The Men of Rule in William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

Titania, before her bewitchment, warns Oberon that their own lovers' spat is causing havoc on earth. She speaks of "winds, piping to us in vain/As in revenge" (2.1 88, 90), of the moon, "pale in her anger" (104), and how the seasons "change/Their wonted liveries" (112-13). At first, Oberon cannot see beyond his jealousy of the little changeling Titania has adopted. He sets into motion fantastic spells that upend real love, mimicking the more serious complications wrought by human politics. Naturally, Titania's premonition bears fruit when Puck transforms Nick Bottom into an ass, and again when Lysander falls in love with Helena and forgets about Hermia. These turns of events eventually worry Oberon, too. He tells Puck to make sure to "lead these testy rivals so astray/As one come not within another's way" (3.2 358-59). He prescribes the potion to set things straight, calling the evening's pranks "a dream and fruitless vision," and declaring that with his corrective action, "all things shall be peace" (3.2 377).

The story of A Midsummer Night's Dream was mainly about love and its abnormal dealings. In the play, Shakespeare tried to show that love is unpredictable, unreasonable, and at times is blind. The theme of love was constantly used during the play and basically everything that was said and done was related to the concept of love and its unpredictable ness. Shakespeare made all of the characters interact their lives to be based on each other’s. At first, everything was very confusing, and the characters were faced with many different problems. In the end, however, they were still able to persevere and win their true love, the love they were searching for in the first place.

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare easily blurs the lines of reality by inviting the audience into a dream. He seamlessly toys with the boundaries between fantasy and reality. Among the patterns within the play, one is controlled and ordered by a series of contrasts: the conflict of the sleeping and waking states, the interchange of reality and illusion, and the mirrored worlds of Fairy and Human. A Midsummer Night's Dream gives us insight into man's conflict with characteristics of human behavior.

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:

Critics would opine that Oberon loved Titania, and became jealous when she spent more time with the changeling boy than she did with him. Evidence suggests, however, that Oberon’s jealousy was based more on his controlling nature than his love for Titania; it appears that Oberon was more jealous of the fact that Titania wouldn’t submit to his demands, and unlike him, had a righteous reason for wanting to keep the

They are the former couple’s inverse, and the play’s characters lives all change because of Oberon and Titania.

The second instance where Titania overrules Oberon is her refusal to hand over her beloved charge, whose ‘mother was a vot’ress of my order...and for her sake I do rear up the boy/And for her sake I will not part with him’ (2.1.123-137) willingly. Oberon attempts to sweet talk her into giving the boy to him by charading false kindness and a willingness to listen to her concern without judgement. However, Titania’s insight makes her despise him more for his attempted trickery and refuses his company for the duration of their stay until the wedding. Though Oberon exacts his revenge on Titania by making a fool out of her through magic, her initial refusal to obey his orders on the spot speaks volumes for the female characters in this play. It sets the tone for an acceptable level of disobedience that the other women, perhaps as a mystical result of Titania’s obstinance, will gladly adopt throughout the plot. This refusal, both in the play and onstage, must have been an outrage to society at the time due to its frank and verbal nature, where a woman deliberately

Shakespeare’s usage of metaphor and simile in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is best understood as an attempt to provide some useful context for relationships and emotions, most often love and friendship, or the lack thereof. One example of such a usage is in Act 3, Scene 2 of the play. Here, the two Athenian couples wake up in the forest and fall under the effects of the flower, thus confusing the romantic relationships between them. Hermia comes to find her Lysander has fallen for Helena. Hermia suspects that the two have both conspired against her in some cruel joke, and begins lashing out against Helena. She says “We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, / Have with our needles created both one flower, / Both one sampler sitting on one cushion, / Both warbling of one song, both in one key; / As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds, / Had been incorporate. So we grew together, / Like a double cherry, seeming parted; / But yet a union in partition / Two lovely berries moulded on one stem: / So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart; / Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, / Due but to one, and crowned with one crest.” (Shakespeare 2.3.206-13). Shakespeare writes this list of vibrant metaphors to establish the prior relationship between these two characters and to make it evident how affected Helena is by this unexpected turn of events, as well as to add a greater range of emotion to the comedy, thereby lending it more literary and popular appeal.

