solved GoalOpinion/AssertionPostRead the criticism in this module [below], entitled, “Astronomy, Alc

GoalOpinion/AssertionPostRead the criticism in this module [below], entitled, “Astronomy, Alchemy, and Archetypes” and share your ideas about the criticism in a discussion post (you MUST quote the passage). The post is meant to be a response specifically to THIS CRITICISM. So write at least three full paragraphs [or more if you wish] on this criticism [in relation to the play] for the full 20 points.GradingClick on the rubric to see how the discussion will be graded.Astronomy, Alchemy, and Archetypes: An Integrated View of Shakespeare’sA Midsummer Night’s Dreamby Katherine Bartol PerraultChapter 3: The Mythology Of The Play: Archetypes RevealedMyth: The Fundamental Essence of the ArchetypeC. Kerenyi, in his “Prolegomena” to Essays on a Science of Mythology: The Myth of the Divine Child and The Mysteries of Eleusis asks the question “What is mythology?” (Jung & Kerenyi, 2). The word myth means, “to put together,” Kerenyi states, and is “the movement of [. . .] tales already well known but not unamenable to further reshaping [. . .] something solid, and yet mobile, substantial and yet not static, capable of transformation” (2). The images of myth are not merely linguistic, but primarily pictorial, stemming from man’s unconscious. Both Jung and Kerenyi assert that myths are primordial images of primitive human phenomena, revealing the nature of man’s soul. They arise through the poetry of mythology, and do not only possess meaning but also assign meaning through the function of an archetype, which is a “‘representation of a motif’ [that] ‘constellates’ a dream or mythical symbol” (Doty 151). Most myths contain recurring archetypes of gods, supernatural beings who represent projections of psychic phenomena, and primordial time—eternal time in which the archetypal image transcends time as well as place.We have seen through the astronomy of Midsummer and its numeric configurations how the play is intrinsically unified through a complex symbol system whose myths manifest archetypes. Jung states that “All the mythologized processes of nature, such as summer and winter, the phases of the moon, the rainy seasons, and so forth, are in no sense allegories of these objective occurrences; rather they are symbolic expressions of the inner, unconscious drama of the psyche” (Archetypes 6). We have seen how the natural processes of astronomy, the progression of time, and the seasons are an elemental part of the structure of Midsummer. As expressions of the unconscious, these natural archetypes are numinous, and mystical, and should be regarded symbolically, inherent with multiple meanings, rather than literally.Archetypes revealed in the artist’s poetry give us insight into the psychology of the human condition. While archetypes appear in a given individual or community, in a given culture, at a given moment in time, they also transcend that particular time or culture by virtue of their trans-historical resonance as symbol within the psyche. The significance in analyzing the mythic images or archetypes in poetic literature is expressed by James P. Driscoll in Identity in Shakespearean Drama, as he comments on Jung’s conceptions about how archetypes motivate the artist/poet to shape characters. He states:The essential artist, [Jung] insists, is an unwitting mouthpiece for the psychic secrets of his time, and often remains as unconscious as a sleepwalker. Since he lives closer to both the archetypal realm and the zeitgeist than do ordinary men who, circumscribed by their social functions, are confined to life’s surface, the artist can directly apprehend the true nature of the cultural and psychic forces he encounters and translate his vision into art form. Thus the poetical character makes archetypal visions accessible to all men. [. . .] Because the artist can speak the language of dreams directly through image and symbol, he enjoys a peculiar power to create myths and identities that possess an archetypal import and fascination that philosophical reasoning cannot equal.(10, 11)Archetypes, often described as universals, bridge time and culture as they continually resurface in the collective unconscious, which, according to Jung,has contents and modes of behavior that are more or less the same everywhere and in all individuals. It is, in other words, identical in all men, and thus constitutes a common psychic substrate of a supra-personal nature which is present in every one of us. (Archetypes 4)Through the collective unconscious, “the repository of man’s experience” (Analytical Psychology, 93), the archetypes constellate similar meanings for everyone. Harold Bloom asserts that Shakespeare’s “universal canon” transcends time and cultures in just this way, showing Elizabethans as well as postmodernists what it means to be human (Human, Bloom 17). Sitansu Maitra contends that through the analysis of archetypes as symbol in poetry, Jung has provided a way for us to understand