A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, set in and around Athens surrounds the theme of types of love. Shakespeare is known for creating great love stories such as that of Romeo and Juliet. However, this comedic play proves how different experiences of love can be. A Midsummer Night’s Dream presents its largest theme of different love through the indifference of Hermia, forced loving presented by Theseus, and of course parental love shown by Egeus, all written by one of the most famous authors of all time William Shakespeare
Parent of Hermia, Egeus shows his authority with a strict attitude. He at first represents the commanding power a father has in the house. During this time period, the “man of the house” was still a very prominent
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Born on April 23rd in 1564, he immediately began facing indifference much like the character Helena. He most likely attended Stratford’s grammar school, which is where he would first perform Latin plays, and read literature. He was the oldest in his family following two siblings which had died. Plus, his sister Anne died at seven. This brought him to his marriage, to Anne Hathaway. Shakespeare was 18 when they married, and they were already expecting their first child. This moved along his life at a rapid pace. However, it was not until after his death that he would become famous. His plays were published in a portfolio by colleagues from his acting days in The King’s Men. After the First Folio is when he became …show more content…
Theseus believes he can win love by sheer force. Theseus even states, “Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword and won thy love doing thee injuries, But I will wed thee in another key, With pomp, with triumph, and with reveling.” (I i 17-20) Yet, you cannot win love by conquering someone. This presents a confusion for the audience, unaware if this is real love or artificially made through battle. Hippolyta seems excited about the marriage exclaiming, “Four days will quickly steep themselves in night; Four nights will quickly dream away the time; And then the moon, like to a silver bow New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night Of our solemnities.” (I, I, 8) Clearly, this artistic language mirrors that of someone desperately in love such as in Sonnet 130 stating, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s
In Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, love appears to be the common theme of several storylines being played out simultaneously. Although these stories intersect on occasion, their storylines are relatively independent of one another; however, they all revolve around the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons. If love is a common theme among these stories, then it is apparent that love makes people act irrationally.
Theseus and Hippolyta’s relationship is the most dignified in the play. They show a desire to get along and they are comfortable sharing experiences and feelings important to them (1.1.1-11; 4.1.111-126). Theseus tenderly dominates Hippolyta: “Come, my Hippolyta. What cheer, my love?” (1.1.122; 4.1.185). Hippolyta however never reciprocates his use of terms of endearment such as “my love” and “fair queen.” In addition, the mythical context of their relationship is foreboding. We are reminded that Theseus is able to marry Hippolyta because he kidnapped her (1.1.16-1.1.19). The mythical Hippolyta later either dies in childbirth, or fighting against the Amazons by Theseus's side, or Theseus leaves her for another woman, Phaedra, and the story gets more sordid after that.[1] Theseus’s reputation as ravisher of women is addressed in the script (2.1.74-80). And the Amazon method of perpetuating their tribe is not romantic.[2]
...lemma of romance, and while the play engages several different romantic elements, it does not represent a genuine love chronicle. A Midsummer Night's Dream separates the spectators from the sentiments of the proponents with the purpose of triggering amusement at the troubles and difficulties experienced by people in love. The analysis of the relevance of the plot, characters and theme in the play in today’s world will offer a deeper understanding of the play structure and the author’s intention. All the three authors expressed a common understanding: Shakespeare was ahead of his time in terms of style, approach and content. Even during the Elizabethan era, he was able to write and successfully produced a play that contained seamless dance, music and costumes, it was a century after his death that most of the styles were fully understood and successfully implemented.
The Greek myth of Theseus and Hippolyta tells of Theseus kidnapping Hippolyta in order to take her as his wife (“Theseus”). In the play, the character Theseus alludes (within the allusion) to these circumstances: “. . . I wooed thee with my sword and won thy love doing thee injuries. But I will wed thee . . . with pomp, with triumph, and with reveling” (Shakespeare 1.1.16-19). Interestingly, in the myth, Theseus never marries Hippolyta like he does in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Hippolyta instead escapes, and Theseus is forced to look elsewhere for love (Theseus). This might make one wonder why Shakespeare chose to change the story’s ending. Perhaps this change helps to foreshadow Hermia’s eventual escape from Demetrius’s
The play opens with a conversation between Theseus and his fiancée, queen Hippolyta. Both of them are important mythological figures. According to Athenian legend, Theseus seized the Amazonian queen with the help of Heracles: "I wooed thee with my sword / And won
In the first scene of the play you are introduced to the duke of Athens, Theseus, who lays down the law for Hermia. Hermia, the daughter of Egeus, desires to go against her father’s wishes of marrying Demetrius, and instead marry Lysander. Theseus firmly states to Hermia, “Either to die the death or to abjure forever the society of men”; which simply put, Theseus gives Hermia the option to die or to no longer enjoy the company of men (Crowther). Furthermore he means to send her to a nunnery. This exemplifies the first variation of love within this play: arranged love, i.e. arranged marriage. Theseus then gives the order to Hermia that she must have her decision by his own wedding day with Hippolyta, thus giving her four days to decide her fate.
