Tuesday, March 13, 2012

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, why does Egeus claim Lysander is not worthy of being Hermia's husband?Middnight summers dream Act I...

In the first scene of the play, Egeus does not explicitly
say that Lysander is not worthy.  However, we can look at his words and infer what he is
thinking.


From his words, it appears that Egeus thinks that
Lysander is trying to fool Hermia.  Egeus seems to think that Lysander does not really
love her but is just trying to seduce her.   In his first speech, Egeus accuses Lysander
of this.  He says


readability="15.881458966565">

Thou hast by moonlight at her
window sung,
With href="../../midsummer-nights-dream-text/act-i-scene-i#prestwick-gloss-1-1-12">feigning
voice, verses of feigning love,
And stolen the impression of her fantasy

With bracelets of thy hair, rings, href="../../midsummer-nights-dream-text/act-i-scene-i#prestwick-gloss-1-1-13">gawds,
href="../../midsummer-nights-dream-text/act-i-scene-i#prestwick-gloss-1-1-14">conceits,

Knacks, href="../../midsummer-nights-dream-text/act-i-scene-i#prestwick-vocab-mid-1-1-13">trifles,
href="../../midsummer-nights-dream-text/act-i-scene-i#prestwick-gloss-1-1-15">nosegays,
sweetmeats, messengers(35)
Of strong href="../../midsummer-nights-dream-text/act-i-scene-i#prestwick-gloss-1-1-16">prevailment
in unharden'd youth;
With cunning hast thou href="../../midsummer-nights-dream-text/act-i-scene-i#prestwick-gloss-1-1-17">filch'd
my daughter's heart



This
accusation implies that Egeus thinks Lysander is unworthy because he is not sincere in
his affections.


Egeus also has one other thing against
Lysander.  This is the fact that Lysander is challenging Egeus's authority over his
daughter.  Lysander is trying to get Hermia to go against what her father has ordered. 
This is why Egeus says that Lysander has


readability="7">

Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,

To stubborn
harshness...



By saying these
things, Egeus is saying that Lysander is unworthy because he does not truly love Hermia
and because he is trying to undermine Egeus's authority as a father.  Egeus thinks such
a man should not be allowed to marry Hermia.

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