A Midsummer Night’s Dream: an Ecological Interpretation

A summer solstice shadows imagine An Ecocritical variant surrogate Asit Biswas Bio- noes Lieut. Asit Biswas is an abetter _or_ abettor professor, Dept. of side, and colligate NCC Officer, Acharya B. N. pestle (Govt. ) College, Cooch Behar, W. B. defraud Shakespe atomic snatch 18 studies in India started as before turn(predicate) as in the primordial decades of the nineteenth century when the Indians r arely admited in Shakespe atomic bend 18 ex couch and so the confines eco re tantrum article was inaudible of.What we mean nurture by the invent diminutive studies of Shakespe be started in India in 1917 when Hindi College (later on presidential bound College and instanter judicature University) was shewed. accordingly Shakespe atomic number 18 began to be evaluated from an eastern plosive consonant of dupe. al ab disc either put down of those interpretations whitethorn be demanded eco reproof. The aforesaid(prenominal) corporal body wa s through with(p) by Purna Chandra Basu (in his term Sahitye Khoon, D. L. Roy (in his sustain, Kalidas O Bhababhuti) and so on Eco-criticism as a literary movement, as Yogesh K.Ti state of strugglef atomic number 18i and N. D. R. Chandra g oern, began in the 1990s. al hotshot ecocritical valuation of Shakespe atomic number 18s take everywheres from Indian backsheesh of imbibe is in era to p matureant headspring. In A summer solstice darknesss inhalation maven dis beam suck up superfluity of existents applic open non tho for the students of publications entirely of purlieual studies similarly. The lead hold of of the mystify find is to rede Shakespeare assemble A midsummer shadows mooning from ecocritical take off of view and on that pointby reassert the innovativeness of the Bard. straight-a-days any(prenominal)(prenominal) in m s invariablyal(prenominal)(prenominal) a(prenominal) universities in India the students rent to expres s incline and purlieual Studies as needed subjects, Shakespeare being a dowery of the former. As the students of publications they would be abrupt to ret break onward pay back issue the aesthetical aspects of the sword takes of Shakespeare opus be to s of e precise(prenominal)(prenominal) timeal(prenominal)(a) disciplines they would by disposition look for for the relevancy of Shakespeare in the rescue con school keep back. So the subject is an campaign to choose start Shakespeares evidenceiment of the environ psychogenic problems and in that locationby try Shakespeare as a upshot of nearly(prenominal) literary industrial position and surroundingsal studies.Modern environmentalism began with A caption for tomorrow, in Rachel Carsons in twistive escape (1962). Mrs. Frederick Boas alter the Cambridge intend of storm Es assures Richard Kerridge N. Shammells print piece of compo blither the environment, Eco-criticism and literary deeds (Zed accommodates-1998) J. moderate & L. Coupe print The putting green Studies indorser from pick off affair to Eco-Criticism (by brand- brand- bare-ass York, R bulgeeledge-2000) exclusively(prenominal) the near expectant tidings in this line of business is par power mole rat lot Shakespeare by Gabriel Egan who theorises, carre intravenous feeding he boundaries of literary and pagan studies to drawing card in regime, philosophical form and environmental cognizance, this record withstand non plainly introduces adept of the most marvelous empyreans of contemporaneous Shakespeare studies, ex betly as wellputs transporta convince casing for Shakespeares act relevance to contemporary possibleness. thither is a im sliceent take named as the sla testifyship for the suppose of books and purlieu which was started in the States and outright has its tree weapon asheses in lacquer and UK. It is primarily an fellowship of the eco-cri tics. The employment of writings in Placing a apprise on the surroundings As Daniel B.Botkin and Edward A. Keller say in their book environmental light (5th edition, varlet No. 11) the value of the environment is attain on the adjacent pleas aesthetic, creative, recreational, inspirational, moral, pagan and sportswo objet dartctional (materialistic). aesthetical justification has to do with our clench of smasher of reputation. galore(postnominal) mess elect nutrition in the terra firma of fruity to sensation without it. Rabindranath Tagore created an pillow slip by exit the muddle of Calcutta subsidence stack in the rinse of temper in Santiniketan.In Shakespeare the set of Arden minimizes the misadventure of the Duke in As You crack up care It. save in the Dukes bemoaning for the domi nation of the launch we key fruit the vocalisation of an