Meredith Muirhead

Drama 009

Chris Dippel

28 September 2020

The Fairies’ Plot Line-​A Midsummer Night’s Dream

The phrase “we’ve got magic to do,” although coined by Stephen Schwartz in ​Pippin​,

certainly applies to the fairies of Athens in Shakespeare’s​ A Midsummer Night’s Dream​.

Aristotle’s element of plot in this multi-layered comedy demonstrates how magic and a desire for

mischief can often cause more trouble than they are worth. When Shakespeare wrote this, he

intended to entertain his audience with the fairies’ rather comedic adventures. Additionally, this

plot runs alongside and influences multiple other plots within the play. Shakespeare introduces

this magical setting by starting the fairies’ story in the wood of Athens, using words such as

“moonlight,” “orbs,” and “gold coats,” which illustrate the backdrop of the fairies’ story. The

action begins with an argument between Oberon and Titania, the fairy king and queen. Because

Titania is stubbornly refusing to submit to Oberon’s wishes, Oberon decides to demonstrate his

power by tricking her, so he instructs the mischievous Puck to put a spell on Titania that will

make her fall in love with the first person she sees. This action prompts the major dramatic

question of the play: Will this trick work in Oberon’s favor, or will it go awry?

Naturally, as it always goes in a Shakespeare story, things do go awry. Shakespeare

interweaves the neighboring plots of Hermia, Demetrius, Helena, and Lysander as well as

Bottom, Peter Quince, and the Players with the fairies’ storyline in order to prove just how much
damage was done to unknowing people all because of the fairies’ disagreement. Puck, after

putting the love spell on Demetrius and Lysander as well as Titania and turning Bottom’s head

into that of a donkey, merely sits by and watches the chaos ensue. Not only have Demetrius and

Lysander both fallen in love with Helena, leaving Hermia heartbroken, but Titania has fallen in

love with essentially a donkey-man (Bottom, that is.) Watching the anger and arguments

between the four lovers and the oddness of the love between Titania and Bottom causes Oberon,

initially the man trying to demonstrate power, to become unnerved and fearful of all that has

happened in the wake of his attempted revenge. This climax in Act 3, where Oberon witnesses

the extent of all this confusion brought on by the love spell, causes Oberon to rethink his actions

and to tell Puck to reverse the spell. When Titania comes to, he assures her that her love for the

ass was merely all a dream.

Although ​A Midsummer Night’s Dream​ does not have a true climax, this is the point in the

play where the fairies’ story reaches its peak because Oberon has realized that his simple revenge

plan has caused more damage than he intended, which answers the major dramatic question, and

that the magic was more trouble than it was worth. Additionally, this ties into the inciting

incident in that the small argument between the two fairies brought about an immense amount of

confusion. With this resolution, the fairies learn not to take their love for granted, and that as

fairies, they are meant to help humans as opposed to causing them trouble and harming them. So

yes, the fairies certainly had magic to do, but they learned that their magic should not have been

used for harm. Therefore, Shakespeare’s message of magic and a desire for mischief being more

trouble than they’re worth is made very clear from these three major plot points in ​A Midsummer

Night’s Dream​.