Saturday, February 6, 2016

What are some of the magical elements found in Act 2, Scene 1 of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream?

One magical element found in Act 2, Scene 1 of A
Midsummer Night's Dream
is of course the fairies. It is here that we meet the
fairies for the first time, including Puck, Oberon, and Titania. Not only are the
fairies magical, but we learn of the magical elements pertaining to the fairies, such as
their speed. According to Shakespeare's invention, fairies are capable of flying at very
rapid speeds. For example, the fairy that first converses with Puck at the beginning of
the scene says that he has traveled everywhere "[s]wifter than the moon's sphere,"
meaning as fast as the moon can circle the earth (I.i.7). Even Puck describes himself as
being able to search the whole earth for the "love-in-idleness flower" in forty minutes,
as we see in his line, "I'll put a girdle round about the earth / In forty minutes"
(178-179).

Other magical elements we see in this scene are references
to other magical or even divine beings, such as mermaids and the god of love, Cupid.
Oberon refers to a night when he heard a mermaid singing while sitting on a dolphin's
back in his lines, "...And heard a mermaid, on a dolphin's back / Uttering such dulcet
and harmonious breath" (152-153). Also, Cupid is mentioned as having shot an arrow at a
maiden but having also missed, resulting in the arrow landing in a flower instead.

A third magical element we see referred to in this scene is the
"love-in-idleness flower." This is what the maidens now call the flower that, after
having been hit by Cupid's arrow, has now turned "purple with love's wound" (170-171).
The flower now has magical properties and can be used as a love potion. If a person's
eyelids are sprinkled with the juice of the flower, when that person wakes up, he or she
will fall in love with the first living creature he or she sees. Oberon wants to use the
flower to trick Titania into giving him the beautiful Indian boy by distracting her with
another love interest instead. Also, when he witnesses Demetrius being cruel to Helena,
he wishes to use the flower on Demetrius, thereby solving Helena's love
problems.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Can (sec x - cosec x) / (tan x - cot x) be simplified further?

Given the expression ( sec x - csec x ) / (tan x - cot x) We need to simplify. We will use trigonometric identities ...