Shakespeare’s creative genius beyond “the [Freudian] sterility of personal complexes of the creative artist into the wide open of the collective unconscious where the human race meets” (64, 73).From Jung’s perspective, contrary to general post-modern thought, the artist is connected by her/his very nature to the psychic pulse of humanity, and functions as mythmaker and storyteller within a culture through her/his work. Through the collective unconscious, the artist is able to access common ideas and icons—what Shakespeare might refer to as the “airy nothing[s]” (V.i.16)of imagination, and gives them a “local habitation and a name” (V.i.17) in the form of the artwork.For Jung, the visionary poet is amythological ‘fundamentalist’ who, by immersion in the self, dives down to his own foundations, founds his world. He builds it up for himself on a foundation where everything is an out-flowing, a sprouting and springing up—’original’ in the fullest sense of the word [“origin” comes from the Latin, origi, “to rise”], and consequently divine. (Kerenyi, Mythology 9)In Midsummer, Shakespeare’s blending of pagan mythos and Christian rites formulates an original tale or myth that is circumscribed in the marriage ritual. According to Kerenyi, “Ceremonial is the translation of a mythological value into an act” (10). The mythological drama, as such, constitutes a symbolic journey from psychic origins to wholeness via ritual, mediated through the symbolic functioning of the archetypes.When mythic archetypes appear in a ritual application (as in the rites of passage in Midsummer), they function to compensate for “deficient and distorted conscious attitudes in the traditions and dogmas that compose a ‘cultural canon,'[heralding] momentous shifts in [the] culture’s consciousness” (Lewisberg 11). The work of the archetypes in this way results in some form of cultural transformation. For example, Keith Sagar asserts in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Marriage of Heaven and Hell,” that Midsummer constituted Shakespeare’s attack on the Puritans’ anathema to the “wholeness of nature” (42), which signaled the dis-integration of the Neo-Platonic, Ptolemaic worldview. As such, Sagar contends that Shakespeare appropriates archetypes that perform sacred functions, restoring harmony, not necessarily according to religious law, but according to natural law.The compensatory function of the Midsummer’s mythic archetypes in this instance results in the alchemical reconciliation of opposites (the coniunctio), in which what is considered base in nature and human relations is transformed through the restoration of nature to an equitable balance. This occurs not in spite of the oppositions present in the play, but because of them. In accord with McAlindon’s ideas concerning “the discordant concord of a natural order whose governing forces are Love and Strife, Mars and Venus” (10), Jung states, “Submission to the fundamental contrariety of human nature amounts to an acceptance of the fact that the psyche is at cross purposes with itself” (Transference 143). The paradox of discordant concord is also seen at work in the archetypal symbolism of alchemy. The opus of esoteric alchemy is not only derived from nature, but is also a work of nature. Through symbol, the opus magnum embodies the essence of reconnecting one’s psyche with the world, and ultimately, with the birth of the self, “the container and organizer of all opposites” (Jung, Transference 157).Jung contends that the alchemical image of the coniunctio is archetypal, an “a priori image that occupies a prominent place in the history of man’s mental development,” and has its sources in both pagan and Christian alchemy (Transference 5).An examination of the mythological archetypes of Midsummer will reveal Shakespeare’s poetic use of medieval alchemy. This examination will also unveil alchemy’s bridge to the present day through Jung’s appropriation of alchemical archetypes in the analysis of the personality, in which “we are confronted withpre-conscious processes which, in the form of more or less well-formed fantasies, gradually pass over into the conscious mind, or become conscious as dreams, or, lastly, are made conscious through the method of active imagination” (Jung & Kerenyi, Mythology 78).The Archetypal Mythology of the PlayThe setting of Midsummer is in itself mythic: in legendary Athens, Greece. Yet, because the play’s archetypes display typologically cultural themes, theoretically Athens itself could be any city, and the wood could be any wood. Through a mythological reading of Midsummer, we establish a formal unity of time, place, and action; time which could be ‘dream time’—or no time, a place which could be anyplace, and action—which functions transformatively, as primordial time, in relationship to the play’s archetypes.Some of the primary archetypes in Midsummer are revealed in the elemental dualisms of the play, seen in the following