Shawn Yu Ms. Beard C Block 13 May 2024. What if the complexities surrounding love disappeared, revealing manipulation and control as orchestrators? In William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, the problems of love and magic are shown colliding between the human and fairy worlds. Oberon, the King of the fairies, manipulates his wife, Titania, to fulfill his desires. This manipulation is a problematic relationship developed by Shakespeare. Throughout “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, Oberon’s manipulation of Titania shows a toxic pattern of using control to achieve personal goals. An example of this in the text is how the differences in power between Oberon and Titania highlight the detrimental consequences of using control and manipulation to achieve one’s desires. In Act 4, Scene 1, Oberon explains to Puck as Puck enters the scene that he is beginning to pity Titania, for she seeks favors for Bottom, a human changed into a donkey that she fell in …show more content…
He tells Puck that Titania had returned the changeling boy to him as a result of her being in love with Bottom. Oberon says, “When I had at my pleasure taunted her,/And she in mild terms begged my patience,/I then did ask of her her changeling child,/Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent/To bear him to my bower in Fairyland.” (4.1.54-58). This quote undermines how Oberon, using a love potion on Titania, made her fall in love with a beast to achieve a goal. Subsequently, through this control over her, Oberon acquires what he wants: the changeling child. This shows the theme that Shakespeare developed in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” that manipulation and control over others can get you what you desire from them. Shakespeare introduces the idea that this is reasonable behavior in a relationship. Because Oberon acquires the changeling child from
Sometimes, when a person becomes controlling, he can lead others down a path to destruction and failure. Control is a huge theme in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. Inside the play, certain characters try to make other characters do what he or she wants, and it often ends poorly. One example of this is Nick Bottom, a weaver who is a part of the players performing the play “Pyramus and Thisbe”. He often tries to be controlling by stepping into play other’s parts, and, the results don’t turn out the way he and the others quite expected.
In Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, love appears to be the common theme of several storylines being played out simultaneously. Although these stories intersect on occasion, their storylines are relatively independent of one another; however, they all revolve around the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons. If love is a common theme among these stories, then it is apparent that love makes people act irrationally.
Many people believe that control is possible until it comes into play and it doesn’t work out. Control is a big deal in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. Oberon tries to control Demetrius and Lysander tries to control Helena. Control is not possible because it’s unpredictable and you can’t control love.
Exerting the type of power that is influenced by malicious intentions can cause one to make decisions that are not beneficial to others. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is written within a time period and setting that favors men instead of woman. In other words, men have all the authority to control the events that occur in their own lives as well as the lives of others whom are considered insignificant. The plot displays the catalysts that ignite many characters’ desire for control that is misused by higher status people. Shakespeare’s use of characterization demonstrates how the wanting of control causes the characters to act irrationally through the misuse of power. Shakespeare’s use of setting, plot and characterization causes the ordeals that the characters ultimately face. In turn, the deceitful choices of a few individuals with status impacts whether the lives of lower status people are enhanced.
Politicians are generally viewed as liars and as untrustworthy. However, Richard Nixon, our 37th president, truly held up this reputation. In order to win the presidency, he utilized manipulation and trickery to win the election, thus gaining more power. When his crimes were revealed, he lost his presidency and his legacy. This unfortunate situation is very similar to the play, a Midsummer’s Night Dream.
For Example, Oberon states, “Having once this juice I’ll watch Titania when she is asleep and drop the liquor of it in her eyes. The next thing then she, waking, looks upon...she shall pursue it with the soul of love and ere I take this charm from off her sight… I’ll make her ender up her page to me.” (II, i, 77-87) analysis and restatement! I know that love in the book, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and in the real world (in general) is hard. We argue, fight and hate but in the end we learn to forgive and love. For example, Oberon states, “sound music. Come, my queen, take hands with me, and rock the ground whereon these sleepers be…(Titania says) “come, my lord, and in our flight tell me how it came this night that I sleeping here was found with these mortals on the ground.” (IV, i, 83-99) analysis and
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare makes heavy use of hyperbole, the twisting of reality into something greater than what it actually is, in both the dialogue and the ridiculous, larger-than-life nature of the situations that occur to provide a basis for the conflict between reality and illusion, blurring the line that separates the two concepts.
