Taryn Pinter

English 11
Mrs. Warwick
June 9 2014
Appearance VS Reality
What is appearance? What is reality? In A Midsummer Nights Dream by William Shakespeare,
have a group of fairies and a group of Athena lovers. The group of fairies is King Oberon, Queen
Titanna, and Puke also knows as Robin Goodfellow. The group of Athena lover contain: Helena,
Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius. The theme appearance VS reality is shown through the two
groups, Athena lovers and fairies, within the play.

William Shakespeare uses fairies to create an illusion. With the fairies help show the theme
appearance VS reality. Without the fairies there would be no illusion to give the dream like
affect within the play. The fairies are a mythical creature made up by men. The mythical creature
with wings is known to cause mischief and trouble. The king Oberon orders Puck to find a
flower so he can cast a spell on the Queen. However Puck comes across a group Athena's and
decides to mess with them. He turns the one; know as Nick Bottom, in to part donkey. Once
seeing one of the Athenas say Bless thee, Bottom! Bless thee! Thou art translated" (Act 3,
Scene 1, Line 115). He also mixes up Lysander and Demetrius when putting the spell on them.

The four Athena lovers, Helena, Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, all help show the theme
appearance VS reality. Helena, one of the female Athena's, believes her friend Hermia is to
beautiful. Helena ends up saying, "None but your beauty: would be mine" (Act 1 Scene 1 Line
205). This show how Hermia appears to Helena. Demetrious and Lysander also have spells put
on them. Both of the boys fall in love with Hermia. However later on they believe it was a dream
later on but when it was really reality. To come to find out the same spell was casted on Queen
Titanna.

The theme appearance VS reality seems to tie in with the fairies as the get involved with the
Athena lovers. What if the potion wasn't put on the Queen? What if the Athena lovers did not
have the potion placed on them? After Puck came back to Oberon, Oberon had watched
Demetrious and Helena fight on how one loves but the other doesn't return the feeling. Oberon
ends up ordering to put the potion on Demetrious eyes but he end up putting it on Lysanders.
Then it also goes onto Demetrious eyes as well causing him to fall in love with Helena. Once
Oberon finds out; he has Puck fix his mess. Once everything is some-what see back to normal,
the Athenas believe it was a dream. Their dream was really reality even if they couldn't see the
fairies.

Appearance is the state, condition, manner, or style in which a person or object appears; outward
look or aspect. Reality is the state or quality of being real. Appearance and reality where shown
through the character of Shakespeares play. In A Midsummer Nights Dream, the Athenas and
the Fairies showed the theme appearance VS reality.