Examine How Shakespeare Presents Love in Act 1 Scene 1 of ‘a Midsummer Night’s Dream’

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.

Love is a timeless topic. It will forever be the theme of popular entertainment and source of confusion for men and women alike. No one understands this better than William Shakespeare, and he frequently explores this complex emotion in his plays. In "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" Shakespeare cleverly reveals the fickle and inebriating aspects of love through his mischievous character Puck.

When love is in attendance it brings care, faith, affection and intimacy. This is proved true in the spectacular play A Midsummer Night's Dream written by William Shakespeare. This play displays the facts about lust, hatred, jealousy and their roles in something powerfully desirable. It is entitled love. Love is present everywhere, in every form, in every condition and even when one least expects it.

Different Types of Love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy, written in 1595 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. This was when the society was dominated by men. During the period, England was ruled by a powerful and well respected queen.

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as in many of Shakespeare's plays the main theme is love. Shakespeare presents many different aspects of love in the play. He shows how love can affect your vision of reality and make you behave in irrational ways. He presents many ways in which your behavior is affected by the different types and aspects of love. The main types of love he presents are; true love, unrequited love, sisterly love, jealous love, forced love, and parental love. Shakespeare tries to show what kinds of trouble, problems and confusion, love can get you into.

Lysander and Hermia also portray true love. Refusing to marry her suitor, Demetrius, she willingly gives up everything and runs away from Athens with her lover, Lysander, “There my Lysander and I shall meet, and thence from Athens turn away our eyes.” In the play within the play, Pyramus and Thisbe also present us with true love. Their situation

Shakespeare presents love through the relationship shared by Hermia and Lysander. This relationship, at the start of the play, is portrayed as the traditional true love;

In this play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, true love plays a huge role in the play.

The first way this can be seen is though her stating “Do not say so, Lysander, say not so. What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though? Yet Hermia still loves you; then be content.” (Shakespeare 2.2 107-110) to Lysander. Here she starts to believe that she is being lied to, due to Lysander being in love with Hermia. This makes here have to deal with fake love from him being placed on her due to the mix-up by Puck. The second way this can be seen is through “Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born? When at your hands did I deserve this scorn? Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man, That I did never, no, nor never can, Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye, But you must flout my insufficiency?” (Shakespeare 2.2 123-128) Here, she explains how she feels she does not deserve the mockery she believes he is playing on her. And how she feels she is a victim because she cannot get Demetrius to love her, no matter how hard she tries. The final reason she is a victim of love is though her statement “O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent To set against me for your merriment: If you were civil and knew courtesy, You would not do me thus much injury. Can you not hate me, as I know you do, But you must join in souls to mock me too?” (Shakespeare 3.2 145-150) to Demetris. From here she is angry how she feels that everyone is mocking her, due to him having not shown her love before this. And how he is not the only one who is mocking her, but so has Lysander and, in her mind, Hermia though Demetrius loving

In his play A Midsummer Night’s Dream William Shakespeare utilizes his characters to brilliantly present his argument that imagination serves as the foundation for love’s poetic nature. Love is a dangerous yet liberating adventure only few are brave enough to embark on. It is the most precious form of art that requires a balance in order to achieve harmony in a relationship. Such harmony can become difficult to reach as shown in A Mid Summer Night’s Dream written by William Shakespeare due to parental interference and love’s unwillingness to abide to reason.

Throughout history, many things have changed. Humans have completely altered the standards of living, and inventions such as electricity have even created separate realms of reality. However, one thing that has stood the test of time is love. Even from the start of time, humans have been seeking it, falling in and out of it, and creating art, stories, and plays about it. One play in particular is “Midsummer Night’s Dream” by William Shakespeare. In this play, Shakespeare articulates how love is either changing, unrequited, or true.

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.

Love is widely known to be an intense fondness or deep affection for a person or thing. This may be a very positive feeling, but like there is always a negative side to things. William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is able to use the characters to present some insight into this side. With the variety of characters throughout the play displaying different scenarios of love, they continuously show that one’s love and desire for anything may come with conflict and people who have opposing opinions as presented through Hermia, Oberon, and Lysander.

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, readers and spectators can clearly see that Shakespeare has an uncanny fascination for the aspects of love. Since this play is a comedy, its goal is to entertain and have a happy ending, but at the end of the play, audiences can question its idea of love. Due the fact that Shakespeare includes mythology in his writings and uses it as a foundation for his play, this is where the idea of love can become quite confusing and discredited. In order for a person to fall in love, they must be given a love potion in their eye by Cupid and must see their intended love at the exact moment when they receive the potion in order for it to work. When Oberon says, “Take some of it [the love potion], and seek through this grove. / A sweet Athenian lady is in love/ With a disdainful youth. Anoint his eyes…” (Act 2

“The course of true love never did run smooth,” comments Lysander of love’s complications in an exchange with Hermia (Shakespeare I.i.136). Although the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream certainly deals with the difficulty of romance, it is not considered a true love story like Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare, as he unfolds the story, intentionally distances the audience from the emotions of the characters so he can caricature the anguish and burdens endured by the lovers. Through his masterful use of figurative language, Shakespeare examines the theme of the capricious and irrational nature of love.