Different Types Of Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream

One of the most prominent themes in Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the theme of love. The play is all about love, the plot revolves around love, and the play ends in marriage. Almost every character in the play has love, but there are many different types of love. A close look at Titania’s relationships shows this, as she is the most flexible character. She has four loves, and each one is a different type of love. These loves are also ranked; the different types of love take preference over one another. Her love of Theseus seems like just a few one night stands, her love of Oberon is a political love, her love of the Indian boy is a motherly love, and her love of Bottom is a purely sexual love. Titania has four different kinds of love with four different characters, and also has a ranking of the different types of love. …show more content…
Not much is said about it, but it shows that Titania has never been loyal to Oberon. Oberon brings this up after Titania reminds Oberon about his times with Hippolyta, but Titania seems to brush it off, saying, “These are the forgeries of jealousy” (2.1.84). Later on, Titania begins to love the Indian boy and Bottom more than Oberon, and the little knowledge that we have about Titania and Theseus being together just strengthens the notion that Titania does not love Oberon. Titania and Theseus being together at some point is brought into the play to show that Titania never really loved Oberon that much, and prefers other men; it also lets us understand Oberon’s jealousy and Titania’s love of the Indian boy and Bottom later on in the