| Titania | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
Titania |
|
First Appearance |
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595–1596) |
|
Created by |
William Shakespeare |
Origin[]
Titania is the queen of the fairies and wife of the Fairy King, Oberon. The pair are depicted as powerful natural spirits who together guarantee the fertility or health of the human and natural worlds.
She is a very proud creature and as much of a force to contend with as her husband, Oberon. She and Oberon are engaged in a marital quarrel over which of them should have the keeping of an Indian changeling boy. It is this quarrel which drives the plot, creating the mix-ups and confusion of the other characters in the play.
Due to an enchantment cast by Oberon's servant Puck, Titania magically falls in love with a "rude mechanical" (a labourer), Nick Bottom the weaver, who has been given the head of a donkey by Puck, who feels it is better suited to his character. While under the spell, Titania loses the powerful attributes she previously held and becomes fawning instead.
After Oberon and Puck have had enough of watching Titania make a fool of herself to woo "a monster", Oberon reverses the spell and the two reunite after Titania pronounces "what visions have I seen! Methought I was enamour'd of an ass." At the play's conclusion, Titania and Oberon lead a fairy blessing of the marriages of the play's protagonists.
Public Domain Appearances[]
Theatrical and musical appearances[]
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream (play), by William Shakespeare (1595–96)
- Faust I (play), by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1770s)
- Oberon (opera), libretto by James Planché, music by Carl Maria von Weber (1825–26)
- The Foresters (play), by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1892)
Literary appearances[]
- Oberon (poem), by Christoph Martin Wieland (1780–96)
- Fairy Guardians, by F. Willoughby (1875)
Comic Appearances[]
- World Famous Stories #1
Notes[]
- Titania, one of Uranus's moons, was named after Shakespeare's character.