A Midsummer Night's Dream Research Paper

True love’s path is paved with every step. Through the assistance of fanciful elements as well as characters Puck and Oberon, the true message of love in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is revealed. The four lovers know the direction in which their hearts are inclined to turn, but when the love potion is administered, the bounds of their rectangle are thrashed without knowledge or consent. The rapid shifts in affection between the play’s “four lovers” is representative of the idea that love isn’t a conscious choice, but a cruel game in which we are the figurines, being controlled by whomever the player may be, relating the characters’ karmic fates.

A flower was struck by the arrow of cupid. Consequently, a love flower was born; the nectar of this flower when applied to someone’s eyes will make them fall in love with the next living thing they see. Oberon orders Robin to apply the nectar to Demetrius’ eyes because he notices how mean he is to Helena. Unfortunately, Robin anoints the eyes of Lysander instead. When Lysander awakes, the first person he sees is Helena. Lysander claims to Helena,”Content with Hermia? No, I do repent The tedious minutes I with her have spent”(1.1.118,119). The love flower makes Lysander fall in love with Helena. The flower is a major challenge for the couple because Lysander is suddenly madly in love with Helena. Lysander and Hermia left Athens to escape the law together. Unfortunately, Lysander despises Hermia. When Hermia awakes, she does not see Lysander and begins to worry. Hermia sobs to Demetrius, “If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep, Being o’er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep And kill me too”(1.1.49-51). Lysander is chasing Helena whom he loves because of the flower. Helena thinks Lysander is playing a practical joke. Meanwhile, Hermia believes that Demetrius kills Lysander. The quote demonstrates how much Hermia loves Lysander because it shows she would rather die than be without Lysander. The flower creates a huge complexity in Lysander and Hermia’s relationship by splitting them up and making Lysander love another

Above all the tensions created by the discussion of marriage, Lysander deliver a quotes to his love Hermia. “The course of true love never did run smooth…” (Act 1, Scene 1, line 134) is a famous quote by Lysander. In the quote he conveys to readers that love is not perfect, it also has its ups and downs and that he and Hermia are going through a tough situation. Hermia and Lysander both love each other and have made a plan to meet in a forest and then escape Athens however the problem arises when Hermia has tells Helena this and she plans to tell Demetrius about this so that he will love her and not Hermia. The King of fairies− Oberon hears all this and decides to settle the dispute between all of them. He instructs his assistant Robin Goodfellow to search for Demetrius and put the love juice on his eyelids so that he is compelled to love Helena, he informs him about the dressing style of Demetrius in "thou shalt know the man by the Athenian garments he hath on" (Act 2, Scene 1, line 263-264). However there is a problem, in the forest there are two Athenian men dressed in Athenian garments and their identities were mistaken; instead of putting the love juice on Demetrius's eyelids Robin Goodfellow put it on Lysander's eyelids. Now Lysander "loves" Helena and wants to get away from Hermia. After discovering Robin Goodfellow's mistake, Oberon tries to correct this mistake by putting the same love juice in Demetrius's so that he loves Helena eyes however

One of his plays, ‘A midsummer’s night dream’, includes the themes of love and magic,where love is represented as a force that makes people act in irrational ways to entertain the audience in a comical and dramatic way. He used different techniques throughout the play to create a tumultuous and intriguing factor. The storyline of the play follows various couples such as Hermia and Lysander and Oberon and Titania. These couples show examples of irrational behaviours with love and magic throughout the play.

In the first part of the play Egeus has asked the Duke of Athens, Theseus, to rule in

Theseus only allows Hermia three options: to die, to obey her father’s wishes and wed Demetrius or to become a nun. The law was is an obstacle because it prevents Hermia and Lysander from being together.

In act 3 scene 2, Hermia cried out to Lysander, who had betrayed her, “Why are you grown so rude? What change is this, Sweet love?” but Lysander says, “Thy love! Out, tawny Tartar, out! Out, loathèd med'cine! O hated potion, hence!” (3.2.172-175) Because Lysander falls in love with Helena because Puck mistakenly put his love potion on Lysander, Hermia, the actual lover of Lysander, got hurt by him. She could not believe that Lysander did not love her anymore. This was wrong. Helena was not the true love of Lysander. However, because of the blind love effect of the love potion, Lysander forgot his true love.

Love is a term used daily in one’s life. Many categorize love in many forms. These forms differ from one-another such as the difference between love for food and love for one’s spouse. However, in the play; “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, love takes different forms than the ones experienced in reality. One can classify the different types of love used in this play into three different categories; true love, love produced by cupid’s flower, and the state of lust.

The concept of how love blinds in Shakespeare’s, A Midsummers Night’s Dream is significant in viewing the fact how the ‘eyes of love’ are not always rational. When eyes and sight

The biggest obstacle in this play occurs when the power of love is challenged by authority. The play starts with Theseus, duke of Athens, being eager to marry Hippolyta, who he wooed with his sword in combat. Although Theseus promises Hippolyta that he will wed her “with pomp, with triumph, with reveling,” true love between them is questionable. By starting the play with Theseus and Hippolyta, Shakespeare hints the audience of the authority involved in their marriage and leaves the audience wonder if they actually love each other. The focus is then shifted to the four lovers: Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena - by establishing the story of Hermia being forced by her father, Egeus, to marry Demetrius, when the person she actually wants to marry is Lysander. However, Egeus

The hilarious play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, tells the twisted love story of four Athenians who are caught between love and lust. The main characters: Hermia, Helena, Lysander, and Demetrius are in a ‘love square’. Hermia and Lysander are true love enthusiasts, and love each other greatly. Demetrius is in love with Hermia, and Helena, Hermia’s best friend, is deeply and madly in love with Demetrius. Hermia and Lysander try to elope in the woods because Egeus, Hermia’s father, disapproves of Lysander. Helena, hearing about their plans, tells Demetrius, and all four of them end up in the woods where Lysander’s quotation, “The course of true love never did run smooth”(28), becomes extremely evident due to several

This demonstrates how there is money and power involved in the story. Egeus, Hermia’s father, removes all of her power. Egeus has her power and controls his daughter, Hermia. In the story, Egeus arranges her marriage with someone whom she doesn’t love, and he doesn’t let her marry who she loves, Lysander. Not only that, but also shows how money also is being used in the story.

The supernatural world is rather distinct to that of the human world entrenched in societal standards and boundaries. Shakespeare’s play, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, explores this concept, particularly through the use of Puck. In agreement to Harold Bloom’s statement, the following essay will analyse how Puck is significant because, by being so disparate, he is able to show the limitations of the human. This will be done through, first, exploring a definition of the human in relation to the supernatural. Subsequently, the essay will use a Freudian lense to analyse the morality of Puck and, lastly, the essay will focus on Puck’s physical characteristics as well as his ability to span across boundaries in the play and the metatheatrical realm.

Mandy Conway Mrs. Guynes English 12 16 March 2000 A Critical Analysis of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" William Shakespeare, born in 1594, is one of the greatest writers in literature. He dies in 1616 after completing many sonnets and plays. One of which is "A Midsummer Night's Dream." They say that this play is the most purely romantic of Shakespeare's comedies. The themes of the play are dreams and reality, love and magic. This extraordinary play is a play-with-in-a-play, which master writers only write successfully. Shakespeare proves here to be a master writer. Critics find it a task to explain the intricateness of the play, audiences find it very pleasing to read and watch. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a

3. Egeus wants to complain to Theseus about his daughter Hermia. Egeus wants her to marry Demetrius but she is in love with Lysander. He wants her to choose either Demetrius or death.