Titania, A Midsummer Night's Dream: Analysis Of Titania (2024)

Titania is a character in Shakespeare’s play, A Midsumer Night’s Dream. She is the Queen of the fairies – the wife of the Fairy King, Oberon.

Titania is one of the characters in the play, like Puck, that are taken from traditional folklore. The fairy queen doesn’t have a name in folklore: Shakespeare took the name from Ovid’s Metamorphoses in which the daughters of Titans are known as ‘Titanias.’

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Titania is part of one of the play’s subplots. In that story, she has a dispute with Oberon and he punishes her by using a potion that makes her fall in love with the first creature she lays eyes on when she awakens. She wakes up and sees Bottom, who has been turned into an ass by Puck because he has been behaving like an ass. That leads to a great deal of comic content, after which the matter is resolved with the spell broken, Bottom being returned to his former condition, and Titania horrified by what has happened to her.

Titania, A Midsummer Night's Dream: Analysis Of Titania (1)

Michele Pfifer (right!) as Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999)

Although her role is relatively small, Titania is a highly memorable character. She is one of Shakespeare’s strongest and most feisty women characters. Although she’s gracious and physically delicate she stands up forcefully to her very powerful husband, refusing to hand over the Indian boy she has adopted, in the face of his strenuous efforts to make her do so. She tells him in robust language and in no uncertain terms to back off.

The play is filled with incidences of women being oppressed by the actions of the powerful men who control them. There is a sense of disappointment that although Titania is able to stand up to Oberon, after she has been released from the spell and knows the source of her cruel treatment, she does not make any comebacks against Oberon.

The trick is particularly cruel because the potion has turned her from a strong, independent woman into a lovesick girl, completely subject to a man – a man who has no good qualities, literally a donkey, and devoid of any ability to make sensible judgments. This is a highly theatrical and ironic demonstration of one of the most dominant themes in Shakespeare’s plays – the oppression of women by powerful men, ironic because she is subservient to a man who is no more than an ass, as so many of the powerful men in Shakespeare are.

Titania’s marriage to Oberon is a version of an open relationship – an interesting thing in a play written more than four hundred years ago. Both partners enjoy consensual extra-marital episodes. One could, therefore, call Titania a forerunner of the figures who produced the feminist movement with its sexual liberation. She is also well before her time in being something of an eco-warrior in that she worries about her quarrel with Oberon having adverse consequences for the environment: she feels that as they are the leading spirits of the natural world their quarrel will upset the harmony and order of nature and bring about some unpleasant environmental conditions.

Top Titania Quotes

If you will patiently dance in our round
And see our moonlight revels, go with us.(act 2, scene 1)

What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?(act 3, scene 1)

Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,
And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.(act 4, scene 1)

what visions have I seen!
Methought I was enamour’d of an ass. (act 4, scene 1)

Hand in hand, with fairy grace,
Will we sing, and bless this place.(act 5, scene 1)

The last comment needs to be approved.

1 reply

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply

Titania, A Midsummer Night's Dream: Analysis Of Titania (2024)

FAQs

Titania, A Midsummer Night's Dream: Analysis Of Titania? ›

She is strong-willed, unafraid to assert her power, and determined to have her way. She is the wife of Oberon, King of the Fairies, and has several fairy attendants who wait upon her.

How is Titania described in Midsummer Night's Dream? ›

She is strong-willed, unafraid to assert her power, and determined to have her way. She is the wife of Oberon, King of the Fairies, and has several fairy attendants who wait upon her.

Who is Titania from Midsummer Night's Dream short note? ›

Titania (/tɪˈtɑːniə/) is a character in William Shakespeare's 1595–1596 play A Midsummer Night's Dream. In the play, she is the Queen of the fairies and wife of the Fairy King, Oberon. Due to Shakespeare's influence, later fiction has often used the name "Titania" for fairy queen characters.

What is learned about Titania in Act 2 Scene 1? ›

We learn that Titania and Oberon are supposed to be a couple, but they don't even spend time together anymore. The fairy recognizes Puck and tells us all about his infamous pranks: frightening village girls, ruining batches of homemade butter, leading people astray as they travel at night, and so on.

