To Fall in Love With an Ass

Four lovers quarrel, fairies wreak havoc, implied beastiality ensues, and a troupe of actors finally put on a terrible comedy. Such is the delightful and fantastic world in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. This play is most certainly a comedy, and the knavishly hilarious sprite Puck generates many laughs. Reading it is pure giddy fun. It has the power to make you taste the bubbly, effervescent quality of young love — fresh, innocent, full of promise. Oh, how joyful it is to be in love! (Note: I’m a manly man and totally comfortable to have said that.)

More than mere amusement, there are some clever metaphors to enjoy as well. By setting the story in the politically/morally ordered city of Athens and the freewheeling forest of fairies, Shakespeare contrasts the differing practice and experience of Love. For example, Tatiana the fairy queen, through Oberon’s naughty trap, is made to fall in love in with an ass! While under a magical spell, she dotes on this ridiculous creature and “makes love to him”. Hmmm. So it seems that in the woods of Nature there are no limits to what love can be, unlike the paved cities of Men.

It’s refreshing to have read this play because while it remains a celebration of love, it instructs us in the proper method to enjoy love, which is: to never take it too seriously. That reminds me: a wise friend once told me the same thing. And she was right.