How Does Lysander Escape Hermia's Dream

Hermia has a fearless personality. She is a brave person who is fierce, bold, and hopeful with her decisions. She approaches love as if there was something easily being threatened, but not easily lost. She is harsh with her lovers and wants to make sure that she finds someone that truly loves her. As it indicates in the book of A Midsummer Night's Dream, ‘So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord, ere I will yield my virgin patent up unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke my soul consents not to give sovereignty.’

When Lysander falls under the love potion's influence, he abandons Hermia, leaving her alone in the forest. When she wakes, she cries, "Lysander, look how I do quake with fear. Methought a serpent eat my heart away, and you sat smiling at his cruel pray." She is unaware of Lysander's departure, and her former lover is now pursuing another girl. Through the metaphor of a serpent eating her heart, Shakespeare shows the audience that young love can lead to heartbreak. Another example of this idea comes earlier in the story, when the four lovers are still in Athens. Hermia finds herself in a conversation with a distraught Helena, who complains, "O, teach me how you look and with what art you sway the motion of Demetrius' heart." It's clear through this statement and the rest of the scene that Helena is experiencing a lot of emotional pain from Demetrius' rejection. All throughout the play, Shakespeare constantly reminds us of the pain of young

The love that Lysander and Hermia share is very unlike the relationship between Helena and Demetrius. Lysander and Hermia have loved each other for a very long period of time and have dreamed of getting married. However, Hermia’s father, Egeus, disapproves of this couple. Hermia and Lysander’s love for each other is tested when Egeus tries to shatter their relationship

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

Hermia and Lysander behave irrationally throughout the whole play because they’re head over heels for each other; however, their love is oppressed by both her father Egeus and the strict Athenian law. In Act 1, Scene 1 when Egeus is at court with Hermia he uses a demanding and dominating tone to state, ‘as she is mine i may dispose of her’ This causes them to act spontaneously and irrationally and as a consequence, they run away from Athens to get married. This entertains the audience by adding more conflict and complication to the story. After they elope to the forest, magic becomes the force that turns love to a dramatic and conflict filled experience that is also entertaining. Lysander acts in irrational ways when he is put under the spell of ‘Love in Idleness’ where he states how madly he loves on Helena, and how much he hates Hermia. ‘Hang off, thou cat, thou burr! Vile thing, let loose, / or I will shake thee from me like a serpent.’ Derogatory language and repetition is used to emphasise his hate toward Hermia and orders her to leave him alone. For example, in Act 3, Scene 2, Lysander has fallen in love with Helena and tells Hermia how he hates her. ‘Out, loathed medicine! O hated potion, hence!’ Conflict between characters create comedy in the play which entertains the audience because of the dramatic irony. Lysander’s insults in the statement are repetition as it is the same meaning but in different words. This language technique emphasises that Lysander wants Hermia to leave him alone.

The mood immediately changes and we discover that Hermia rather than being filled with filial love is determined to marry Lysander rather than her father’s choice for her. And so the love theme is made more complex as we

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

At the time, Lysander and Hermia were completely smitten with each other. But her father Egeus disapproved of their relation and wishes for Hermia to marry Demetrius. He comes to Theseus with these concerns and uses his Athenian rights to chose the man his daughter wed. Disrespecting his daughter’s feelings and clearly biased against Lysander, Egeus went so far as to dishonor him before the duke and force Hermia into a position where she must follow his wishes, die or become a nun. Hermia refuses every option, but their love is clearly disrupted with this great obstacle. In contrast to Egeus’ claims of Lysander’s trickery, Hermia and Lysander are clearly devoted to each other. Hermia clings onto their love and Lysander comforts her in a manner that gives him the reputation of a romantic. Before concluding, “So quick bright things come to confusion”, he says that “The course of true love never did run smooth” (Shakespeare, P15). Love brings happiness, it nourishes the soul and completes one’s heart, but it can fall short just as easily and bring about even greater hate. Another example of this involves the Oberon and Titania, the King and Queen of fairies respectively. They start off as a separate layer in this play and though their fondness for each other isn’t described as thoroughly, their conflict stands

