What happens in Act II of A Midsummer Night's Dream?
Act II opens in the fairy realm, where Puck and a fairy servant of Titania share news about the upcoming arrival of their respective rulers. The conflict between Oberon, the King of the Fairies, and Titania, his Queen, becomes apparent right away: Oberon insists that Titania give up the changeling boy she has been caring for, but Titania refuses, honoring the memory of the boy's mother who passed away during childbirth. Their argument has already disrupted the natural world — seasons are out of sync, floods have devastated crops, and the moon seems to cry. Titania leaves with her entourage, and Oberon, hurt by her refusal, sends Puck to retrieve the flower "love-in-idleness." Its juice, when placed on sleeping eyelids, causes the sleeper to fall in love with the first being they see upon waking. Oberon plans to use it on Titania to distract her while he takes the boy. Meanwhile, Demetrius and Helena wander into the forest; Demetrius is chasing Hermia and harshly rejecting Helena's affections. Oberon, unseen, observes Helena's humiliation and instructs Puck to apply the flower's juice to Demetrius's eyes so that he will love her back. However, Puck mistakenly enchants Lysander instead of Demetrius. Lysander wakes to see Helena and immediately leaves the sleeping Hermia, professing his love for Helena, who believes he is making fun of her.
Analysis
Act II is where Shakespeare's comedic elements start to unfold, showcasing his skill in layering chaos—natural, political, and erotic—before any magic is introduced. The act begins with a structural echo: two fairy servants gossiping reflects the Athenian mechanicals from Act I, setting the forest as a place where social orders dissolve. Oberon and Titania's argument is crafted in matched, formal verse—similar to stichomythia—which lends their mutual disdain a ceremonial quality rather than a domestic one, highlighting that their clash has cosmic implications. Titania's speech about the disordered seasons ("the spring, the summer, / The childing autumn, angry winter, change / Their wonted liveries") serves as one of Shakespeare's most prominent examples of pathetic fallacy: nature doesn’t just echo emotion; it embodies the emotion, expressed on a grand scale.
The introduction of the love potion shifts the act toward farce, yet Shakespeare ensures that a sense of threat remains present. Oberon's strategy is a form of punishment, not a gift. Puck's mix-up with Lysander isn’t mere negligence; it reflects the logic of the forest—where identity is fluid, one sleeping Athenian youth can easily be mistaken for another. Helena’s closing soliloquy, presented in rhyming couplets, signifies a tonal change from the blank verse of the fairy dispute: the rhyme scheme highlights her entrapment in a script she cannot comprehend, with love reduced to a mechanical drive. The recurring motif of eyes—anointed, deceived, averted—emerges here as the act's central image, foreshadowing the play's ongoing exploration of what it truly means to see.
Key quotes from Act II
“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, / Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, / Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, / With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.”
Oberon describes Titania's bower as he plots where to find her sleeping and apply the enchanted flower's juice.
“The course of true love never did run smooth.”
Lysander consoles Hermia early in the act, cataloguing the obstacles that have always beset lovers — a line that ironically prefigures the chaos about to be unleashed on them both.
“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”
Puck's aside — delivered after witnessing the tangle of misplaced Athenian affections — crystallises the fairy world's detached, amused contempt for human desire.
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Create an accountSign inVocabulary in Act II
- thyme
- A low-growing wild herb with small fragrant leaves and tiny flowers, found on grassy banks; here it sets the lush, sweet-smelling scene of the fairy bower.
- oxlips
- A wild spring flower similar to a primrose or cowslip, with clusters of drooping yellow blooms; used here to paint a picture of a richly flowered fairy resting place.
- over-canopied
- Completely covered overhead as if by a canopy or roof; here it means the bank is entirely roofed over by climbing plants growing above it.
- woodbine
- A wild climbing plant, usually honeysuckle, that twines around trees and hedges; here it forms part of the natural canopy sheltering Titania's sleeping place.
- musk-roses
- A variety of wild rose with a strong, sweet, musky scent; here they are part of the fragrant, enchanted bank where Titania sleeps.
- eglantine
- The sweet-briar, a wild rose with fragrant leaves and pink flowers; an old poetic name for this thorny climbing plant used to evoke the beauty of the fairy woodland.
- mortals
- Human beings who are subject to death, as opposed to immortal fairies or gods; Puck uses the word to set humans apart from the fairy world he belongs to.
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