What is the character analysis of Oberon and Titania? ›

Oberon is powerful, but Titania appears to be just as headstrong, and they seem equally matched. However, as a result of this impasse, Oberon vows to exact revenge on Titania. Because of this, he can be considered quite spiteful: "Well, go thy way.

How does Titania describe Bottom? ›

Titania pampers Bottom, calling him an 'angel,' 'wise,' and 'beautiful' (Act 3, Scene 1). We know Bottom is anything but what Titania describes! Her servants feed him grapes, and Bottom is certainly flattered and quickly adjusts to his new, lavish lifestyle.

Who does Titania truly love? ›

Despite their argument, Titania does seem to be ultimately in love with Oberon. During the play, she temporarily falls in love with Bottom because of a magical love potion that Puck puts in her eyes.

How did Titania get her powers? ›

After high school outcast, Mary MacPherran receives superpowers from Doctor Doom's superhuman augmentation process, she becomes the brash and confident Titania, a super-strong force to be reckoned with and foremost foe to Jennifer Walters, AKA She-Hulk.

Why is Titania a villain? ›

Mary McPherran, better known as Titania, is the secondary antagonist of the Marvel Cinematic Universe series She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, and a cameo character in Ms. Marvel. She is a social media influencer obsessed with gaining fame by battling She-Hulk, whose makes her the archenemy of the superheroine.

Why is she called Titania? ›

As for Erza she was called Titania because of her magical strength and abilities which is known all over magnolia town and the kingdom of fiore and since she is a member of fairy tail and someone who is feared and respected among the guild she was seen as the queen of the fairies also known as Titania who is also a ...

Why does Titania want the child? ›

According to Titania, she used to be friends with the kid's human mother back in India but "she, being mortal, of that boy did die" (2.1. 140). Translation: The woman died in childbirth, so Titania is fiercely committed to raising the boy for her friend.

Why did Titania take the boy? ›

According to the Queen of the Fairies, her good friend died in childbirth and Titania has agreed to raise the boy out of love for his mother. The boy has no name given in the play and doesn't say a single word.

Why is Titania important to the play? ›

The Queen of the Fairies and Oberon's wife. Titania is strong willed and independent, willing to fight her husband for control of the changeling boy. She is also powerful. Her fight with her husband causes nature to act strangely, and her fairies always follow her commands.

Why is Titania jealous of Oberon? ›

Titania's Jealousy of Oberon

She is also jealous of Oberon because he's allegedly cheating on her with Hippolyta, ''the bouncing Amazon, Your buskin'd mistress, and your warrior love'' (with ''buskin'' meaning ''booted'').

What does Oberon accuse Titania of? ›

Oberon and Titania, the King and Queen of the Fairies meet and they argue over their loyalty and love to each other; Titania accuses him of loving Hippolyta and Oberon accuses Titania of loving Theseus.

What did Oberon do to Titania? ›

His plan is to steal the Indian boy from Titania after making her fall in love with some unsavory, preferably beastly, character. He will accomplish this task by creating a love potion that will blind Titania, much as Cupid's arrows are reputed to do.

Why did Titania stop loving Bottom? ›

4.1: Titania falls out of love with Bottom when Oberon reverses the love spell by sprinkling an antidote in her eyes.

Did Bottom fall in love with Titania? ›

It throws love increasingly out of balance and brings the farce into its most frenzied state. With the youths' love tangle already affected by the potion, Shakespeare creates further havoc by generating a romance across groups, as Titania falls in love with the ass-headed Bottom.

Does Titania fall in love with Nick Bottom? ›

At the start of the play we see Bottom trying to convince Peter Quince that he should play all the characters in the play to celebrate the Duke's wedding. During one of the mechanical's rehearsals he is magically transformed into an ass, and in this state Titania, Queen of the Fairies, falls in love with him.

Who puts Titania to sleep? ›

The fairies sing Titania to sleep.

Is Titania a hero or villain? ›

Titania has been described as one of Marvel's most notable and powerful female antiheroes, being labelled as one of She-Hulk's greatest rivals. The character made her live action debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Disney+ series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022), portrayed by actress Jameela Jamil.

What is Titania afraid of? ›

Answer and Explanation: Titania's fear in A Midsummer Night's Dream is that Oberon will take her changeling child from her.

