Compare And Contrast Essay On A Midsummer's Night Dream

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, Hermia and Lysander’s relationship goes through many complexities. Hermia and Lysander want to get married. Unfortunately, Hermia’s father, Egeus, wants Hermia to marry Demetrius. Oberon, the king of the fairies, has control of a flower which can change who you love. Hermia and Lysander have to deal with many obstacles such as the flower, so they can be together. Hermia and Lysander end up together; however, their love is difficult on behalf of Egeus, the Athenian law, and the love flower.

In the book, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, Hermia is a strong-willed woman who wants to be free to marry her true love Lysander. She cannot marry him, because her father, Egeus, is making her marry Demetrius. She has two other choices, to either become a nun or die. She is not happy with his decision and feels he is being unfair. Lysander and Hermia plan to run away with each other to escape her father and the Athenian law. Hermia’s friend, Helena, may stop those plans though, because she is in love with Demetrius. She hopes to win Demetrius back by foiling Hermia’s plans. We will hear more about this intriguing story in just a bit. Hermia will make an appearance on the show, Talking with the Athenians, where we will interview her on her ideas of love.

Lysander shows the human flaws of disloyalty and aggression and also shows the human strength of being comforting in the play. Lysander shows the human flaw of disloyalty in act 3, scene 2, lines 184-190. In these lines Lysander tells Hermia he no-longer loves her and has fallen in love with Helena, meaning he wasn’t loyal to Hermia. Aggression is shown by Lysander in act 3, scene 2, lines 336-337. “Now follow, if thou dur’st, to try whose right, of thine or mine, is most in Helena” In these lines Lysander wants to fight Demetrius to show his love for Helena is stronger than Demetrius, in turn showing his aggression. The human strength of being comforting is shown by Lysander in act 1, scene 1, lines 128-149. In these lines Lysander comforts Hermia after she is told she cannot marry him. He tells her that ‘the course of love never did run smooth’ (act 1, scene 1, line 134). Throughout the play Lysander is clearly shown to demonstrate the flaws and strengths of

A Midsummer Night’s Dream could have easily been a light-hearted, whimsical comedy. Complete with a magic forest and a kingdom of fairies, it is an iconic setting for amorous escapades and scenes of lovers. But Shakespeare’s writing is never so shallow; through this romantic comedy, Shakespeare postulates an extremely cynical view of love. A Midsummer Night’s Dream becomes a commentary on the mystery of love, and lovers in general emerge shamed. Especially in the episodes among the four young Athenians, the lover is painted as a fickle creature, always changing his or her mind, and love as a passing phenomenon. Love is not an unfathomable, kind emotion, but it is ironically cruel,

Hermia has a crazy determination to marry Lysander. Hermia is willing to go against her father 's wishes just to marry the man of her dreams, and would even go as far as giving up her life. "So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord, Ere I will my virgin patent up Unto his lordship, whose unwishèd yoke My soul

Although Shakespeare created a strong female character she was still conquered by a man, Theseus. In the beginning of the play he says, “Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword, /And won thy love doing thee injuries. But I will wed thee in another key-With pomp, with triumph, and with reveling.” (Shakespeare 1.1.17-20). In this line Theseus is referring to the fact that he conquered Hippolyta in his military conquest. The play eventually evolves back into patriarchal normalcy after Theseus won in combat and conquered Hippolyta and her Amazonian people. Hermia’s father, Egeus, wants Hermia to marry Demetrius although she does not want to because she is in love with Lysander. Egeus says, “As she is mine, I may dispose of her,/ Which shall be either to this gentleman/ Or to her death, according to our law” (Shakespeare 1.1.42-44). Egeus is willing to put his own child to death if she disobeys him. He also talks about her as if she is his property and has no rights of her own. Theseus backs up Egeus in forcing Hermia to marry Demetrius, but he proposed her going into

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

Love is complicated and confusing only able to be represented as a dream, William Shakespeare a Midsummer's Night's Dream is a romantic play about love struck relationships that deal with lust. There are three conflicts throughout the play which are, the dilemma between lysander and Demetrius both falling in love with Hermia. Helena’s plan to regain the relationship with Demetrius, and the decision of whether the Indian prince should be knighted or not. Lysander and Hermia wishes to be together but Egeus wants her to be with Demetrius. They both went into the forest, in order to get married at Lysander’s aunt’s house. Helena is, however, still in love with Demetrius. Demetrius cruelly left her for Hermia. For revenge,

her I swore” (Shakespeare 3.2.136). One day, Lysander was deeply in love with Hermia. The

Hermia on the other hand, believes that she should be able to marry who she wants to. Egeus, Hermia’s father, asks for, “the ancient privilege of Athens” (1.1.42) which is for him to have the ability to either kill her, or to marry her off to who he deems fit to have her. Egues believes that, “As she is mine, I may dispose of her, Which shall be either to this gentleman Or to her death” (1.1.43-45), which demonstrates that he thinks she is entirely his. In addition, he gives his word to Demetrius that, “she is mine, and all my right of her I do estate unto Demetrius” (1.1.99-100), which creates the first conflict of the play. Hermia must become wedded to Demetrius, become a nun, or become slain. Hermia believes that she can’t marry Demetrius, which is an action of disobedience. She is convinced that Lysander is just as good of a potential husband as Demetrius, “Demetrius is a worthy gentleman,’ ‘So is Lysander” (1.1.53-54), and that she can’t marry Demetrius because she refuses to give up her virginity and sovereignty to a man she doesn’t love. The bond between Egeus and Hermia will take a long time to recover as both are at different ends of to who Hermia should

Analyzing different works of literature is beneficial, especially since one can learn multiple life lessons. Personally, I enjoy analyzing and watching different film versions of plays. In addition, in high school and college, I was taught that a film version of a work of literature could never replace the text itself; however, I disagree, to a certain extent. Yes, reading the text is crucial, but a film version serves as a visual—this is helpful. When it comes to analyzing different plays, I enjoy watching film versions, especially since it helps me get a better understanding of the meaning of the text as a whole. In this writing prompt, I will compare and contrast the film version and text of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare.

-Lysander. After Lysander falls in love with Helena, he tries to conquer her by telling her how much he loves her and how much he hates Hermia. Demetrius, in the same enchantment as Lysander, decides to fiight Lysander for the love of

Lysander and Demetrius both spoke in figurative language. Both of these men were handsome in their looks as well. Their love for Helena and Hermia mainly deal with flirtatious acts and physical attraction than love that may capture other things like mind, body, and soul. Hermania on the other hand would always show realistic love she was always willing to risk death in order to be with Lysander. This amazing act of love goes so far beyond any other in this play and demonstrates Hermia’s devotion to Lysander. “My good Lysander, I swear to thee by the Cupid’s strongest bow- Tomorrow truly will I meet with thee” (Act1,

“... under these circumstances, she’s pretty bold to stand up for herself” (Hermia). Hermia pursues herself in the book as bold and courageous for standing up for herself in which she has taking the responsibility of punishment for Lysander because she truly loves

My name is Lysander. I’m a young man who falls in love with a beautiful woman named Hermia in Athens. When Hermia expresses a desire to marry me instead of Demetrius, Egeus ,her father, is furious. He takes the case to Duke Theseus; If he only knew the love I have for Hermia. Heermia doesn’t even like Demetrius! Why can’t her let his daughter be happy.