A Midsummer Nights Dream. Athens Vs Woods

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM OUTLINE
The woods and the fairy land that appear in A Midsummer Night’s dream have been interpreted in opposite ways; for some like Foakes they are an escape from thepower of Athens, while for others like McEvoy are seen as a mere reflection of the patriarchal structures and the Athenian oppressive regime.

The differences are seen, for instance, in theinterpretation of the society of the fairy land and the way it’s organized is an important point in both of the arguments. McEvoy argues that It is a patriarchal society, as It can be seen in the Indian boyconflict, and that this only a reinforcement of the already patriarchal scheme in Athens. He also affirms that it is class divided in a clear lower class (servants) and a high class (Oberon and Titania).Since it is a monarchy, the lower classes have no political power, just like in Athens. Another important point is that the king, like in the Athenian society, has unlimited powers granted thoughmagic. This is a clear parallelism with the Athenian law, that also grants Theseus almost unlimited powers.
Another important point is whether the lovers are truly free to express themselves in the woodsor not. For instance, the language that they use is the courtly love, which, for McEvoy, constrains them from expressing their true desires. Foakes, though, defends that once the lovers are away fromthe Athenian rules their actions are free, since they are freed form the social constraints, be them moral, socially covenanted or deeply rooted into the society itself, like the respect tohierarchy. This idea of freedom can be also attributed to the idealization of nature as a pure place in which the freedom reigns. This brings to an interesting point if we consider that the faeries areassociated with the nature, are the faeries (for Foakes) more free than the Athenian citizens? Foakes does not profound into this, but we can probably guess that his response would be affirmative.
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