Elements of Bakhtin’s Carnivalesque in Midsummer Nights Dream

William Shakespeare’s romantic comedy ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is commonly dated

between 1594 and 1596. It depicts the events surrounding the marriage of the athenian duke,
Theseus, to the amazonian queen hyppolyta, especially the misadventures of the four athenian
lovers and the rude mechanicals in the forest, as they are manipulated by its inhabitants, the
fairies. The very title of the play alludes to midsummer eve or summer solstice, characterised
by ceremonial processions, which is, as David Wiles states, “traditionally a time of revelry,
Magic and transition; the Woodland setting the presence of the fairy world, the cover of
darkness and the presence of the Moon evoke the mystery and enchantments of this time.” He
claims that the play was written for the wedding of Elizabeth Carey, a patron of Shakespeare’s
company of actors, and is thus “part of the festive structure of the wedding night”.

According to David Wiles, The theory of the carnival can be traced all the way back to the
classical era and is divided into two schools of thought- one in which it acts as a utopian theory,
propounded by Plato, Macrobius and Mikhail Bakhtin, and another, where the carnival is seen
as a means of catharsis, propounded by Aristotle, and many Cristian thinkers. Plato believed
that the Gods pitied human suffering and give them relief from labour in the form of religious
festivals, (with fellow revellers including the ''muses with Apollo as the leader and dionysus so
that man might restore the way of life by sharing feasts with gods''.) This theory maintains that
“carnival restores humans to an earlier state of being when humans were closer to the divine,
and... Associates carnival with communal order.” Thus Plato doesn't see carnival as anarchic.
On the other hand, Aristotle in his safely valve theory talks about the cathartic effect of festival
music. C. L. Barber also ascribes to this theory, where release is followed by the restoration of
the social order.
Opt After the greek era, in the Roman republic , saturnalia (Saturn- God of time - orderly
progress of seasons) became a major festival, with its inversion of master and slave and class
inversion.Then in the medieval period the saturnalia turned into the 12 days of Christmas, but
the focus of communal celebration shifted to Mardi gras in continental Europe.The
Enlightenment and romantic scholars found such phenomena distasteful, and thus entered
Bakhtin.

Bakhtins Carnivalesque
The term carnivalesque comes from Eng translations of nineteenth century russian critic
Mikhail bakhtins works related to his study of Francois Rabelais’ writings. It's a literary mode
that subverts the assumptions of the dominant style and liberates the atmosphere through
humor and chaos. Bakhtin traces the origins of the carnivalesque to the concept of carnival,
which is related to the Feast of Fools. He draws parallels between the "carnivalesque" in
literature and the activities typical to the carnivals of popular culture where social hierarchies
of everyday life are overturned by normally suppressed voices . Thus fools become wise , Kings
become beggars, opposites such as fact and fantasy mingle .

Bakhtin discusses 4 characteristics of the carnivalesque:

1. The free and Familiar interactions between people of different social strata and the
inversion of heirarchies, as well as the suspension of normative order, as the world becomes
topsy-turvy. This is extremely evident in the woods, where the confusion and disorder caused
by Oberon’s commands and Puck’s mischief results in the chaotic chase of the four lovers, as
both Demetrius and Lysander, under the influence of the flower juice, reject their love for
Hermia and start to pursue Helena. Wiles states that “the central action of the play inhabits a
liminal, dream-like space characterised by the inversion of real conditions, being set out-of-
doors, in the country, in summer and under a full moon.” Even Titania’s brief infatuation with
Bottom can be seen as an instance where status quo is ignored in favour of familiarity in
interactions, or, as wiles puts it, “a temporary liaison between people of divergent status” as
she tries to woo Bottom with gifts and goes around ‘Seeking sweet favours for this hateful fool’
(4.1.48) “

