Sympathy In A Midsummer Night's Dream

In A Midsummer's Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, There are multiple feelings of sympathy towards the characters in this story. Hermia, Egeus, and Demetrius are three characters often noticed by the reader. As these characters go throughout the story they all meet different conflicts and they all come with different emotions and pity from the reader.

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.

Love is a theme which reoccurs through many of Shakespeare’s Plays. In ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, the theme ‘Love’ is presented from the very beginning in Act 1 Scene 1, through Shakespeare’s use of poetic language, structure and vivid imagery.

At the beginning of the play, Lysander’s love for Hermia is apparent. He has courted her by enticing her at her window and by giving her presents. The only person standing in Lysnader’s way of marrying Hermia is Egeus, who wants Hermia to marry Demetrius because he has made a deal with him. Theseus, the leader of Athens also agrees with Egeus and tells Helena that the only person she can marry is Demetrius. To get around this problem, Lysander devises a plan with Hermia to elope and go to his relative’s house. At this point in the plot, Lysander is shown to be the same character as Demetrius. Lysander says “I am my lord, as well derived as

Have you ever heard a quote that really stood out to you. And then you went and told you friends that quote and they liked it. And they told people who told other people and then everyone liked. Eventually, you know with all the social media programs these days, its going to end up on facebook or instagram and even more people are going to find out about it. Thats one way a quote can become famous but another way is if it is in a popular movie or book. In this case it is from one of Shakespeare's finest and most known, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream the quote “the course of true love never did run smoothly” applies to the different people in the book: the first couple is Hermia and Lysander, Second Demetrius and Helena, and finally Pyramus and Thisbe.

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:

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

The strongest emotion humans can exchange is the feeling of affection and love. In Midsummer Nights Dream by William Shakespeare the characters of the play will do anything for love. It does not matter whether love is one sided, like as the case of Helena, or forbidden by your lovers father as Lysander , taking risks and fighting for love, as Hermia did is how true love is shown. Even though love takes them on difficult paths in the end they find their ways to happiness.

“Audiences can gain a better understanding of ways to behave in a specific relationship through comparing past and present representations of them in texts.”

“It is the nature of people to love, then destroy, then love again that which they value the most.” –Unknown. Countless authors have tried to display love as human nature, but no author does this better than the famous playwright, William Shakespeare. In both Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare exhibits how love can control a person. To understand how love controls a person, one must understand that human nature is the sum of qualities and traits shared by all humans. All humans have exhibit love in one way or another, which explains how human nature relates to the controlling aspect of love. In Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, conflicts between loyalty to family and friends, lack of trustworthiness towards others,

The love between Lysander and Hermia is that of a forbidden love. Unlike Oberon and Titania, they are at the beginning of their relationship. They believe they are deeply in love with each other will fight together against anyone who is opposed of their love. “The course of true love never did run smooth”( 1.1.134). They are forbidden by Hermia's father to be together and in addition to that, Hermia is forced to choose between marrying the man her father chose for her who is Demetrius, nunnery and execution.The love between Lysander and Hermia is unlike the love between Demetrius and Helena which is unrequited. Helena is in love with Demetris who neglects her, but loves Hermia and therefore is forced to chase him which is against her nature because it is the man that is supposed to do the chasing. Their relationship appears to be that of a cat and mouse. Quite ironic that Helena is a mouse, but instead of running away from the cat, she runs towards the cat despite the cat threatening her virginity and treats her cruelly. “ And/even for that do I love you the more./I am your spaniel. And, Demetrius,/The more you beat me, I will fawn on you./Use me but as your spaniel—spurn me, strike me,/Neglect me, lose me. Only give me leave,”( 2.1.202-206). Helena is so consumed with gaining Demerius’ love that she offers herself as a dog for him

In the beginning of the story Hermia’s father is talking to Theseus about what is to happen to his daughter due to the fact that she doesn’t want to marry the man who’s proposed to her. At a point Egeus says, “Stand forth, Lysander. And, my gracious Duke, This man hath bewitch’d the bosom of my child…. as she is mine, I may dispose of her, Which shall be either to this gentleman (Demetrius) or to her death, according to our law Immediately provided in that case”(1.1 26-27….43-46). Egeus seems convinced that Lysander has cast a spell on his daughter’s heart and he doesn’t approve of it. I feel that he forbids their love from happening when he claims that she is his and because of that and the law, he can either force her to marry Demetrius or have her killed. Along with the forbidden love of Hermia and Lysander, Shakespeare also uses the unrequited love between Helena and Demetrius to build up to his point of love.

Hermia and Lysander are one of the many couples that are madly in love. Even more in love since they aren’t supposed to be, as Hermia’s father wants her to marry a different man, Demetrius, else being forced into nunnery, or even killing her. When the couple

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of the most poignant similes occurs when Theseus advises Hermia that she should yield to her father’s wishes because she is his creation, a figure in wax, and he has the power to command her, mold her, or destroy her at will (MND I.I.49-51). In Athenian society, a woman is expected to yield control of her life to men and to allow them to mold her affections to their will. The simile of a woman as a wax figure suggest that the only resolution to conflict is for the woman to yield and mold to meet the man’s expectations. The play overall, however, suggests that the better resolution to conflict, and the better path to a happy ending, comes in the form of a man conforming to the wishes of the woman, like a moldable wax figure.

In a Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare story about romantic desire. Theseus and Hippolyta, are about to be married; both of them are wonderful figures from classical mythology. (Greek Mythology) Theseus is a great warrior, a kinsman of Hercules; Hippolyta is an Amazon warrior-woman, defeated in battle by Theseus. (Theseus and Hippolyta) He was longing for the wedding day, and this is what opens the play and closing the play with their exit marriage bed. (Theseus and Hippolyta).