pairings:MasculineFeminineTheseusHippolytaOberonTitaniaDayNightSunMoonConsciousUnconsciousAnimusAnimaReasonImaginationDryMoistHeavenEarthAboveBelowLightDarknessCityWoodsOrderChaos/madnessAccording to Peter Dronke, because Shakespeare, like the medieval poets, saw the world as an integrated whole, he could metaphorically make such “hidden comparisons (collationes occultae), [and] like the prophet, realise something that was ‘both within and without'”(x). If we view the Athenian court as a symbol of reason and consciousness, and the fairy wood as a representative of imagination and the unconscious, we see a paradigm of the archetypal structure of the psyche begin to appear: the animus (the masculine principle: Theseus-Oberon) and anima (the feminine principle: Hippolyta-Titania) in opposition; and the unconscious (the chaos of the wood/the fairies) rupturing through to consciousness (the Athenian court:the royals), signaling the dis-integration of the personality (the world of the play).Sagar contends that Shakespeare’s fairies were not to be construed literally, but figuratively, as portents of inner psychic darkness (37). Yet, in Shakespeare’s day, fairy lore was very popular, and many came to see Midsummer just for the fairies (Losey 197). In 17th and 18th Century reconstructions of the play, it was even called The Fairies (Rolfe 14). The Elizabethan fairies are obviously mythological characters, yet Shakespeare cross-fertilized them with the legends of ancient Greece, in the story of Theseus and Hippolyta. When the play was performed in Elizabethan times, however, the ancient Greek court took on the trappings of the Elizabethan court, so the use of popular fairies made sense, and most likely made them more accessible to Shakespeare’s audience.As functioning archetypes, however, Shakespeare’s fairies may be read as equivalents of the Olympian figures and gods. As one of the sources of Shakespeare’s inspiration for his fairy play, McAlindon cites Chaucer’s appropriation of the Mars-Venus medieval myth, rooted in antiquity, and equates Shakespeare’s fairies to “Chaucer’s planetary gods” (50). While Oberon, Titania, and Puck may be equated with the gods of Olympus, the fairies themselves can be seen as nymphs, dryads, and satyrs. Upon viewing the characters within the same mythological sphere, archetypes are made manifest, and their relationships become clearer.Shakespeare appropriates the Greek rulers, Theseus and Hippolyta, from the Greek legends via Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale. In the majority of the productions of Midsummer, the characters of Theseus/Oberon, and Titania/Hippolyta (as well as many of the minor characters) have been double-cast, meaning that one person played both roles. Psychologically, this practice offers the thought that Theseus/Oberon and Titania/Hippolyta are different sides of the same coin. In their first encounter in the play, this may be seen as Titania accuses Oberon of being Hippolyta’s lover, and Oberon accuses Titania of loving Theseus, immediately fostering a connection between the fairy King and Queen with the Athenian royals:Titania: Why art thou here,Come from the farthest step of IndiaBut that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,Your buskin’d mistress and your warrior love,To Theseus must be wedded, and you comeTo give their bed joy and prosperity?Oberon: How canst thou thus, for shame, Titania,Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?(II.i.68-76; emphasis added)Shakespeare’s play structurally facilitates double casting, which also seems to suggest dual aspects of each character.Theseus/Ophiuchus: Oberon/PoseidonIn Midsummer, Theseus is a lighthearted skeptic, who has put aside his warrior’s sword to woo Hippolyta, and who operates best by the light and reason of day. In legendary Greece, Theseus was a hero of Athens prior to the Trojan War. Theseus’s father, Aegeus, was childless, and he consulted the oracle at Delphi who advised him to keep his “wine skin sealed until he reached Athens” lest he die of grief there (Stapleton, 12). However, on his return to Athens, Aegeus visited his friend King Pittheus. Aegeus revealed to Pittheus the oracle’s message. Pittheus, knowing that a son of Aegeus would be great, got Aegeus drunk and had his daughter Aethra share her bed with him. Aethra consequently became pregnant with Theseus. Aegeus left Aethra in Troezen and told her to raise the child quietly, with Pittheus as his guardian. Theseus, however, was told that Poseidon was his father, and he named Poseidon as his protector. Theseus was known as a strong and accomplished wrestler, and also as the killer of the Minotaur and conqueror of its labyrinth. Theseus eventually returned to Athens to claim his birthright, and after many other adventures, became King of Athens. In due time, he conquered the Amazons who attacked Athens, taking their queen, Hippolyta (one of his many legendary female conquests), as his wife.Figure 3.1: The masculine plane~mythic constellations. © 1988, Stephen Marchesi, Random House.Figure 3.2: