Impact Of The Fairy World In A Midsummer Night's Dream

Oberon conjures up a plan in order to get a young child away from Titania, queen of the fairies, whilst doing this he is met with two of our other characters, Helena and Demetrius, “A sweet Athenian lady is in love/ with a huge disdainful youth. Anoint his eyes with the flower as well,” (II.i.268-269) in this point of the story Oberon encounters Helena who is trying to get the attention of Demetrius, who is completely ignoring her. This displays his need to place forceful authority because he is trying to controls Demetrius’s love, by putting him under a spell and making him fall in love with Helena. Unlike Egeus though, Oberon takes control over more than just one character, we see this in act 2 scene 1 lines 83-85 which says “Having once this juice,/ I’ll watch Titania when she is asleep/ And drop the liquor of it in her eyes,” out of the two Oberon would have to be the most controlling, because he in these three lines it shows yet another character Oberon is controlling. In this line though he is attempting to manipulate Titania in order to get the young changeling boy. Thereupon showing that in the face of love, control still will not

Furthermore, the lines earlier shows Oberon’s plan to control and submit Titania to his will. His plan to make her fall in love with animals by using a potion indicates that he wants to embarrass Titania. He wants to use his power to manipulate her feelings. He craves the control that he did not have earlier in the play when Titania did what she wanted to do. Therefore, his desire to gain control results in the changing of Titania’s fate. Titania’s actions are based on Oberon’s power. Likewise, Oberon gains satisfaction by executing his plan which empowers him and gives authority. Further, not only does Oberon make plans to control Titania, but he also becomes the cause of the conflict among Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena. Oberon’s decision to meddle in their affairs directly impacts their fate as they become powerless over their situation. Oberon’s overwhelming sense of entitlement for utter control affects the events that transpire in their lives. Specifically, Oberon’s interference changes how two of the main characters, Lysander and Hermia interact with each other. Their mutual attraction to each other is altered as a result of Lysander’s will becoming influenced by Oberon. Thus, Lysander professes his love for Helena. Then, Hermia verbally attacks Helena:

The above shows that Titania and Oberon share a relationship that is inseparable. They swallow their pride and come back together, planning to even bless the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta even though those were the other two in the affairs. Hippolyta proceeds to call Oberon ‘my Lord’ and Oberon calls Hippolyta ‘my Queen’. This shows that their love is still prevalent. ‘True love’ is the baseline in the play and is the primary form of love.

The fairy king and queen live in a type of parallel universe to their human counterparts. The forest that they live in represents a break from reality, or at least the reality initially presented. Despite their supernatural abilities, Oberon and Titania endure arguments like any couple, which instantly creates a blurring of reality and fantasy in the play. It is from an argument regarding the young Indian prince that propels Oberon to be at odds with his wife, which compels him to create chaos through magic. He is driven by the love for his wife, and love is also a prevalent theme throughout the play. It is love that drives all the characters, and not always rationally. As Robert Dent writes in his article, “Imagination in A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “love sees with that part of the mind that has no taste of judgment (177)”, which is clearly displayed by the couples in the play. Interestingly, the blurring of reality and illusion originates with a lover’s spat, highlighting the impact that love can have on reality.

In this husband-wife relationship Titania disregards the vow of commitment, made by a married couple. At the end of the quarrel, Titania refuses to give the changeling boy to Oberon. This leaves Oberon feeling anger and enrage, thus he devises an intricate plan to seek revenge on Titania, by putting her under a spell, "The next thing then she waking looks upon—/Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull... /She shall pursue it with the soul of love.../I’ll make her render up her page to me." (II.I.162-165,167,170).

Unlike Theseus, Oberon does not try to reason with Titania. He uses trickery and magic to distract Titania and settle this dispute. Oberon applies a drop of magic “liquor …in her eyes” (II.1.178) which makes “the next thing…she… looks upon / …. She shall pursue it with the soul of love” (II.1.179-181). Oberon plans to “take this charm from off her sight / I’ll make her render up her page to me.” (II.1.183-185). Oberon acts and bases his decision on acting selfishly and irrationally out of his own desires. Oberon and Theseus have very different moral stances, and thus base their decisions and actions on very different thought processes. As long Oberon gets what he wants he will act and impose his own decisions. Theseus must be asked to intervene and urges methodical decision making.

