Fairies In A Midsummer Night's Dream Essay

The fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream are much like the mythological water beasts sirens. Both are manipulative, humanlike, and romantically inclined. Despite their similarities, both their motives and their means of interaction with humanity vary- as do their appearances.

Shakespeare’s fairies are playful and mischievous, but ultimately not evil creatures. They cause both harm and good, indeed both the conflict and resolution of the story are caused by the fairy’s shenanigans. Fairies interact with humans almost completely indirectly- through disguises and magic. Similarly they do not interact with humans in a "real world". The fairies make the humans they have manipulated believe that the entire experience was a dream, so that the humans believe no outside magic has influenced their decisions.

Sirens are in all kinds of mythology, from Greek to Christian. They are most commonly described as woman-birds who use their songs and appearances to lure sailors into crashing their boats- and to their deaths. Sirens aim to cause harm, and have no altruistic or sympathetic values. Also unlike fairies, sirens interact with men directly- singing to them and appealing to them physically. Sirens do not appear to humans as dreams or a figment of the imagination, but in the same reality. This causes their slaughter of men to be …show more content…
Their goal is to manipulate humans in some way, either causing mayhem or "helping them along" in their lives. Both also have a focus in romantics. Sirens use their song and appearances to seduce men into their traps, while fairies use their magic to help- and sometimes hinder- humans fall in and out of love with each other. Somatically, both are humanlike in appearance. Sirens are part woman and part bird, while the fairies are described as generally small humanoids with wings, which can make their size relative to their