Constellation, Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer (emphasis added). © 1999, Astronomy.In relationship to the masculine plane in the play’s star chart (Figures 2.20, 3.1-2), Theseus as a wrestler may be connected with Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer, who appears to be constraining the serpent. While Ophiuchus is not one of the twelve zodiacal signs, he nevertheless was quite significant in Shakespeare’s metaphoric view of the cosmos. Ophiuchus lies along the ecliptic, or the path of the sun. In medieval astronomy, while Ophiuchus was not regarded as a proper zodiacal constellation for purposes of astrological readings, Serpens, the serpent, which Ophiuchus bears, was quite important. The constellation Serpens consists of two segments, the head of the serpent, or dragon (Serpens caput), and the tail of the serpent (Serpens cauda). They were well known in Chaucer’s day, and recorded in the tables and calendars whch noted the moon’s cycles (North 95-6).Figure 3.3: Serpens cauda/caput in relationship to solar/lunar conjunctions (Roob 78). M. Maier, Septimana philosophica, Frankfurt. 1616.Figure 3.4: Serpens cauda caput and Ophiuchus along the ecliptic (emphasis added). © 1999, Astronomy.Twice a month, the moon on its own path passes through these two points—intersecting the ecliptic: once at the “moon’s north node,” or Serpens caput; the second time, through the “moon’s south node,” or Serpens cauda (Liungman 36). Eclipses take place when the “appropriate conjunctions or oppositions occur at points sufficiently near to one or other of the nodes of the Moon’s orbit, the head or tail of the Dragon [Serpens cauda/caput]” (North 97; Figures 3.3-4). Thus, when the paths of the sun (Sol) and moon (Luna) intersect, a conjunction (coniunctio) occurs. This is the celestial conjunction of opposites and macrocosmically represents the primary transforming theme of Midsummer. North also cites Shakespeare’s association of the “Dragon’s tail with lechery” (King Lear I.ii.35), and the human libido (450), elements of both which raise their heads (or tails) in Midsummer: in the calumnies of Oberon and Titania (II.i.61-76), and in the lovers’ libidinal romp in the forest.The importance of calculating these intersections was due to the fact that medievalists believed that conjunctions and oppositions of the sun and moon “are determinants of the weather, and even of certain events in human history” (North 100). This influence is obviously represented by Shakespeare in Midsummer in the unseasonal rains and the celebration of the royal marriage. According to North, blindness in one eye was “a debility of the moon,” and blindness in two eyes was possible when the sun and moon were in conjunction or opposition (450). In Midsummer, Shakespeare, through Helena, speaks poetically of the blindness of love:Things base and vile, holding no quantity,Love can transpose to form and dignity:Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,And therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blind;Nor hath Love’s mind of any judgement taste:Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste.And therefore is Love said to be a child,Because in choice he is so oft beguil’d.As waggish boys, in game, themselves forswear,So the boy Love is perjured everywhere. (I.ii.231-241)This blindness results in multitudinous animist, or bestial, allusions throughout the play:Robin Goodfellow, Hobgoblin, Puck neighs “in likeness of a filly foal” (II.i.46);Titania may be enchanted by a “lion, bear, or wolf, or bull, meddling monkey, or busy ape” (II.i.180-1); or “ounce [lynx], or cat, or bear, or pard, or boar with bristled hair” (II.ii.29-30);Helena proffers to Demetrius that she be his “spaniel; [. . .] I will fawn on you” (II.i.203-4), and as “Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase; the dove pursues the griffin, the mild hind makes speed to catch the tiger,” so Helena pursues Demetrius (II.i.231-3);In Titania’s bower, the “snake throws her enamell’d skin” (II.i. 255);Helena is “ugly as a bear” and Demetrius is a “monster” (II.ii.93, 96);Hermia awakens from sleep, dreaming of a “serpent” (II.ii.144-149);Bottom is transformed into an ass (III.i); Titania with a “monster is in love (III.ii.6);Hermia calls Demetrius, “dog! cur! [. . .] a worm, an adder [. . ] serpent” (III.ii.65, 71-3);Lysander calls Hermia, “cat [. . .] burr [. . .] serpent,” “you minimus, of hindering knot-grass made; you bead, you acorn”(III.ii.260-1; 328-8);In the final waking of the lovers, Puck promises, “Jack shall have Jill, nought shall go ill; the man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.” (III.ii.461-3).Jung asserts, “The more anthropomorphic and theriomorphic the terms become, the more obvious is the part played by creative fantasy and thus by the unconscious,” as they give rise to archetypes (Transference 3). In Midsummer, these bestial references suggest the primitive nature of the conflicts they embody, which occur primarily in the woods, or the realm of the