MidSummer Nights Dream
...e morning lark sounds, nighttime is over along with their fairy magic. King Oberon and Queen Titania have the job of blessing the bed of a newlywed couple on their wedding night. So shall all the couples three/Ever true in loving be; (5.1.407-408). Titania is stating, that after the beds have been blessed, the couple will always be in love; and their children shall “Never mole, hara-lip, nor scar/ Nor mark prodigious,” (5.1.11-12). Barton adds, “They bless the human marriages at the end, but it should not be forgotten that they also have the power to destroy” (218). As King and Queen of the fairy realm Titania and Oberon posses many powers, as easy as it may be to bless a marriage they also have that much power to destroy those marriages if they disagree with the situation. It is never told of what would happen if Oberon and Titania were not to bless the beds. One of the final jobs the King and Queen of the fairies have is the power to control nature. Controlling nature consists of driving out all the bad creatures within the forest. The miniature fairies sing: You spotted snakes with double tongue, Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen, Newts and blindworms, do no wrong Come not near our fairy queen. (2.29-12) Hollindale reminds us, “the creatures against which the fairies invoke protection are of the kind which in MacBeth makes up the witches’ brew: snake, newt, and blindworm” (104). As King and Queen of the fairies Oberon and Titania take on the responsibility of controlling nature, as well as, supervising the other miniature fairies making sure they stay on task within their fairy world. Due to the quarrel over a changeling child, Oberon and Titania were not fulfilling their job of controlling nature when first introduced to the play. Dundes states that a changeling is; “Fairies who sometimes try to trick women into caring for fairy babies. The fairies may exchange their babies, called changelings, for healthy newborn human infants”(11). Van Doren adds, “The little changeling boy whom Titania will not surrender to Oberon is the son of a votress on the other side of the earth”(80). At the time Oberon believes the boy is old enough to be with him. Yet Titania doesn’t want to give the child up; Nevo accurately observes “that Titania has not assimilated her votaries to herself, that that changeling child has become her own” (Bloom 157). When Oberon begged Titania for the boy to become his henchmen, she simply replied, “His mother was a vot’ress of my order/ But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;/ And for her sake I will not part with him” (2.1.123, 135, 137). The arguing over the Indian boy has had a major affect on mankind. “Since the middle summers spring” (2.1.82) Oberon and Titania have been arguing over the changeling child. Their arguing has had a major affect on nature. Barton speaks of Oberon and Titania in the following manner, “Shakespeare sees them as dangerous powers whose dissensions and quarrels can disorder the seasons and throw the natural world into chaos” (218). The quarrel of the changeling child has definitely made nature go crazy. Titania states since Oberon and she have been fighting, the rivers have been flooding, “the ox…stretch’d his yoke in vain” (2.1.92), and the farmer sweated for nothing because “the green corn/Hath rotted” (2.1.94-95). When Oberon and Titania quarrel, all goes wrong, “And this same progeny of evils comes/ From our debate, from our dissension;/ We are their parents and original”(2.2.115-118). Titania is stating that every disaster that has occurred is their own fault; because they are the parents of nature, they are in charge. Brooke agrees with Barton and states, “Oberon and Titania are linked to the elemental forces of nature. Their lives, their temper, are echoed in the doings of the sun and the moon, of the seasons, of the weather. When these two are in harmony, all is well with field and furrow” (22-23). Titania and Oberon’s every action is repeated in the way nature works. An argument, such as the changeling child made nature a disastrous place. Disasters including, tornadoes, floods, or storms will exist without a sole knowing the outcome. To exclude Oberon from the child’s company is, therefore, not just a challenge to male authority; it’s just wrong (Bloom 157). Oberon agrees with Bloom that the father shall be a part of the Indian boy’s life no matter what the circumstances. Oberon is determined to win over the changeling child. After Titania turned down Oberon’s request for the child, Oberon replied with: “Thou shalt not from this/ grove/ till I torment thee for this injury” (2.1.146-148). He further orders Puck to: Fetch me that flow’r;… The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid Will make or man or woman madly dote Upon the next live creature that it sees. (2.1.169-172) The pure untouched white flower that Oberon wants is representing virginity and pureness. When Cupid’s bolt fell upon the flower, it changed colors to represent the loss of the virginity. With this juice from the flower, Oberon plans to place it on Titania’s eyes. The eyes have become the chosen spot for the juice because of the theme Shakespeare builds throughout the play, love is blind, and love is in the eyes. Oberon’s way of getting back at Titania is to place the juice on her eyelids while she is asleep, when she awakens she will fall in love with the first person or thing her eyes fall upon. Barton states, “Oberon painstakingly indicates every kind of wild beast that might conceivably wake Titania (219). “Wake when some vile thing is near” (2.2.34). “(Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull, / on meddling monkey, or on busy ape” (2.1.181-182). Oberon wishes that when Titania awakes, she wakes and loves an animal. Oberon uses the love potion on Titania’s eyes as revenge for not getting the Indian boy. The King of fairies hopes that she will fall in love with some terrifying creature. In order to accomplish the task of placing the love juice upon the lovers, Oberon calls upon his “Merry Wanderer,” (2.1.43) Puck. Brooke speaks of Puck as “a spirit between both the traditions of elves and fairies; he gains many of the fairies powers but is always tricksy, half human, half fairy, and a servant to the fairy Queen or King” (22). One of Puck’s main jobs as...