Comparing Theseus And Oberon In A Midnight Summers Dream

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Shakespeare’s play ‘A Midnight Summers Dream’ has two male characters Oberon and Theseus who are of no relation, but they both have similar characteristics. Along with the similarities they share many differences as well. Shakespeare uses several techniques to make his readers clearly Oberon is king of the fairies while Theseus is the Duke of Athens. Although Oberon might be an immortal character in the play, he holds human traits because of the mistakes he makes. In fact, both he and Theseus, Duke of Athens makes the same mistake of trying to control the romantic relationships between the other characters throughout the story.
Oberon is a character that obviously has a unique power in this play. Oberon is a king of his own kind. King of the
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Oberon sent Robin Good Fellow, one of his many fairy workers to fetch a flower with magic properties. When the flower’s juice is poured upon someone’s eyes it would make them fall in love with the next creature they saw. So, the mad king Oberon poured the flowers juice into Titania’s eyes as she was sleeping. This caused Titania to instantly fall for someone other than her husband, Nick Bottom. Reading that section made me as a reader think, why would Oberon possibly risk losing his wife due to his getting “revenge.” Anything could have easily happened where the potion did not work properly. Oberon and Titania’s romantic relationship would not have been the only one affected in this story.
Theseus is the Duke of Athens in this play. Unlike Oberon, Theseus is engaged to married to Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazon. Theseus is of course a mortal with no extra ordinary powers other than his authority over the kingdom. Egeus is Hermia’s father, and in the beginning of the play he brings a few concerns to Theseus’ attention. Egeus has given Demetrius permission to marry Hermia, but Hermia, in love with Lysander,
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Each of the two made human like mistakes, although Oberon was indeed not a human. They both took responsibility for their actions and solved their issues like men. Theseus allowed the couples to marry as they pleased, and Oberon made Robin undo the magic flowers horrible works. Oberon used his authority for somewhat bad reasons versus Theseus using his status to settle differences and play the mediator. For example, Theseus tried to please Hermia’s father while Oberon sought for revenge to his wife during a disagreement. The two were great overall characters in this play and I gained a new level of respect for rulers who can fix their mistakes to please the people that they possibly

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