legitimately feared the wrath of
fairies. Fairies were said to punish those who fell out of their
favor in a number of different ways. The most common way
was by repeatedly pinching their victims, leaving them
covered in bruises. Fairies were also said to punish those
who neglected their newborn children by abducting the
human child and replacing it with a changeling child who was deformed in some way.
Some myths say that fairies were responsible for the disappearance of the husband for a
week when something was damaged in the house. Historians believe some of these stories may
have been told in order to scare women and household attendants into staying attentive to their
home.
Elizabethans viewed fairies as soulless supernatural beings that rarely did anything free
of favor and were quick to use their magic against you as well as for you. However,
Shakespeare’s fairies in Midsummer Night’s Dream are relatively harmless pranksters who
actually end up fixing the problems they cause. Titania actually cares about the changeling child
(in the play the human child is referred to as
the changeling), who is the son of her
human friend who died giving birth, and
Oberon has Puck fix the lovers without any
kind of bribe. Also, the idea of fairies having
a monarchy similar to a human government
was a relatively new idea. The name Titania
is another name for Diana, the goddess of
the hunt and Diana was the name frequently
given to Queen Elizabeth in royal poetry.
Many believe that the character Titania is
Shakespeare’s tribute to the queen.
Shakespeare did follow some of the
folklore, however. In both Midsummer and
myth fairies are active from midnight to
sunrise. Fairies enjoy dancing and music, and it was believed that fairies would dance in fairy
circles in isolated areas. Humans were forbidden to see these fairy circles, and if caught spying
they could be punished. At the beginning of the play Oberon’s behavior matches what
Elizabethans would expect of a fairy. His anger at Titania causes him to take his frustration out
on the world around him with seemingly no regard. However, the end of the play shows him as a
benevolent fairy king, in much contrast to the folklore of the time. Shakespeare’s fairies can be
characterized as benevolent sprites with a taste for mischief. Shakespeare also associates his
sprites with floral images and natural beauty, which is a stark contrast to the demonic imagery
they were usually portrayed with.
Hobgoblins and Puck/Robin Goodfellow
In English myth, hobgoblins (meaning “Goblin of the Hearth”) were small, hairy,
friendly, yet lonely, men with a fondness for practical jokes and the ability to shape shift. They
could be found in human houses doing various jobs while the humans were asleep. If you left
them treats they might dust, iron clothing, churn butter, or do needle work. In some myths
hobgoblins would work around the house until the human gave them an article of clothing as a
thanks, releasing them (though not to be confused with a house elf from Harry Potter, this is no
Dobby!). In some stories leaving a garment deeply offended the hobgoblin, who didn’t wish to
work in new clothing, and they left angry and never to return. In other versions of the myth, the
moment you stopped leaving treats the hobgoblin would start to ruin your work instead of help
out of spite.
Though in early English legend they were considered to be friendly, under puritan
influence the word hobgoblin took on a more
negative tone. It eventually evolved into a
symbol for malice and spite, and the description
of its appearance changed to match. It was then
described as a horrifically ugly creature. The
character Robin Goodfellow or Puck (which
was a name given to a demon) was popular in
English folklore before Shakespeare got ahold
of him. He was a mischievous hobgoblin who
would sweep houses in return for bread and
cream. Shakespeare’s Robin Goodfellow still has his mischievous nature, but Shakespeare made
him related to fairies (which hobgoblins were not) and also Oberon’s jester and servant.
Today when we think of fairies we think of charming, magical creatures likely adorned with
flowers and carrying pixie dust. This idea of fairies is largely based on Shakespeare’s picture of
them, because a soulless, child stealing demon is certainly now how we would describe Tinker
Bell. Shakespeare was responsible for removing the fear of these myths that had been deep
rooted in people for hundreds of years, as he presented fairies as not something to fear but rather
as something to simply dismiss as a dream.
The Idea of Dreaming
Dreams have a major importance in art and the psyche of our brains. Their influence does
not stop at the creative things that we make, but also how we develop as people. Delving into
how dreams function, in terms of how the physical world influences our mentality, on people,
Shakespeare’s use of the dream world in A Midsummer Night’s Dream can be theorized for each
character.
