“We are their parents and original.” Interpreted through a contemporary lens, Titania’s Act II, Scene 1 monologue, beginning with, “These are the forgeries of jealousy”, provides material for an environmentalist reading of the actions of the fairies through the modern issue of climate change. (The monologue can be read in full at right.) 

In the monologue, Titania speaks of the effects of her quarrel with Oberon on the natural world, speaking of changing weather patterns that have affected animals, humans, and the land itself. While this may have reminded Elizabethan audiences of the terrible weather that caused failed harvests and food scarcity in the mid-1590’s, the monologue may, in a similarly existential way, remind contemporary audiences of the effects of climate change, on both the weather and living beings of the Earth. Titania speaks of overflowing levels of water in bodies of water, reminding of increasing sea water levels that threaten coastal area, and of increased rain storms, reminding of the increase in major storms (i.e. hurricanes) due to warmer weather: “Contagious fogs, which, falling in the land, / Hath every pelting river made so proud / That they have overborne their continents” (2.1.94-95).

Additionally, Titania’s claim that the Moon’s anger has caused “rheumatic diseases” to wash the air, reminds of how humans’ habit of encroaching on nature causes disease to spread, from animal to human, causing pandemics of respiratory illness. 

Most strongly, Titania concludes the monologue claiming the cause of the changes to the natural world is her and Oberon’s quarrel, owning the selfishness and personal concern that is not causing disorder in the natural world and affecting all beings: “And this same progeny of evils comes / From our debate, from our dissension; / We are their parents and original” (2.1.118-120).