How is Hippolytas reasoning concerning how quickly the four days will pass different from that of Theseus?
kplhardison Student Graduate School eNotes Editor In Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Theseus feels that the four nights and four days until his marriage with Hippolyta are droning out so slowly that he can’t bear it. He says the creeping time of the waning moon is like a “step-dame,” which means stepmother, apparently a colloquialism for someone who can’t go faster than the proverbial tortoise He also compares the waning moon to a dowager, which is the old widow of a duke or king or some such. Dowagers, often being elderly and always being stately, are in hurry and therefore wither a “young man’s revenue,” or assets. Hippolyta, on the other time, is content with the passage of time saying that the four days will turn quickly into four nights which will quickly be dreamed away. Time doesn’t hang heavily on her hands the way it does for Theseus. Hippolyta looks forward to the days to enjoy and the nights to dream. Sources: http://www.enotes.com/midsummer-nights-dream/act-commentar
