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A Midsummer Nights Dream - The theme of Love
you.” Two fairies, Oberon and Puck overhear one of her attempts to woo him, and feel sorry for him, and this is where all the major problems come from. Oberon, the fairy King wishes to seek revenge on his wife Titania, as she has acquired a young Indian boy, and Oberon wishes to have him as a changeling child. This shows only how greedy and self-centred Oberon really is. Titania however, will not allow this to happen. So he commands Puck, his servant, to pour the juice of a magic love herb onto the eyes of Titania. She will instantly fall in love with the first creature that she sees. Oberon feels sorry for Helena’s romantic misfortune and also commands Puck to put the love potion on Demetrius’ eyes so that he shall fall in love with Helena. He obviously has given no thought to what the consequences to all of this would be, and puck carries out the commands, but not entirely correctly. He has as a description of Demetrius, only that he is a young Athenian, as Oberon has no idea that Lysander is also in the woods. The love potion is put on Lysander’s eyes, and chaos erupts as he falls in love with Hermia. She thinks that he is only joking and making fun of her, which makes for a very emotional event for her. And also, Hermia is astounded at the fact that Lysander would fall in love with Hermia, causing a very turbulent time for the lovers and on one occasion a fight even breaks out between Hermia and Helena. I find this unusual for Hermia as she seems very mature and ladylike. She refuses to sleep with Lysander until they are married, and he tries to persuade her to do so, which shows how much of a gentleman he is.
I think that Oberon and Titania have a very interesting relationship, as they seem to fight and argue a lot in the play and even plot revenge on each other. But things turn out okay for them as it does for the young lovers, after Oberon and Puck have fixed the mess they caused. Theseus decides to allow Hermia and Lysander to be married and Demetrius marries Helena at a triple wedding of Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena, and Theseus and Hippolyta, making for a very happy ending.