At the beginning of King Lear, Lear who is the King of England decides to divide his land and wealth between his three daughters. However before he gives them his land he wishes that they express how much they love him. His two older daughters Goneril and Regan put on quite a show admiring his excellence “Sir, I love you more than the world can wield the matter” (Goneril Act 1.1 line 55). This pleases the king that his daughters love him so much, however when the attention turns from his older daughters to his youngest most loved daughter, Cordelia, all she has to say is “Nothing, my Lord” (Cordelia Act 1.1 line 87). The reason why Cordelia does not tell Lear how much she loves him is because she feels that he should already know, and that she should not have to parade about and make an event of it. Cordelia also knows what her sisters are up to and wants no part in it. Lear being blinded by his rage and gullibility curses Cordelia and insults here, splitting his land and wealth in two and giving it to Goneril and Regan leaving Cordelia with nothing. King Lear is so blinded by his love for his daughters that he is actually insane. He gives away all of his material possessions, and his title before his time to his daughters who do not even love him, they simply make a fool of him. Lear finally realizes that he was irrational for distributing his land in such a way and that the people who he thought deceived him originally, Kent and Cordelia, were in fact the few who were the most true and loyal. It is at this point after he loses all of his possessions, like his wealth, daughters and land (which were the things that blinded him in the beginning of the play) that King Lear is the sanest. Shakespeare uses Lear’s new “sight” to cure him of his former madness.
In A Midsummers Night Dream Oberon uses a flower called “Love in Idleness”. This creates a spell where anyone who has it planted on their eyes when they sleep will fall in love with the first person they see. This is a great device, which Shakespeare uses that makes for some memorable moments in the play, creating a lot of confusion and madness. At the beginning of the play love is rampant and everything seems to be insane. Hermia loves Lysander, Demetrious loves Hermia, and Helena loves Demetrious. This love triangle makes for a very intense conflict between Lysander and Demetrious along with Egeus, Hermia’s father. Later on in the play when the ”Love in Idleness” is used on both Lysander and Demetrious the first person they both see is Helena. This causes both of them to fall for Helena and no longer love Hermia to what seems to be an even madder state than how the play began. While this is true, Oberon discovers the wrong that was committed and reverses the spell committed on Lysander so that he loves Hermia once again, but leaves the spell on Demetrius. Oberon also uses the spell on Titania who is the Queen of Fairies. He does this to get a hold of a young boy, which he wants for himself. When Titania wakes she sees Nick Bottom, however Puck has turned his head into and ass’s head and so Hermia falls in love with an ass. Again it seems like absolute madness that a Queen of Fairies would fall in love with any mortal, let alone one with an ass’s head. Oberon uses this to his advantage and Titania gives up the boy without any resistance. When the spell is lifted Titania realizes she does not love that ass and fall back in love with Oberon. The Love in Idleness spell turns out to be a key element in removing the tension and madness because there is no longer any conflict. Hermia and Lysander are allowed to wed; Demetrious no longer peruses Hermia and weds Helena (which it can also be argued is the one he originally loved because he slept with Helena before the play took place) and Oberon gets the boy he wanted and Titania’s love once more.
At the Beginning of King Lear the first act takes place in Lear’s kingdom, with all of his wealth and people surrounding him as well as his three daughters. It is these surroundings, that specific location and the people around him, which was one of the reasons (outside of his natural attitude) for his madness. Lear felt that he was an incredibly noble and successful man, that he led a great life and achieved a lot, and as a gift to his three daughters he would distribute this wealth of land between the three. He was right, He was a King with a lot of land and had achieved a lot, however all of this has a profound effect upon his judgment. With power and wealth come responsibility, and the one thing that Lear did not realize is that greed, is one thing that someone in his position must be weary of. Lear being undeniably devoted to his daughters failed to take this into consideration and handed his land away with a lack of judgment. Shakespeare knows this and sets Lear up for devastation when he realizes how his two older daughters tricked him into giving up his land so frivolously. When Lear is out on his own with no Kingdom, no land, no daughters (all the things that lead to his insanity) caught in a storm with his fool, his prayers of not going mad are finally answered and he regains his sight or rational thought. Shakespeare uses that low point in the woods with the storm to “flush away” his madness and with the calm of the storm so to his mind becomes calm.
