Midsummer Nights Dream is a play by William Shakespeare that explains the events surrounding the marriage between Hippolyta and Theseus who was the Duke of Athens. The adventures of four young lovers also take centre stage in the play. Shakespeare makes use of magic fairies to bring out some of the most and hilarious bizarre situations in the play Midsummer Nights Dream. He uses magic to embody supernatural power of love which is symbolised by the use of love potions by people in the play to win lovers (Shakespeare, 14). Shakespeare uses magic to create an unreal world in which fairies influence the plot, control the character’s actions and generally start and end conflicts.
The magic resolves the tension in the play by bringing back love in order to balance the affairs of the Athenian youth quartets. Puck has special powers to change his voice and appearance. He holds magical fantastic conversations with other fairies which sets the pace for the play.
Magic seems to be the overriding theme in the play and has a profound effect on everything that takes place in the play. The misuse of magic causes chaos but it still ends up as being hilarious (Bevington, 26). Such is the case when Puck mistakenly applies love potion on Lysander’s eyelids. Puck also uses magic and love potions with a lot of ease and achieves so much to his own benefit. He reshapes Bottom’s head to resemble that of an ass. He also recreates the voices of Demetrius and Lysander (Huke & Perkins, 17). This portrays a contrasting stand to the gracelessness and laboriousness of the craftsmen to stage their own play.
Magic also plays the role of contrasting and bringing out the crater traits of characters such as the craftsmen, Bottom, Helena and Hermia and Puck. According to Croce the fairies are magical and through their interactions with the other characters, some character traits are exemplified (10). These traits include the clumsiness of the craftsmen, the gracefulness of the fairies and the over-zealousness of the lovers.
The use of magic gives the play some interesting and catchy twists. For instance, the magical interference of the fairies by mishandling the love potion causes confusion and chaos among the Athenian lovers (Halliday, 26). This is unexpected as the magical fairies are never present physically in the engagements by the youths. In this case, Lysander and Demetrius are magically forced to transfer their love from Helena and Hermia. Titania on the other hand humiliated in a very hilarious way where she is compelled to fall in love with the ass-headed Bottom.
The combination of love potion and the magical interference of the fairies bring about very erratic, fickle and an extremely powerful nature of love that ultimately leads to bizarre and unexplainable behaviour (Croco, 19). The hard part is that even in cases where some people seem to doubt the acceptability of their actions, they still go ahead because the force behind the love affairs cannot be resisted.
Magic employed in the play makes is possible for readers to experience a pleasing and narcotic dreaminess that is usually associated with fairy tales. This endears the readers to read on and increases the attention of the readers. The “feel-good” effect makes it easy for readers to get into rhythm with the plot of the play and follow the development and resolution of conflicts in the story.
Works cited
Bevington, David. "'But We Are Spirits of Another Sort': The Dark Side of Love and Magic in A Midsummer Night's Dream". A Midsummer Night's Dream. Ed. Richard Dutton. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996. Print
Croce, Benedetto. "Comedy of Love". A Midsummer Night's Dream. Eds. Judith M. Kennedy and Richard F. Kennedy. London: Athlone Press, 1999. Print
Halliday, Francis. A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964, Baltimore, Penguin. 1964. Print
Huke, Ivan & Perkins, Derek. A Midsummer Night's Dream: Literature Revision Notes and Examples. Celtic Revision Aids. 1981. Print
Shakespeare, William. Harold F. Brooks, ed. The Arden Shakespeare "A Midsummer Nights Dream". Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1979. print
