Love is only as strong as the people who share it. In William Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, there are relationships from all different viewpoints of love. Four Athenian lovers are caught in a web of love for the wrong person, according to fellow peevish characters. Along the story line of the play, one will be introduced to additional characters that try to be helpful by committing acts they presume will benefit the young lovers, but these characters actually create plot-twists. Also, there are other characters that have the authority to change whatever they feel is necessary without thinking twice. Furthermore, throughout this humored play, Shakespeare portrays various forms of love through arranged marriages, forbidden …show more content…
Helena, whom fancies Demetrius, decides to inform him of the happenings between Hermia and Lysander. Demetrius, infuriated by this news, decides to follow Hermia and Lysander out in to the forest. Helena is following along; against Demetrius’ repent of the action. Ultimately, along the love story between Hermia and Lysander we discover the second variation of love in the play: forbidden love. These two characters, desperate for one another, decide since their love is forbidden in their own home, they will travel to someone else’s and finally become one. This is their silent protest to what the Duke and Egeus have declared of their love. In Act II Scene 1, you are introduced to Oberon, the reigning king of the fairies, to Puck, Oberon’s servant of sorts, and to Titania, the queen of the fairies. Oberon and Titania are in a quarrel over a young boy, which Titania currently has possession of. Oberon desperately wants to have the boy from Titania, despite her repetitive negative answers. Oberon then turns to his ways of magic, seeing as he is the king of the fairies. He orders Puck to go find a flower he describes as “…now purple with love’s wound”, to use to distract Titania (Crowther). “The juice from this flower, when placed on the eyelids, can cause the person to fall in love with the first thing they next see” according to Oberon’s magical knowledge (Dowd). Oberon, then seeing how Helena chases after
Titania, before her bewitchment, warns Oberon that their own lovers' spat is causing havoc on earth. She speaks of "winds, piping to us in vain/As in revenge" (2.1 88, 90), of the moon, "pale in her anger" (104), and how the seasons "change/Their wonted liveries" (112-13). At first, Oberon cannot see beyond his jealousy of the little changeling Titania has adopted. He sets into motion fantastic spells that upend real love, mimicking the more serious complications wrought by human politics. Naturally, Titania's premonition bears fruit when Puck transforms Nick Bottom into an ass, and again when Lysander falls in love with Helena and forgets about Hermia. These turns of events eventually worry Oberon, too. He tells Puck to make sure to "lead these testy rivals so astray/As one come not within another's way" (3.2 358-59). He prescribes the potion to set things straight, calling the evening's pranks "a dream and fruitless vision," and declaring that with his corrective action, "all things shall be peace" (3.2 377).
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.
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
Helena and Hermia have this kind of love and would do anything for each other. It happens that Helena is in love with Demetrius who Hermia is being forced to marry. Demetrius does not want Helena but Hermia. Helena loves her friend Hermia but at the same time wants to get her man.
Oberon, riddled with jealousy over his queen’s beloved “changeling”, plots to make a fool out of Titania with his magic potion so he may steal away the child. Oberon's love-potion has the same effect of that of the famed Cupid's arrows, it charms the sight of those it is anointed upon, and gets them to fall in “love” with the first creature they see. Oberon anoints the eyes of Titania and she ends up falling in “love” with the first creature she sees, Bottom, an actor who is rehearsing in the woods, who’s head has been turned into that of an ass by Puck. Oberon plan is successful, he is in fact able to steal away the child while his queen dotes upon Bottom, but then things start to get more complicated in the moonlit woods.
Love is a very common theme that is seen in literature, and love is one of the most powerful things that can be felt for someone or something. Love can drive a person to do incredible or horrible things, and we see many forms of love that take place in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This is demonstrated in the book by many characters including Hermia and Lysander who demonstrate true love. Titania and Bottom show magical love. In the play, love is also the cause of a few broken hearts. While there is no one common definition of love that suits all of the characters, the romantic relationship in the play all leans to one simple rule laid out by Lysander, “The course of true love never did run smooth.”
Although love is typically a positive emotion or concept, it is most often truly a more negative notion, due to its consequences. Love is known to bring people together in the beginning, but also tends to customarily pull or even break people apart by causing chaos and rivalry. The loss of love could even cause insecurities to surface. In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of the lovers, Helena, is scorched by love’s misfortunes when it comes between her and her ex-lover, Demetrius.The misfortunes of love force Helena into becoming an insecure woman who allows her emotions to cloud her judgement.
