I’m hither, with abhor, to complain about mine daughter Hermia. My lord, this sir, Demetrius, hath mine permission to marry that lady. Step forward, Lysander. —But this other sir, Lysander, hath cast a magic spell ov'r mine child’s heart. You, thee, Lysander, you’ve given that lady poems, and switch thy love with mine daughter. You’ve connived to steal mine daughter’s heart, making that lady stubborn and harsh instead of obedient, I asketh thee to alloweth me exercise the right that all fathers has't in Athens. Since the lady belongs to me, I can doth what I want with her, as the law says: I can either maketh that lady marry Demetrius—or hath that lady killed.
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
The biggest obstacle in this play occurs when the power of love is challenged by authority. The play starts with Theseus, duke of Athens, being eager to marry Hippolyta, who he wooed with his sword in combat. Although Theseus promises Hippolyta that he will wed her “with pomp, with triumph, with reveling,” true love between them is questionable. By starting the play with Theseus and Hippolyta, Shakespeare hints the audience of the authority involved in their marriage and leaves the audience wonder if they actually love each other. The focus is then shifted to the four lovers: Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena - by establishing the story of Hermia being forced by her father, Egeus, to marry Demetrius, when the person she actually wants to marry is Lysander. However, Egeus
It is only through the machinations of the play’s metatheatrical stage managers that the issue of Demetrius’ unhappiness can be smoothed over into something that resembles the happy ending we expect as an audience. It is, in the end, the Faeries’ magic that allows the happy ending to emerge from all the chaos within the Green World, even if some of that chaos was caused by the Faeries to begin with. Puck, for instance, mistakenly applies the love-in-idleness to Lysander’s eyelids and causes him to fall in love with Helena. Oberon later realizes the mistake, and utilizes the love-in-idleness once more to enchant Demetrius, so it is now Helena who has too many suitors, and Hermia too few. Magic becomes the only force capable of undoing its own mischief, and resolves the play’s tensions by restoring a balance to the love between the four young Athenians. That surreal, fantastic element in the play’s major action allows for happiness to come to light in the end, even if we view the outside influence as something artificial within the relationships.
Hermia, originally the Apple of all Athens’ eye, put on an impossible pedestal by both Lysander and Demetrius, seems to trade social standings with the outcast Helena. It seems that Hermia doesn’t fully appreciate the quality of her state. She complains that her father will not allow her to merry her true love Lysander, and pawns her off to the inadequate Demetrius. Never can she accept the flattery of Demetrius’ unrequited love which her best friend would do anything to sincerely receive. Instead she revels in wonderment: “The more I [Hermia] hate, the more he [Demetrius] follows me” (I.i.198). Her unhappiness is far heightened when her two followers are given the love potion, turning them against her and beckoning to Helena. The cruel swap of fates lets the two female characters feel as though in the others’ shoes. It’s Hermia’s karma for being ungrateful at the attention bestowed upon her all these years that leads her to this harsh lesson.
Exposition: The story is set in Athens, Greece. Theseus and Hippolyta are both noble and wealthy and they were planning their wedding in 4 days. Hermia and Lysander were in love, but another guy named Demetrius was also in love with Hermia. Helena loves Demetrius but is all alone, because he does not love her. Egeus who is Hermia’s father is not happy about her relationship with Lysander, he wants her to marry Demetrius. Hermia and Lysander plan to run away to another city to be married. Helena tell Demetrius the plan hoping that he will forget Hermia and fall in love with her.
In Midsummer Night 's Dream, the story starts with Theseus, duke of Athens, engaged to Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. While preparing for their wedding, Theseus is confronted by Egeus, who brings criticism about his daughter Hermia, who refuses his wishes to marry Demetrius, for she is in love with Lysander. Egeus demands that either Hermia respects his wishes or be punished by the Athenian law. While Hermia is in love with Lysander and vice versa, Demetrius is in love with Hermia and ignores Helena, Hermia 's childhood friend, unrequited love.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Worlds Collide Four worlds collide in a magical woods one night in midsummer in William Shakespeare's mystical comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The mythological duke of Athens, on the eve of his wedding to the newly defeated Queen of the Amazons, is called upon by the mortal Egeus to settle a quarrel. Hermia, Egeus's vociferous daughter, refuses to marry the man her father has betrothed to her, the enamored Demetrius. Theseus sides with authoritarian Egeus and forces Hermia to marry Demetrius or face death. Defiantly, Hermia and her love, Lysander, resolve to elope and abscond into the woods, confessing their plan only to Hermia's covetous
The potion is again administered but this time to the intended individuals. Demetrius ends up falling in love with Helena and Lysander falls in love with Hermia. Even though the story is a whirlwind of crazy love gone wrong, everything ends up working out for everyone in the end.
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
The play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, by William Shakespeare, demonstrates the difficulties of human love. Throughout the course of this play, all the lovers were confused, whether it be from the love potion provided by Oberon, the fairy king, or whether it be through natural terms, (those not affected by the potion). In this essay, we will be looking at how Lysander had agreed with this implication of human love being difficult, the scene where all the lovers are confused, and lastly, the time when Helena was furiously jealous of Hermia.
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
Hermia and Lysander are deeply in love with one another; however, Oberon, the king of the fairies, instructs Puck, a mischievous fairy, to spread the love juice upon the eyes of Demetrious so that he will fall in love with Helena. Instead of following Oberon’s orders, Puck mistakenly spread the potion on the eyes Lysander. As soon as he awakes, he lays eyes upon Helena and falls in love with her and says, “... And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake/ Transparent Helena! Nature shows art/ That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart”(2.2. 103-105). Lysander shows that he no longer loves Hermia and loves her best friend, Helena. Shakespeare shows the weakness of Hermia and Lysander’s relationship, and as soon as magic influences them, their bond begins to crumble. As magic hurts one bond, it also threatens Hermia and Helena’s relationship. Hermia is furious with Helena for stealing away Lysander's love, but doesn’t know that magic is the only reason for it. Hermia accuses Helena of using her height to her advantage, and believes that is the reason
A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM SUMMARY This play is a love story that is split between four sets of lovers; Hippolyta and Theseus, Hermia and Lysander, Helena and Demetrius and Titania and Oberon. The story begins with a distraught father, Egeus, asking the Duke, Thesus, to bring the law upon his daughter 's, Hermia’s, head. His request is made because he wants her to marry Demetrius and she has disobeyed him by seeing Lysander in secret. The Duke gives Hermia up to the day of his wedding to decide to obey her father or suffer the consequence of consignment to a nunnery if she chooses to oppose him. This decision spurs Hermia and Lysander to meet in the woods to facilitate their elopement. Things get interesting at this point because Puck, a
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