Northrup Frye's "The Green World"

Around the beginning of the semester when we read “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Sexson mentioned Northrup Frye’s concept of a Green World. I took the liberty to further explore this aspect of Shakespeare.

Fry comments “the action of the comedy begins in a world represented as a normal world, moves into the Green World, goes into a metamorphosis there…and returns to the normal world.” (85). As in MSND the character’s facing a problem, such as the lover’s Helena, Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius, end up resolving their conflicts in this Green World typically represented as a forest.

The Green World is known to be a world of magic causing transformations and discoveries. However, in this realm time is almost non-existent with the real world being left behind pushing character’s outside of their element. With this lack of a presence of the demands and life of the real world, characters are free from constraints able to gain new perspectives and further their personal growth.