Changeling

Shakespeare needed a character to give his comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a chance to really thrive. The character Oberon is the king of the fairies. The play does not exactly give the readers an exact image on how Oberon looks like, but based off of drawings and movies of A Midsummer Night’s Dream he is portrayed as a handsome womanizer. Oberon has two sides to his character. One side of him shows that he cares about others and wants them to live happily on. The other side of him shows that…

usurpation. Hareton’s verbal attack against Heathcliff relates to both Heathcliff’s race and his folkloric similarities. Hareton identifies Heathcliff as a supernatural hindrance by expressing his worry that Heathcliff will replace him, similarly to the changeling tradition. Hareton’s hostility towards Heathcliff can also be attributed to his own preconceptions about Heathcliff’s racial identity. Hareton refers to Heathcliff as a “gipsy,” a member of a group of people that “…in Emily Brontë’s…

Folklore is an important theme in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, shown by the fairies who are integral to the plot. There are various types of fairies that appear throughout the play, some of which fit in with the typical portrayals of fairies found in traditional folklore. Oberon and Titania are often found within traditional folklore as they are the King and Queen of the Fairies, and are very much portrayed as being quite powerful and in control as they are human sized rather than being…

She has acquired boy changeling from India and King Oberon wants him. The king uses the love flower’s magic on her when she is sleeping. She wakes up to find Bottom, who is one of the actors. Bottom now has the head of a donkey thanks to Puck.8 The flower’s magic has made Titania…

theme is centralized around love. In this particular play Shakespeare approaches love from several different angles or different types of love. There is a paternal love like that of Egeus and his daughter Hermia or even between Titania and the changeling child she cares so much for. The reader also experiences marital love as between Theseus and Hippolyta as well as the love of Oberon and Titania. Of course the young romantic love that is themed throughout the play cannot be ignored when…

As stated earlier, the speeches of Oberon and Titania are altered from the source text of act 2, scene 1 to remove the changeling, focus more intently on the royal fairies' relationship, and so that the romantic plot between Titania and Oberon would be allowed, all of which portrays Titania in a powerful light. Even more so, in this scene Oberon ends by extending an offer…

through the ordeals and end together of these three couples. One thing in common between the three, is love makes fools of them all. Each woman goes against a masculine figure in their tale, whether it be written out or implied. Titania has a changeling child, whom she loves dearly and is raising in…

his Amazonian queen may turn out to be.”(Calderwood 61-62). Continuing with this view of the play in the forest, Theseus and Hippolyta are freed from the formalities of Athens and are much more vocal to their desires. The reason Oberon wants the changeling is to demonstrate his power over Titania. When she denies his request he is furious over Titania’s refusal to submission, and tricks her. He makes her fall in love with Bottom who has an ass’ head. After removing the spell Titania is obedient…

and Hippolyta, the queen of the amazons. The other four stories are: the dispute between Hermia and Egeus; the play, put together by laborers for Theseus’s wedding; the dispute between Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of the fairies, over a changeling; and finally the story of Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena. At the end of the story, Shakespeare manages to tie them all together for a comical and happy ending. The frame story consists of the marriage between Theseus and Hippolyta.…

it is accused by Titania that her husband is jealous of the portion of her attention directed to the boy, and as a result, Oberon and his trickster fairy, Puck, begin scheming. “Act II discloses the conflict between Oberon and Titania over the “changeling” boy and his decision to punish her by playing a practical joke on her.” (Rahn, 2008, p6) For this scheme, Puck is directed to retrieve the flower of Love-in-idleness, which had been a normal pansy struck and therefore enchanted by the arrow…