Confusion, Love and Magic in Actii

Act II, Scene II of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a critical mark in the play because the love potion comes into play and through that many of the major themes of confusion, love and magic are all present. The scene opens with Titania being sung to sleep with a lullaby that wards off unpleasant creatures. Oberon sneaks in and places the potion on her eyes saying for her to awake when a vile creature is near. Shortly after, Puck, who was suppose to place the potion on Demetrius’ eyes, mistakenly puts it on Lysander, which causes him to fall out of love with Hermia and in love with Helena. Helena thinks that this is all just a cruel trick, depicting her flaws and runs off into the woods, with Lysander following after her. Hermia then awakes alone and rushes frantically to find her love Lysander.
The love potion is first mentioned at the end of Act II scene II when Oberon has instructed Puck to get the juice of the flower hit by Cupid’s arrow, so it can be placed on Titania’s and Dememtrius’ eyes. Oberon states the reason for placing the juice on Titania’s eyes as “Having once this juice/ I’ll watch Titania when she is asleep,/ And drop the liquor of it in her eyes./ The next thing when she waking looks upon/ Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,/ On meddling monkey, or on a busy ape/ She shall purse it with the soul of love./ And ere I take this charm from her sight/ As I can take it with another herb/ I’ll make her render up her page to me” (2.1 147-185). In these lines Oberon is saying that with the flower he will make Titania fall in love with whatever fowl creature she sees when she first wakes up and the only way he will remove the charm will be for her to hand over the Indian Prince to him. Oberon’s reasons for placing the love potion on Titania are in contrast with his reason for placing it on Demetrius which are simply to make him love Helena more fondly than she loves him. Oberon gives the task of placing the juice on Demetrius eyes but only...