A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of the most unforgettable plays about love written by William Shakespeare. The play includes the four main characters: Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius, and Helena. Lysander and Demetrius, who fight for Hermia’s love, have anointed by Oberon, fairy king, and his servant, Puck, with a love-juice. This juice causes the four lovers to fall in or out of love with each other. Without knowing that their actions are controlled by the potion, the lovers are ironically convinced that they fall in love because of essential "reasons". A Midsummer Night’s Dream and its characters show the real meaning of true love and how the blindside of a real love makes people behave too unreasonably and foolishly. To portray how the state of love makes people act irrationally, Shakespeare uses satire, irony, and animal imagery in this play. First of all, Shakespeare’s use of satire illustrates that love makes people act illogical. In one scene, Helena, with full determination, asks Demetrius to love her. She even demands him to “Use [her] as a spaniel: spurn [her], strike [her]” (2.1.212) as long as he would love her. Even when Demetrius exclaims that he despises Helena, she still does not stop chasing him in the forest, pleading him to love her. Though not all women would beg their one-and-only for love, Shakespeare mocks those who risk their lives for deep affection. He ridicules women who belittle and insult themselves meant for their own interests. Another satiric act that shows how people act imprudently is when they fall in love instantaneously. At the middle of the play, Lysander, anointed with the juice, wakes up and sees Helena. He falls in love with her instantly and admits that he would "Run through fir...

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...rel for a mate. They would chase each other and try risk their lives for Helena. Shakespeare shows the real animal nature of lovers in this scene. He exceptionally demonstrates the cruel and the violent side of human desires.

Illustrating how state of love makes people act irrationally, Shakespeare uses satire, irony, and animal imagery. A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play full of whimsical comedy, a magical forest and fairies, and most prominently, a sweet and funny story about love. The play presents that love is like a vision; it is somewhat ridiculous, absurd, or perhaps an illusion that often make people’s lives miserable. As Puck once said, “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” If love is an unmanageable addiction and perhaps humans are foolish enough for entering its unpredictable journey, nevertheless, there is no excitement in life without it.