"The course of true love never did run smooth." (Act I, Scene I) (include hook and bridge)William Shakespeare’s well-known play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream talks about love and its obstacles. The play revolves around four young Athenian lovers’ quarrel in an enchanted forest. It also involves Theseus; the Duke of Athens who is planning to have a big wedding. Among the already mentioned characters are a fairy king and a fairy queen who fight over an Indian changeling. The fairy king orders his sprite Puck to put a magical love juice on some of the lovers, and even his wife. This causes a love fiasco between the characters. In addition, a group of novice actors setting themselves up to perform at Theseus’s wedding. The quote "The course of …show more content…
Lysander is a man that is in deep love with Hermia, but because of Bottom, he is forced to share his love with Helena instead; because she is the first living thing he saw. “I am, my lord, as well derived as he, / As well possess'd; my love is more than his;” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream I.i.:104). Lysander says this quote to show that his love towards Hermia is stronger that Demetrius’. He says the quote “The course of true love never did run smooth” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream I.i.:137) to Hermia because he wants her to know that any relationship will have its ups and downs, a relationship cannot be perfect. I think that the young audience might not know that love can’t be flawless, but the older people might know about that. This quote has personification and imagery. It says that love never “ran” smooth, and love obviously can’t run. But in some cases, people feel that love is running after them. Also, the audience can imagine that love is like sand, if you pour water on it, it becomes smooth, but sooner or later if dries and becomes rough again. This quote is further explained in Helena’s relationship with Lysander and …show more content…
At the beginning of the play, no one likes her. It was as if she wasn’t even there. If Oberon didn’t order Puck to put the magical love juice on the men, she would have been forever lonely. But once the men fell in love with her, Hermia was erased from the men’s world. They were fully unto Helena. “I say I love thee more than he can do. / If thou say so, withdraw and prove it too. / Quick, come.” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream III.ii.:254-256) This small passage shows Demetrius and Lysander fighting for Helena’s love. Demetrius tells Lysander that he loves her more than him, but Lysander wants to have a duel to see whose love is stronger towards Helena. Helena thought they were mocking here due to the fact that they never loved her before. This can relate to the quote “The course of true love never did run smooth” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream I.i.:137) because it shows that even though she wanted a normal relationship, life made her relationship challenging. This quote will be additionally clarified in Oberon’s relationship with
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.
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.
One of the aspects of love in the play; unrequited love, is when a person loves someone but that person is not loved back. This type of love is detected in Helena’s pursuit of Demetrius and in Demetrius’ pursuit of Hermia. The character of Helena is my favorite in William
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.
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.
Love is a very common theme that is seen in literature, and love is one of the most powerful things that can be felt for someone or something. Love can drive a person to do incredible or horrible things, and we see many forms of love that take place in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This is demonstrated in the book by many characters including Hermia and Lysander who demonstrate true love. Titania and Bottom show magical love. In the play, love is also the cause of a few broken hearts. While there is no one common definition of love that suits all of the characters, the romantic relationship in the play all leans to one simple rule laid out by Lysander, “The course of true love never did run smooth.”
In act 3 scene 2, Hermia cried out to Lysander, who had betrayed her, “Why are you grown so rude? What change is this, Sweet love?” but Lysander says, “Thy love! Out, tawny Tartar, out! Out, loathèd med'cine! O hated potion, hence!” (3.2.172-175) Because Lysander falls in love with Helena because Puck mistakenly put his love potion on Lysander, Hermia, the actual lover of Lysander, got hurt by him. She could not believe that Lysander did not love her anymore. This was wrong. Helena was not the true love of Lysander. However, because of the blind love effect of the love potion, Lysander forgot his true love.
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.
Helena chases Demetrius when he claims he hates her. Helena thought Hermia was against her because jealousy is blinding. Helena also believes that Demetrius and Lysander are making fun of her.
Although love is typically a positive emotion or concept, it is most often truly a more negative notion, due to its consequences. Love is known to bring people together in the beginning, but also tends to customarily pull or even break people apart by causing chaos and rivalry. The loss of love could even cause insecurities to surface. In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of the lovers, Helena, is scorched by love’s misfortunes when it comes between her and her ex-lover, Demetrius.The misfortunes of love force Helena into becoming an insecure woman who allows her emotions to cloud her judgement.
In this play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, true love plays a huge role in the play.
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 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.
A Midsummer Night 's Dream is a play about love. All of its action—from the escapades of Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena in the forest, to the argument between Oberon and Titania, to the play about two lovelorn youths that Bottom and his friends perform at Duke Theseus 's marriage to Hippolyta—are motivated by love. But A Midsummer Night 's Dream is not a romance, in which the audience gets caught up in a passionate love affair between two characters. It 's a comedy, and because it 's clear from the outset that it 's a comedy and that all will turn out happily, rather than try to overcome the audience with the exquisite and overwhelming passion of love, A Midsummer Night 's Dream invites the audience to laugh at the way the passion of love can make people blind, foolish, inconstant, and desperate. At various times, the power and passion of love threatens to destroy friendships, turn men against men and women against women, and through
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare explores the subjectivity of love. The play shows the absurdity of love through its characters like an episode of “MTV The Real World”: they fall in love, break up, lose friendships, and someone will ultimately look like an ass. Shakespeare’s play examines the combination of both traditional and non-traditional gender roles affecting the character’s perception of their respective romantic relationships. Shakespeare then questions whether love is real through Lysander and Helena. Shakespeare’s play as a whole demonstrates how initial perceptions of love are subject to transformation. Both the characters and the play debunk that love is static, but rather an ever metamorphosing reality.