The Shakespearean plays “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Titus Andronicus,” can be seen as polar opposites of each other. One play is light-hearted and comical – indeed, it is one of Shakespeare’s comedies, while the other is a most gruesome tale that takes place in the Roman Empire. One thing both have in common, though, is the pivotal role of the woods with respect to the individual contexts of the plays. The main events, which end up dictating the course of the plays, occur in the woods. The characters of these two plays enjoy the notion of wilderness in the woods; that is, they enjoy the idea of dropping whatever facades they need to maintain and behaving however they pleased, and they acted on that notion. The characters of the plays are given a sense of freedom in the woods, but they forget that their actions – even in the seeming confidentiality of the woods – will have direct consequences in society. While this claim (that the woods give characters leeway to acting on impulse and desire, instead of with prudence) is never stated in either of the plays, further investigation into the plays and the character’s lines can prove so. A great portion of the play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ takes place in the woods, which is why it is slightly more difficult to grasp the magnitude with which the woods affect the outcome of the play; it is where almost everything happens, after all: where Oberon and Titania have their quarrel, where Hermia and Lysander plan to run away to, and where the workmen plan to rehearse for their play. Oberon and Titania have a spat over which of the two should be able to keep a little Indian boy, and both make outrageous claims that the other is in love with the Hippolyta and Theseus. The argument ends with Oberon’s decision to play a humorous joke on Titania. He summons Puck, one of his mischievous sprites, to obtain a flower called love-in-idleness so that he may use it to make Titania fall in love with an unsightly creature. While Oberon is busy plotting revenge on his queen, an Athenian couple plans to run away to another city so that they could get married. Hermia and Lysander plan to run away to Lysander’s aunt, but they get lost in the woods. Lysander suggests that they spend the night in the woods and proceed on with their journey once it is again morning. Normally an honorable man, Lysander wants to sleep together, as they are both in love,: “One turf shall serve as pillow for us both; One heart, one bed; two bosoms, and one troth.” (2.2 46, A Midsummer Night’s Dream). The fact that he and Hermia were planning to elope, together with their being (seemingly) alone in the woods excited Lysander, and he acted as any man would when presented with the opportunity of being alone with the woman he loved. The woods brought his unabashed desire to be with Hermia on more than just an emotional plane. Lysander never once suggested that he and Hermia engage in inappropriate behavior when they were still in Athens. Hermia immediately puts out all of Lysander’s hopes, though, by saying, “Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear do not lie so near.” (2.2 49, A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Meanwhile, the man who is to marry Hermia, Demetrius is enraged and storms off to find Hermia, and slay Lysander for taking her away. Helena, who is in love with Demetrius, follows him into the woods. Helena’s constant speech irritates Demetrius, who is already “wood within the woo