Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?

One of the most important themes in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is reality vs fantasy.

At the beginning, the line that separates reality and fantasy it is somehow delimited, and so are the characters. On the one hand there are The Athenians —Theseus, Hippolyta, Philostrate, Egeus, Nedar— and The Lovers —Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, Helena.  On the other, there is Oberon, Titania, Puck and also The Fairies. These worlds exist harmoniously separated due to the fact that humans do not know that they, the fairies, work their magic during nighttime. However, as you read, you find that these two worlds start mixing with each. 

Maybe, just like me, you may have wondered whether what has just happened was part of the real world or not and whether fantasy has become real too. “Shakespeare achieves this confusing effect by constructing characters that employ disguises and hide their true motivations from each other and to a lesser degree, the reader” (Smith, 2011). Not only you and I were confessed by Shakespeare but also more readers have suffered the same.

The play starts with real and rational moments. We see this when Demetrius expresses rational arguments (economic and social ones) to get Hermia,

I am, my lord, as well derived as he,

As well possess’d; my love is more than his;

My fortunes every way as fairly rank’d.

Though later we read that after being poisoned by Puck, he loses his rationality.

Perhaps seeing it from the outside, as readers, the fantasy world present in Midsummer Night's Dream is not even real. This world is probably part of the characters’ dream, for all this magic happens at night. We, the spectators or readers, believe that the two worlds are mush up together, but what if I tell you that the fantasy world is just part of their dreams and it is not really whatsoever? What if I tell you that Puck never gave Lysander the love poison and that in his dreams he discovered his love for Helena?

This remembers me to The Fairly Oddparents.  Timmy Turner as well as lots of neglected kids has fairly odd parents who conceive every wish he has. Nonetheless, when kids turn to a certain age, they forget that they had them and all the magic they once did, most of the time, disappears. Just like what happens to Lysander who comes back to Hermia.  But, what about Demetrius? He probably once dreamt that he had been love poisoned so as to love Helena, yet now he believed it himself; this became reality because what makes reality is when you believe that something is real.

Actually Timmy Turner remembers me a lot to Hermia, specially The Fairly Oddparents’ song,

♪Timmy (Hermia) is an average kid,

That no one understands,

Mom and Dad (Egeus) and Vicky (Demetrius) always giving him(her) commands.

Vicky (Demetrius): Bed twirp! (Marry me!)

Doom and Gloom up in his room,

Is broken instantly,

By his magic little fish (Lysander) who grant his (her) every wish (1313),

‘Cuz in reality they are his Odd Parents, Fairly Odd …♪

Advice: Don’t believe in the reality you see, for it may not be what it seems to be.

*I'm sorry about the background color of the letters. It is distracting. I tried to take it out, but I simply coudn´t.*

Sources

Illusion Versus Reality in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. Anti Essays. Retrieved October 9, 2014, from the World Wide Web: http://www.antiessays.com/free-essays/Illusion-Versus-Reality-In-Shakespeare-s-Midsummer-275980.html

Smith, N. (2011, December 6). Appearances versus Reality in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Twelfth Night. Retrieved from http://www.articlemyriad.com/appearances-midsummer-nights-dream-twelfth-night/