Faires, Realism, and Believability

I figured I might as well recycling this from my literature assignment last semester since it goes over some things which I'd planned to discuss on here anyhow: particularly, what makes a work of fantasy believable. So if you could go for a dose of literature geekiness, read on! Happy Easter, peeps!

A Midsummers Night’s Dream: Realism and Believability

To doubt the realism of the A Midsummer Night’s Dream is understandable, considering it involves such spectacles as a fairy whizzing around the world--“I'll put a girdle round about the earth In forty minutes,” (Act II, Scene I)—and a man’s head turning into that of a donkey’s. Is A Midsummer Night’s Dream still realistic even though it features fairies? To answer this question one must first define realism, and determine what makes a work of fiction believable. In literature, there are several different kinds of realism. Because of this, a work a literature can be realistic in one respect and unrealistic in another respect. Delving deeper into the topic of realism and into the material of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, this essay will attempt to show that despite its fairies and magical displays the play is both realistic and believable.

One kind of realism is realism of content; C.S. Lewis explains “a fiction is realistic in content when it is probable or 'true to life' "(p.59). Thus, this the kind of realism divides works literary fiction from those of fantasy. Obviously, A Midsummer Night Dream lacks this type of realism since it contains both fairies and magic. Even if we were to simply overlook that fact that fairies do not exist, the fairy characters in the play possess abilities physically opposed to reality, such as being “Swifter than the moon's sphere” (Act II, Scene II).

Even though A Midsummer Night Dream does not have realism of content it can still be realistic via other types of realisms. One of these is the realism of presentation, which deals with description while the former mentioned deals primarily with plot. Lewis defines realism of presentation as “the art of bringing something close to us, making it palpable and vivid, by sharply observed or sharply imagined detail.” A Midsummer Night’s Dream certainly passes the criteria of this realism with Shakespeare’s rich and picturing-painting language. Even though the fairies are themselves unreal, he presents them in such a way as if they were real. If we had not already known that fairies were non-existent prior to reading, we might be convinced that they were indeed real.

Another type of realism—and perhaps the most fundamental—is psychological realism. Psychological realism deals with portraying in a persuasive manner how the characters think and feel, alike to the thoughts and feelings of people in actuality. Since it deals with the intellects and emotions of the character, it is then a more internal realism to the one previously discussed; and is important as it allows the readers to connect with and relate to the character. We shall investigate this further in order to discover whether or not the fairy characters of the A Midsummer Night’s Dream contradict this realism. If they do not then the play is realistic in this regard.

The thoughts and feelings with A Midsummer Night’s Dream consist mainly of jealousy and confusion on account of love. The fairies characters experience an equal share in these emotions to the human characters, who are doubtlessly realistic. Among the human characters in the first scene of the play, we see Lysander and Demetrius quarreling over Hermia, whom they both love and wish to marry. She loves Demetrius in return, but would rather die than wed Lysander. This spurs Lysander to jealousy. In the first scene of the second act, we see to fairy characters behaving in a similar fashion. King Oberon and Queen Titania are quarreling over the pageboy who Oberon wishes to have for himself. They also argue about Oberon’s past involvement with Queen Hippolyta, a topic over which Titania brews in jealously.

Not only do the characters, both fairy and human, experience the same thoughts and feelings, they react to them in similar ways as well. From the juice of the flower that Puck puts on his eyelids, Lysander falls in love with Helena when he otherwise would not have done so and when he had been in love with Herima just before. By the same flower, Queen Titania falls in love with Bottom the Weaver. As with Lysander, she would not have done this by her own will since the weavers head was that of a donkey’s, and she just previously been in love with King Oberon. Thus, the human and fairies both share the characteristics of falling in love inappropriately and acting foolishly as of consequence. These characteristics are the primary focus of the play, and are realistic since people experience them in real life. Therefore, the fairies of A Midsummer Night’s Dream do not contradict psychological realism, and thus the play is realistic in this manner.

As shown, A Midsummer Night’s Dream lacks realism of content, but has realism of presentation and psychological realism. Thus, the play is realistic, though not in all regards. Is this enough to make the play believable? To discover this we will turn to the wisdom of another author. J.R.R. Tolkien explains that an author of a fantasy is a ‘sub-creator', who makes a ‘secondary world’ in which our minds can enter. (To create a world doubtlessly there must be some amount of realism.) He goes on the say, “Inside it [the ‘secondary world’], what he [the ‘sub-creator’] relates is 'true': it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside.” For a story to be believable then the ‘laws’ must be fixed within the story, and they must not be strayed from. Shakespeare does an excellent job with this. For instance, he makes it clear, without having to state it anywhere in the play, that the fairies alone could preform magic. The reader can believe that Puck could turn Botton’s head into that of an animal’s, but if King Theseus of Athens or any other human character performed such a feat the believability would be shattered. Another example is through the play Shakespeare makes it quite obvious that the human characters were completely unaware of the existence of the fairies. If he had broken this ‘law’ and suddenly made the characters start to seek out fairies, the story would not have been believable. Tolkien says when the ‘laws’ not stood by “The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed. You are then out in the Primary World again, looking at the little abortive Secondary World from outside."

Even though A Midsummer Night’s Dream lacks realism of content on account of its fairies, it is still realistic nevertheless due to the other realisms it possesses. Even though fairies are not real beings, Shakespeare makes them real to us through the way he presents them. The fairies’ thoughts and feelings make them realistic and are paralleled to those of the human characters. The realism in these attributes overshadows the fairies’ obvious non-existence in reality, and therefore the fairies do not make the play unrealistic. Within the story, Shakespeare abides by the “laws” which he created for this “secondary word". Even though A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a fairy story, it is a world in which there is enough realism for our minds to enter and the believability for them to linger there.


C.S. Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism 

J.R.R. Tolkien, “On Fairy-Stories”
William Shakespeare,  A Midsummer Night’s Dream
http://site.iugaza.edu.ps/rareer/mycourse1252/9-four-kinds-of-realism