Tutor Talk: Dr. Travis Cooper Recalls A Midsummer Night’s Dream

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In the most recent installation of the Wednesday afternoon Tutor Talk series, Thomas Aquinas College, California, tutor Dr. Travis Cooper delivered a presentation titled “A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Funny Profundity, or Inane and Profane?”

According to Dr. Cooper, the answer to the title’s question “is yes.” That Shakespeare’s famous comedy is funny, profane, and inane is evident; but the profundity is not so obvious. This profundity is what Dr. Cooper aimed to uncover. 

He began by highlighting some prominent images – dreams, eyes, the moon, the woods – as well as some underlying themes – dreaming versus being awake, imagination versus reason, true love versus reason. After setting out these preliminaries, Dr. Cooper delved into the faulty separation of romantic love and marriage in the beginning of the play: Hermia, who is in love with Lysander, is determined by her father to marry Demetrius, whom she does not love, under penalty of death or perpetual virginity in a convent. Here, the contrast between romantic love, and forced, hyper-rational “love,” in the form of an arranged marriage, is prominent. 

The events of the play, however, bring about the reunion of romantic love and marriage, additionally settling the previous dispute between true love and man’s rational nature. Dr. Cooper drew particular attention to the timeline of the play and the specific locations wherein each act take place: The story begins in high society in Act I, proceeds to lower society in Act II, and spends Acts III - VII in the woods with the fairies. The play resolves with a gradual ascent back to high society, and love reigns. 

Dr. Cooper explained that this passage in and out of nature is symbolic of the fundamental role that bodily nature plays, complementary to reason, in the realm of true, romantic love. In other words, it was necessary that the characters, so accustomed to a life of order, law, and reason found in high society, connect with their bodily nature in the woods in order to experience true love. “The play indicates that, to a significant degree, true love is non-rational,” Dr. Cooper stated. “That is, no real account, no explanation, can be given for it.”

Although A Midsummer Night’s Dream is not an official part of the curriculum, students at Thomas Aquinas College spend a large portion of Junior Seminar reading Shakespeare’s classics, dabbling in each genre: histories, comedies, tragedies, and sonnets. Dr. Cooper’s talk shed light on the depth and wisdom that is undeniably present even in the silliest Shakespearean comedy and encouraged students never to be satisfied by surface-level evaluations. 

The talk concluded with a lively question-and-answer session, where attendees challenged, clarified, and praised Dr. Cooper’s analysis, sharing their own interpretations of the text.

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