Oberon is one of the most important characters in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare and is the answer to the question of why there are so many problems in the play. Not only is Oberon the King of the Fairies but he is the husband of Titania and the master of Puck. Oberon’s character is multifaceted although it is evident that he will do anything for a good laugh. At times, Oberon is extraordinarily nice, generous, and compassionate. He felt sorry for Helena and tried to get Demetrius to fall in love with her. However, On the other hand, Oberon is cruel, jealous, and tyrannical. Resembling his mischievous servant Puck, Oberon finds no problem with playing with other people’s love. He swindled his own wife and laughed at the misfortunes of the four Athenians Helena, Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius. Despite one’s view of Oberon, it is clear that he is the root of all the problems in the play because he starts a sequence of problems by making the love juice, orders the love juice to be used on Demetrius which in turn causes disarray for all four of the young lovers, and causes disgrace for Titania and creates obstacles for Bottom and the Rude Mechanicals when he uses the love juice on Titania in order to fulfill his own selfish desires.
In society, it is often believed that the ones who hold the most authority are those who cause the most problems. The most powerful people are known to create problems, whether it is selfishness, proudness or just misusing abilities their abilities to make a positive change. Throughout the play, the high level of authority takes advantage of its powers and abilities. Not only does the “king” of fairies create new conflicts, but the ones in effect, are formed into bigger ones. In William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oberon is the root behind all the problems in the play, he misuses the love potion, shows selfishness, and is responsible for the mistakes of anointing the eyes of the Athenian men.
The use and misuse of magic has an important role in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. As a reoccurring theme, Puck’s use of magic creates humor, conflict and balance in the play.
William Shakespeare’s writings are famous for containing timeless, universal themes. A particular theme that is explored frequently in his writings is the relationship between men and women. A Midsummer Night’s Dream contains a multitude of couplings, which are often attributed to the fairies in the play. Each of these pairings has positive and negative aspects, however, some relationships are more ideal than others. From A Midsummer Night’s Dream the optimal pairings are Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena, and Oberon and Titania; while the less desirable pairings are Theseus and Hippolyta, Hermia and Demetrius, Lysander and Helena, and Titania and Bottom. Throughout A Midsummer
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, is a play that illustrates a good picture of woman’s lack of freedom. It is a story of several couples, among which there is a fairy king, Oberon, who proves his sovereignty over the queen of the fairies, Titania. The two have an ongoing conflict about who should keep the Indian boy, whose mother had recently died. Titania doesn’t want to give him up because she and the boy’s mother knew each other very good; whereas Oberon has no relations to the boy, but really wants him as a servant. Ultimately, Oberon wins the boy by using a trick of his on Titania, revealing her weakness. Shakespeare uses Oberon to show this power of man over woman and to expose woman’s unheard, meaningless, and feeble opinions through Titania. In several scenes throughout the play, the female character, Titania, struggles to do as she desires; however, Oberon takes things under his control and helps to portray the female as weaker than the male.
However, as the fight between the two continues, the subject deviates significantly from the subject of the changeling boy to that of infidelity. In the end, Oberon successfully acquires the boy. Titania forgets about her conflicts with the fairy king and they are reconciled. I think that Shakespeare demonstrates the objectification of the boy through the use of him as a tool in the power dynamics of the couple’s relationship. The character Oberon has no real incentive to want the boy and he only uses him for the means of asserting dominance over
In William Shakespeare’s book, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, magic is a powerful and useful tool for the characters that have the capability to use it. Some of the characters abuse the power of magic, while others are more responsible in how they use it. Oberon is one the characters that abuses the power of magic. Oberon’s magic has an immense impact on the plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. More specifically, Oberon’s magic affects his own life, the lives of other characters, and all the characters in the story experience his magic differently. We will see that even the person who has power to use the magic can become surprised by it. Magic, the ultimate supernatural power, is often unpredictable and inexplicable.
The Role of the Fairies in A Midsummer Nights Dream Introduction = == == == ==