"A Midsummer Night's Dream": Nature Imagery

In this scene, the repeated images of nature have an incredible effect on the audience since they are able to appeal to them using the five senses. Readers are allowed to experience the play through what they see, hear, feel, smell, and taste. These senses result in a more realistic description of each scene. In order to resonate several different emotions within the mind of a reader, Shakespeare uses nature imagery to connect to situations individuals experience in their everyday lives. Overall, these images are necessary in order for the audience to visually interpret A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

	Lines in 3.2.	Picture	Appeals to Senses	Creates Emotional Response
1	“An adder did it, for with doubler tongue/Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.” (Shakespeare 3.2.73-74)	A snake could kill Lysander just as easily as Demetrius could. No snake has ever had more of a forked tongue full of lies than Demetrius.	Sight/Touch	Audience is shocked by Hermia’s comparison of Demetrius to a killer snake. Sight suggests the killing; touch suggests the forked tongue full of lies.
2	“Oh, when she’s angry, she is keen and shrewd! She was a vixen when she went to school. And though she be but little, she is fierce.” (3.2.333-335)	Hermia acted like a female fox when she got angry at school. She may be little, but she is a fierce fighter.	Sight/Touch	Audience is surprised that Hermia is a fierce fighter because she is very short. Sight suggests Hermia’s height and her appearance as a female fox; touch suggests her fighting.
3	“As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,/Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort,/Rising and cawing at the gun’s report,/Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky – So at his sight away his fellows fly.” (3.2.20-24)	Bottom’s friends act like ducks scattering from the sound of a hunter’s gunshot when they see his donkey head.	Sight/Sound	Audience is confused as Bottom develops the head of a donkey and his friends run away from him, losing all common sense. Sight suggests ducks flying away; sound suggests the hunter’s gunshot.
4	“When in that moment so it came to pass, Titania waked and straightway loved an ass.” (3.2.34)	Titania wakes up and immediately falls in love with a donkey (Bottom).	Sight/Touch	Audience is full of bewilderment as the queen of fairies falls in love with an ugly animal. Sight suggests the donkey; touch suggests the love that immediately touches Titania’s heart.
5	“The sun was not so true unto the day/As he to me.” (3.2.50-51)	Hermia claims that Lysander was more faithful to her than the sun is to daytime.	Sight/Touch	Audience is feeling sorry for Hermia and hoping Demetrius did not kill her true love. Sight suggests the sun in the daytime; touch suggests the way Lysander touched Hermia’s heart more powerfully than the sun’s rays in the daytime.
6	“I’ll believe as soon/This whole Earth may be bored, and that the moon/May through the center creep and so displease.” (3.2.52-54)	Hermia will believe Demetrius when she believes that the Moon has passed through a hole in the center of the Earth.	Sight/Touch	Audience is realizing that Hermia will never believe Demetrius, unless the impossible happens. Sight suggests the Moon passing through the Earth; touch suggests Demetrius’ lies passing through Hermia’s soul.
7	“Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!” (3.2.143)	Demetrius wakes up and describes Helena’s lips as a pair of ripe cherries touching each other.	Sight/Touch/Taste	Audience is full of suspense since the spell is forcing Demetrius to flatter Helena with loving comments. Sight suggests a pair of ripe cherries; touch suggests the cherries touching each other; taste suggests the sweetness of the cherries.
8	“Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! Vile thing, let loose/Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent.” (3.2.266-267)	Lysander tells Hermia to stop hanging on to him like a cat or a thorn. Otherwise, he will shake her off like a snake.	Sight/Touch	Audience is upset because Lysander is being rude to Hermia when he should be deeply in love with her. Sight refers to Hermia as a cat or a thorn and Lysander as a snake; touch refers to Hermia hanging on and Lysander violently shaking her off.
9	“Get you gone, you dwarf,/You minimus of hindering knotgrass made,/You bead, you acorn!” (3.2.339-340)	Lysander tells Hermia to get lost since she is as small as a dwarf and as unimportant as a tiny weed, scrap, or acorn.	Sight/Touch	Audience is angry at Lysander’s attitude towards Hermia and is full of suspense regarding his next interaction with her. Sight refers to Hermia as a small dwarf, tiny weed, scrap, or acorn; touch suggests the betrayal piercing Hermia’s heart and the hatred beaming out of Lysander’s.