Introduction
In his well-known play called Midsummer Night’s Dream William Shakespeare describes a case of interaction between the world of humans and the world of supernatural creatures. The drama that revolves around several couples ends up in a massive confusion caused by the meddling of elves and fairies. Initially, the meddling was planned with a good intention – to establish harmony in a relationship between Helena and Demetrius because the woman has been suffering from an unreturned love. Puck’s mistake creates chaos and negatively affects not only Helena and Demetrius but also Lysander and Hermia. Yet, Puck is enjoying his meddling saying “And those things do best please me/ That befal preposterously” (III, 2).
Main body
The meddling of fairies and elves in Midsummer Night’s Dream is hard to evaluate clearly because it was directed at the reduction of sufferings in the world of humans, but at some point turned into a mockery of human feelings and a manipulation. It is difficult to identify the supernatural creatures because they act simultaneously as the helpers who watch over the people and as arrogant and ignorant forces who abuse their own power. In the end, elves and fairies end up fixing the chaos they created and putting the couples together, but the effect caused by their meddling is extremely strong and revolves as a chain reaction. Shakespeare makes it clear how powerful the supernatural forces really are with their ability to change people’s life completely within a couple of seconds.
In A Passage to India, the meddling of supernatural forces can be found in the response of the Indian nature towards the presence of the English. First of all, nature responds with extreme heat, secondly, it facilitates the misunderstanding between the two societies based on a panic attack Adela has in the caves after Aziz leaves her alone for offending his culture.
In Howe’s The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, the presence of magic is obvious since Connie is gradually penetrating the unknown history and details she was unaware of before. Connie’s dog Arlo is the one to discover the first clue and serve as the main starting point of the whole quest. Is it possible that Arlo was able to see forces unavailable to humans? Besides, the circumstances come together in a suspiciously smooth way with Connie being interested in Salem’s witch trials, her relation to a victim of that phenomenon, and her finding of the properties of Deliverance Dane. Is it just a coincidence or did the properties want to be found? Was Connie meant to locate them and become the chosen one to reveal the secret? It seems like Connie was led to one clue after another which assumes meddling of the supernatural forces.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the presence of forces and creatures unknown to humans is a popular subject in literature of all times. Supernatural characters have been the sources of massive interest ever since ancient times, and their popularity has not faded away today. The three texts by Forster, Howe, and Shakespeare demonstrate a different approach to this subject and provide three various perspectives on what supernatural forces are and how they operate.