But I will not bow down to his power, whatever the circumstances; I will not associate with this man! Oberon and I cannot be together nor can we try because we have broken our relationship. We are lovers to many and we know that we have committed infidelities why, he made love to “Amorous Phillidia” (2:1:68) and “(That) bouncing Amazon, (his) buskined mistress and (his) warrior love.” (2:1:70-71), Hippolyta, whom is to be wed to the grand Duke Theseus. We feel no shame in arriving “…to give their bed joy and prosperity.” (2:1:73), as we have both meddled and mingled with this couple, and if we feel no humiliation in committing these sinful

King Oberon takes Queen Oberon, his wife, for granted while others will sacrifice their lives to be with be each other. When King Oberon, Queen Titania and their followers enter the stage, Titania accused King Oberon of sleeping with Hippolyta and Phillida. With Hippolyta, he seems to have a history with her. Queen Titania seems to know that Hippolyta was King Oberon warrior lover before Hippolyta met Theseus. However now that Hippolyta is marrying with Theseus, he came to the wedding to celebrate their wedding. With Phillida, King Oberon would stuck away from fairyland and dressed up as a shepherd to sing love poem to her. Based on these two quotes: OBERON: Tarry, rash wanton. Am not I thy lord? TITANIA: Then I must be thy lady…(II.I). King Oberon’s sexist comment fired up Queen Titania’s irritation because she has to obey to him because he is the husband. In addition even though they are

By the time Theseus reappears at the end of the play, however, he and Hippolyta seem genuinely and mutually happy together, and he presides over a magically resolved triple wedding in which everyone gains their heart's desire. Hippolyta is the Amazonian Queen and, is set to marry Theseus. Hippolyta is not heavily involved in the play but does sound impatient to get married to Theseus. Titania is the Queen of the fairies and is a delicate creature, fond of elegant song and dance and provides a train of equally lovely spirits. When she first appears in the play, she is angry at her "husband," Oberon, who is continually demanding that she give him one of her attendants, an "Indian Boy" whose mother had been one of her worshippers and has past away.

Some connections to the themes in the play are also present in the above soliloquy. At one point in it, Titania says that “The course of true love never did run smooth” (17), and that that is true for her and Oberon as well. All of the couples in A Midsummer Night’s Dream have somewhat bumpy relationships, and the King and Queen of the fairies are no exception based on what is said in the play. Titania claims that “And never, since the middle summer's spring, / Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead” (2.1.82-83). Through this passage it is made clear that this conflict between Oberon and Titania is not something that has been going on forever but is instead something that started fairly recently. The above soliloquy elaborates more on the backstory behind this. Also, Titania accuses Oberon of having affairs with other women, saying about Hippolyta “But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, / Your buskined mistress several and your warrior love…”

Theseus rules by trying to make everyone happy while abiding by the old Athenian law. Theseus says, “Look you arm yourself to fit the fancies your father’s will.” (1.1.117-118) In this scene, Theseus is telling Hermia to marry Demetrius or to get ready to die. Egeus says that she is his property by the Athenian law. This causes Hermia to run away with her love, Lysander. At the end of the play, Theseus says, “Egeus, I will overbear your will.” (4.1.182) He is telling Hermia’s father that the law will be void for this marriage. This tells that Theseus will override it for the happiness of the four lovers. Oberon rules in a way where he is happy even if it sacrifices someone else's happiness. He will do mischievous things and blackmail others, including Titania, for his own satisfaction or gain. Oberon says, “Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.” (2.1.143) Here, he is telling Titania that if she doesn’t give him the boy, he will not dance with he at Theseus’s and Hippolyta’s wedding. They are supposed to dance at the wedding to tell them that they bless their marriage. Oberon is blackmailing her so that if she doesn’t give him the boy, they won’t dance, thus giving the couples the impression that they don’t bless them. Also, right after he squeezes the love flowers juice on Titania’s eyelid, Oberon says, “Wake when some vile

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).

A Midsummer Night 's Dream is a play about love. All of its action—from the escapades of Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena in the forest, to the argument between Oberon and Titania, to the play about two lovelorn youths that Bottom and his friends perform at Duke Theseus 's marriage to Hippolyta—are motivated by love. But A Midsummer Night 's Dream is not a romance, in which the audience gets caught up in a passionate love affair between two characters. It 's a comedy, and because it 's clear from the outset that it 's a comedy and that all will turn out happily, rather than try to overcome the audience with the exquisite and overwhelming passion of love, A Midsummer Night 's Dream invites the audience to laugh at the way the passion of love can make people blind, foolish, inconstant, and desperate. At various times, the power and passion of love threatens to destroy friendships, turn men against men and women against women, and through