Adolescents

The purpose of Thomas Frosch’s review on Shakespeare’s, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is to capture the importance and symbolism of the young Indian boy. He believes that Shakespeare’s decision to not have the boy appear on stage is a symbol presenting an idea that looms over the world of the play, “of the child of the future, who is still unborn; the child of the past, who is no longer visible; and the child of the present, who, after infancy, is never as much our visible possession as we want it to be.” There are many examples throughout the play that Frosch utilizes in his review, such as the relationships between Hippolyta and Theseus, Titania and Bottom, and Egeus and Hermia. His findings are well supported, but could be better explained through better organization of his paper because it skips around quite often.

He begins by explaining the importance of the relationship between Titania and Bottom as the child of the past. Although Bottom is a grown man once translated with the head of an ass he allows the charmed Titania to act as both a “maternal and libidinous” figure in his life. Frosch states, “to be an adult we first have to go back to childhood, to receive support and revitalization from the realm of the early mother.” He aims capture the essence of Bottom’s immature ways and use them to support his hypothesis. Bottom successfully manages to support Frosch numerous times, like when he asks for a “bottle of hay” (4.1.33). Frosch’s description of this relationship could have been made much clearer by directly stating this relationship as a representation of the child of the past instead of forcing readers to figure it out on their own.

However he does make the representation of Egeus and Hermia as the child of the present quite clear. Through her rebellion to marry Lysander, the man her father did not choose, she clearly displays that she is a woman capable of making her own decisions. However Theseus states to Hermia, “to you, your father should be as a God/…. To whom you are but as a form in wax/ By him imprinted and within his power,” (1.1.48-51). The concept of a young adult refusing to follow their parent’s orders is not to be taken lightly during this time as it may be in Modern society. A simple punishment of grounding that a child may receive today is nothing compared to the death sentence or life of solitude that Hermia is presented with.

Towards the end of the play Frosch uses his insight of classical literature to describe the relationship between Hippolyta, Theseus, and their unborn child. At the end of the play Oberon blesses the three marriages saying, “ever shall be fortunate/So shall all the couples three/Ever true in loving be/And the blots of Nature’s hand/ Shall not in their issue stand,” (5.1.423-427). Frosch continues on to prove this blessing does not stand true for this couple’s unborn child Hippolytus. He discusses the disastrous outcome of the child’s future when, “Theseus reverted to his old ways, discarded Hippolyta, and married Phaedra, who fell in love with Hippolytus and accused him of rape when he rejected her. The blessed child was cursed by his father and killed by that curse.” He also goes on to explain that although the blessing fell through on this marriage it is not to say that the other two marriages will not lead happy lives. It is bothersome to me as the reader that he stated the child of the future first in his hypothesis, but then chose to discuss it as his last segment.

Frosch does an excellent job in making sure he has concrete examples from the play to support his hypothesis. His writing style could benefit from more structure. . In order to write my review I had to go out of order from how these passages appeared in the play and how he presented them in his hypothesis since he discussed them in a random progression. It is impressive how he is able to take the physical absence of the Indian boy and create an entire theme around it that easily relates to many sections throughout the play.

Frosch, Thomas R. “The Missing Child in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” American Imago 64.4 (2008): 485-511. Web.