In A Midsummer Night's Dream, one of the masterpieces of William Shakespeare, Shakespeare explores various aspects of love and friendship. With the help of the main characters such as Lysander, Demetrious Helena and Hermia, he endeavors that the path of love is full of obstacles, however, if one is committed and faithful, he/she can defy those obstacles leading him/her to success. As Lysander says “The course of true love never did run smooth”, the love stories presented in the play undergo difficult situations but eventually the genuine love is recognized by the triumph of the true loves.
As in virtually every love story, Lysander and Hermia’s love story has a twist to it: Hermia's father demands Hermia to marry Demetrious. This is a very classical situation. In the past, parents had the rights to arrange their daughter’s marriage to whoever they please. Usually they would exercise their rights which is the very case in Hermia’s life. This creates a big problem and cause a tremendous pressure for Hermia and Lysander, as they love each other. In addition, the Athenian rule that governs father's right to choose groom for his daughter promotes the duke to warn Hermia to make a decision in very short period of four days that either she wants to be a nun for life or marry Demetrious.
Furthermore, the absence of Hemia's mother in the story seems to make it difficult for Hermia, however it’s can’t be said that her mother’s presence could have alter the situation. If her mother was alive, as a women herself she might have understood where Hermia stands. At least Hermia would have gotten some more support. Nevertheless, even if her mother had supported her, women had very little to say in any major decisions during those...
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...heir love lives.
Despite the fact that all the difficulties lovers face, eventually everyone gets along and they get their loves and problems seems to be fixed at least for the time being. The Duke finally supports Lysander and Hermia's marriage and Helena gladly accepts Demetrious although she is skeptical of his unexpected change in his behavior. The Duke changing his mind over Lysander and Helena's love and deciding not to enforce the Athenian rule that requires him to support Hermia’s father’s poition. Even after the opposition from Hermia’s father he allows to Lysander to marry Hermia in his own wedding day along with Demetrious and Helena. The story gets a happy ending unlike many of the Shakespeare work such as Romeo and Juliet. Although the characters journey to their love were full of challenges, ultimately they are victorious in achieving their love.
Love, lust and infatuation all beguile the senses of the characters in this dreamy and whimsical work of Shakespeare, and leads them to act in outlandish ways, which throughly amuses the reader. True love does prevail in the end for Hermia and Lysander, and the initial charm of infatuation ends up proving to have happy consequence for Helena and Demetrius as well. Even when at first the reader thinks that, in theory, the effects the potion will wear off and Lysander will once again reject Helena, Oberon places a blessings on all the couples that they should live happily ever after.
Infatuation causes Helena to lose all sense of dignity, as can be seen when in the woods, she desperately pleads with Demetrius to ?but treat me as your spaniel?. Here, Helena also becomes irrational, obsessed with pursuing Demetrius, though it is obvious that Demetrius is fixated on winning Hermia?s hand in marriage. Helena?s infatuation also causes her to see things from a skewed perspective, for she falsely believes that when she divulges Hermia?s plans for eloping with Lysander, Demetrius? love for Helena will rekindle. As the audience, we know that the most probable course of action for Demetrius upon hearing such news is to pursue Lysander and Hermia, or to report them to Theseus or Egeus. Clearly, infatuation has clouded Helena?s ability to think clearly, and she sees things in her own idealistic way.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play based on love. Also in this play, there were three types of love shown−love between friends, family members and lovers. Through this play, man can learn many things such as love is influential and that love is strong enough to change the world both positively and negatively bringing readers to the conclusion that love makes us crazy, but it moves the world.
The story starts with a fight about love. Egeus, who is Hermia’s father, does not want Hermia to be in love or with Lysander at all. Egeus wants his daughter to be with Demetrius who is in love with Hermia, but Hermia does not love him. Egeus goes to Theseus who is the Duke of Athens. Egeus tells him about the situation, and of course the Duke will go with Egeus side since he is the father of Hermia and he decides what she should do. Now Hermia is stuck with marrying Demetrius, becoming a nun, or being put to death. Hermia and Lysander decide to run away in the woods where there are no rules and where nothing can stop them from being in love. Hermia trusting Helena, who is her best friend with the secret she tells her. Helena is in love with Demetrius. She goes to tell Demetrius that Hermia has decided to run to the woods in hopes Demetrius would take her back.
In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, love plays a huge role in the actions and consciences of many of the characters. Although the play is a comedy, it gives incite of Shakespeare’s view of women how they were treated during his time. Women usually had to marry men who they didn’t love and it was inevitable that women were to become solely dependent on men. Similar to many writers, Shakespeare expressed his opinions on sensitive subjects through his works. Shakespeare’s portrayal of women at his time were that they could allow themselves to be rebellious and vulnerable only when influenced by love.
