Titania and the Things that Go Bump in the Night

Abstract

A major plot in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the ‘distemperature’ of the seasons caused by a row between Titania and Oberon. Within the play Titania and other female characters express concerns about the environment reminiscent of eco-anxiety. One example of this is fear of snakes, which can be linked to the early modern motif that the animals sometimes slither into sleeping people’s mouths. Another example is Titania’s lullaby, a kind of magic bug-spray, sung to banish all ill-omened creatures. At the end of Act II, Oberon’s fairy eye-drops seem to act as an anti-anxiety medicine and for a short time the Fairy Queen along with others, is once again able to relate to the environment in a freer, less fearful way.