As critic Ronald Miller so eloquently stated, "The complex and subtle intellectuality of Shakespeare's comic art was never better illustrated than in A Midsummer Night's Dream a Midsummer Night and, in particular, from Shakespeare's use of fairies in that play" (Miller 486). It may be added that the employment of this type of supernaturalism, in general, is what distinguishes A Midsummer Night's Dream from any other Shakespearean work. Although many critics of Shakespeare's time thought this work was a "piece of nonsense", the modern critic Miller suggests that "it is now more likely to be read as a study in the epistemology of the imagination" (486). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Overall, Shakespeare's use of supernaturalism masterfully portrays joviality. The tone is full of mystical and whimsical fantasy elements that produce a very happy and lively atmosphere. The only hint of the darker side of the supernatural world is the mention of ghosts in the third act:...Yonder Aurora's omen shines;At whose approach, ghosts, wandering hither and thither,Come home to the cemeteries: spirits all damned ,That in the crossroads and floods have burial, their worm beds have already disappeared; lest the day should look upon their shame, they willfully exile themselves from the light, and must forever join the black-fronted night. (Shakespeare 3.2.380 -87) The critic Cumberland Clark suggests that in this passage, "Shakespeare's thoughts returned to the malignant and hostile fairies of folklore, who some believed to be the departed spirits of men and women, and for this reason were often confused with ghosts" (Clark 400). Clark compared the somewhat negative use of supernaturalism in A Midsummer Night's Dream to Hamlet and Macbeth. Immediately after this disturbing passage, Oberon, the Fairy King, "casts the shadow over their carefree joy" by stating that they are spirits of another kind (400). In contrast, educator, scholar, and veteran theater director James Bush suggests that the actual sets used during Shakespeare's stage production of A Midsummer Night's Dream are the best representation of the atmosphere the playwright intended to create. At the beginning of the play, Shakespeare creates a feeling of lightness by staging the first scene on a bright early morning. Bush concludes that when the lovers run away into the woods and fairies appear, darkness descends, both literally and figuratively (Bush). Indeed, the fairies are at the center of creating the atmosphere that is portrayed throughout the play. The fairies that are part of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream are more than just fictional, fantastical characters meandering through the action. As E. K. Chambers stated, they are "irresponsible creatures, eternal children. They belong to the winds and clouds and flowers, to everything in nature that is beautiful and gentle and fleeting" (Chambers 396). Chambers notes that, above all, the primary characteristics that men possess that fairies do not are "a sense of law and the instinct of self-control" (396). Perhaps this lack of self-control and sense of law is best illustrated by the character Puck. As a fairy jester, Puck takes nothing seriously, not even his own mistake in following Oberon's orders regarding the administration of the magical love potion. Not only does he seem to not take any situation seriously, but he seems to take great pleasure in bringing "perplexity upon unfortunate mortals" (396) simply put, he "enjoys creating chaos, particularly among humans" (Greenhill17). Jim Bush argues that it is not that fairies have no sense of law and self-control, but rather simply of a different kind. “Fairies are totally into self-gratification,” Bush said. "Human right aims at the culture of the common field because what works best for the group is correct. Society must be protected. Oberon belongs to the Atlantic fringe culture, like the Irish, the Welsh, and even the Appalachians. The premise basic underlying Atlantic fringe culture is "whatever is best for me is best, and to hell with society" (Bush), this is the main element that causes so much conflict between fairies and humans in this world.work.Puck is again used to corroborate Bush's statement about the self-gratification element. "Puck is by far the most interesting, I think because it's obviously designed to be the instigator of sexual passion," he noted. Bush controller of, although Shakespeare kept G classified the sexual and human intercourse of couples " But above all, Puck is under the control of Oberon. This controlling factor represents a mythological link with the Zeus-Pan (Bush) relationship. The best representation of the mythological connection with Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is with the character of Oberon Bush compares Oberon to Zeus: "His punitive actions and his anger against his queen are very reminiscent of Zeus' anger with Hera ". portrayed as a god, Oberon is portrayed as a jealous king (Bush). The most surprising thing, according to Bush, is the fact that Shakespeare's use of historical and mythological beings and events is very scattered and unstructured. Bush attributes the disorganization of aspects of history and mythology to Shakespeare's main goal in writing A Midsummer Night's Dream to entertain. “Too often people see more in the play than Shakespeare intended.” According to Bush, there is "no all-cause evangelism and no satanic