Midsummer Nights Dream

In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” every character has a defined role and some characters have come to depend on one another. Oberon, the fairy king, and Robin Goodfellow depend on each other to accomplish their roles in the play, as do Peter Quince and Nick Bottom. Robin’s role in the play is being the minion of Oberon. He accepts he is Oberon’s minion when he states, “I jest to Oberon and make him smile”(2.1.46). When Oberon sends him to run his errands he accepts without complaint, “I go, I go, look how I go!” (3.2.102). Robin is also mischievous when he does his deeds. He proves this when he turns Bottom into an ass, “Forsook his scene and entered in a break. / When I did him at this advantage take/ an ass’s noll I fixed on his head” (3.2.15-17). He feels no remorse for what he’s done. Oberon’s role is being the Fairy King, which he lives up to by asserting his dominance. Throughout the play Oberon proves to be tyrannical, especially when he wants the Indian boy to be a henchman, “I do but beg a little changeling boy to be a henchman” (2.1.123.-124). He is also paternal which he proves when he says, “A sweet Athenian lady is in love/ with a disdainful youth. Anoint his eyes, / but do it when the next thing he espies / may be the lady” (2.1.268-271). Oberon is also mean-spirited to his wife Titania, “And with the juice of this I’ll streak her eyes/ and make her full of hateful fantasies” (2.1.265-267). He purposely wants to make Titania fall in love with something grotesque. Jimenez2
Both Robin and Oberon live up to their roles only because they have each other to lean on. Oberon must be a ruler and needs to have subjects to rule over. Robin, however, needs to be ruled by someone with authority. The have a business relationship, that is beneficial to the both of them. Nick Bottom is very self-centered and narcissistic. When rehearsing for the play of Pyramus and Thisbe he fools others into believing that he knew about the play, “A very good piece of