How Does Oberon Change In A Midsummer Night's Dream

Do you love manipulating the emotions of others? Oberon sure does. He changes the minds and hearts of 33% of the cast in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream focuses on the tale of young lovers who get lost in the woods. In the days leading up to an esteemed wedding, four individuals wander through the forest. With the help of a few fairies, a plan that would invalidate a father’s promise turns into a wild ride of falling in and out of love with others in the forest. Oberon is responsible for a majority of the hectic plot and the swiftly changing hearts of the characters. To Oberon, love is simply something that can be manipulated and changed at the will of those with power; we see this in his use of Titania’s emotions for personal gain, and his interference with the couples in the wood.

At the beginning of the play the couple’s quarrel is evident. “And this same progeny of evils comes/ from out debate” (2.1.115-116). Titania is saying how many bad things have come from their fight, and how long it has been going on. The main focus the their argument is over who gets an Indian boy that Titania has stolen. She wants to keep him because this boy is the son of one of her late friends. Oberon wants this boy for himself and to once again receive the attention that is being pilfered from him by this child. To get what he wants, Oberon uses sadistic methods. He uses the love-in-idleness flower to make Titania fall in love with another creature. “And ere I take this charm from her sight/(As I can take it with another herb)/ I’ll make her render up her page to me” (2.1.183-185). In this quote Oberon is saying how he will only give Titania the antidote, and free her of her false love, if she gives him the little boy in return. When she gives the boy back to him, Titania is, again, in love with Oberon and thinks of her love for another merely a