Shakespeare was way ahead of his time...

You might think that same-sex marriage is a relatively new concept. In fact, the idea dates back at least to the late 16th century, when Shakespeare wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream. The central conflict of the play--or at least what appears to be the central conflict based on what I've read so far--is between two men, Lysander and Demetrius, over the right to marry a girl named Hermia. Hermia's father, Egeus, wants her to marry Demetrius, but Hermia actually loves Lysander. In the very first scene, Lysander says, "You have her father's love, Demetrius./Let me have Hermia's. Do you [according to the footnotes, "do you" means "you"] marry him."

Look at that: Lysander is endorsing gay marriage! It's right there on the page. Shakespeare was way ahead of his time.

Well, no. It's highly unlikely that Shakespeare is calling for gay marriage in that line. Even if his social views were ahead of his time, they couldn't possibly be that far ahead of his time. I mean, homosexuality was considered a mental illness until about 375 years later! It's much more likely that Shakespeare meant for the gay-marriage bit to be a laugh line. It comes at a moment in the play when we are certainly in need of some comic relief. Egeus has asked Theseus, the duke of Athens, to execute his daughter if she refuses to marry Demetrius, and Theseus doesn't rule out the possibility of doing exactly that. (The other option he's considering is sentencing Hermia to lifelong chastity.) This play is a comedy, and while the traditional meaning of comedy is a little more complex than just "funny," the audience would have shown up to A Midsummer Night's Dream expecting something lighter and less serious than a tragedy, and would have therefore been confused by the conversation between Egeus and Theseus. Lysander's line would have reassured the audience that yes, they were getting what they came for. 

Now, most people probably wouldn't read that part and think Shakespeare is actually endorsing gay marriage. But that rather ridiculous example illustrates something important about reading Shakespeare (or any literature from a long time ago, for that matter). It's tempting, as a 21st-century reader, to ascribe a meaning to the story that resonates in our time. But it would be a mistake to do so. Even as you look for universal ideas in a text, you have to also remember the context in which it was written. You can't take it out of that context and place it in your own; this can actually prevent you from finding the eternal truths hidden beneath the surface. As Thomas Foster says, don't read with your eyes.

I'm only a few pages into Act II of this five-act play, and I've already noticed a lot of things to which this principle can be applied. These characters live in a world where, as I alluded to above, the law says a girl can be executed for disobeying her father. That's more than a little startling to a modern reader. Or consider the details of the other wedding going on in the story: Theseus is going to wed Hippolyta, the queen of a group of women warriors called the Amazons, whom he kidnapped during a battle. (These characters and their backstory were lifted by Shakespeare from Greek mythology.) This takes the term "trophy wife" to a whole new level.

The whole idea of fathers choosing their daughters' husbands for them is also foreign, at least to modern Western readers. However, based on what I've read so far, I could see the story coming to a conclusion that contradicts the customs of Shakespeare's time. There is a character in the story who actually does love Demetrius: Hermia's friend Helena. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Helena ended up with Demetrius and Hermia ended up with Lysander. That would be a nice happy ending for everyone, which is what tends to happen in a Shakespeare comedy. (I saw this play a few years ago, but I don't quite remember what happens at the end.) And if that happened, you could perhaps claim that Shakespeare was making an argument for women's rights. But I'll save that for another post.

As I continue to read A Midsummer Night's Dream, I'm going to do my best to accept the facts of the world that Shakespeare creates--even the facts that seem ridiculous to my mind. Hopefully, removing my own biases will enable me to better understand the story.