unconscious.As in the case of many of the ancient constellations, Ophiuchus also has an earthly counterpart: Asclepius, the mythic founder of medicine, the doctor of the Argonauts. Legend has it that a serpent, entwined around a staff, bit and killed a man. However, another serpent appeared, bearing herbs, which Asclepius used to restore the man’s life. Because of this, the serpent became sacred to medicine as a symbol of regeneration. Asclepius was said to have brought many people back to life, including the son of King Minos of Crete. When Asclepius attempted to revive Orion who had been bitten by the scorpion, Pluto complained to Zeus that Asclepius would rob Pluto of the entire population of Hades. Zeus agreed: afraid of Asclepius’ healing power, he ended Asclepius’s life with a thunderbolt, and set him in the heavens with a new name, Ophiuchus, where he bears the serpent to this day (Dixon-Kennedy 228-9). According to Meadows, in Milton’s time, the constellation Asclepius/Ophiuchus was referred to as Serpentarius (57). This legend connects Ophiuchus not only to the chemical nature of alchemy, but also to the serpentine symbol of Hermes/Mercurius—the agent and vessel of the opus magnum. In the microcosm of Midsummer, Oberon’s hermetic agent is Puck. In the heavens, Ophiuchus’s serpent (Serpens cauda/caput) represents Hermes’s/Mercurius’s role in the alchemical symbolism in the play’s macrocosm.Figure 3.5: Summer Triangle/Lyra Mythic constellations. © 1988, Stephen Marchesi, Random House.Figure 3.6: Summer Triangle/Lyra (emphasis added). © 1999, Astronomy.In Figures 3.5-6, above the constellation Ophiuchus in the masculine plane is the constellation of the Summer Triangle, used by mariners for guidance. Using the astronomy of the play as an archetypal schema, the most obvious deific counterpart to Oberon, connected to Theseus, seems to be Poseidon, son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, and brother of Zeus and Demeter. Long before Poseidon was god of the sea, he was called the “earth-shaker,” the god who held the earth and could produce earth tremors (Stapleton 182). He was also associated with the earth’s fertility, the waters, rain and rivers, which kept the earth alive. Thus, he was also worshiped as the god of fresh water. In Midsummer, the ability of the fairy king and queen to upset the course of nature is shown in the unseasonable, torrential floods resulting from their quarrel (II.i.81-117). In Act III.ii.388-395, Oberon states that he has “dallied with the love of the morning herself,” as the sun (which also alchemically suggests the masculine principle) rose over the sea. Again we see the connection of Oberon/Poseidon with water, fertility rites, and the ocean in particular. In Midsummer, fertility rites are evident in the rites of May. As Poseidon-Hippios (Lord of Horses), Poseidon also brought with him the ancient association with fertility as the god of the herdsmen and horse-keepers of a migrating race. When Demeter at one time changed herself into a mare and slipped in among the herds of Arcadia, Poseidon spotted the transformation, and turned himself into a horse as well, joined the herd, and mounted Demeter, which resulted in the birth of the steed Arion, the steed of Adrastus, King of Argos (Stapleton 66). If Oberon is thus equated with Poseidon-Hippios, might not Demeter also be equated with Titania? Is it any wonder, then, that Puck, being the agent of Poseidon-Hippios, turned Titania’s lover, Bottom, into an ass, parodying Titania’s archetypal relationship with Oberon?Hippolyta/Virgo: Titania/DemeterThe constellation Virgo dominates the feminine plane of the star chart (Figures 3.7-8). As such, Virgo, the maiden represents the chaste Amazon, Hippolyta. Hippolyta was a warrior maiden, who fought on horseback and was a huntress. Here we see a dual connection with the constellation of the Hunting Dogs, to Hippolyta, the huntress, and to the hunting grounds, the woods, which Titania rules. The Amazons’ origin was probably derived from the priestesses of the Moon Goddess (Artemis/Diana) who bore arms.Figure 3.7: Feminine plane~mythic constellations. © 1988 Stephen Marchesi, Random House.Figure 3.8: Constellations Virgo and Hunting Dogs (emphasis added). © 1999, Astronomy.Titania’s name means “descended from the Titans,” Cronus and Rhea, whose progeny were the Olympian gods (Herbert 41). Titania has been loosely linked in Elizabethan mythology with Artemis—twin sister to Apollo, the Greek counterpart of Diana, whose throne was a silver crescent moon (Brueton 61; Figure 3.9).Figure 3.9: Figure of the feminine archetype, Luna, represented in the shape of the crescent. Codex Urbanus Latinus 899. 