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A Midsummer Night's Dream

by William Shakespeare

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Oberon's Emotions and Views on Love in A Midsummer Night's Dream

Summary:

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Oberon displays emotions of mischievousness, guilt, and sympathy. He orchestrates the chaos with the love potion but feels responsible and seeks to rectify the mistakes, showing a sense of fairness and kindness. Oberon's views on love are complex; he is both jealous and idealistic. He desires control over Titania's affection yet wishes to help Helena by making Demetrius love her, reflecting his dual nature as both a disruptor and a restorer of harmony.

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In Act 3, Scene 2 of A Midsummer Night's Dream, what emotion does Oberon display and how?

In the second scene of Act II of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer's Night Dream," Oberon tells Puck,

But we are spirits of another sort:
I with the morning's love have oft made sport (II,ii,404-405)

Oberon is a mischievous fairy, but he only wishes to have fun.  When the mistaken identities occur, Oberon instructs Puck that they can hurry and "effect this business ere day"; that is, they can rectify the errors made by Puck in placing the nectar on the eyes of the wrong young man. 

That he is not malicious is evident when Oberon tells Puck to imitate Lysander to Demetrius and Demetrius to Lysander in order to tire them so that they will not be able to duel because they are both in love with Helena.  While Oberon may enjoy "What fools these mortals be!" as Puck declares, he does not want them to suffer bodily harm.  So he...

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instructs Puck to exhaust the men and correct the errors when they fall asleep.  Likewise, Oberon has enjoyed his sport with Titania who has fallen in love with Bottom wearing the head of an ass, but he wishes to have her restored to her senses so he again can have his queen.

A fairy who delights in sporting with the foibles of both human and fairy, Oberon yet has a sense of fairness and even kindness, so he restores all situations to normal.  His sense of fair play is in contrast to that of the mortal who do not acquire such knowledge until the end of the play.

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I suppose you would say that the emotion is sympathy, perhaps.  What I think he is showing is that he cares what is going on in the hearts of the mortals who are in the forest.

The way he shows this is by caring who is in love with whom.  Oberon knows that Hermia and Lysander are supposed to be in love with each other.  When he finds out that Puck's love potion has made Demetrius fall in love with Hermia, he is unhappy.  He does not want the "wrong" people to be in love with each other.

So he sends Puck to find Helena and he himself tries to help fix the mistake.  By doing this, he shows that he cares about the people's emotions.

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What are Oberon's views on love in A Midsummer Night's Dream?

In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's DreamOberon acts as both a catalyst for order and disorder, both causing the comedy of errors and resolving it. His perception of love is somewhat complicated. On the one hand, he's a supremely jealous lover; on the other hand, he regards love with an inspiring idealism.

Oberon becomes jealous when Titania takes a changeling boy as her servant in Act 2, Scene 1. It seems that Oberon not only wants the boy for his own servant, but that he also is jealous of Titania's divided attention. She should be focusing on him, not some upstart little boy, he believes (he is her "lord" [63] after all). As such, we can see that Oberon views love as a method of possession, and he jealously guards Titania as if she were something he owned.

However, Oberon is also idealistic when it comes to love because he earnestly wants to help Helena by making Demetrius fall in love with her. As such, he tells Puck to amend the situation with the magical flower in the hopes of causing Demetrius to love Helena and making the young Athenians happy. This tactic, of course, is responsible for the confusing fracas that embroils the young Athenians in a confusing comedy of errors throughout much of the play, but we cannot ignore the fact that Oberon's motives were originally honorable. As such, we can see that Oberon's view of love is a complex combination of jealousy and idealism.

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