Gabe Quintos 2013-59618

Prof. Reynaldo
English 11
December 17, 2014
Shakespeare and Psychology: Applying the Psychoanalytic Theory in A Midsummer Nights Dream
The Psychoanalytic Theory in personality psychology is known to be the first wave of
personality theories, with its various sub-theories all originating from the man whose name people
most often bring up when psychology is mentioned, Sigmund Freud. His Psychoanalytic Theory
paved the way for other Neo-Freudian and post-Freudian psychologists such as Alfred Adler, Carl
Jung, and Karen Horney to name a few, and their own versions of psychoanalysis stemming from
Freuds theory. These theories all share common themes and concepts, such as the importance of
childhood experiences, the role of anxiety in shaping personality and behaviors, and the role of the
unconscious in personality, and I think that these are key to analyzing and understanding the
characters in Shakespeares plays.
Shakespeares round characters, that is, those whose motives, desires, and actions are clearly
defined, are round enough for us to see and analyze their personalities. We can almost compare
them to people in real life, and to quote Keith Oatley, an author and modern day cognitive
psychologist, in his paper entitled Simulation of Substance and Shadow: Inner Emotional and
Outer Behavior in Shakespeares Psychology of Character:
In a play constructed along Shakespeare's lines (or nowadays in movie, novel, or
short story) outward actions and their resulting incidents do indeed flow from the
inward goals of character, but such goals are neither always in harmony with each
other, nor with outward behaviour. Insofar as there are discrepancies characters
become complex, of the kind that Forster calls "round," much more like ourselves or
the people we know (23).
Given this description, we see that the characters in Shakespeares plays do exhibit their own
unique personalities, and this is no different in A Midsummer Nights Dream where we have the four
main characters in the lovers.

In the same work, Oatley also says that Shakespeare showed how pieces of literary art can
model the world and how we can acquire distinctive and useful experiences of emotion as well as
understandings of character. (23). By looking at the world in the play and the characters that inhabit
it, we can see how their interactions, the characters with themselves and with the environment, can
mirror those of our world. We can see these as models of how people acted during that era, and get
a sense of what people and life was like back then.
In this paper, I will be looking at their personalities from a psychoanalytic perspective and
see how the theories of Freud and the rest can explain the personalities and resulting behaviors of
the four lovers. I will look at Shakespeare himself, as well as the setting of the play to see what effect
these may have on the lovers, followed by each of the four main characters and use the concepts
from the different theorists to explain their behavior and give a description of their personality
based on these.
SHAKESPEARE AND SETTING
Psychoanalysis and Shakespeare have quite an intriguing history: the poet was Sigmund Freuds
favorite author, and he began reading his works as early as age eight (Holland 163-164). Freud also
used his concepts to explain behaviors of some characters and vice versa: the Oedipus complex of
Hamlet (Holland 165) for example. From an early age, the author influenced Freuds life and this
resulted in Freuds love for flowery language, as well as his continuing references to Shakespeare
throughout his works.
Shakespeare himself also had a thorough understanding of the human condition. His
characters were complex, and according to an article on bbc.co.uk, a paper written by Dr. Kenneth
Heaton said that in his plays, Shakespeare showcased even the physical symptoms of psychological
and emotional distress such as dizziness and fatigue in his characters (Shakespeare could help
doctors become better). This knowledge on how people act based on their psychological state was
quite advanced for his age, and it just goes to show how much importance he put in the actions of a
character and what they can imply.
The milieu of the play also undoubtedly plays a role in determining the personalities and
actions of all of the characters. While the main plot of the love square depended highly on the
interactions and personalities of the lovers, the subplot was the one that showed the structure of
society in the play. The highly patriarchal society was already highlighted in the first act during

