According to Northrop Frye, a green world is a place where characters go to escape the restrictive waking world of the city and where imagination, magic, and dreams dwell. In Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the woods serve as the green world and play a significant role. This is evident when Puck, a fairy with magical powers, creates complex love attractions between Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia and Helena.
There is evidence in the play that the woods represent the green world. This is shown when Puck uses his powers to exact Oberon’s revenge on Titania and turn Bottom’s head into a donkey’s head. Puck’s magic spells also manipulate the complex love affair between Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena in the woods. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Puck sees Lysander and Hermia sleeping in the woods and spreads juice on Lysander causing him to fall in love with Helena instead of Hermia. Unfortunately, Helena wakes up Lysander and he immediately falls for her.
Helena claims that Lysander’s true love is Hermia, but he denies it by saying that Hermia means nothing to him. Lysander exclaims, Content with Hermia! No; I do repent / The tedious minutes I have with her have spent. / Not Hermia but Helena I love” (II, ii, 111-113). Helena thinks that Lysander is mocking her and she leaves. However, Lysander follows her and this causes Hermia to wake up and realize he is gone. Later on, Demetrius and Lysander fight for Helena’s affection until Puck intervenes and resolves the situation. Eventually, the love situation is resolved as Lysander now loves Hermia while Demetrius loves Helena.
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Puck manipulates the love between Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius, and Helena, indicating that the woods is the green world and plays a significant role in the play. Magical love comes into play with the attraction between Lysander and Helena. Despite knowing he truly loves Hermia, Lysander was “blind” when he fell in love with Helena. This caused Hermia to become angry with him and led to his fight with Demetrius for Helena’s affection. It’s important to note that Lysander did not see Puck when he spread the love-in-idleness flower juice on him.
The love triangle between Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena was occurring without their knowledge that the cause of this situation was the power of the love-in-idleness flower. According to Ronald F. Miller, the fairies are (among other things) the metamorphic agency of love, personified, pansy-juice and all; and an ambivalence of love in the status of fairies implies an ambivalence in the status of love” (256). Miller suggests that it is evident in the play that fairies are responsible for causing love. This is demonstrated through the love triangle between Demetrius, Lysander, and Helena in the woods.
The complex love between Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius, and Helena not only proves that the woods is the green world in A Midsummer Night’s Dream but also Oberon’s revenge on Titania and Bottom’s magical head transformation are two other pieces of evidence. These events also occur in the woods. Titania has a small Indian boy whom Oberon desires, but she refuses to give him up because she promised to care for the boy when his mother died.
Titania refuses to give up the boy, so Oberon seeks revenge by ordering Puck to rub love-in-idleness flower juice on Titania’s eyelids. This will cause her to fall in love with a hideous creature upon waking, and eventually give in to Oberon’s demands. Meanwhile, Bottom and his fellow actors rehearse for their play. Puck uses his powers to turn Bottom’s head into a donkey’s head, causing the other actors to run away due to his peculiar appearance. When Titania wakes up, she immediately falls in love with Bottom.
She says, “And thy fair virtue’s force perforce doth move me on the first view to say, to swear, I love thee” (III, i, 141-142). Later on in the play, Titania gives in to Oberon’s demands and hands over the little Indian boy. Puck uses his magical powers again to turn Bottom’s head back into a normal human head. However, due to Puck’s magic a complex love attraction occurs between two people who do not really love each other – Titania and Bottom. Additionally, Bottom’s head is transformed into that of a donkey. The evidence of Titania’s “blind” affection for Bottom and his transformation is clear proof that the woods are enchanted.
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare portrays a world where magic is present in the greenery. Titania’s love for Bottom is blind” because she is unaware that Puck’s magic has caused her to fall for him. Although Bottom’s friends are frightened by his donkey head, he himself does not realize he has been enchanted by Puck. Frank Kermode describes Puck as a “natural” force that disregards civility and reason (216).
Kermode argues that Puck lacks a moral compass and simply follows Oberon’s orders, as evidenced by his magical manipulation of Titania and Bottom. Puck uses his powers without any conscious decision-making. The unusual love quadrangle between Demetrius, Helena, Lysander, and Hermia further illustrates the forest’s status as a green world” due to Puck’s meddling in their affairs. Similarly, Titania’s enchanted attraction to Bottom is also a result of Puck’s magical abilities.
The green world is where imagination, magic, and dreams reside. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare effectively portrays this magic through the fairies and their enchanted forest.
Works Cited
- F. Miller, Ronald. The Fairies, Bottom, and the Mystery of Things.” Shakespeare Quarterly 26.3 (1975): 254-268. Print.
- Kermode, Frank. “The Mature Comedies.” Stratford-upon-Avon Studies: 3, Shakespeare, ed. John Russell Brown and Bernard Harris (214-220). Print.
- Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. USA: Signet Classics, 1998. Print.