Hermia’s love for Lysander can be seen as genuine as she states ‘I would my father looked but with my eyes’ which means she wishes her father could see Lysander the way she does. This suggests that she is not under his spell as she truly sees him with her own eyes, and loves him. The audience also sees that she is very passionate about Lysander, as she chooses to ‘yield my virgin patent up’ and live the life of a nun or die rather than ‘wed Demetrius’. We also see the love between Lysander and Hermia is genuine later in Act 1 Scene 1 when ‘Exeunt all but Lysander and Hermia’, as it appears that Lysander is finishing Hermia’s sentences, indicating they are very familiar with each other, and he is comforting her lovingly. Lysander also states ‘true love never did run smooth’ which suggests they truly believe what they feel is true love. Another technique used by Shakespeare to emphasise their love is vivid imagery. Hermia’s speech declaring that she would meet Lysander in ‘the wood’ is filled with imagery suggesting love and passion, such as ‘by Cupid’s strongest bow’ and her reference to the Greek Goddess Venus: ‘By the simplicity of Venus’ doves’, emphasises her passion for Lysander.

As the play begins to unfold love is immediately illustrated to be the main theme of the play; starting with a wedding and leading up to tears shed by miserable lovers.Although it is an extremely rewarding, love is never an easy adventure. Lovers must be prepared to protect and fight for one another against everyone and anyone. In Hermia’s tragic situation her enemy was her father. Egeus passionately voices his disapproval by taking his daughter to Theseus and stating, “ full of vexation come I with complaint Against my child, my daughter Hermia.—Stand forth, Demetrius.—My noble lord,This man hath my consent to marry her.—Stand forth, Lysander.—And my gracious duke,This man hath bewitched the bosom of my child” (1.1. 22-27). When love is at last passionately felt amongst both lovers, it encounters a malevolent invincible demon; parental disapproval. Hermia and Lysander’s love is cursed and forbidden by her father’s

There are copious amounts of evidence within this story to support the theme of forbidden love, the theme of love gone wrong, and the theme of unconditional love. The theme of unconditional love is nearly screaming from each line of the play. The audience is made aware of the love between Lysander and Hermia very early on. Hermia’s father wishes her to marry Demetrius and he mentions that she belongs to him and therefor if she doesn’t do as he asks he can have her killed. Despite this Hermia pleads,

Faults exist when love and law attempt to coincide. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hermia comes head to head with unfairness, the fault which arises after her father disapproves of her marrying who she loves. According to the Athenian Law she must serve a punishment for disobeying her father. By this law, she should treat him like a god or her ruler. What he says goes and he intends for her to marry Demetrius, but she loves Lysander. In the play, if she does not marry who her father has chosen for her, several punishments may occur. Hermia has a few options she must quickly choose by the wedding of Theseus and Hyppolyta. Ultimately, law should not factor into a person’s

It is clear that the characters are much too young to understand love’s true consequences, yet this does not distract Lysander from attempting to elope with Hermia, but his quote would eventually come to fruition once they run into the woods. The first act also reveals that Lysander had previously wooed Hermia, and he succeeded in winning her over as she wishes to marry him over Demetrius, the man her father wanted her to marry. Meanwhile, Helena is heartbroken over Demetrius because he is still in ‘love’ with Hermia, despite the fact that she ‘loves’ someone else. An emotionally stable person would view their behaviors as irrational and ridiculous because of how far they are going for the sake of making their ‘love’ survive. It is a known fact that love makes people do crazy things, as according to Helena:

For the two lovers, the forest stands in magical contrast to the harsh Athenian laws. Hermia and Lysander’s escape to the forest represents the desire that mankind has to be one with nature in hopes that they will be able to live a life free of rules and structure.

Attempting to seek freedom from the shackles of Athenian society, reflecting among the segregation lifestyle a woman carries in Athens leads to Hermia’s decision to run away with Lysander in the search for sealing their love on Mayday;backlashes against her will as a result of puck’s confusion to Oberon's orders towards the use of the flower of love. Puck’s mistake reflects greatly on the actions of the protagonist showing their deception of reality versus illusion as they scavenge through the forest learning reality while waking up to what feels like an illusion.