The Double-Sided Mirror of Power: On the Intervention of Power in Love in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Wuthering Heights

Jingyi Feng

doi:10.54254/2753-7064/2025.HT28695

Communications in Humanities ResearchOpen access

The Double-Sided Mirror of Power: On the Intervention of Power in Love in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Wuthering Heights

Research Article

Open Access

The Double-Sided Mirror of Power: On the Intervention of Power in Love in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Wuthering Heights

Jingyi Feng ^1*

¹ Nantong University

^*Corresponding author: 2301110243@stmail.ntu.edu.cn

Published on 28 October 2025

CHR Vol.93

ISSN (Print): 2753-7072

ISSN (Online): 2753-7064

ISBN (Print): 978-1-80590-483-0

ISBN (Online): 978-1-80590-484-7

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Abstract

Although A Midsummer Night's Dream and Wuthering Heights belong to different stages of literary development, both conduct in-depth explorations of the dialectical relationship between "power and love". Employing Foucault's power theory, Gilbert and Gubar's feminist criticism theory, and combining with Greenblatt's perspective of cultural poetics, this study reveals through a comparative analysis of the two texts that the two works present different paths of power intervening in love relationships and their ultimate impacts. A Midsummer Night's Dream constructs an explicit, reconcilable power paradigm that results in order maintenance, and its influence is temporary and rectifiable. In contrast, the power depicted in Wuthering Heights is characterized by being self-reinforcing, systemically nested, and ultimately deconstructive; it distorts human nature and twists loving relationships into irreconcilable enmity. The former conveys the optimistic sentiment of rational power reconciliation in the Renaissance period, while the latter reflects the negative perception of class and gender issues in its era. Together, they form a dual narrative of the interaction between power and love in literature.

Keywords:

Power, Love, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Wuthering Heights, Comparative Literature

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References

[1]. Rougemont, D. de. (1983). Love in the western world (M. Belgion, Trans.). Princeton University Press. (p. 125)

[2]. Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.). Vintage Books.

[3]. Gilbert, S. M., & Gubar, S. (1979). The madwoman in the attic: The woman writer and the nineteenth-century literary imagination. Yale University Press.

[4]. Greenblatt, S. (1988). Shakespearean negotiations: The circulation of social energy in Renaissance England. University of California Press.

[5]. Montrose, L. A. (1983). Shaping fantasies: Figurations of gender and power in Elizabethan culture. Representations, 2, 61–94.

[6]. Kott, J. (1974). Shakespeare our contemporary (B. Taborski, Trans.). Norton.

[7]. Eagleton, T. (1995). Heathcliff and the great hunger. In Heathcliff and the great hunger: Studies in Irish culture (pp. 1–26). Verso.

References

[1]. Rougemont, D. de. (1983). Love in the western world (M. Belgion, Trans.). Princeton University Press. (p. 125)

[2]. Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.). Vintage Books.

[3]. Gilbert, S. M., & Gubar, S. (1979). The madwoman in the attic: The woman writer and the nineteenth-century literary imagination. Yale University Press.

[4]. Greenblatt, S. (1988). Shakespearean negotiations: The circulation of social energy in Renaissance England. University of California Press.

[5]. Montrose, L. A. (1983). Shaping fantasies: Figurations of gender and power in Elizabethan culture. Representations, 2, 61–94.

[6]. Kott, J. (1974). Shakespeare our contemporary (B. Taborski, Trans.). Norton.

[7]. Eagleton, T. (1995). Heathcliff and the great hunger. In Heathcliff and the great hunger: Studies in Irish culture (pp. 1–26). Verso.

Cite this article

Feng,J. (2025). The Double-Sided Mirror of Power: On the Intervention of Power in Love in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Wuthering Heights. Communications in Humanities Research,93,45-50.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

About volume

Volume title: Proceeding of ICIHCS 2025 Symposium: The Dialogue Between Tradition and Innovation in Language Learning

ISBN: 978-1-80590-483-0(Print) / 978-1-80590-484-7(Online)

Editor: Enrique Mallen, Heidi Gregory-Mina

Conference website: https://2025.icihcs.org/

Conference date: 17 November 2025

Series: Communications in Humanities Research

Volume number: Vol.93

ISSN: 2753-7064(Print) / 2753-7072(Online)

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