Confusion In Sophocles Midsummer Night's Dream

Jaylee Hall

Mr. David Schelle

Introduction to Literature 1015

7 February 2023

Life is confusing but it keeps you improving

Living is a constant battle of up and downs filled with confusion and unexpected turns. Without these two major aspects of life, society would stay complacent and growth would be very minimal to nonexistent. Confusion causes struggle which eventually leads growth; the same goes for the unexpected. Sophocles, the author of Oedipus Rex, demonstrates this idea in his play about an overly ambitious king of Thebes, whose stubbornness pushed him to find the truth, even though it didn’t turn out how he expected. Similarly, Shakespeare wrote Midsummer Nights Dream about teens who ran away in attempt to find freedom to make their own decisions; chaos ensues, however, by the end, they all get married and live happily in Athens. In these plays, both authors use roles of confusion in order to allude to their theme that life’s greatest lessons often come by confusing and unexpected means.

In Midsummer Nights Dream Puck confused the two boys, Demetrius and Lysander, and gave the ‘love potion’ to the wrong one (Shakespeare 2.1.69-80). Puck’s ignorance set up a domino effect for the rest of the play. Without this mixup, there would’ve been nothing to resolve, and without a resolution the characters wouldn’t have learned and grown. Another physical aspect that leads to confusion is the topic of sight in Oedipus Rex. Tiresias mock’s Oedipus and his “precious eyes” which make him “blind to the corruption of [his life]” (Sophocles 1441-1442). The confusion comes with the idea that Oedius’ physical eyes are actually the thing that blind him. He is so focused on his present life that he is distracted from his past and what he did. This idea is later confirmed when he pokes out his own eyes and everything is slowly revealed; confusion becomes clarity (Sophocles