Flower Quotes in A Midsummer Night's Dream | Study.com (2024)

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Flower Quotes in A Midsummer Night's Dream | Study.com? ›

King Oberon

They describe the woodland setting where Titania sleeps: 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. There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight.

In the case of summer blooms, their floral symbolism often revolves around themes such as love, joy, abundance, and vitality. Delving into the symbolic meanings of summer flowers allows us to understand the deeper messages they convey.

Ancient tradition says that if a young woman puts seven different flowers under her pillow on the night to Midsummer Day, she will dream of her future partner.

Roses. Roses and rosebushes are used to symbolize a woman's sexuality and fertility. This occurs when Theseus is talking to Hermia about her refusal to marry Demetrius, the man her father has arranged for her to marry.

In William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, flowers play an important role in the plot. While the main attraction is the flower that is used as a love potion, the flower also represents femininity and leisure.

The love potion of A Midsummer Night's Dream is created upon the command of Oberon. He asks Puck to harvest a white flower that has transformed into a purple flower. This transformation is due to ''love's wound. '' It is administered to the eyes of a sleeping victim.

Oberon sends Puck to find a special flower that, when it's juice is placed on the eyelids, causes that individual to fall in love with the next living creature seen. He plans to put it on Titania's eyelids to cause her to give him the boy. Helena and Demetrius come to the woods hunting for Hermia.

Flowers symbolize life, love, and beauty. In literature, they are often used to represent a pure and innocent character, such as the innocent and young women in Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet".

What do flowers symbolize in Shakespeare? ›

Fennel represents marital infidelity and columbine flattery or insincerity. Rue, also known as herb of grace, is very bitter and stands for regret, repentance and sorrow. Daisies are a symbol of innocence and the violets, now withered, mean faithfulness.

The chrysanthemum, or mum, makes a wonderful choice when mourning with a family that has ties to Europe or Asia. China, Korea and Japan use white chrysanthemums to symbolize grief.

A Midsummer Night's Dream asserts marriage as the true fulfillment of romantic love. All the damaged relationships have been sorted out at the end of Act IV, and Act V serves to celebrate the whole idea of marriage in a spirit of festive happiness.

By successfully employing the rose imagery, Shakespeare extols the virtues of love, beauty and youth, displays his faith in the immortality of his verse. The rose imagery in Shakespeare's sonnets helps readers appreciate and cherish the beauty and youth, love and truth all the time.

The love potion thus becomes a symbol of the unreasoning, fickle, erratic, and undeniably powerful nature of love, which can lead to inexplicable and bizarre behavior and cannot be resisted.

The arrow instead struck a small, white flower: “It fell upon a little western flower, / Before, milk-white, now purple with love's wound, / And maidens call it 'love-in-idleness'” (2.1. 172-174). According to Oberon's account, this wounded pansy now carries a purple heart and Cupid's amorous powers.

Oberon orders Robin Goodfellow, a hobgoblin or “puck,” to obtain a special flower that makes people fall in love with the next creature they see. Oberon wants to make Titania fall in love with a beast and use her infatuation to get the Indian boy from her.

The inclusion of these flowers Wild Thyme, Oxlips, Violets, Woodbine, Musk-Roses, and Eglantine were a kind of offering to Titania, Queen of the Fairies, but more importantly, they were an offering to her representative here in the mundane realms Queen Elizabeth I. The first of these is Wild Thyme (Thymus serpyllum).