This play opens with the involuntary marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta which has no intention of love. This marriage exhibits inequality because he assumes a dominant role. Hippolyta is left with no reason to love Theseus who admits, “Hippolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword, /And won thy love doing thee injuries….” (1.1.16-17). He pursues Hippolyta with sword and hot poetic language. This wedding does not express love. She is a warrior queen, an Amazon, who is forced to marry someone who is not
I hope to have shown how Lysander's claim that 'true love never did run smooth' is supported by other events and I think it is clear that love can make people do many irrational things when it doesn't run smoothly. Theseus and Hippolyta show us that love can run smoothly in the end but each relationship has its problem. Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena all reflect the idea of love not running smoothly and show what being in love can make you do. The play remains popular today due to the contemporary relevance of so many of the themes which Shakespeare included and he presents the idea that love is unpredictable and can cause great confusion.
Love is a powerful emotion, capable of turning reasonable people into fools. Out of love, ridiculous emotions arise, like jealousy and desperation. Love can shield us from the truth, narrowing a perspective to solely what the lover wants to see. Though beautiful and inspiring when requited, a love unreturned can be devastating and maddening. In his play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare comically explores the flaws and suffering of lovers. Four young Athenians: Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, and Helena, are confronted by love’s challenge, one that becomes increasingly difficult with the interference of the fairy world. Through specific word choice and word order, a struggle between lovers is revealed throughout the play. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare uses descriptive diction to emphasize the impact love has on reality and one’s own rationality, and how society’s desperate pursuit to find love can turn even strong individuals into fools.
Comedy in A Midsummer Night's Dream "why do they run away? This is a knavery of them to make me afeard. "(3.1.99) This is a quote from the Shakespearean play "A Midsummer Night's Dream. " In this quote, the speaker, Bottom, is wondering why everyone is afraid of him.
Everyone at some point in their lives lies even when they know that they should be telling the truth. Deception is a key element in William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet are both deceptive to their parents when they do not tell them about their marriage. They then continue to lie, Juliet telling her parents she would marry Paris when she secretly arranged to fake her death and Romeo deceiving Friar Laurence by going back to Verona. All of the deceiving in the play leads to conflicts, which eventually ends in death of both Romeo and Juliet. By showing how Romeo and Juliet being deceptive to their parents and role models led to pain and conflict, Shakespeare shows that you should always be honest if you want to maintain
In the first part of the play Egeus has asked the Duke of Athens, Theseus, to rule in favor of his parental rights to have his daughter Hermia marry the suitor he has chosen, Demetrius, or for her to be punished. Lysander, who is desperately in love with Hermia, pleads with Egeus and Theseus for the maiden’s hand, but Theseus’, who obviously believes that women do not have a choice in the matter of their own marriage, sides with Egeus, and tells Hermia she must either consent to marrying Demetrius, be killed, or enter a nunnery. In order to escape from the tragic dilemma facing Hermia, Lysander devises a plan for him and his love to meet the next evening and run-off to Lysander’s aunt’s home and be wed, and Hermia agrees to the plan. It is at this point in the story that the plot becomes intriguing, as the reader becomes somewhat emotionally “attached’’ to the young lovers and sympathetic of their plight. However, when the couple enters the forest, en route to Lysander’s aunt’s, it is other mischievous characters that take the story into a whole new realm of humorous entertainment...
Some of the characters are fairies, kings, queens, and even lower class people. It is
The Role of the Fairies in A Midsummer Nights Dream Introduction = == == == ==
Forced love was displayed was also another type of love displayed in the play as well. Theseus forced Hippolyta to marry him after he captured her. Hippolyta was the queen of the Amazons. Theseus quoted “I woo’ed thee with my sword/ and won thy love doing thee injuries” (Act 1. Scene 1) Theseus obviously felt that because he conquered Hippolyta, she was obligated to marry him. Another example of forced love was when Egeus was trying to force his daughter, Hermia to marry a man that she didn’t want to.