Hermias trial with Theseus. It showed that the life of a young woman was dependent on their
fathers, and their independence was something that had little to no value in their culture. This
reflected the Elizabethan society in which Shakespeare lived in, where the role of a woman was
supposed to be to submit to the males who ruled society, were educated, and were deemed as
powerful. In both the story and in Shakespeares own life, it was the men who strictly dominated
society and the women who submitted to them were bound to whatever fate these men see fit.
Another important concept that links the play to the psychoanalytic perspective is the heavy
reliance of the play on the concept of dreams. Freuds work on dream analysis emphasized that
nearly all dreams are wish fulfilments (Feist, Feist, Roberts 52). In the play, the whole fiasco in the
woods between the four lovers is deemed to be merely a dream in the end. This is in line with the
plays goal as a comedy to revert to the way society was before the conflict arose to show how it was
more important than the change that was being challenged by the main plot. However, if we look at
it from Freuds perspective, by saying that it was a dream, Shakespeare says that this is what he truly
wishes, for the dream is an outlet suppressed thoughts. By making the events that transpired in the
woods a dream, Shakespeare does not deny their worth or say that they werent important, but says
the opposite and wishes that the disorder, the role reversals, and the challenging of the system
actually happened.
HELENA
Helena is probably the most neurotic character among the four, and exhibits a lot of qualities that
show this.
Freuds structural model of personality or regions of the mind dictates that there are 3 main
parts of a persons thinking: the id, or pleasure principle, the ego, or reality principle, and the
superego, or moralistic principle. The id has no contact with reality and is only concerned with wish
fulfillment and the satisfaction of basic desires (Feist, Feist, Roberts 30), and this is part of Helena
was the most prominent in act I, where she told Demetrius about the plan of Hermia and Lysander
to elope. If we go by Freuds way of thinking, then it was clear that her desire to have sex with
Demetrius was so strong that it overpowered her ego and superego, which were telling her not to do
it because it would create problems and might ruin her long friendship with Hermia.
Karen Horney and her Psychoanalytic Social Theory had a lot to offer about Neuroticism
and a lot of what she said in her theory fit the description of Helena and her actions as well. Horney

emphasized the importance of childhood experiences and their relation to anxiety and hostility. As
we learn from the play, Helena and Hermia were childhood friends, and she even goes on to say that
they were like two cherries on one stem just to emphasize how close they were. Helena was also the
girl that everyone liked, because of her looks that exemplified the typical Elizabethan beauty. When
she saw that the man she loved was going after her best friend instead of her, this causes her great
anxiety, which Horney defines as a feeling of being isolated and helpless in a world conceived as
potentially hostile (18). This in turn creates hostility within her, which is repressed and creates
feelings of insecurity and apprehension (Feist, Feist, Roberts 172), until the climax in act III where
she lets out all of her repressed feelings in her argument with Hermia.
Helena also exhibits some of Horneys neurotic needs, which neurotic people employ to
defend themselves against anxiety. Helena shows the need for affection and approval, where people try to
indiscriminately please others, as well as the need for a powerful partner, where people try to attach
themselves to a powerful partner where people have an overvaluation of love and a dread of being
alone or deserted (Feist, Feist, Roberts 174). This in turn puts her in the neurotic trend of moving
towards people, where people try to protect their feelings of helplessness by seeking the affection of
other people. This is also in line with the Neo-Freudian concept of attachment styles, where she falls
under the anxious-ambivalent style, which is classified by an individuals need to be extremely close to
their partner to the point that it is unhealthy (Burger 133). We see in act II how she follows and
almost begs Demetrius to look at her even to the point of her wanting to be Demetrius dog, and
this shows how she adheres to these trends and attachment styles of trying to seek affection in
others. In act III, she also begins to exhibit some kind of self-hatred for herself, when she thinks
that the Demetrius and Lysander, under the spell of the magic plant, are simply mocking her. She
exhibits Horneys concepts of merciless self-accusation and self-contempt when she is constantly mocking
herself for being a fool and being the unlucky one while Hermia gets all the attention from the men
even if she herself is the more beautiful one.
Helenas character shows the more neurotic side of personality, and we see in her words in
actions that clearly, there is something lacking in her sense of self-worth, since she always sees less in
herself than what she truly is, and she copes with this by trying desperately to attach to the annoyed
Demetrius.
HERMIA

