Fairies in the Woods

One of the most fascinating aspects of A Midsummer Night's Dream to me is Shakespeare's use of both the fairies, and the setting of the play. Both are utilized so that they become more than simply other characters, or trip through the woods. They become symbols, characters, themes--and vital to understanding what the play is really about. 

To start off, the setting; the play begins in Athens, in the midst of a civilized group of people bursting at the seams with issues. Theseus and Hippolyta are meant to get married, but in reality he "wooed her with his sword", Egeus is trying to get his daughter either killed or wed to Demetrius, who loves her, but she doesn't love him, of course. She loves Lysander. As soon as those two decide to take their fate into their own hands, they run away to the woods. That's an interesting and cleverly crafted decision to move them out of civilization into something darker and more wild. As soon as they leave this royal court they find themselves inside a world that they cannot control, and where conventions of society don't exactly exist. And the woods are where everything begins to get interesting.

Within the woods we have the fairies. They also exist in a world outside of social conventions. Naturally they have their own social structure, but it operates on a different playing field. Oberon and his wife can get into magical fights where they use their powers to get their way at all costs. Selfish, childish, or maybe just privy to more primitive human emotions. They are ruled by passions, and cannot be bothered with rules. They simply don't play by those. Puck is an impish, playful, sometimes malicious, example of the most base of human feelings. All of the fairies, really, represent those wild and less manageable emotions. 

Shakespeare uses both the woods and the fairies to display a darker side of humanity. Wild, passionate, outside of standard societal rules, they exist beyond what we think of as normal.