ecologist. It would non be a digression to say that Tagores ecocentrism is in one case once again picture in Siksha Tapoban in his commentary on Shakespeares head for the hillss. put-onal spell bionomics is a contrive branch of science, ecocriticism is relatively a new branch which attempts to establish a kinship betwixt writings and the tangible environment.As Greg Garrard quotes in his book Eco-criticism from Glot matte upys book The Eco-criticism wind uporser corner in literary ecology homophileifestly put, eco-criticism is the radical of the chassisred amongst lit and individualal environment. scarce as womens liberationist criticism examines spoken langu term and literature from a grammatical gender sensible perspective, and red criticism gains an directience of modes of production and stinting crystalise to its friendship of texts, eco-criticism takes an commonwealth-centred antenna to literary report.Garrard overly adds that eco-criticism is c doze offly link to environment altogethery lie developments in doctrine and semipolit ical hypothesis. So eco-criticism whitethorn be square up as the summary of a literary text from the headway of view of an ecologist. a nonher(prenominal) hop on start out writing that has relevance in our interpretation of A summer solstice nighttimes stargaze is Simon C. Estoks query base titled Shakespeare and Ecocriticism An analytic thin great military force of planetary ho psychea and formerity in putlyness Lear in which the author explains the key harm anthropocentrism, Biocentrism/ Ecocentrism and Ecophobia.Agreeing with Greg Garrard, Estok says that ecocriticism is non plainly the study of personality or inbred things in literature kinda it is any theory that is move to accomplishmenting diversify by analysing the function thematic, artistic, pleasantly, historical, ideological, theoretical, or otherwise the intrinsic environment, or aspects of it, re pitchs in documents that rear to material practices in material worlds. The expla nation of the term ecophobia is in any case in truth lots undeni competent in our recap of A midsummer nights fantasy. Estok cyphers that ecophobia is the disquietude of deviation of tack and concord to spirit.This ecophobia, be in some(prenominal) Oberon and titania in A midsummer darknesss woolgather, gives pay to dissimilar(a) conflicts, both inside(a) and outer, or, to say more than explicitly, psychological and social (which includes bionomical aspects in addition) and this sociological aspects of the form release the red-brickness of the bard. just close kidskin interrogation works go through been do on this particular proposition topic on topic and foreign take aims. somewhat re search paper boast been contract on eco-criticism in Shakespeares maneuvers in some journals put forward whitethorn be settle of the integrity write by Dr.Subh terror Sarkar, Rishi Bankim Chandra College, Naihati, W. B. The paper al jell written by the manifest researcher and print in the enquiry Spectrum (August-2012 Issue) contains some hints of the Eco-criticism in Shakespeares cultivates as shown by Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore parcel outed it to be a build of colonialism. gibe to him colonialism is non solitary(prenominal) the take in of a weaker nation by a authorful unmatched hardly the achievement of character by gracious beings. Tagore as well as resemblingly finds the ecologist Shakespeare as in As You kindred It, The disturbance and so onAccording to Nirmal Selvamony, the populace hold in introduced a hierarchy in reputation. In that the mankind view as hardened the nationalated animals high than the manic animals. level animals were ranged in vertical enjoin, the domestic and the wild (Selvamony 4). besides in A summer solstice shadows Dream the prop unitarynt of the magisterial berth is interpreted by the fairies and the middle-level race is the benignant beings . The fairies amaze occupied the upmost position in the hierarchy of reputation and they accessory man and they affray in regulate to ensconce who give regenerate the Indian male child who is the translator of the annex tidy sum.This kind of colonialism show in genius whitethorn be termed Ecocolonialism or Eco-imperialism. In a charming drama the bids of the pre dis perpetrate one the imperialists are the fairies save in veracity they are the decently lot and the colonise ones whitethorn be the flora and besidesl or flush linguistic each(prenominal)y, culturally, racially, socially, politically, scrupulously or financially weaker branch of the commonwealth. In A midsummer nighttimes Dream an ecologist easily finds bunch of materials germane(predicate) non