agenda," although many critics argue that it exists. Shakespeare's main purpose was to write "an acting device to make a theater company money" (Bush). “He wants to give the audience a cheap thrill and by involving all the characters and kingdoms, he gets the entertainment” (Bush). Although they seem like entertainment, the supernatural elements that Shakespeare incorporated into the main action and plot of his play do. not accomplish anything that would have been impossible or unlikely without their presence. The underlying theme of the work is clear: the story of the unraveling of the love affairs of four young Athenians. The plot is simply strengthened and corroborated by the presence of supernaturalism. E. K. Chambers noted in his book Shakespeare: A Survey that "magic love in idleness really does no more than symbolically represent the familiar workings of real love in idleness in the human heart." Chambers continued: "Boys in love they change their minds just like that, or almost exactly like that, without any fairy whispers to guide them." The interaction with love and the inevitable results of that interaction are the function of the various supernatural elements used throughout the play (Chambers 396). His use of magic, dreamland and fairies from ancient folklore are simply ingredients he uses to bring people an entertaining production. Bush compared Shakespeare's romantic comedy to Neil Simon's Broadway plays: "The reactions are real. There's nothing unreal except the fairy overlay of magic." What is so special about Shakespeare's fairies that they inspired 400 years of their stories and images and even created the now famous Disney fairies?(Friedlander, www.pathguy.com). While many credit Shakespeare with creating a fairy frenzy that has lasted since the first performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Bush says the credit belongs to the sources. Bush suggests that the commonality of the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and those of famous stories, images, and now Disney films, is due to the sources they all used. Ancient sources of whimsical, small winged creatures date back to Shakespeare's time and have undoubtedly been used numerous times since then, including in the work of JR Tolkein. The fairies in A Midsummer Night's dreams are, according to Ronald Miller, simply "literary ornaments" (Miller 487). Shakespeare's way of presenting the fairies, whose "very artificiality of their language prevents us from being truly engaged with Titania and Oberon as dramatic characters," suggests that they are simply stage figures with artful language (487). According to Miller, fairies also seem to have a mysterious element. “The intellectual implications of fairies… have not yet been exhausted once the puzzle of their metaphysical status has been explored,” commented Miller. “Without a doubt,” he continues, “there is [Miller's emphasis] a certain insensitivity towards these beings.” According to Miller, Shakespeare "allows us to have our fairies and to doubt them too" (487). Miller also noted that Shakespeare's art, while allegorical, is not so much about the fairies themselves as "the mystery [Miller's emphasis] of the fairies." the very aura of evanescence and ambiguity that surrounds their life on stage indicates a mysteriousness in our own existence, and specifically in ambivalent earthly matters such as love, luck, imagination, and even faith" (487). These earthly matters, the whole of human experience, seem to occupy the fairies' attention throughout the play. Shakespeare's use of the combination of supernaturalism and mystery causes the reader to continually ask unanswered questions about the existence of such. supernatural beings and their role in the moral experiences to which the fairies of Shakespeare's work are linked. With the enormous volumes of fictional and fictional science available even today, it is clear that something in human nature needs magic, perhaps an innate desire. human subconscious to create and reflect on the effects of the supernatural world. Bush said: "[People] need the wonder of a unicorn, the wonder of giants and beanstalks. I think Shakespeare consciously or unconsciously recognized that basic need." Dreaming is how they interact with human characters. Cumberland Clark noted that, unlike the Weird Sisters in Shakespeare's Macbeth, his "bright, airy beings" they are not kept separate from his moral characters (Clark 400). Rather, fairies mingle freely among mortals although they live in two separate worlds governed undoubtedly by different laws.G Wilson Night observes that not only fairies but also the country of the fairies "penetrates the world of human action" (Wilson 401). Furthermore, the action of the fairies is not limited to a single place or a single group of mortals. Rather, they are interspersed between the courts of Athens, the woods where craftsmen try and the deepest woods where young Athenians gathered for the night Although they are considered woodland creatures whose primary existence is in and in the natural world, they are not limited to the boundaries established by mortals, whether physical or social (Greenhill). 17). Another notable and usually unnoticed aspect of Shakespeare's fairies is their individual meter and verse form. Fairies appear to have their own trochaic tetrameter. This light, bouncy quality creates the feeling of joviality that is peculiar to the fairies themselves.., 453-6.