15th century. (Jung, Psychology and Alchemy 405)The association of the feminine principle with the moon is ancient, and incorporates figures from Egyptian mythology (Isis), as well as to Demeter (the ancient earth mother), Diana/Artemis, and the Virgin Mary.Both chastity and fertility are attributes associated with the moon as feminine archetypes, especially in relation to the control of fluids, such as the tides, menstruation, and semen (Breuton 53,153-4). Water is primarily a symbol of the mother, of the womb, and also of the unconscious. Jung states that the unconscious “can be regarded as the mother or matrix of consciousness” (Transformation 218-19). The floods that occur unseasonably in Midsummer have dual significance: that of indicating the psychic disturbance in the unbalanced anima of Titania in relationship to the changeling boy, and that of serving as the watery womb of transformation for the lovers in the forest.The nature of the moon also suggests transformation: birth, growth, death, and rebirth, by virtue of its monthly cycles. The changing lunar phases represent the three aspects of the feminine: the virgin/maiden (waxing moon), the mother (full moon), and the crone (waning moon). The primary form of the anima is that of the mother, although at different times of life it may assume the form of the maiden or crone (hence the tripartite aspect of the goddess seen in the phases of the moon).However, Artemis/Diana has no power over the seasons, as Titania seems to have. Therefore, I propose that Titania’s Greek counterpart is Demeter, sister of Zeus and Poseidon. Demeter presided over the earth and its fertility as the ancient goddess of the fruitful earth and the Eleusinian mysteries (Stapleton 65-6). The myth of Demeter and her daughter, Persephone (also known as Kore), also embodies the triple aspect of the feminine archetype: Kore, the maiden; Demeter, the mother; and Hecate, the crone—associated with the darkness of the moon before rising, and its death before setting (Brueton 89). The cyclical change of seasons is represented in the story of Demeter and Kore, in which Kore was stolen by Hades and transported to the underworld for four months of the year. During those four months, the earth was barren, and only with the return of Kore was fruitfulness restored. The tripartite goddess—Kore/Demeter/Hecate—became, like the moon, a symbol of regeneration. The multiple associations of ancient goddesses with the moon are shown in Figure 3.10.Figure 3.10: Illustration of “the pagan goddesses as emanations of the lunar powers” (Roob 64). A. Kircher. Obeliscus Pamphilius, Rome. 1650.In Midsummer, the moon’s influence is directly connected to Titania and the supernatural realm of the woods—to which Hermia and Lysander “steal away,” which acts as both tomb and womb for the lovers, under the influence of Hecate—queen of the underworld. Interestingly enough, one of Hecate’s primary symbols was the snake (Aronson 227), and the snake or serpent also played an important role in initiation ceremonies—many of which occurred at the stage of the new moon, which was a symbol of new beginnings (Brueton 37, 123). In Midsummer, Hermia awakens from a dream calling for help from Lysander:Help me, Lysander, help me! Do thy bestTo pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!Ay, me, for pity! What a dream was here!Lysander, look how I do quake with fear.Methought a serpent ate my heart away. (II.ii.144-148).Puck refers to the moon goddesses, reigned in by Hecate, as he tells us of “we fairies that do run by the triple Hecate’s team, from the presence of the sun, following darkness like a dream” (V.i.369-372). The latent dangers of darkness, found in the chaos of the wood, are also aspects of Hecate’s negative but regenerative influence. In Midsummer, Hermia and Helena, as virginal maidens, represent Kore. Demeter, the mother, is represented in Titania’s connection with the changeling boy, as well as with the fairies’ procreative blessing of the bridal beds.Hippolyta, however, is connected to the self-sufficient aspect of the moon goddess, Diana/Artemis. June Singer asserts that the Amazon, who identified with Artemis, signifies an imbalance in Hippolyta’s ability to integrate the animus with her anima. Neither is Titania very far removed from Hippolyta in this aspect, for in her reluctance to give up the changeling boy, she embodies the “classic conflict between a matriarchal society, which seeks control of the male children, and a patriarchal society, which seeks control of the females” (Singer 48).Because of the significant role the changeling boy plays in the balance of anima/animus in the psychic world of Midsummer, we will now turn our attention to the archetype represented by the changeling boy—that of the primordial child.The Changeling Boy: The Primordial ChildIn Midsummer, the changeling boy is silent as well as nameless. As a character, he lacks a voice, and his role, while retained in the narrative of the play, is often visibly cut in many productions. However, his role is central to the poet’s artistic purposes in the play: the changeling child is the cause of the central conflict of the interior fairy play, and until this conflict in the play is resolved, no other conflict can be reconciled, in either wood or city. The changeling boy, as written by Shakespeare, is imagi