Shakespearian Papers

Liminality Within Comedy

In contrast to what many individuals in our era may know about Shakespeare, not all of his plays are associated with death and sadness. His comedies Much Ado About Nothing and Midsummer's Night Dream are examples of such plays that go against what many in our modern age think his plays consist of. These plays address other topics rather than death and can go deeper than what is seen on the surface level of the play. One of the most prominent themes the underlies both of these plays is the concept of liminality. The idea of being in an in-between state affects nearly all of the characters in both of these plays in different ways. Liminal states can be present in an individual, groups, or society as a whole and can affect each for a moment, a period, or a lifetime. These incidents of liminality occur in many different areas of Shakespeare's comedies.

In Midsummer, liminality can be the most easily seen through the four main characters when they are in the woods. They are experiencing liminality as a group for a moment in time, but each one is individually experiencing their liminality. The group is in a transitional period where nothing is quite certain. With the love potion involved, loyalty to lovers, friends, and to oneself are altered and have shifted. Lysander being affected by the potion to love Helena has made Hermia and Helena confused and in a state of denial and disbelief. This leads to Helena being angry with Hermia for "playing a trick" on her. This plays into the liminality of the night by this instance being something that has not occurred in their lives prior. Liminality is a state of in-between or transition; by the two girls feeling hurt by the other they are in a transition state of romantic love versus sisterly love. The impression we are given is that the girls had not been in any significant arguments in the past and this trickery that Helena is accusing Hermia of is unnatural and out of Hermia's character. Hermia herself is in a state of in-between because the man whom she ran to the woods with to elope has now seemingly betrayed her for Helena. She is confused and hurt by his choices and does not know how to comprehend the abrupt shift in him. Demetrius is in a transitional period during this night but against himself. Due to the love potion, his hatred for Helena has turned into affection and his view of love has changed.

Titania, the fairy queen, is also experiencing liminality that night but in slightly different regard. Instead of the instance being an example of a transition, her experience with the love potion is the liminality that seems to flip one's life upside-down. She has fallen in love with Bottom the weaver, whose head is that of a donkey, because of the love juice. This is out of her character and is not of her right mind's doing. The liminality the potion caused had led her to believe that experience was a dream that has no bearing on her life post-remedy.

There is an additional aspect of liminality in society through the low characters in this play. These characters are at the bottom of the hierarchy and have very little education. They are in a constant state of in-between because they don't have access to education to advance them past their low-class status and they are already at the lowest point in society. Many of these individuals work to survive and have very repetitive days. According to Arpad Szakolczai's Image-magic in A Midsummer Night's Dream: power and modernity from Weber to Shakespeare, he states, "Permanent liminality is a situation in which the difference between boring routine and continuous excitation vanishes; or, rather, where the mechanical routinization of life is justified by a permanent state of incitement" (Szakolczai, 2007). These characters that are restrained in the lower class are in a liminal state of living life in a repetitive cycle with no drastic changes or luxury that the upper and upper-middle classes have access to.

The same concepts of liminality are present within Much Ado About Nothing. The largest portion of liminality that is present in this play is during the party scene. When the characters are unable to recognize each other and begin to pretend to be each other, the upside-down aspect of liminality is in play. The members at the party are being deceitful and saying they are people who they are not.