What is Titania strength? ›

Superhuman Strength: Titania possesses vast superhuman strength that has increased over the years due to intensive weight training. Titania was originally strong enough to lift about 85 tons and she can now lift about 100 tons.

Who is Titania trying to control? ›

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Titania is part of one of the play's subplots. In that story, she has a dispute with Oberon and he punishes her by using a potion that makes her fall in love with the first creature she lays eyes on when she awakens.

What is the symbol of Titania? ›

Titania's followers taught that she was a goddess of goodness and mercy. They saw her as a mother figure. Her holy symbol was a white diamond with a blue star.

Does Titania love Oberon? ›

Titania and Oberon had a very weird relationship in which they were quoted as king and queen but rarely ever had a true love relationship. Oberon and Titania were the king and queen of the fairies throughout the book A Midsummers Night's Dream.

Does Titania have a child? ›

Titania is the fairy queen from Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream. In the Sisters Grimm series, she is revealed to be the Queen of Faerie. She is married to Oberon, the King, and has two sons by him called Puck - her eldest son and also the heir to the throne of Faerie, and Mustardseed.

What type of fairy is Titania? ›

Titania is the fairy queen from Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream. In the Sisters Grimm series, she is revealed to be the Queen of Faerie.
...
Titania
Species:Everafter Faerie
Gender:Female
Age:Thousands of years
Fairy Tale:A Midsummer Nights Dream
14 more rows

Does Titania love Bottom? ›

3.1: Titania declares her love for Bottom and says that he's wise and beautiful. She becomes upset when Bottom wants to leave the wood. She says he'll stay there whether he likes it or not.

What are Titania's strengths? ›

Titania has tremendous superhuman strength (Class 100 in peak condition). Possessed of enhanced endurance, she can exert herself at peak levels for an hour before becoming fatigued. Titania is also superhumanly durable.

How does Titania feel when she sees Bottom? ›

In the same grove, the sleeping Titania wakes. When she sees Bottom, the flower juice on her eyelids works its magic, and she falls deeply and instantly in love with the ass-headed weaver.

What does the name Titania mean? ›

Origin:Greek. Meaning:Giant; Of the Titans. Titania is a girl's name of Greek origin. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, the daughters of Titans (a race of giants in Greek mythology) are known as Titanias.

Why does Titania want the boy? ›

According to Titania, she used to be friends with the kid's human mother back in India but "she, being mortal, of that boy did die" (2.1. 140). Translation: The woman died in childbirth, so Titania is fiercely committed to raising the boy for her friend.

Does Titania love the Indian boy? ›

Titania wants the Indian Boy, an “irrational, unattainable” emblem of desire. Because Titania loves the boy, he becomes valuable to Oberon.

What is Titania jealous of? ›

Titania is jealous of Hippolyta because the king snuck away to visit the Amazon warrior, and he loves her as well. Oberon is jealous of Theseus, because Titania loves him.

What causes Titania to fall in love with Bottom? ›

Titania, Queen of the Fairies, is under the influence of a love potion, given to her by her husband Oberon to punish her for her pride. The potion has made her fall in love with the weaver Nick Bottom, who in turn is under a spell which has transformed his head into that of an ass.

Does Titania cheat on Oberon? ›

Infidelity is another dark theme in the play: Oberon accuses Titania not only of cheating on him with Theseus, but of actually causing him to be unfaithful to multiple other women.

What happens when Titania falls in love with Bottom? ›

Oberon, who is quarreling with his wife, Titania, uses the flower juice on her eyes. She falls in love with Bottom, who now, thanks to Robin Goodfellow, wears an ass's head.As the lovers sleep, Robin Goodfellow restores Lysander's love for Hermia, so that now each young woman is matched with the man she loves.

Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Lilliana Bartoletti

Last Updated:

Views: 5325

Rating: 4.2 / 5 (73 voted)

Reviews: 80% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Lilliana Bartoletti

Birthday: 1999-11-18

Address: 58866 Tricia Spurs, North Melvinberg, HI 91346-3774

Phone: +50616620367928

Job: Real-Estate Liaison

Hobby: Graffiti, Astronomy, Handball, Magic, Origami, Fashion, Foreign language learning

Introduction: My name is Lilliana Bartoletti, I am a adventurous, pleasant, shiny, beautiful, handsome, zealous, tasty person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.