The Place Between Human and Fey in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the relationship between fairy and human propels the plot, prompting questions concerning the nature of "fairy," and what "fairy" symbolizes in the human realm. The character of Puck serves as a spokesman for the fairy realm, and an ambassador to the human domain. Puck is a useful focus point for answering questions about the interaction between these two levels of consciousness. .
The interaction between fairy and human is facilitated by the themes of love and nighttime. This poses questions about the significance and interplay of these concepts. How does love act as a connection between human and fairy? Why does nighttime bring these worlds together? What do nighttime, and love, have to do with the essence of what is "fairy?".
If we look to the words of Robin Goodfellow - who is the "merry wanderer of the night" (l. 43) - "fairy" is associated with darkness. The fairies "run / By the triple Hecate's team / From the presence of the sun" (ll. 369-71), and furthermore, they evade the sunlight in order to "[Follow] darkness like a dream." Night and dream both symbolize both the subconscious or unconscious mind, which suggests that the fairies operate by an alternative logic, or a "dream logic" that is masked by the Athenian logic of human society and the daytime hours.
This interpretation is similar to current occult ideas about the nature of the Fey. Since poets and occultists have always taken the fairy realm most seriously, it is fitting that we look to both verse and occult sources. Brian Froud, a fairy portraitist, defines fairy as "all things absurd, nonlinear, nonsensical, irrational, and madly poetic" (Froud, Intro); all of these traits are facets of the human, logical interpretation of the unconscious realm. Within the context of the Faery tradition of Witchcraft, this is the "Talking Self," or the conscious mind, describing the "Younger Self," or unconscious mind (Simos, p.
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