“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is one of many famous works written by William Shakespeare, the greatest writer of the 17th century. It tells a story of eight lovers, four of which simply cannot get along, as two people love the same person and one is left out. However you can learn quite a bit from this story, all you have to do is look closely. Theseus, the duke of Athens, is preparing for his marriage to the queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta. Egeus, an Athenian nobleman comes into Theseus’ wedding with his daughter Hermia and two men, Lysander and Demetrius. Egeus wishes for Hermia to wed Demetrius but she is in love with Lysander and refuses to do so. Her father warns her to listen to his wishes otherwise she’d possibly be executed …show more content…
An example of this would be in (III.II.255) Lysander says, “If thou say so, withdraw and prove it too.” Which was a threat to Demetrius to a fight, in which he replies “Quick, Come!” To accept his challenge, purely because they disagree on who loves who. Another example is Puck’s thoughts on the lovers, he says in (III.ii.115) “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” As an exclamation to how little the lovers use logical reasoning to make their decisions, and that their choices are based solely on …show more content…
This can be represented by Lysander’s famous quote in (I.i.135) “The course of love never did run smooth”. This explains how love isn’t a smooth course that runs without trouble, but rather a bumpy, rough one that will encounter lots of problems along the way, and how it is not a simple feeling. Arguments breaking out (III.ii.122), using love potions in an attempt to settle the lovers (II.i.170) are a couple of examples for
The quotation, pre-reading questions, and vocabulary in the anticipation guide for A Midsummer Night’s Dream paint a certain picture in my mind as to what this play is going to be about. Looking at the vocabulary, most of the words relate to love, authority and formal ceremonies, which may depict that this play is a love story. The quote stated says “The course of love never did run smooth”, this is also evidence that the play might relate to love, but it also states that there might be a conflict between the two romantically influenced characters. One of the pre-reading questions states “A person can be vain and loveable at the same time.” This may point to the main character(s) feelings about another character. They don’t necessarily like
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.
Fairies, mortals, magic, love, and hate all intertwine to make A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare a very enchanting tale, that takes the reader on a truly dream-like adventure. The action takes place in Athens, Greece in ancient times, but has the atmosphere of a land of fantasy and illusion which could be anywhere. The mischievousness and the emotions exhibited by characters in the play, along with their attempts to double-cross destiny, not only make the tale entertaining, but also help solidify one of the play’s major themes; that true love and it’s cleverly disguised counterparts can drive beings to do seemingly irrational things.
Love comes with many complications and faces many obstacles. Shakespeare clearly portrays illustrates these difficulties this them through various relationships in his play, ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream’. The characters face different obstacles which affect their relationships negatively. In the play, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ the main obstacles that cause negative effects on love are the use of magic, the law, and misunderstandings as well as and false assumptions.
“I had no judgement, when to her I swore/ Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o’er” (Shakespeare, 3.2.134-135). Lysander tries to make an oath to Helena, and she tells him he is not thinking clearly. This shows that when people are in love, not many think clearly whether or not if they want to be together for the rest of their lives - their decisions are unreasonable. In our world, when people are infatuated, they lack the ability to think clearly and promise each other without judging. Similarly, when love cracks, the lovers tend to break up too fast. That is why divorce and remarriage happen. Lysander declares
A Midsummer Night’s Dream takes place in Athens where the the Duke Theseus and the Queen of the Amazons Hippolyta are set to get married. Following this we see the fruition of two more plots of love, Helena, Lysander, Demetrius, and Hermia and the king and queen of the fairies Oberon and Titania. The plot I am going to focus on will be that of the four lovers, the complication and the conflict that they’re love causes. The conflict begins when “Take time to pause, and by the next new moon—the sealing day betwixt my love and me
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.
The Theme of Love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare In the play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ many aspects of love are explored. In this essay I will be exploring how Shakespeare conveys the theme of love including illusion, confusion, escape, harmony and lust. Historically, it has been suggested that ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ was written for a wedding, signifying the importance of love in this play, however there is no real evidence to prove this myth.
Love is never easy. It is complicated, frustrating, and flawed. Sometimes, conflicts between people in love can drive them apart. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, dissensions between different characters represent how love can be complicated and drive two people apart.
William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream is about two men who are in love with the lady, Hermia. As a result of intervention from the fairy king and queen, the feelings and loves of the men become muddled. Due to a love potion from a special flower, they both turn from loving Hermia to loving her friend Helena. This leads to much confusion and heartache throughout the rising action and climax, until the lovers’ quarrel is finally resolved at the end of Act IV. Despite one of the main characters, Theseus, criticizing lovers, poets, and madmen for their imagination, the play argues and shows that these three elements are essential for successful relationships and to enjoy life.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play about four Athenian lovers. Theseus listens to both Hermia and her father’s request and he tells her to bend to her father’s will or die due to the old Athenian law. Hermia and Lysander flee Athens, into the domain of the fairy kingdom. At this time, Oberon is in a fight with Titania. This fight is over a human child of Titania’s friend. Oberon tells Puck, one of his loyal servants, to get a flower hit by Cupid’s arrow, and drop the oil into Demetrius’s and Titania’s eyes. However, Puck drops the oil into Lysander’s eyes due to Oberon’s vague description, making him fall in love with Helena and despise Hermia. Titania falls in love Bottom, who has the head of an ass, after Oberon places the oil
In Athens, women had very little rights. Womens fathers were the ones who got to choose whom they married, and that caused trouble for the lovers. Hermia’s father, Egeus, strongly believed in this rule. At the beginning, Egeus decides that he wants Hermia to marry Demetrius, which is good for Demetrius but bad for Hermia. Hermia, daringly refuses her father’s wishes, so they seek the help of Theseus, the Duke of Athens. Theseus listens to their situation, and being the authority in the situation, tells Hermia: “Either to die the death, or to abjure for the society of men. Therefore, fair Hermia,... if you yield not to your father’s choice, you can endure the livery of a nun...”(24). This shows how authority, in this case the law, gets in the way of “the course of true love…”(28). Egeus’s decision to have Hermia marry Demetrius does not only affect Hermia but also affects Helena. When Hermia’s father chooses Demetris to be her
The story of A Midsummer Night's Dream was mainly about love and its abnormal dealings. In the play, Shakespeare tried to show that love is unpredictable, unreasonable, and at times is blind. The theme of love was constantly used during the play and basically everything that was said and done was related to the concept of love and its unpredictable ness. Shakespeare made all of the characters interact their lives to be based on each other’s. At first, everything was very confusing, and the characters were faced with many different problems. In the end, however, they were still able to persevere and win their true love, the love they were searching for in the first place.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy play unfolding in three juxtaposed settings. It shows the events related to the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus and Hyppolita including adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six amateur commoners/actors who are manipulated by fairies and their supernatural tricks. The author of this play is William Shakespeare.