The Foundation of the Polity

Abstract

When Titania, queen of the fairies, speaks of human beings, she says: “We are their parents and original” (II, i, 121). The parents and originals of human beings are usually thought to be not fairies but gods. Whatever the theme of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, it seems to be resolved on the level of fairies or gods, that is, on the level of the trans-human. Let us look at the surface development of the play itself. Theseus, the founder of Athens, announces his nuptials with Hippolyta, an Amazon, whom he has conquered. He then hears a complaint from Egeus, an old Athenian citizen, whose daughter, Hermia, wishes to marry Lysander without her father’s consent. Her father has offered her to another young Athenian, Demetrius. Theseus assures Hermia that he has no power over the old Athenian law, according to which she must either marry as her father wishes, take a vow of chastity to Diana, or be put to death. Hermia must make her decision on the day of nuptials of Theseus and Hippolyta, four days away. Four days before the foundation of the greatest democracy of antiquity, freedom was still radically restricted by patriarchal power.