2. The acceptance of Eccentric or otherwise inappropriate behaviour in the carnival, without

any consequences, and it acts as a space for suppressed voices to express their opinions.
A The most overt example of this is the manner in which Hermia and Helena are forced to
pursue the men in the forest, ignoring traditional norms of courtship. In (2.1.240–2), Helena
complains that Daphne now has to chase Apollo:
Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex.
We cannot fight for love, as men may do;
We should be woo’d, and were not made to woo.
B The double lives of medieval people become evident, as their proper, contained behavior at
court, dictated by rigid hierarchies, is extremely different from the unrestrained revelry that
they indulge in within the forest . For instance, the women watch the play in absolute silence in
Act 5, and yet they act freely without fear of admonishment in the forest as the behavioral
mores of everyday life are ignored.

3. The coming together of binaries like— Heaven and Hell, the young and the old, etc. Aside
from the Carnivalistic misalliances, the Carnival is also characterised by the false coronation
and deposition of the fool.

A The conflation of dualities is evident throughout the play due to the dream like quality of the
play, which causes fantasy to mingle with reality on multiple levels. In (IV.i.199–209), Bottom,
upon awakening, says:
“I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream past the wit of man to say what dream it was.
Man is but an ass if he go about t’expound this dream. Methought I was—there is no man can tell
what. Methought I was, and methought I had—but man is but a patched fool if he will offer to say
what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is
not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was. I will get
Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream. It shall be called ‘Bottom’s Dream’, because it hath no
bottom.” Puck even says that the whole series of events can be treated like a dream in In A5 S1
as he states:
“If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream”.
The play within the play highlights that There is no difference between a spectator and
performer, as everyone lives within the carnival that is an extension of an upside down world,
not the real world.
B A central ritualistic act of the carnival, the false coronation of the slave or clown as the
carnival king acts as the commencement of the inverted carnival world, followed by a shameful
deposition. This symbolizes change and renewal, death and rebirth. An example of this is
Bottom’s comical elevation to the position of titania’s consort, as the man with the head of the
ass is pampered, waited upon and treated with immense respect in Act 4 sc 1. The deposition
occurs in the form of the reversal of Titania’s enchantment, and she recoils from the sight of
Bottom, who she was previously proclaiming her love for. Thus Bottom’s original status and
form is restored.

4 Bakhtin believed that carnival allowed for Sacrilegious events to occur without the need for
punishment. The profaning of the sacred can be associated with his idea of ‘grotesque realism’,
wherein something noble, spiritual or honourable is undermined in a manner that makes it
appear revolting. Grotesque realism embraces the primal and sensual urges or needs of men
and celebrates human existance. Both the carnivalesque, and grotesque realism entail the
suspension of ordinary mores of acceptable behavior, notions of who has power and the social
contraits placed on individuals, in addition to their cathartic impact. Wiles believes that the
grotesque realism found in “the figure of Bottom the clown, the lower-class male locked in the
arms of a queen”, in the context of a wedding performance “would be a means of preparing the
bride and groom for the
intimidating and embarrassing rite of passage that social custom required of
them. There is a clear correlation between Bottom’s low social station and a low
carnal aspect of human identity.”

Wiles states that Bakhtin saw the carnival as the basis of an "autonomous and historically
progressive popular culture" which was "a means where by people overcame their fears and
freely Expressed their views about authority." According to him, "bakhtins theory is…positing
a Primal wholeness to which fallen humanity, ruined in this case by the devil of class, is
temporary restored." He also severely critiques Bakhtin for his over generalising tendency to
homogenise the different kinds of carnivals. “Dionysia, Saturnalia, Mardi Gras and English
summer festivals are molten by Bakhtin into a single entity. The assumption that this entity
dubbed ‘carnival’ is the property of the folk as distinct from the elite seriously obscures the
mechanisms by which power was validated and maintained in the early modern period.”

Thus for Bakhtin, the carnivaleque is always a dualistic, upside down world, where ideas and
truths are endlessly tested and contested, the relativity of things is proclaimed by alternative
voices and the authoritative voice of the hegemony is de- privileged through the mingling of
high culture with the profane.