A Midsummer Night’s Dream is pretty sparse on detailed descriptions of physical appearance. We know little about how the girl’s are supposed to look except that Hermia is definitely shorter than Helena. (Hermia is called a dwarf, Helena a “painted maypole”) Hermia is called “fair” and beautiful many times, but we don’t get many details besides that.
But there are two VERY specific insults used against Hermia that I found interesting.
Both come in Act 3 Scene 2, when Lysander (all jacked up on love potion) is insulting Hermia and telling her to leave him alone.
First, he says: “
” Calling Hermia an Ethiopian. Then, a few lines later, he tells her “
” Tawny meaning “Dark skinned” and Tartar being an ethnic group from Asia.
These are really specific terms to describe someone with, and I think it’s unlikely that those are completely baseless, even if they are used as insults here. The idea of Hermia being lily white doesn’t jive well given these insults.
Thoughts?
I don’t know whether I’m right, but wasn’t “fair” initially meant to just mean beautiful/attractive, rather than pale-skinned? So even being called fair isn’t a detractor from the argument (I think?).
I agree. I’m not 100% of this, but from context, Shakespeare and his contemporaries definitely use “fair” to mean beautiful more than anything.
May I add? I don’t know much about Shakespeare, but I know some about how the word ‘fair’ was used at around that time.
The word ‘fair’ had an incredibly wide meaning, largely in connotations. While today we usually see it as either meaning ‘just’ or ‘pale’, the Middle Ages through the Renaissance usually used it as ‘beautiful’, like you said. But it doesn’t stop there. Since beauty was equated with goodness, ‘fair’ was a one-size-fits-all compliment.
(I know better about Norse literature so if I’m wrong on this feel free to correct me!)
So, can we talk about how, maybe, Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is described as being brown skinned?
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Thoughtfulfangirling 