Yin and Yang: A Symmetry of Dualism between Contrasting Locales in ＂The Merchant of Venice＂ and ＂A Midsummer Night’s Dream＂

Abstract

As problem comedies, ”A Midsummer Night's Dream” (1600) and ”The Merchant of Venice” (1600) may be analyzed from the perspective of Yin and Yang. Both plays' problems might originate from pairs of opposites, such as daughter's free will and parental interference, female oppression and mainstream patriarchal culture, and masculine-oriented rules and female emancipation. These commonly discussed opposites can be associated with the contrasting scenes that have certain inferential links with the yin-yang concept in both plays. Derived from the yin-yang dualism, the contrasting scenes or loci are light and dark, day and night, masculine and feminine, sunlit and moonlit settings. Male sphere in both comedies can be exemplified by Theseus's court in ”Dream” and Venice in ”Merchant” that embody orderly and legalistic societies. By contrast, Belmont in ”Merchant” is glamorized with rather feminine atmospheres; like Belmont, the wood and midsummer night's dream in ”Dream” are set in soft nighttime scenes. The daytime scenes of both comedies bring out the fact of men's control over women by law in a patriarchal society. The nighttime scenes provide loci for boundless imagination and the fulfillment of female desires. The yin-yang dualism is noted for its balance and symmetry, so are the pairs of the contrastive scenes in both plays. These binary scenes that epitomize the yin-yang concept should not be a coincidence; instead, they should be acknowledged as a device that balance the mainstream patriarchalism in daytime scenes and the desires forbidden by patriarchal societies in nighttime scenes; this balance is like a cohesive and conflicting relation between a dark Yin and a bright Yang in a symmetrical array.