In A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare plays with the ideas of sight and reality. Sight, eyes and gaze become crucial themes in this seemingly carefree show. They appear constantly in the speech of all the characters, beyond the obvious role in the power of the magic potion. The fact that the show takes place at night is also a crucial aspect of the prevalence of vision as a theme. Here it is the reduced vision, the effect of darkness, that the characters must endure. This nocturnal setting creates a world of unrealistic transformation and change. Even when the view appears to be unhindered, in the daytime scenes in the woods, it is deceived by a magic potion. In essence, pure sight never exists. Distorted vision poses a particularly serious problem in the play because Shakespeare shows us the folly of characters who trust their eyes too much, without the ability to judge what they see. In a space where sight reigns above reason, chaos is easy to ensue. This is a world where minds are controlled by the eyes and therefore inadequate in perception. The final solution is to find a compromise between the world of reason and the world of sensory perception. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Sight is a theme constantly alluded to in the details of Shakespeare's language. Descriptions of love are often laced with references to sight. When Hermia describes her love for Lysander, she states that "Before the time I saw Lysander, / Athens seemed to me like a paradise", (Ii, ll.204-205), thus placing the full impetus of her emotion in the power of his eyes. Helena also uses this visual terminology when talking about her feelings for Demetrius: "It is not night when I see your face,/So I think I am not in the night/...How can you say I am alone,/When all the world will be here watching me?" (II.i, ll.221-222, 225-226). Demetrius says "The object and pleasure of my eye / Is only Helen" (IV.i, ll.170-171) when he realizes that he loves her. Eyes seem to be the favorite subject of many characters, so much so that it betrays a conscious choice by Shakespeare. Referring to Hermia's beauty, her eyes are constantly the object of both praise and jealousy. Helena laments: "Happy is Hermia, wherever she lies, / For she has blessed and attractive eyes. / How come her eyes are so bright? Not with salty tears; / If so, my eyes are washed more often than hers" (II.ii, ll.90-93). Theseus repeats such references in his speech: "...The lover, equally frantic,/Sees Helen's beauty in an Egyptian brow./The poet's eye, in a refined frenzy,/Looks from heaven to earth , from earth to heaven” (Vi, ll.10-13). This is one of many quotes that speak of the gaze, and thus another example of Shakespeare's careful inclusion of this specific topic is essentially theme-driven of sight. The narrative is built from the consequences of displacement, confusion and playing with vision. Oberon sets the story in motion by intruding into the eyes of Titania and Lysander the magic potion that creates all the confusion (and therefore the action). of the work because when "on sleeping eyelids placed/[it] will drive a man or woman mad/for the next living creature he sees" (II.i , ll.170-173). for references to eyes and sight, creating a texture that focuses on different sets of eyelids. But the question of vision is not answered simply by the magic potion. Oberon is jealous first and foremost because he trusts more what he sees than what he seeswhat he feels. Puck warns a fairy to "Beware lest the Queen come near his eyes; / For Oberon is passing anger and wrath, / For she for her servant hath / A lovely boy stolen from an Indian king" (II.i, ll . 19-22). Titania explains that she is raising the boy out of love for an old friend. But because Oberon sees Titania with a beautiful boy, he ignores the reason and bases his jealousy on what he sees before him. Titania dotes on someone. The reason is insignificant. For him only the sight is worthy of revenge. Shakespeare is careful to show us the danger in basing decisions on sight alone. Part of the realm of vision in the game's events is its ability to err when distanced from reason. Just as Oberon trusts his faulty eyesight with Titania's shapeshifting, he assumes that Puck can find Demetrius based on his appearance. Puck is told to assume Demetrius' identity based solely on the "Athenian garments he wears" (II.ii, l.264). Puck in fact sees a set of Athenian clothing and distributes the potion, but chooses the wrong person because his only guide is what he sees. Once again, the plot is driven by an out-of-place assumption because it relies only on sight. It is clear that Shakespeare sees danger in a world where reason and words are eclipsed by pure vision. The decisions made by Oberon demonstrate this point and, coincidentally, also drive the plot of the play. They are part of the world of magic and fantasy, where nothing other than sensory reaction is considered, and frenzied consequences ensue. Oberon is not the only character who influences the plot of the play in terms of vision. The four human characters all decide to escape Athens at night, thus knowingly entering a half-lit world where vision is certainly impaired. Oberon explains it best when he calls his efforts "nocturnal rule over this haunted grove" (III.ii, l.5), alluding to the mysterious quality of the forest at night. The forest is associated with darkness and Athens with light. Helen cries "O weary night, O long and dull night, / Lower your hours! Shine, comfort, from the east, / That I may return to Athens in the light of day" (III.iii, ll.431-433). Athens is also representative of reason, of law. Lysander suggests the forest because "...in that place the harsh Athenian law/Cannot persecute us" (II, l.62-63). Oberon sees this dichotomy too, as he predicts that when his victims wake, "they will all return to Athens to make amends / And think no more of the incidents of this night / But as of the fierce vexation of a dream" (IV.i, ll. 66-68). Athens, the kingdom of justice and reason, will allow the characters to think about and classify all the strange sights they saw in the forest. Their judgment will allow them to call this “dream”. Wood is thus re-embraced as a free space, where reason is suspended. This is certainly a point of the theme of vision. It is a sensorial substitute for reason, an alternative that turns out to be both fun and inadequate. Reason and vision intersect at several crucial moments, allowing Shakespeare to clearly foreground them as related subjects. Lysander confounds them when he explains his change of heart to Helen: "Man's will is swayed by reason; / And reason says you are the worthy maiden. / Things that grow are not ripe until their season, / So I, being young, hitherto ripe not to reason;/And now touching the point of human ability,/Reason leads me to your eyes, where I contemplate/The love stories written in the richest book of Love" (III.i, ll.115 -122). This is a crucial signal for a reader. We know that Lysander made the choice because of what he saw when he woke up. Repetition like this.