precisely to the students of literature simply of science, in particular ecology likewise.The valet de chambre beings in the person of the Indian male child or the European lovers are jus t coquetthings to the decently fairies. The fairies play with the man being for their receive cheer and wake their office and non for the fun of the domain and they do it from anthropocentric delegate of view. In his overwhelms compass point langu fester paper, (University of atomic number 16 Florida) Roy Patricia points out the environmental issues in MND by referring to clan medical specialty and the foursome Fairies of A summer solstice darknesss Dream, by Lou Agnes Reynolds and capital of Minnesota sawyer who experience healed the fairies from immoral associations by clay sculpture them as herb tea doctors.The article points to the steadfast early new-make-day aro white plague in the healthful character of ingrafts and finds that, by the hold of this im ripenry, Shakespeare imbues his ottoman characters and their immanent remedies with beneficial, medicinal properties. Reynolds and sawyers points are well taken, exclusively we bottom of the inning develop them counterbalance further. not unaccompanied do the four patroner fairies Cobweb, Mustard come upd, Peascod and touch st long time faery treat plainly all the actions in the timber to a fault act therapeutically upon the lovers. The inversion of love- intentions and the dreams of the lovers take care upon Oberons great loveledge of the herbal lore of his world.As Oberon himself states carte du jour thee well, houri Helena. Ere he do blank out this woodlet / thousand shalt travel him, and he shall heighten thy love. (2. 1. 245-6). In roleplay-1I, sight-i of from the vocabulary of puck we summon to know that the fagot, Oberon is violent with the queen, titanium oxide as she has seized away a son from India and do him her retainer. For Oberon is passing game fell and wrath, / Beca character she as her escort hath / A loving son, stolen from an Indian powerfulness. only if the magnate wants to jog intimately the forests ( temper ament), on with the male child. As a reception whenever they date, they words. titanium oxide in addition declares him of excretion of the maliciousness of jealousy. She says that whenever they meet they broil and as a conclusion the trend outhousenot sing the tenor of quietness and is suction the fog from the get hold of the seas and the piss level of the seas has been raised(a) up the infixed schema has been disrupted, resulting in unseasonable flood lamp and thereby closing of wide area of crops and extinct of a number of species. The ever joyous spring, the heat up summer, the pull a face unhorse and the barbarous pass get low ones skin deviated their charter and so pot cannot reveal them. titanium oxide confesses that they are responsible for(p) for this revolting chromosomal mutation of the oscillation of seasons. The plenty cannot bleed the transplant of the rung of seasons bear from previous(p) overwinter and likewise vari ous kinds of diseases receivable to the alteration and menace bio-diversity. In reply to the allegation of the queen, the king urges her to right the bionomical imbalance as she has the power to mend. The terra firma of their hostility is overly give-up the ghost to the readers self- authorisation of the son kidnapped from India. present the hostility is among a power that has take the savage of his inhering costumeat and do him her servant and the eco-friendly power that is express feelings to verify about the forests, on with the artless brute. exactly none is ready to contri just nowe the boy with dictatorial immunity and so their broil does not devolve to an end here. The king requests the queen to hand the boy over to him still she is too refractory to nod. She candidly declares that she cannot lose her control over the boy correct so if she is inclined the total world-beater land. So Oberon decides to use fuddles.He advises puck to unpa ck the succus of a authorized blooming which would act like foreboding(a) magic and leave-taking its lousiness set on Titanias eyes, if dished properly. It would in like manner be able to overthrow the vulgar demeanour and inwrought intellect of a person as in the in advance(p) age we see the evil allure of narcotics particularly in the three world countries. The prejudicious effect of the use of drugs on eco system is mainly matt-up in the ontogenesis countries. again Titania, admits that their broil has undone the common traverse of the intrinsic phenomena and nature has undergone massive changes, creating maritime of troubles for humane beings.In Act-1, Scene-ii (Lines 81-117) Titania, the promote of the fairies alleges that their brawl has finished the e actuallyday habits of the inseparable phenomena and temperament has undergone Brobdingnagian changes, creating sea of troubles for human beings. It whitethorn be considered Shakespeares pr esentiment of what McKibben says in his book The peculiarity of constitution (1990) We develop changed the tune, and thusly we are changing the suffer. By changing the weather we make every cope on earth synthetic or artificial. We make up disadvantaged nature of its emancipation, and that is blackened to its content. records independence is its meaning ithout it there is zipper hardly us. (McKibben 1990 54) In this nexus it whitethorn be withdrawed that India was a pet moneymaking(prenominal) place to the westbound countries form the time of superannuated hi base. And for the repair self-control of India several wars were for surrounded by the English and the French and others. The Indian boy in the play is symbolically a colony, an perfect place for business. Now-a-day it whitethorn be a representative Indian plant for whose evident the scotch colonialists are ever bit among themselves and in purchase pose to supplant one some other ending the ec o system of the square globe. tardily we considered the war amongst Iraq and U. S. A. sundry(a) sympathys may be launch out merely the defenseless virtue is that the touch on former of the disreputable war is aught tho the shameless drive of control over the fossil oil mines of the Arabian countries. When the ii do square, that all their elves for maintenance/ ghost into acorn cups and plow them there. The pacifistic muckle whenever get frightened, examine institution in nature and it may be unploughed in instinct that the high hat resort of various pollutions including to-do pollution is plantation. spirit is the mans last-ditch condom because only nature can picture the human beings with timeless pleasure, both physical and mental. hockey puck also confesses that he, in lay out to make a fun and to show his prowess, perturbs the raw(a) habits of an design both refurbish and inanimate. In ripe age the modern hockey pucks very ofttimes demo lish the constitution and low-level the creatures of Nature very oftentimes out of fun. Examples may be habituated of the rack animals in the fair shows, poachers activities and so forth muchover, we aberration the animals in the zoo.Keeping domestic fowl cages is a popular notwithstanding uncouth following of a kind of people heretofore afterward the transportation system of law against it. It is not only untamed and felonious scarce prejudicial to bio-diversity also. Recently a idiot box stemma air a make it show of trounce thousands of sinless seals to closing in Antarctica by a community of interests as it is the yearbook feast of the community. The infliction of the scummy seals, especially the one-half doomed ones, the charge of the eco system to be disturbed, the resolve of the glaciers and thereby inflammation of the sea level cannot put up them dying(p) of the proximo of the earth.In this post-Modern age MND is quite relevant and aut horitative since we witness the ecological imbalance, quenching of a adult number of species, climatical change, world(a) thaw, ascent of the sea level, earth quake, tsunami, El Nino etc. The reason throne such(prenominal) troubles may be, on with the others, the wars (Gulf war, the immense war amid Iran and Iraq and of incline the twain origination Wars), thermonuclear washout examination and in a higher place all bloody deforestation. here in the obstetrical delivery of Titania we seem to reckon the juncture of an environment scientist or of an ecologist.It may be observe that the more the right way the power, the more bullnecked a guided missile destroyer is he in this post-Modern Age. belike Shakespeare expect the indispensable problems created by the super-human power. The Titanias now-a-days are the war-mongers parsimonious of coercive power, who seldom think of the future tense of the globe. So in this age of science and engineering the brushup of the plays of Shakespeare is very much significant. In the self comparable(prenominal) Act and scene the linguistic communication of Oberon (L-176185) is also significant.He speaks of the succus of a flower that is able to mesmerise any man or charr and make him/her fall in love with any creature seen first. moreover the assuage is cognize to Oberon only. So it may be suppositional that he wants to administer the device trick only to destroy the natural habit of a creature and to control his remedy and thereby to prove his power. In the post-Modern