How we cite our quotes: (Act.Scene.Line). Line numbers correspond to Folger's online edition.
Quote #10
PUCK
My mistress with a monster is in love.
[...]
Titania waked and straightway loved an ass.OBERON
This falls out better than I could devise. (3.2.6; 36-37)
Remember when we said that A Midsummer Night's Dream restores social order by reinstating traditional gender hierarchies? Well, here's the evidence. By sloshing the magic love juice in Titania's eyes, Oberon manages to make the Fairy Queen 1) fall in love with the ass-headed Bottom, and 2) give up her foster child to Oberon. In other words, Oberon wins the battle of the sexes by humiliating Titania and stripping her of the mother-son relationship she enjoyed with the little "changeling" boy.