However, once Oberon enchants Titania, he is able to control her romantic feelings towards Bottom, again reiterating how men are dominant when it comes to love in Shakespeare’s play. Hermia is expected to blindly follow her father’s wishes, and then Theseus’, and her will is completely disregarded. Thus far, in the play there has been a clear power struggle between the female characters and the male characters about whom they get to end up with in the end. Values of true love fall short of those pertaining to male dominance, which is shown initially by the lovers and reiterated with Oberon and Titania.

When Titania accuses Oberon of being jealous, Oberon responds by calling her a “tarry, rash wanton,” which translates into calling her a tar-covered reckless promiscuous woman, and furthermore, he asks, “am not I thy lord?”(14). This reinforces that the men in this society are like lords over women. This also strengthens the theme of gender tensions as they both continue on to accuse each other of infidelity. During the middle of the play, the theme of gender tension is not only shown with humans but with fairies as

In a Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oberon is a fairy that has an extremely testy relationship with his wife Titania. At one point Oberon even wishes her dead, “Wake when some vile thing is near” (2.2.23). While at yet another time he pities her for falling in love with a mortal and reverses the spell that he put there in the first place. Most times you can’t even tell that they are married their actions are so bizarre towards each other.. So yes, you could say that Oberon loves Titania in his own extremely wacky and potentially dangerous way, but it is love nonetheless.

In his essay, Male Sovereignty, Harmony and Irony in A Midsummer Night's Dream, D'Orsay W. Pearson says “Titania has pitted her will against that of her sovereign lord…” (2). If Oberon is adamant about letting his wife know exactly how he wishes their relationship to be, then his wife is equally up to blocking his every attempt. “Then I must

His decision is made when him and Titania and Oberon fight over how her attention is more towards the changeling boy then him, and she accuses him of cheating on her with Hippolyta. This causes conflict towards the play because if Oberon didn’t decide to be so jealous over the boy, then he wouldn’t have fought with Titania making her fall in love with a disgusting creature. He loves her so much, he wants her to love him as much as he does, and to do that he thinks that making her fall in love with a disgusting creature will get her attention off the boy, and once the boy is taken, she will love him again. If he loves her so much, he should accept the changeling boy and treat him with love and care because that’s what makes Titania happy. His decision wouldn’t have affected the other pair of the lovers in the play either. His decision is triggered by the fight and jealousy, if he did not feel this way, this wouldn’t have happened. How would you feel if someone you loved decided to play a cruel joke on you like Oberon did to

Titania is the queen of fairyland, who is a deceivingly strong feminist in the start of the play. She fights her counterpart, Oberon, with such a wrath that diseases run rampant, seasons hazardously alter and all of humanity agonizes from their discord. As a commanding and emancipated woman, she orders her own army of fairies and does not surrender to the persistent wishes of Oberon. Unlucky, even as a divinity she is fallible due to her sex. She wreaks her own sleep and in this venerability is commended to the protection of one incompetent guard who is surpassed by Oberon with tedious effort on the god’s part.

Titania accuses Oberon, “Why art thou here, / Come from the farthest Steppe of India? / But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, / Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love, / To Theseus must be wedded, and you come / To give their bed joy and prosperity” (2.1, 437-42). To this, Oberon replies, “How canst thou thus for shame, Titania, / Glance at my credit with Hippolyta, / Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?” (2.1 443-45).

Oberon demands, “How can you stand there shamelessly talking about me and Hippolyta, when you know that I know about your love for Theseus? And weren’t you the one who made him cheat on all of his other girlfriends, like Aegles, Ariadne, and Antiopa? (Shakespeare II.ii.76).

Titania and her husband Oberon are shown arguing over ‘A lovely boy, stol’n from an Indian king –’ (II.i.22) who is her possession. As she is refusing to hand over this changeling child, Titania is showing Oberon, that they are equals, ‘am I not thy lord/Then I must be you lady;’ (II.i.63-64), she retaliates showing him that they are equals, which when Shakespeare was writing this was far from the social norm. During their argument in Act 2, Titania uses natural world imagery to argue her case, that she should keep the changeling child and for their argument to cease. She says that "the winds, piping us in vain, /as in revenge have suck'd from the sea" (II.i.87-88) which suggests that she is angrier than normal as a wind coming of the sea is more powerful than a normal wind. This use of natural metaphors tells us that the characters of Oberon and Titania are unpredictable and dangerous because of the power they have as King and Queen of the fairies.