Helena wishes that fault were her own. She also changes her tune, saying that everyone in Athens except Demetrius thinks she's as pretty as Hermia. While it is Demetrius's error to dote on Hermia, Helena admits that she makes mistakes of her own. She sees Demetrius's worst faults as attractive, even if they're really not.
Then Helena begins an exposition on love, saying that love is decided by the eyes and not the mind. Cupid is blind and so judgment can't sway feeling. Helena says love is like a child, making bad choices willy-nilly. Furthermore, love is made a lie everywhere; Demetrius once claimed to love Helena, but changed his mind as soon as he found Hermia. Now, Helena decides she'll tell Demetrius that Hermia and Lysander are going to run away together. That way, she's sure Demetrius will chase after Hermia, and she can chase Demetrius some more.
Her heart is pure and, if he'd only stop attracting her, she'd stop being attracted to him. She says she's like Demetrius's dog—the more he kicks her, the more she'll follow him.
He can do whatever he wants to her, she says, if he'll only allow her to keep trailing after him. She says it would be a great honor to her, and no cost to him, if he could use her as his dog. It's not night when she sees his face, and the forest isn't deserted when he's near, as he's her whole world. She says he can run away, but, even though she's a woman, she'll chase after him, switching traditional roles.
She says his scorn makes a scandal on her femininity, as women are supposed to be the pursued, not the pursuers. As Demetrius leaves, Helena says she'll follow him, making heaven out of the hell he gives her, even if it kills her. She says that, wherever Hermia is, she's sure to be happy, because she has blessed and attractive eyes. Helena is sure her eyes didn't get that way from crying, as she herself has done her fair share of crying and is still "ugly as a bear.
Finally, Helena decides her mirror lied. I will put some of the juice of that flower on my Titania's eyes, and when she wakes she will love the first thing she sees, were it lion, bear, or wolf, or bull, or meddling monkey, or a busy ape.
While Puck was gone, Demetrius passed through the glade followed by poor Helena, and still she told him how she loved him and reminded him of all his promises, and still he told her that he did not and could not love her, and that his promises were nothing. Oberon was sorry for poor Helena, and when Puck returned with the flower, he bade him follow Demetrius and put some of the juice on his eyes, so that he might love Helena when he woke and looked on her, as much as she loved him.
So Puck set off, and wandering through the wood found, not Demetrius, but Lysander, on whose eyes he put the juice; but when Lysander woke, he saw not his own Hermia, but Helena, who was walking through the wood looking for the cruel Demetrius; and directly he saw her he loved her and left his own lady, under the spell of the purple flower. When Hermia woke she found Lysander gone, and wandered about the wood trying to find him.
Puck went back and told Oberon what he had done, and Oberon soon found that he had made a mistake, and set about looking for Demetrius, and having found him, put some of the juice on his eyes. And the first thing Demetrius saw when he woke was also Helena.
So now Demetrius and Lysander were both following her through the wood, and it was Hermia's turn to follow her lover as Helena had done before. The end of it was that Helena and Hermia began to quarrel, and Demetrius and Lysander went off to fight.
Oberon was very sorry to see his kind scheme to help these lovers turn out so badly. So he said to Puck—. You must overhang the night with drooping fog, and lead them so astray, that one will never find the other. When they are tired out, they will fall asleep. Then drop this other herb on Lysander's eyes. That will give him his old sight and his old love.
Then each man will have the lady who loves him, and they will all think that this has been only a Midsummer Night's Dream. Then when this is done, all will be well with them. So Puck went and did as he was told, and when the two had fallen asleep without meeting each other, Puck poured the juice on Lysander's eyes, and said:—.
Meanwhile Oberon found Titania asleep on a bank where grew wild thyme, oxlips, and violets, and woodbine, musk-roses and eglantine. There Titania always slept a part of the night, wrapped in the enameled skin of a snake.
Oberon stooped over her and laid the juice on her eyes, saying:—. Puck promises to fulfill Oberon's order, though Puck hasn't seen Demetrius, so he doesn't know which Athenian Oberon is talking about. From the world of Athens, ruled by the rational Theseus, the play transports us to the fairy-infested woods, dominated by the magical Oberon and Titania. Despite the differences in atmosphere of the various scenes, the theme remains the same: love in all of its variations.
In the opening conversation between Puck and Titania's fairy, they discuss the fight between the rulers of the fairy world, providing another example of a love that is not going smoothly. Titania has foresworn the "bed and company" of Oberon 62 , and their conversation focuses on the infidelities committed by each: Not only was Oberon once in love with the "bouncing Amazon," Hippolyta, but Titania was supposedly enamoured of Theseus.
While the previous scenes presented couples newly embarked on the road of love, the conversation between Oberon and Titania shows the difficulties of a couple that has been together for a long time. Without their guiding love, the entire land has been ravaged by floods, rotting crops, and numerous rheumatic diseases. Notice how the fairy world is directly connected with the cycles of the moon: as "governess of the floods" , the moon, which is pale in anger because of Titania and Oberon's argument, has indirectly caused numerous human illnesses.
The scene not only reiterates the difficulties of male-female love but emphasizes the deep love that often exists between two friends. A primary source of the argument between Oberon and Titania is the Indian boy. While Oberon criticizes Titania for stealing the child from the Indian king, Titania's reasons for keeping the child are more personal.
Titania was good friends with the boy's mother, one of her priestesses, with whom she would often sit gossiping. In beautifully lyrical language, Titania describes the pregnancy of her friend, which caused her to grow "big-bellied" as gracefully as the sails, filled by the wind of the trading ships that floated in and out of the Indian ports.
When her friend died in childbirth, Titania chose to raise her friend's son. The beauty of Titania's language in describing her friend emphasizes the depth of their friendship. So why is Oberon so fixated on stealing the boy and employing him as henchman meaning page? Shakespeare never explains Oberon's reasons. Perhaps Oberon is jealous of the close bond between Titania and the child, a relationship from which Oberon seems firmly excluded, or perhaps he simply wants to assert his male authority over Titania.
Literary critics have also suggested that perhaps Oberon is desperate for a male heir, and the child could fulfill that role. In a subtler argument, the critic Harold Bloom has argued that the key dilemma hinges on the relationship of mortals and immortals: Excluding Oberon from the life of this mortal child, one who will learn the magical secrets of the fairies, is an "injury" enacted upon the entire fairy world.
As one of the leaders of this community, Oberon has every right to participate in decisions made in determining how this changeling is raised. But we will never know the answer to this question because, Shakespeare tells us, each reader is free to discover the solution that best fits with the details in the rest of the play and with the reader's own preferences.
To win the child back from Titania, Oberon invokes the first real magic in the play, creating a clear link between reality and fantasy. His plan is to steal the Indian boy from Titania after making her fall in love with some unsavory, preferably beastly, character. He will accomplish this task by creating a love potion that will blind Titania, much as Cupid's arrows are reputed to do. The juice works by impairing vision: Oberon says that the love juice will charm Titania's sight, again emphasizing that love is often blind.
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