Hermia is a gentle, beautiful and loving soul that has been oppressed by societal norms. In her time, women were seen as property. For instance, her own father and The Duke of Athens demand that she marry Demetrius or face death. Hermia’s autonomy is violated and she is having her sexual experiences regulated by family and state. However, she is brave and courageous enough to take on the challenge of being sexually autonomous. This will cause her to feel torn and insecure about her identity, since her society is one that does not respect her beauty or independence.
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 supernatural mix-ups, authority, and jealousy.
Demetrius and Lysander both speak in figurative language and both are very handsome. Their love for Helena and Hernia deal mainly with physical attraction and flirtatious acts than love that captures body, mind, and soul. If any of the four characters posses anything of realistic love, it would be Hermia. She was willing to risk death in order to be with Lysander. This act of love goes beyond any other in this play, and demonstrates Hermia’s devotion to Lysander. "My good Lysander, I swear to thee by Cupid’s strongest bow- Tomorrow truly will I meet with thee" (Act 1, Scene 1, Line #).
The commencement to both relationships are very different. Lysander and Hermia are in love from the very beginning and decide to run away to get married when they find out Hermia will be killed if she does not marry Demetrius. These two are truly in love that they will even risk their lives to be together. Their counterparts Demetrius and Helena start at a much different place in their relationship. Demetrius is in love with Hermia and chases her and Lysander into the
To begin with, this play is filled with comedy but also conflicts between characters. Helena is the kind of woman who has no self-esteem. This is because she does everything to be loved back by a man that doesn’t love her and that is Demetrius. Helena represents a character of a woman that is desperate of having love. In other words, Helena is different from Hermia because she’s an insecure woman full of jealousy. Helena tries to do everything to get Lysander away from her old best friend Hermia. She thinks that love can be found by letting the one you love do anything to you. Consequently, Hermia believes that lo...
Love is superficial. In "A Midsummer Night's Dream" multiple love triangles exist that switch between the plots. Historical and gender roles are a key point in this play. One key point explains the troublesome choices one can go through while in love. While another key point directed toward on cultural norms and perception of love. In the Ancient world of Athens males dominated their culture ultimately deciding the lives of many woman and men.
The relationship between Demetrius and Hermia is problematic, in that Demetrius is seeking the affections of Hermia, while she is in love with Lysander. However, Hermia’s father approves of Demetrius and tries to force her to marry him, but Hermia refuses because of her love for Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1.1.22-82). Lysander points out the flaw in the situation through this comment, “You have her father 's love, Demetrius –/Let me have Hermia 's. Do you marry him,” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1.1.93-94). The second flawed relationship is between Lysander and Helena, as a result of an enchantment put on Lysander that made him fall in love with Helena. Helena does not want the affections of Lysander, but rather the love of Demetrius, and believes that Lysander is taunting her. In addition, this relationship creates tensions because Hermia is in love with Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 2.2.109-140). Both relationships are not desirable due to a lack of mutual admiration and the creation of non-peaceful and unsatisfying
Presented with many obstacles and complications to overcome, we know that Hermia is the protagonist in the play. She has relations with almost all the characters in the play. The first and most important relationship is her love, Lysander. From the very beginning we see that Hermia loves Lysander with all her heart and soul and he loved her the same. The only tragic flaw in their relationship was when Puck put the magic juice in Lysander's eyes and he fell in love with Helena. Hermia felt sad and rejected when that happened. But when Puck finally realized that he had made a mistake and corrected it, Hermia and Lysander were in their heavenly bliss of love once again.
The principal power struggle present in the play exists between Egeus/Theseus and Hermia. In Act 1 Scene 1, Hermia straightforwardly resists Egeus' wishes for her to marry Demetrius rather than Lysander. Through Egeus' eyes, Hermia is seen to have a 'stubborn harshness' (I.i.38) and she won't 'consent to marry with Demetrius' (I.i.40). She challenges Egeus despite knowing that tradition allows the father to wed his daughter off to whoever he wishes. Anyhow, she plots with Lysander and consents to his arrangement of leaving Athens to Lysander's widow aunt whose house is out of reach from the 'sharp Athenian law' (I.i.162). While fleeing may appear like a nuanced and modest form of insubordination, it is still a corroboration of Hermia's rights and opportunity as a woman to pick who she
Each of the lovers proves that they are fools: Demetrius, because he is unaware how his love changes, Helena, because she cahses Demetrius even though he does not love her, Lysander, because he persuades Hermia to run away with him, and Hermia, because she risks death for love