Hermias character is the one where most of the main plot revolves around: it is her dilemma that
sparks the main conflict and that challenges the ways of society. Her personality is mainly one that
goes against the norms of society: her desire to be with Lysander overpowers that of her will to
adhere to the norms of her culture, which is to follow whatever her father wants her to do.
Alfred Adlers theory of Individual Psychology states that the force behind peoples behavior
is their striving for success or superiority. It states that people are born weak and that their physical
deficiencies lead them towards the feeling of striving for success. Children who are neglected or not
treated well when they are young strive towards personal superiority, while those who are well taken
care of and loved strive for the success of all humankind. As seen in their culture, being a woman
isnt easy, since they are subjected to the male dominance that is prevalent in their society. As a
child, Hermia was also second best next to Helena in terms of looks and admirers, and in her family,
she was always asked to do whatever her father wanted of her, even until who to marry. This, in
Adlers perspective, may be what caused her to rebel, since her not-so-positive childhood made her
strive towards her own personal success, which is marrying the man she loved in Lysander, instead
of being part of their society and functioning in coherence with the others.
In Horneys theory, she says that sometimes when people cannot grow a sense of identity
that will move them closer towards self-realization, they create an idealized self-image, which is a
distorted view of themselves (Feist, Feist, Roberts 179). One aspect of the idealized self-image is
their neurotic claims in which they build a fantasy world. Hermia is a girl who just wanted to marry
the man she loved but was denied by society. Having lived this way all her life, her wish to run away
from her obligations in society and elope with Lysander in the forest could be attributed to this.
Having not been raised ideally, her sense of identity may have been lost as she was growing up,
because her life was being dictated for her and because of this, she developed an idealized self-image
that was different from her true self.
In his Stages of Psychosocial Development, Erik Erikson says that in each stage of life, there
is an interaction of two opposite elements: the syntonic or harmonious element, and the dystonic or
disruptive element, which are both necessary for proper development. It is ideal, however, that the
syntonic element is the more prevalent one during each stage. In Hermias case, as a young adult, the
conflict is between Intimacy, the ability to fuse ones identity with that of another person without
fear of losing it (Feist, Feist, Roberts 234) and Isolation, which Erikson defined as the incapacity
to take chances with ones identity by sharing true intimacy (Erikson 137). Hermia was at this point

in her life where she was looking for a partner that she could be intimate with, and found it in
Lysander. This however, was not something that they prioritized in Elizabethan society and
therefore she resorted to elope together with Lysander into the forest.
LYSANDER
Lysanders character is probably the one among the four that is least detailed, or least fleshed out in
the play. Comparable to Romeo, he is the boy caught in the middle of a forbidden love. The woman
he desires is destined to be wed to another man, so they devise a plan that will hopefully get them a
happy ending.
Just like Hermia, he is in the Intimacy vs. Isolation stage in Eriksons Stages of Psychosocial
Development, and therefore is looking for a potential mate and someone he can be truly intimate
with. He found this person in Hermia, but their society was not one that married people based on
love or intimacy, but it was decided for them most of the time by the fathers of the women. To try
and escape this and avoid being overwhelmed by the feeling of isolation is the reason that they
eloped if we look at it this way.
Henry Murrays Personology states that aside from the primary needs like food and shelter,
secondary needs, which are generally psychological that he termed Psychogenic, are also essential to
human personality (Murray). The degree to which a certain individual requires each need, however,
varies. Lysander, and Hermia as well, may have valued the needs for affection more than the others,
and this gave them a reason to go against society and run away.
DEMETRIUS
Not so much the villain, Demetrius was character that was supposed to be married to Hermia as per
her father, but ended up being in competition with Lysander. Throughout the play, he is constantly
frustrated, mostly at Helena for pestering him, but also because he probably felt that his right to
marry Hermia was trampled upon when the two lovers ran away.
Feminine Psychology can be used to analyze Demetrius actions, since she wrote that
cultural and social expectations, and not physical differences as what Freud thought, are what cause
men and women to act differently, and anxiety is what causes mens need to subjugate women
(Horney). Demetrius expects his marriage with Hermia to go smoothly, and that as a man, he has
the power and status to become a suitable husband to her. When this goes wrong, however, and his

