UC Berkeley

Uunder the influence of Bertrand Russell’s applications of symbolic logic to other fields than mathematics and theoretical physics, I attempted to create an algorithm to define the permutations of Shakespeare’s view of sexuality, based on the various amatory relationships in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Our ultimate formula for a dynamic sexual relation in Shakespeare might well then be X+ (–)Y in which the bracketed factor represent the necessary resistance either in the beloved or from some external obstacle, but one that is replaceable, in the event of a subsequent precarious mutuality, by an unemotional legal marriage contract, functioning as a stabilizing structure imposed by society thus: X+(-M-)+Y. Not only does this formula confirm the remarkable consistency of Shakespeare’s interpretation of sexual relationships, it suggests that his recurrent pattern of final marriage is not simply a plot convention but an absolute requirement of his sense of marriage as a uniquely stabilizing force in society.