<P> In 1970, R.A. Zimbardo viewed the play as full of symbols . The Moon and its phases alluded to in the play, in his view, stand for permanence in mutability . The play uses the principle of discordia concors in several of its key scenes . Theseus and Hippolyta represent marriage and, symbolically, the reconciliation of the natural seasons or the phases of time . Hippolyta's story arc is that she must submit to Theseus and become a matron . Titania has to give up her motherly obsession with the changeling boy and passes through a symbolic death, and Oberon has to once again woo and win his wife . Kehler notes that Zimbardo took for granted the female subordination within the obligatory marriage, social views that were already challenged in the 1960s . </P> <P> In 1971, James L. Calderwood offered a new view on the role of Oberon . He viewed the king as specialising in the arts of illusion . Oberon, in his view, is the interior dramatist of the play, orchestrating events . He is responsible for the play's happy ending, when he influences Theseus to overrule Egeus and allow the lovers to marry . Oberon and Theseus bring harmony out of discord . He also suggested that the lovers' identities, which are blurred and lost in the forest, recall the unstable identities of the actors who constantly change roles . In fact the failure of the artisans' play is based on their chief flaw as actors: they cannot lose their own identities to even temporarily replace them with those of their fictional roles . </P> <P> Also in 1971, Andrew D. Weiner argued that the play's actual theme is unity . The poet's imagination creates unity by giving form to diverse elements, and the writer is addressing the spectator's own imagination which also creates and perceives unity . Weiner connected this unity to the concept of uniformity, and in turn viewed this as Shakespeare's allusion to the "eternal truths" of Platonism and Christianity . </P> <P> Also writing in 1971, Hugh M. Richmond offered an entirely new view of the play's love story lines . He argued that what passes for love in this play is actually a self - destructive expression of passion . He argued that the play's significant characters are all affected by passion and by a sadomasochistic type of sexuality . This passion prevents the lovers from genuinely communicating with each other . At the same time it protects them from the disenchantment with the love interest that communication inevitably brings . The exception to the rule is Bottom, who is chiefly devoted to himself . His own egotism protects him from feeling passion for anyone else . Richmond also noted that there are parallels between the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe, featured in this play, and that of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet . </P>

Who plays oberon in a midsummer's night dream