Is love controlled by human beings who love one another or is love controlled by a higher power? There are many people who believe that a higher power has control over love. An example of a higher power would be a cupid, a flying angel-type creature who is supposed to shoot arrows at people to make them fall in love. There are other people who reject the idea that a higher power controls love and that the people who experience love can control it. In the novel, "A Midsummer Night's Dream", by William Shakespeare, several examples of love's association with a higher power are presented. With the use of examples from the above novel, this essay will discuss the evidence that love is
In the beginning of the play, Egeus, Hermia’s father, complains to the duke of Athens, Theseus, about his daughter not wanting to marry the man he picked out for her, Demetrius. Theseus comes to a conclusion of either sending Hermia to a nunnery or executing her. Hermia does not want to go through with either of those choices, so she and Lysander, the man Hermia really loves, plan to run away from the city of Athens to be married. Everything is arranged for their escape and all is well until Helena enters the scene. Hermia
Love is such an abstract and intangible thing, yet it is something that everyone longs for. In Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the difficulty of love is explored through the obstacles that characters have to face while pursuing their loved ones. Those characters that are in love in the play were conflicted with troubles; however, the obstacles of love do not seem to stop them from being infatuated with each other. The concept of true love is examined throughout this play. By creating obstacles using authority and a higher power, Shakespeare examines the power of love. Through Hermia and Lysander’s loving words, it is reasonable to conclude that love conquers all if you believe in it.
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, written by William Shakespeare, we are presented Hermia, a young woman of marrying age, who wants to marry her true love Lysander, but her father, Egeus, will not permit their marriage because he believes that another man is amore fit, Demetrius. Although Demetrius and Lysander are of the same social standing, Hermia actually loves Lysander, and Demetrius has been with another woman who is deeply in love with him named Helena, Egeus attempts to use the Athenian law to make Hermia marry Demetrius. Due to the circumstances, Lysander and Hermia run off into the woods to marry and escape Athenian law, but while asleep in the woods, a mischievous fairy, Robin, gives Lysander a love potion, making him fall in love with the first person he sees, which ends up being Hermia’s close friend Helena. This leads to heartbreak, a battle, and a shocking ending, but everything ends well, and along this journey we find many different truths about love. Throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare presents that although love may not always run smoothly, the readers find that power of love can dictate a persons’ decision making and love cannot be controlled by outside forces, like the will of others or the law.
In the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, written by William Shakespeare, a literary technique known as “doubling” is used to convey entertainment, mystery and reality as the story line for Lysander and Demetrius, Helena and Hermia, Oberon and Theseus, and Titania and Hippolyta. ”Doubling” shows indistinguishable personalities of each character but completely contrapositive background stories and actions. Lysander and Demetrius are completely identical except for their personality, actions, and the fact that Egeus and Theseus do not approve of Lysander as Hermia’s spouse. Helena and Hermia are very alike except for the minor differences in their appearances. The third doubling relationship is shown in between the rulers of the different worlds who are Oberon and Theseus as well as Titania and Hippolyta. Throughout the play, three pairs of people who are all tantamount to each other in appearance but completely different in actions continue to have comedic and humorous scenes while hidden clues along the way disclose information to unveil a delightful and realistic story.
Ever have that crazy feeling about someone but you just can not put your finger on what exactly it is? It is love, a strongly used word with no exact definition. There are different kinds of love that is used for different people in different ways. There are three kinds of love which are limerence, love attachment, and bond loving affection. Within these three kinds of love they are all used differently towards different people. In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream written by William Shakespeare these three kinds of love from Andrew Marshall’s article “That Crazy Little Thing Called Love” are both seen and not seen within the characters.
Furthermore, Titania complains due to Oberon’s actions, she and her fairy friends have been unable to meet anywhere for their usual dancing and frivolity without being disturbed. In order to further expand the point of the irrationality of love to the audience, Shakespeare continues to use hyperbole to express her intense feelings. Titania reasons that because of Oberon’s insistence on taking the Indian boy as his knight, there is no place for her to meet—not “on hill, in dale, forest, or mead, by pavèd fountain, or by rushy brook, or in the beachèd margent of the sea” (Shakespeare II.i.86). His continual interruptions have prevented their dances and moreover, his revenge has brought about terrible consequences for the human mortals. As Shakespeare details the affects, he imaginatively uses personification to describe the pale moon in her anger filling the air with disease and the icy winter wearing a crown of summer flowers in mockery. As Titania’s closes her long rant directed at Oberon, she concludes by confessing, “And this same progeny of evils comes from our debate, from our dissension, we are their parents and original” (Shakespeare II.i.118). As a
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