The woods in A Midsummers Night Dream also play a fairly large role, mainly because a majority of the play actually takes place in the strange enchanted woods filled with fairies and spells. Originally only Hermia and Lysander go into the woods to escape Athenian Law and get married near a relative of Lysander. However when Helena discovers this she tells Demetrious in hope that he will fall for her in thanks for this information, this is not the case however. Demetrious chases after Hermia and Helena after Demetrious. Once both Lysander and Demetrious are inflicted by the Love in Idleness flower insanity hits its highest peak in the play with lovers switching their devotion from Hermia to Helena. However this madness is a result of both Oberon and Puck’s mistake of identity. Puck reverses the spell on Lysander and his devotion returns to Hermia. The woods resemble tranquility and peace from the Athenian city, however looks can be deceiving and the youth are played upon like puppets. When the couples first enter the woods the fairies play tricks on them and this leads to insanity, albeit with the help of a spell, however upon leaving the woods all the conflicts in the play are sorted out. Shakespeare uses the woods and fairies to cure the insanity taking place in Athens.
In King Lear the fool seems to exist outside the play appearing and disappearing without warning. The fool is, however, a necessary character to the evolution of Lear's character, since he is the personification of truth and reason. The fool demonstrates to Lear the truths. The fool helps Lear by pointing out certain truths about the other characters, as well as flaws in his very own actions. After Goneril gives Lear an ultimatum of get rid of his men or get out, Lear decides to seek lodgings at the residence of his other daughter Regan. The fool simply responds by saying, "Shalt see thy other daughter will use the kindly; for though she's as like this as a crab's like an apple, yet I can tell what I can tell" (Fool Act 1.5 lines 14-16) meaning that Regan will give Lear the same treatment as Goneril has. In act three scene four the fool remarks, "And I'll go to bed at noon"(Fool Act 3.6 line 84). This proves to be the last words the fool speaks in the play. The reason for this is because he is no longer needed, the fool has done his job in helping Lear become sane and see the truth with his own eyes. This suggests that Shakespeare’s use for the fool was simply to help Lear gain sight, and as soon as Lear did the fool disappeared.
Puck and Bottom are the two fools of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Puck is a fool in the traditional sense of the word—it is his job to entertain Oberon, the fairy king, with his tricks and jokes. Bottom, however, is a fool in the contemporary sense of the word, as his stupidity often gets in the way of what he is trying to accomplish. However, both characters, despite their "foolishness," serve practical functions in the play and also make several intelligent observations about life and love. Puck makes his entrance into the play in Act II, scene i. It is Puck who explains the fight between Titania and Oberon, and Oberon recognizes Puck by his speech. The fairy, which knows Puck's reputation, goes on to list just a few of Puck's pranks:
“You are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Called Robin Goodfellow. Are not you he
That frights the maidens of the villagery,
Skim milk, and sometimes labor in the quern,
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn,
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm,
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm? (Oberon Act 2 33-39).
Bottom is the first of the fools to appear in the play. We first meet Bottom in Act I, scene ii, when the "mechanicals" are first beginning to plan their performance. Although Peter Quince is the stage manager of the play, Bottom quickly takes over and offers more than his share of advice. Bottom begins by telling Quince how to call the roll and how to organize the actors. All of this demonstrates an important aspect of Bottom's character: he is often full of good advice, but he has no idea how to use it. Bottom is also convinced that he is a superb actor and can act any part. In fact, he becomes so excited about his acting prowess that he volunteers to take on every part in the play. In Act three, Bottom, a crude commoner states on opinion of love. "And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together now-a-days; the more pity, that some honest neighbors will not make them friends." (Bottom Act 3.1 Line 136). He means that with love comes little reason and therefore people become insane, or at the least not in a state of reason. In Act IV when Bottom loses the spell of having an ass’s head he makes an insightful observation about his dream, which was really the effect of the Love in Idleness spell. He ends by saying “It shall be called ‘Bottom’s Dream,’ because it hath no bottom” (Bottom Act 4.1 line 214). He is describing how deep and real his dream was to him, as if it actually happened and that there and the dream never ended.
The key theme in both King Lear and A Midsummers Night Dream is Love, and love, if left to linger can lead to insanity. This was the case with both plays. In King Lear, Lear himself went mad because of the love and devotion he had for his daughters that he so longed in return. The ironic thing is he had that love the whole time however he was to blind and insane to recognize that. It was his wealth and success that made him blind and his peers, especially his daughters saw this and took advantage of it. In A Midsummers Nights Dream the young were mad with love and felt they had to escape Athens to pursue that love. Shakespeare only made this more complicated for them by adding the Love in Idleness spell to confuse the lovers. The same tool used to cause chaos however resulted in a happy ending for everyone as all the problems which were introduced at the beginning of the play were solved as a result of that same spell that made things complicated. William Shakespeare is a master at creating conflict which is obvious in every one of his plays, its how he subtlety creates solutions for these problems that make his work so intriguing, and King Lear and A Midsummers Night Dream are some of the best examples of this.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. King Lear. The Complete Pelican Shakespeare. New York:
Penguin Books Ltd., 2002. 1574-1615.
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream. The Complete Pelican
Shakespeare. New York: Penguin Books Ltd., 2002. 249-284.
