How Does Magic Affect Relationships In A Midsummer Night's Dream

There are many instances in A Midsummer Night's Dream where love is coerced from or foisted upon unwilling persons. This romantic bondage comes from both man-made edicts and the other-worldly enchantment of love potions. Tinkering with the natural progression of love has consequences. These human and fairy-led machinations, which are brought to light under the pale, watery moon, are an affront to nature. Shakespeare knows that all must be restored to its place under fate's thumb when the party of dreamers awaken.

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

In William Shakespeare’s book, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, magic is a powerful and useful tool for the characters that have the capability to use it. Some of the characters abuse the power of magic, while others are more responsible in how they use it. Oberon is one the characters that abuses the power of magic. Oberon’s magic has an immense impact on the plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. More specifically, Oberon’s magic affects his own life, the lives of other characters, and all the characters in the story experience his magic differently. We will see that even the person who has power to use the magic can become surprised by it. Magic, the ultimate supernatural power, is often unpredictable and inexplicable.

Before most of the complications begin, Lysander tells Hermia that “The course of true love never did run smooth;/ But, either it was different in blood” (I.i.134-135). This suggests that love is complicated since it doesn’t run smooth. However the audience of the play doesn’t just need Lysander’s words to prove that love is a complicated process. In the beginning of the book, all Hermia and Lysander want to do is love each and live life together. However, Demetrius wants to have Hermia and he has the consent of Hermia’s father to do so. So they flee to the magical forest where the fairies mess around with their love by using love potions on the wrong Athen couples. With nothing but true love to guide Hermia, Lysander and Helena, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is an excellent example of how complicated the process of love

Oberon and Puck plot to use the love juice to have Demetrius fall in love with Helena, however, this becomes botched and chaos ensues. When the wrong people begin falling in love other themes are brought to light, jealousy and mistakes. This is shown within the play when Hermia confronts Helena for being in love with Demetrius and Lysander when [Hermia] says “O me! You juggler! You canker blossom! / You thief of love! What have you come by night / And stol’n my love’s heart from him?” (3.2.282-84). This lashing out at her friend Helena provides us a glimpse of what jealousy can make people do when they do not have all the information. As Hermia has angry words with Helena the thoughts of both Demetrius and Lysander can best be summed up in the lines from the song ‘Spellbound” :

In Act 1, Scene 1: line 134 of the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare writes, “The course of true love never did run smooth”. This statement made by Lysander about love, in a way, sets the tone for the whole play. The play involves several different couples; Theseus and Hippolyta, Lysander and Hermia, Helena and Demetrius, Titania and Bottom, and Titania and Oberon. What aspects of love are explored in each of these relationships and what point is Shakespeare trying to make about love. Shakespeare shows love in multiple ways, whether it’s mature, forbidden, married, spell-bound, or unrequited.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream supports the idea that pursuing love can take over the person’s action. In the play there were four characters in a love triangle, where the actions that seemed irrational were presented out of them. The character who best represents the idea that love can blind people to their actions is Helena. She seemed very desperate for him in the play by chasing him around. Helena showed that, love is blind when she told a secret to Demetrius, when she chased him around and  by the way she speaks to him.

He insists that he has made a mistake in loving Hermia, but this only angers Helena and she eventually storms off. This was an interesting first interaction for audience members to see as we can see the contrast of blind love and true love in the character of Lysander. We, as an audience, watched Puck enchant Lysander and observed the transition from his true love with Hermia to his blind love with Helena. We are called to imagine the despair that Hermia must have felt upon realizing that Lysander did not love her (so he thinks) and, thus, the

“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.

The play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” written by William Shakespeare, was about a twisted love triangle between the four main characters: Demetrius, Lysander, Helena, and Hermia. William Shakespeare used several characters and tools throughout the play, to remind the audience that they were watching/reading a play. While using these characters and tools he was also trying to make a connection between fantasies and reality. The main thing he used to make the connection between the fantasies and reality is the flower (love potion). The flower signifies a struggle between true love and fake love.

Lysander, one of the four lovers, is desperately in equal love with Hermia. On their journey to run away with each other, Lysander is mistakenly placed under the magic of the cupid juice. He is awoken by Helena, and instantly falls in love with her. She is considered

Additionally, Helena follows Demetrius to beg him for love. Fairies discover Demetrius and Helena while she begs him to take her back, and they take matters into their own hands and use a magic flower to make Demetrius fall in love with her. However, the fairies make a mistake and use the magic flower on Lysander causing him to fall in love with Helena; then, the fairies try to fix their mistake by using the flower on Demetrius to make him fall in love with Helena. This sturs fights between the men with their love for Helena. Finally, the fairies fix their mistake and remove Lysander’s love for Helena and restore his love for Hermia. In the end, Theseus comes upon the four lovers in the woods and lifts the burden off of Hermia allowing the lovers to fall be in love with whomever they choose.

In the play, A Midsummer Night’s dream, Hermia, Egeus’s daughter is denied to wed her love Lysander, but has to comply with her father’s wishes and marry Demetrius. Infuriated, Hermia runs off with Lysander to his aunt’s house, sick of the Athenian law. As the lovers wander off into the forest, Helena, who is madly in love with Demetrius, tells him about the whereabouts of Hermia. In another part of the forest, Oberon, king of fairies meets Titania, the queen of fairies, arguing for a changeling child from India. When Titania refuses to give him up, Oberon plans revenge, by hiring Robin Goodfellow, also known as “Puck”, to retrieve a magical love flower, anointing her eyes and Demetrius’s, feeling bad for Helena after how Demetrius had treated her. Accidentally, Puck spreads it on Lysander’s eyes, creating major conflicts, later being resolved as the 4 lovers get married.

True love is real. Many people may argue that statement. Depending on personal thoughts, it could be proven to be true or false. In William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, the love between two people is drastically changed and made complicated through love triangles, magic, and mistakes. As a result of occurring love triangles, magic was used to help give some characters a push into the “right” direction. With that, came even bigger problems. Through the course of this Shakespearean play, old and new romances begin with characters, changing their lives. In the play, after careless mistakes are made, Lysander says to Hermia, “The course of love never did run smooth” (1.1.134). Lysander's quote is proven to be true, through the Athenian couples heartbreak and confusion due to magical occurrences.

Occasionally, a literary work or play can produce fundamental yet differentiated understandings of a concept such as love capable of influencing the future of societal reasoning forever. “Love is one of the most confusing words that we fill with our distinct meanings, and it can act as a kind of personal metaphor to mean several different things” (Gozzi, 2011, p. 230). An exploration of the subjectivity of defining love within the context of popular Early English literature may offer insightful connections revealing its situational relevance to a particular application over history. “One of the many astonishing achievements in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (c. 1594-1595) is its