power as a man is threatened by the fact that Hermia is rebelling against her fathers will to marry
her to Demetrius, he was threatened, and this heightened anxiety is what caused him to act the way
he did in the play when he was disrespecting Helena and trying to get Hermia back from the woods.
Throughout Act II, when Helena followed Demetrius into the woods as he searched for
Hermia and Lysander, we saw how frustrated and angry Demetrius was at Helena for following him
and trying to convince him to go for her instead of Hermia. This can be seen as one of Freuds
defense mechanisms: displacement, where people redirect unacceptable urges onto a variety of
people or objects so that the original impulse is disguised or concealed (Feist, Feist, Roberts 38). In
Demetrius case, his feelings of hostility towards Hermia for deserting him were displaced unto
Helena who was nearby and at the same time causing him to be frustrated as well. His love for
Hermia may have triggered his anxiety, and since his feelings of aggression towards the person he
loved were deemed unacceptable by his unconscious, he displaced these feelings towards Helena.
Neo-Freudian research also supports this notion that expressing aggression towards these indirect
targets is usually safer (Burger 126) than addressing the source of aggression itself.
A Midsummer Nights Dream is a play that is ripe in its subjects and themes that are similar to
those found in the various psychoanalytic theories. Dreams, neurotic behavior, social interaction,
and defense mechanisms can all be seen in the play and especially in the four main characters. A
closer look at the author himself these reveals that Freuds preference for Shakespeare was no
coincidence: the poet was already well-versed in the realm of the human condition, and this showed
in his plays. Upon analyzing the four characters in this play, we can see how diverse they are in terms
of personality, as well as how deep we can dig into some of them. This just goes to show that even
centuries before the modern era, there was already so much going on in the minds of the people and
using these psychoanalytic theories as a guide, we can see just how much Shakespeare had to offer
when it came to giving his characters, and in effect his plays, the life and emotion that defined his
works and made them undying classics.

Works cited:
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Nights Dream. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.
Feist, Gregory J., and Tomi-Ann Roberts. Theories of Personality. By Jess Feist. 8th ed. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 2013. Print.
Burger, Jerry M. "6: The Neo-Freudian Theories Relevant Research." Personality. 9th ed. N.p.:
Cengage Learning, 2014. 116-36. Print.
Oatley, Keith. Simulation of Substance and Shadow: Inner Emotional and Outer Behavior in
Shakespeares Psychology of Character. College Literature 33.1 (2006): 15-33. Academic Search Complete.
Web. 16 Dec 2014.
Holland, Norman. Freud on Shakespeare. PMLA 75 (1960): 163-173. JSTOR. Web. 17 Dec 2014.
"Shakespeare 'could Help Doctors Become Better'" BBC News. BBC, 24 Nov. 2011. Web. 15 Dec.
2014.
Horney, Karen. Neurosis and Human Growth: The Struggle toward Self-reaization. New York: Norton,
1950. Print.
Horney, Karen. The Neurotic Personality of Our Time. New York: Norton, 1937. Print.
Adler, Alfred, Philip Mairet, and Heinz Ludwig Ansbacher. Problems of Neurosis; a Book of Case
Histories. New York: Harper & Row, 1964. Print.
Erikson, Erik H. Identity, Youth, and Crisis. New York: W.W. Norton, 1968. Print.
Murray, Henry A. Explorations in Personality; a Clinical and Experimental Study of Fifty Men of College Age.
New York: Oxford UP, 1938. Print.