You are here

All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 1Scene 1
Back to the Play
"the rose distilled"
Metaphor
Act 1,
Scene 1
Lines 67-78

An explanation of the metaphor of a “rose distilled” in Act 1, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer NIght’s Dream. 

Theseus

Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires,
Know of your youth, examine well your blood;
Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,
You can endure the livery of a nun,
For aye to be in shady cloister mewed,
To live a barren sister all your life,
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
Thrice blessed they that master so their blood,
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;
But earthlier happy is the rose distilled
Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.

Theseus compares a woman to a rose. More pleasure results if a rose, rather than being left withering on its thorny stem, has its petals plucked and "distilled" (vaporized in a still) so that the resulting oil can be enjoyed in perfumes and foods. Similarly, more sensual pleasure results if a woman, rather than being left to wither away in a protective convent, is free to be deflowered — that is, to have sex.