What is the significance of the fairies in a midsummer nights dream

He had a daughter named Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, his only son, died at age eleven.

Shakespeare died in April Despite the fact that Shakespeare wrote some thirty-seven plays, owned part of his theatrical company, acted in plays, and retired a relatively wealthy man in the city. William Shakespeare often compares imagination and reality in his plays. Midsummer Night's Dream focuses on imagination and escape, while As You like It focuses on reality and self discovery. Imagination plays a key role in Midsummer Night's Dream.

Puck, a fairy servant and friend of Oberon watches six Athenian men practice a play to be performed for Theseus wedding in the forest. These two plays are centuries apart yet, they share a strikingly similar approaches in regards to the themes that are scattered throughout both plays. Such themes consists of love and marriage, deceit and honesty and most noticeably the relationship between men and women.

Though they share many of the same thematic elements, their stories are completely. The part where Titania falls in love with the sometimes insufferable Bottom gives the opportunity for some human-fairy interaction. No story exists here without the presence of the fairies and the magic they provide. World View. The play takes a turning point as the fairy Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow got involved. With this Oberon sends Puck to go forth and retrieve a flower that is spread over a sleeping persons eyelids, when the person awakes they will fall in love with the first person that is seen upon awakening.

When Lysander awakens, the first person he sees in Helena and he falls madly in love with her despite his love for Hermia and Helena believes that Lysander is merely putting on an act to mock her for her undying love for Demetrius. Open Document.

Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. I will consider Elizabethan views about fairies, how fairies are presented in the play and the significance of the magical events. It was believed they could make people go insane, give them terrible nightmares, or even lure them into a devilish underworld. Fairies were a part of everyday life in Elizabethan times.

Furthermore the enchanted wood also had yellow wild flowers that bloomed in late spring which were called Cowslips at cm, they are not tall except to a fairy. Titania's bower in a leafy shelter and is her sleeping place. Summary Of Actions Oberon is angry with Titania because she refuses to give him the Indian boy she is raising they the go on to criticise each others, after that Oberon says this disaster will end if she gives up the Indian boy, but Titania refuses.

Oberon thinks up a sneaky plan to get the boy back. He sends Puck out to find a plant called love-in-idleness, the juice of which makes any person love next creature he or she sees.

Oberon takes his revenge on Titania by making her fall in love with bottom who has an ass's head. Puck explains what he has done to Oberon, who is pleased with the way his plan has turned out Everything seems perfect, until Demetrius and Hermia walk past, Hermia believing Demetrius has harmed Lysander, who has mysteriously disappeared.

Demetrius has gone from one extreme to another, and in the end he does love and marry Helena. Does he love her because he is still under the spell of the juice that the fairies put on his eyelids? In that case, his love is not real. When Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena are found in the woods by Theseus, it is as if they are waking up from a dream. Looking at the play this way, the four lovers likely traveled to fairyland in a dream.

Because of this, true love does not exist. Another important aspect of the play is the human-like qualities that Shakespeare gives his fairies. Titania shows human qualities through her taking the Indian boy. During early modern England, it was believed that fairies would steal human children and replace them with sickly fairy babies Swann Shakespeare has used this idea about fairies but has changed it as well. Titania did steal the boy, but she seems to have done so for a good reason.

Unlike the popular beliefs about fairies stealing human babies in order to have a healthy baby, Titania has stolen the Indian boy out of love for his mother. Titania was friends the mother of the boy. This gives a human-like quality to Titania. This also shows that Titania was friends with a mortal woman and cared enough about the woman to take care of her child when she has died.

This gives Titania a human-like quality. Because he is so hurt and jealous over this, Oberon decides to play a mean trick on Titania, which is to make her fall in love with a lion or bear or something foolish. Fairies were thought to play tricks on people just for the fun of it or to be cruel.