Our minds never shut off. Even when our bodies go to sleep, our minds are still
functioning. The mind enters R.E.M. (rapid eye movement) sleep at about 90 minutes into sleep,
and stays in it for about 110 minutes. Dreams occur during R.E.M. sleep’s three cycles because it
is the point of our sleep where our mind begins to process all of the new information that has
occurred. For children, dreams slowly become the first instance of sexual awakeness. They allow
the child to process and understand the relationship between their parents and themselves,
normally creating an Oedipus/Electra complex. It is during this time of a child’s psyche that
dreams begin to work to process morality issues (i.e. right/wrong) and other issues concerning
societal norms. For adults, dreams no longer attempt to answer issues that children’s dreams do.
They tend to be more about our responses and emotions concerning what has occurred in the
physical world.
Dreams focus on the dominant emotion of occurrences in the real world. Take the birth of
a child for example. The parents might have felt extreme joy in having a child together, thus their
dreams would focus on joy as the dominant emotion. Now the content of the dream itself could
either be of the newborn baby, moments in their lives where joy was the dominant emotion (this
does not mean it has to be a complete recount of the event, allowing the mind to utilize other
information that had occurred throughout the day), or a complete fictitious event concerning joy.
The utilization of the dominant emotion is the mind’s way of processing the event fully. Smaller
emotions make up the second and third cycles of the R.E.M. sleep when it comes back around.
These dreams are not as vivid or memorable as the dominant emotion dreams, but they may help
your mind solve various issues in your life.
Nightmares, on the other hand, are caused by traumatic events. It still goes based off of
the dominant emotion the was felt during the trauma, but the reenacting of the emotion causes a
lot of negative effects on the body and psyche at first. While the mind is attempting to cope with
what occurred, the emotion being felt over and over again could make the dreamer want to stay
away from dreaming. For example, if someone goes through a violent event, there is a strong
chance that they will have a dream where they are stuck in a typhoon. This is the mind
attempting to handle the fact that a lot of things in life are out of your control.
In Renaissance England, dream sequences were prolific in various forms of art. This is
due to biblical stories that had dream-like instances to tell important information about human
morality. Take Matthew 1:20 for example, where God sent an angel to Joseph convincing him of
Mary’s pregnancy with Jesus. These types of stories were influential on Shakespeare’s use of
dreams in his plays.
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the five characters affected by dreams are Hermia,
Lysander, Demetrius, Helena, and Bottom. The four lovers’ dreams are different based off of
wishes or insecurities they each had. Hermia has more of a nightmare than a dream. The loss of
Lysander, could stem from her fear that Lysander will leave her for another woman. This is
either from Egeus’ influence on her decision of who she should marry, or in how she does not
completely trust Lysander to remain faithful. Thus, Lysander leaving her for Helena while he is
under the influence of the juice from the love flower is her fear taking shape. For Lysander, his
‘love’ for Helena in the dream sequence could prove that he does have some form of
unfaithfulness in his relationship to Hermia.
Demetrius’ dream is more his mind attempting to convince him that Helena would be the
better choice when it comes to love. It is the mind’s way of working through the issue of
Hermia’s scorn with a solution that is readily available. Helena in turn had the best dream of the
four. She got what she always wanted, Demetrius, plus the man of the woman that she knows
society deems the fairer of them both. This is why she does not readily believe the circumstance
that she found herself in. She is completely in the right to not believe having both men in love
with her because it is too good to be true. By questioning whether these dreams really occurred
or not, False Awakenings are introduced into play. These are vivid dreams that feel very real, but
end up being illusory at the end of the dream. Imagine that you got up to get a glass of water,
placed it on the floor next to your bed, and then went back to bed. When you wake up again you
begin to look for the glass of water, but it is nowhere to be found. More than likely you had a
false awakening. Now for Bottom, his dream was affected by the story of Thisbe and Pyramus.
Bottom’s belief that Pyramus, being the main character in the story, is more important in terms
of title and status, affects his dream to the point where he treated like a king.