“ The seasons alter; hoary-headed frosts”
Titania is explaining to Oberon how their quarrels have affected everything around them. Which has sent serious shock waves around the world causing havoc to nature itself.
There are quite a few contrasts between the Natural World of the fairies and Athens. I think personally that Titania has more power over the natural world than Oberon, because of Mother Nature. She has lots of fairies that wait on her but Oberon only has Puck and isn’t as well thought of and spoken of than Titania. Fairies throw themselves at her
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Feet and sing her to sleep but Puck only does errands for his master Oberon.
But in Athens Theseus is in charge and he is a male. Their laws are very strict, harsh and different to the laws of the Natural World. We find this out in Act 1 scene 1, where Lysander talks about I quote:
“ The sharp Athenian laws”
Lysander and Hermia are lovers who are being torn apart by Hermia’s father. Hermia’s father, Egeus is set for Hermia to marry his chosen boy Demetrius. He threatens her with death if she does not obey her fathers’ wishes, or she can become a nun. Hermia is distraught by her fathers’ betrayal against her, but he thinks that she has betrayed him. These are all different kinds of emotions portrayed in the play.
I think that the fairies have total control over all the emotions in the play. They even have control over the people of Athens. They toy with people’s emotions and lives. Really the King and the Queen of the world is Oberon and Titania, they have natural power where Theseus has political power. He cant make it rain or make to persons fall in love; but he can split to lovers up but that is physical power not emotional power, he can tear them apart physically but deep down inside they will always love each other.
I don’t know if I believe that magic is real or not, some people believe it is, this is simply Shakespeare’s creation of a magical world that seems almost convincing and drags you into it, unlocking doors that seem almost possible to believe.
But all of this does backfire and problems do arise whether the fairies mean to cause mischief or not is really a matter of opinion but Puck causes a lot of mischief in the play. He cause four lovers to change their feelings for one another by mistake but then turns it into a game or sport. His master Oberon makes his Queen Titania fall in love with a human with an Asses head. This is pure mischief and just wants to watch his Queen make a fool out of herself, while he does it for his enjoyment.
There are four main groups of characters in the play:
There’s the Court, which consists of Hippolyta, who is the queen of the amazons and Theseus’s Fiancé who is the duke of Athens, Egeus who is the father of Hermia and Philostrate who doesn’t have a main role in the play but he is the master of the Revels to the Athenian Court.
Then there are the lovers Hermia, Helena, Lysander and Demetrius. To start off with Hermia and Lysander are in love, Helena is in love with Demetrius and Demetrius is Egeus’s choice of husband for Hermia.
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Thirdly there’s the mechanicals that are Nick Bottom a weaver who plays Pyramus in their play, then Peter Quince who is a carpenter who speaks prologue and Francis Flute a bellows-mender who plays Thisbe, Tom Snout a tinker who plays Wall, Robin Starveling a tailor who plays Moonshine and Snug who plays lion.
Lastly there’s the fairies; Puck who is Oberon’s attendant, Oberon who is the king of the fairies Titania who is queen on the fairies, Peaseblossom, cobweb and mustardseed who are Titania’s fairy attendants.
There are quite a few differences between the four groups. One of the main differences is the language. The fairies speak in poetry; yet the mechanicals speak in Shakespeare’s language but not all poetical, the workmen are uneducated and continually get their words wrong especially in Act V scene 1. Line 186-190, Bottom who plays Pyrams says:
“ I see a voice; now will I to the chink
To spy and I can hear thy Thisbe’s face.
Thisbe!”
Bottom got his words muddled. You can’t see a voice and hear a face. This adds humour though. There is a big difference to how the fairies speak and how the mechanicals speak. Titania speaks with beautiful poetry. Titania is talking about her friend, the Indian boys mother in Act 2 scene 1 line 123+ this is an example of how beautifully the fairies think and live:
“ His mother was a votress of my order,
And in the spiced Indian air by night
Full often hash she gossiped by my side,
And sat with me on Neptune’s yellow sands.”
She speaks throughout the speech precisely and descriptively. In the same act and scene line 165+ Oberon is talking about how the love flower came into being. He explains that when the juice of the flower is put onto the eyelids of the sleeping, it makes them fall in love with whatever they first see when they awake.
I think this helps answer the essay question “ How does Shakespeare create the magical world of the fairies in a Midsummer Nights Dream”. Shakespeare really helps to create the magical world of the fairies in this section by adding myth, beauty and love into it. I think that Oberon’s speech really indicates how the fairies see the world as everything having a purpose and meaning even the colours of the flowers:
“ Yet marked I where the bolt of cupid fell:
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It fell upon a little western flower,
Before, milk-white; now purple with loves wound:
And maidens call it ‘ Love-in idleness’.
Shakespeare gives the fairies supernatural powers. Powers over peoples emotions; such as the incident with the love flower and the Athenian mortals. Also, Oberon puts the juice into Titania’s eyes which makes her fall in love with Bottom; a mechanical with an asses head. Puck has the power to change someone’s personal image, for example Bottoms who he replaced his head with an asses. Puck also says:
“ I’ll put a girdle round the earth
In forty minutes”
Titania also has supernatural powers, but also powers over the fairies. In act 3 scene 1 she promises Bottom that if he stayed with her she would give her fairies to him to look after him.
“ I’ll give thee fairies to attend on thee,
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep
And sing, while thou on pressed flowers doth sleep”.
At the end of the play the fairies use their powers to bless the mortals. I think Shakespeare is trying to show a good side to the fairies not just their mischievous side. This is really used to benefit the audience, a feel good factor about the fairies attitudes.
I really enjoyed reading Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Nights Dream, because it opened up a new world for me of magic. You can get trapped into the play like magic. You almost feel as if the fairies are real but we just don’t know it.
