Friday, July 24, 2015

What is the role of Titania in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream?

In theatrical context, Titania is a very strong character.  She is equal in power with her husband Oberon, and she has to deal with his immaturity and constant jealousies.  She is feminine and maternal, and highly respected in the fairy world.  Oberon is angry because Titania is giving her love and attentions to a baby (sometimes portrayed as a little boy, or a pre-pubescent boy), instead of to all of her attention to him. He is so upset that it has turned the fairy world upside down.  Summer feels like winter and the seasons are all out of whack.  Oberon demands that she give up the child; he will take the child from her and kill him, but she will not give him up despite Oberon's threats. 


Unfortunately, Titania loves the little boy, but is tricked or drugged into giving him up.  When given the "love potion", she falls in love with "an ass", thus losing all her sense of reason.  Bottom is a human, and in the play, human beings and fairies lives can intertwine.  Human beings and fairies can even mate creating a half-human half-fairy being (the Indian boy is a changeling).  Titania follows the character Bottom (the ass) like a love-sick puppy, until Oberon finally releases the spell and, like the typical plot in Shakespearian comedies, all is well again.


We don't know what happens to the Indian boy, but we do know that Titania loves her husband.  She deals with his indiscretions, as he does with hers.  They are a match made in fairy world.  We find out by the end of A Midsummer Night's Dream that both Titania and Oberon are quite a handful for the other, but they encompass what is the fairy world. 

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