Robin Starveling
Robin Starveling is a character in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1596), one of the Rude Mechanicals of Athens who plays the part of Moonshine in their performance of Pyramus and Thisbe. His part is often considered one of the more humorous in the play, as he uses a lantern in a failed attempt to portray Moonshine and is wittily derided by his audience.
Role in the play
In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Theseus, the Duke of Athens, is preparing to marry Hippolyta. Peter Quince decides to entertain her and hires a group of actors nicknamed the
Context
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Analysis
"All that I have to say, is, to tell you that the lanthorn [lantern] is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush; and this dog, my dog."
—Robin Starveling as Moonshine in A Midsummer Night's Dream[5]
Shakespeare constantly reflects on the problem of synecdoche in his plays, a rhetorical term meaning "the part representing the whole". For example, in Henry V, Shakespeare has the Prologue beg forgiveness of the audience for attempting to portray an entire army with a few men, and for portraying so great a man as the King with a feeble actor. Shakespeare explores these same problems through Robin Starveling. The Mechanicals' decision to use Robin as moonlight in place of actual moonlight delves into the problem of synecdoche, of trying to represent something greater than yourself. Robin's standing there, attempting to be moonshine, does not make him so, even if he is holding a lantern to represent at least a part of the Moon. Similarly, Shakespeare seems to be arguing that no representation of anything in a play can really be completely real or truthful, no matter how hard its players may try. Rather than begging forgiveness of the viewer, he is exaggerating the problem for their entertainment.[6][7]
The deriding reactions of the members of the upper class watching Robin and his colleagues' performance would have been familiar to even the more professional actors in Shakespeare's day. Some scholars have seen in Theseus' words about the performance a note of sympathy and pleading the cause of the actor: "For never anything can be amiss / when simpleness and duty tender it ..."[8]
References
- ^ Barber, Lester E. "Review: Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival." Shakespeare Quarterly (Jul 1980) 31.2 pp. 232–5.
- ^ Prosser, Eleanor. "Shakespeare at Ashland and San Diego." Shakespeare Quarterly. (October 1963) 14.4 pp. 445–54.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary Online. Oxford University Press (1989)
- ISBN 90-6203-038-6, pp. 202–3.
- ^ V.i.2096–99
- ISBN 0-521-09435-6, pp. 28–30.
- ^ Justman, Stewart. "Political Fictions." College English. (Mar 1978) 39.7 pp. 834–40.
- ^ Schelling, Felix E. "The Common Folk of Shakespeare." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 1916 55.6 pgs. 471–480