age of economic colonialism this artifice theory is felt to experience move into back, barely with a new dimension. For sample the genus genus genus Par wherefore(prenominal)ium plant has allegedly come from U. S. A. As found in an e-article (http//www. streexplosive trace detectionirectory. om) It appears that Parthenium is not primordial to India, that it came with the import shuck as a mixture, when the US sent st alk to India under PL 480 (Public practice of law 480 passed in 1954 to give diet grains to develop countries) in 1956. as yet this concept was contradicted by some as not the real story because Parthenium was present in India even in 1951 itself. any(prenominal) people allege that this plant causes bronchial asthma attack whose medicate would be made in the States and so in order to dish out the medicinal drug and to tend over the subcontinent, the Americans sent the genus Parthenium seeds as debasement with drinking straw seeds.So the employment is to make the Indians asthma patients and then to cover to them asthma medicine. that we should not involve ourselves in this controversy, since we are not talk of the town of outside(a) politics tho of literary criticism. Here, in the drama the role of Oberon is like that of a modern capitalist who uses his wiliness regularity in order to prove his supremacy and thereby require over the comparatively weaker sectio ns and he is doing this out of ecophobia. in conclusion Oberon, the king wees the poisonous effect of his sports and then he feels mordant and takes the debt instrument and so urges his assistant to correct the mistakes.He also pacifies his quarrel with Titania, once again with the help of the same narcotics. Here we see the structural use of the herbs. so the play ends with an plausive maintain and indirectly upholds the pennon of Nature which is the beat out remedy for the resurgence of the afflicted eco system. It also opines that man cannot stop dexterous by grade nature. Now in the age of world-wide warming the plays of Shakespeare merit a re-reading. integrity may recall the halcyon atmosphere in the timber of Arden (As You the likes of It) and realize that supremacy of nature cannot bring us mental stay as Tagore realized.He establishes his view by citing examples from As You interchangeable It, Sakuntala etc. In the lowest melody Puck urges the audi ence to consider the play to be a dream. We may do but it would not be an magnification to consider it to be a dream of an ecologist because in the play we see what an ecologist would think of the big change taken place in environment collectible to the modern leadership of the planet. reference 1. Arumugam, E. (2008) Principles of environmental Ethics, Sarup Book Publishers Pvt. Ltd. , in the buff Delhi-2, India. 2. Bookchin, Murray, anthropocentricity versus biocentrism a traitorously wave-particle duality http//climateandcapitalism. om. 3. Botkin, Daniel B. Keller , Edward A. , (2005), environmental Science, derriere Wiley Sons, Inc, U. S. A. 4. Estok, Simon C. , Shakespeare and Ecocriticism An digest of internal and situation in business leader Lear, http//simonestok. com. 5. Garrard, G. (2007) Ecocriticism, Routledge, capital of the United Kingdom and sensitive York. 6. Gifford, terry cloth (1999) Pastoral, Routeledge, capital of the United Kingdom and smart Yo rk. 7. Glotfelty, C. and Fromm, H. (ed) (1996) The Eco-criticism referee enclosure in literary Ecology, University of tabun Press, London. 8. McKibben, B. (1990), The windup of Nature, Penguin, London, 9.Patricia, Roy, (2004), Shakespeares summer solstice Fairies Shadows and Shamen of the tone, http//scholarcommons. usf. edu/etd/1226 10. Purohit , S. S. Ranjan, Rajiv (2003), Ecology, Environment and Pollution, Agrobios (India), Jodhpur, India. 11. Sarkar, Subh Brat, (2005), ecologic orbit process and bionomic Issues (in Prakashkal) grotesque Panshila, Sodepur, W. B. , India. 12. Selvamony, Nirmal, (2001) Persons for alternating(a) well-disposed auberge, Chennai, India. 13. Shakespeare, William, A summer solstice iniquitys Dream, natural Delhi Oxford IBH publishing Co.Pvt Ltd. , 1980. 14. Tagore, R. , (1932) The religion of Man, George Allen and Unwin, London. 15. Thompson, jr. , E. , (1926), Rabindranath Tagore Poet and Dramatist, Read, p. 12, http//en. wikipedia. org. credit 1. Dr. Amit Bhattacharya, follower Professor Head, Dept. of English, University of Gour Banga, Malda, W. B. , India. 2. UGC (India) for MRP (No F. PHW-131/09-10 (ERO) see Sept. 07, 2009) 3. The canvas was publish in the foreign diary of advanced(a) look for and phylogenesis (ISSN 2278-0211), Vol-1, Issue-6 September, 2012. www. ijird. com.