Selfishness In A Midsummer Night's Dream

In society, it is often believed that the ones who hold the most authority are those who cause the most problems. The most powerful people are known to create problems, whether it is selfishness, proudness or just misusing abilities their abilities to make a positive change. Throughout the play, the high level of authority takes advantage of its powers and abilities. Not only does the “king” of fairies create new conflicts, but the ones in effect, are formed into bigger ones. In William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oberon is the root behind all the problems in the play, he misuses the love potion, shows selfishness, and is responsible for the mistakes of anointing the eyes of the Athenian men.

First of all, Oberon knows about

To begin with, Oberon fights with his queen Titania for a little Indian boy, which creates problems in the world as there are now gigantic changes in humans, climate, weather etc. While Oberon and Titania argue, Titania states the following…”Contagious fogs; which, falling in the land, / Hath every pelting river made so proud/ That they have overborne their continents” (2.1.90-93). To highlight, this means the fights between the fairies are causing problems in the world like floods, fogs, poor farming, bad seasons etc. Since Oberon argues and fights for the little boy, Titania is innocent as she has the right to keep the boy because her friend died keeping him, but Oberon is too selfish and wants him as his own henchmen. That being the case, Oberon is doing nothing better than causing more problems in the play. Furthermore, Oberon becomes so desperate for the little boy, that he anoints Titania to take the little boy. Titania falls in love with Bottom; however, Oberon is too selfish and does not care as he pretends that nothing ever happens. After Oberon gets the boy, he states to Puck “Which straight she gave, and her fairy sent/ to bear him to my bower in Fairyland. / And now I have the boy, I will undo this hateful imperfection of her eyes” (4.1.59-62).To clarify, Oberon shows his selfishness because he creates the problem between Bottom and Titania and he also does not even care about his hateful imperfections to

To start, Oberon tells Puck to anoint the eyes of Demetrius, because of his Athenian outfit. After all Oberon does not specifically describe Demetrius, except for his garments, causing Puck to mistake for Lysander who is also wearing Athenian garments. In the text after Oberon tells puck to anoint the eyes of Demetrius, Oberon says, “Thou shalt know the man By the Athenian/ garments he hath on” (2.2.263-264). As a result, Puck mistakes Demetrius for Lysander, who is now in love with Helena. Oberon is miscue with Puck leads to a new problem as now Lysander is in love with Helena and not Demetrius. Furthermore, after Puck admits his mistake, Oberon tries to correct the issue by anointing the eyes of Demetrius so he falls in love with Helena, which then results in Lysander and Demetrius in love with the same person. After Puck comes back to Oberon, they both see Demetrius and Helena, Puck states “This is the woman, but not this the man” (3.2.42). To continue, Oberon tells Puck his mistake; he then tries to fix it himself. Oberon anoints Demetrius; he is now in love with Helena. However, Oberon now creates a new problem, because both men are in love with Helena. Due to Oberon, Lysander and Demetrius try to battle for Helena. That being the case, it is clear that Oberon is responsible for the mistakes of anointing the wrong Athenian men and proves that he is the problem behind all of the