In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream,
love is a prevalent motif. Love can be blind, fantasy, reasonable, warlike.
With Oberon and Titania in Scene I of Act II, Oberon and his fairy queen, Titania, argue
over each other's infidelities. Titania accuses
Oberon
Playing on pipes of corn, and versing
love
To amorous Pillida. Why art thou
here,
Come from the farthest steep of
India?
But that, forsooth, the bouncing
Amazon
Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior
love,
To Theseus must be wedded, and you
come
To give their bed joy and prosperity.
(1.2.67-73)
When Oberon
denies her charges, he is accused of lying by Titania. Then he charges her with "I
know thy love to Thesus" (2.1.77) She also denies his accusation. They then argue over
a changeling boy; Oberon says he wants the boy to be his "henchman." Fearing that
Titania's attentions are already turned elsewhere, Oberon sees the boy as as a further
threat to his getting Titania's love. In addition, if he can get this changeling boy,
Oberon will have established his dominance in their relationship. For, at this point
there is much jealousy and need to dominate the other in the relationship between the
fairy king and queen. With the jealousy of the two fairies, Shakespeare shows that all
of Nature is at odds since even the king and queen of fairies are arguing. This
reinforces the Elizabethan thinking that the elemental forces--the fairies and other
supernatural beings--are the controllers of Nature, especially in the
woods.
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