“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid
painted blind” (Shakespeare, 1.1). The central theme of William Shakespeare’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream is love. Of the four story lines going on during the play,
each of them includes a different type of love. These examples are existent in many
instances through Demetrius and Hermia’s forced marriage, Lysander and Hermia’s
true love and Hermia and Helena’s friendship love.
The first type of love established in the play is forced love. The story begins with
Theseus, King of the Athens, settling the dispute over the marriage of Demetrius and
Hermia. “But I beseech your Grace that I may know, the worst that may befall on this
case if I refuse to wed Demetrius”
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To continue, forcing Hermia into marrying someone she does not love
only causes her to go with what her heart truly desires.
Friendship love is the third type of love expressed in the play. “So we grew
together like to a double cherry tree, seeming parted, but yet an union in partition,
two lovely berried molded onto one stem” (Shakespeare, 3.2). The two main female
characters, Hermia and Helena, have been close friends for as long as either of them
can remember. “Injurious Hermia, most ungrateful maid, have you conspired, have
you with these contrived to bait me with this foul derision” (Shakespeare, 3.2)? Once
both the men are accidentally in love with Helena, she begins to suspect they are
only mocking her and she grows angry. She questions her and Hermia’s friendship,
thinking her best friend is in on the joke, as well. In the end, though, the two women
mend their friendship and marry the man they love without arbitration.
In conclusion, the overall theme of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s
Dream is love. The various types of love in the play are existent in many instances
through Demetrius and Hermia’s forced marriage, Lysander and Hermia’s true
"...If then true lovers have been ever crossed...as due to love as thoughts, and dreams, and sighs..." (1.1. 152, 156)
William Shakespeare, an illustrious and eminent playwright from the Elizabethan Age (16th Century) and part owner of the Globe theatre wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream in which he portrays the theme of love in many different ways. These include the paternal love seen in the troubled times for Egeus and his rebellious daughter Hermia, true Love displayed with the valiant acts of Lysander and Hermia and the destructive love present in the agonizing acts of Titania towards her desperate lover Oberon. Through the highs and lows of love, the first love we clasp is the paternal love from our family.
be that love is a good thing, but in the play it is love that leads to
In my opinion unrequited love is the most painful type of love there is in this play.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream title page of the first quarto was published in 1600, stating that the play ‘hath been sundry times publicly acted’ by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Shakespeare’s creation sends you on an imaginative voyage from a world of social conflict into a whimsical realm, ending in the return of reality that has itself been partly altered by the experience of the journey. Each of the four main plots, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, includes one or more pairs of lovers whose happiness has been aggravated by misunderstanding or parental disapproval. Shakespeare draws from various sources in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, such as integrating English country fairy lore and the Greeks mythological gods and goddesses.
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.
Transparent Helena! Nature shows art, That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart."(2.2.103). This is what Demetrius says to Helena when he sees her. He has fallen in love with her. This is where the comedy of this love mix up begins.
The Theme of Love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare In the play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ many aspects of love are explored. In this essay I will be exploring how Shakespeare conveys the theme of love including illusion, confusion, escape, harmony and lust. Historically, it has been suggested that ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ was written for a wedding, signifying the importance of love in this play, however there is no real evidence to prove this myth. Rather, the Lord Chamberlain’s men performed ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ on the London stage.
Vickers, Brian. "A Midsummer Night’s Dream." The Review of English Studies May 1998: 215. http://web7.searchbank.com(12 Nov. 1998).
Shakespeare also incorporates illusion as a tool to make the reader connect the two love stories without having to explain the moral of Cupid. When he says that “love looks not with the eyes but with the mind; and therefore is the winged Cupid painted blind,” he is trying to say that love is more than just looks, but the connection between two people (240-241). Cupid is the universal symbol of love which leads the readers to understand the meaning of the speech; Helena has so much affection for
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream with Related Readings. Albany: ITP International Thomson, 1998. Print.
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the main conflict is between love and social relations. The play revolves around the magical power of love which transforms many lives. As a result of this, it gets the reader’s emotionally involved through ways of reminding us of love’s foolishness and capabilities, as well as violence often followed alongside of lust. This play shows passion’s conflict with reason. For example, the father presented in the play Egeus, represents tradition and reason while Hermia represents passion for love and freedom. Egeus wants Hermia to marry Demetrius and accuses Lysander of “bewitching” Hermia with love charms and songs. This is one way love’s difficulties are presented in the play between father and daughter. Additionally, Helena recognizes love’s difficulties when Demetrius falls in love with her best friend Hermia. Helena argues that strong emotions such as love can make extremely unpleasant things beautiful. This is another way the play presents love’s difficulties between lovers and capricious emotions.
Love plays a very significant role in this Shakespearian comedy, as it is the driving force of the play: Hermia and Lysander’s forbidden love and their choice to flee Athens is what sets the plot into motion. Love is also what drives many of the characters, and through readers’ perspectives, their actions may seem strange, even comical to us: from Helena pursuing Demetrius and risking her reputation, to fairy queen Titania falling in love with Bottom. However, all these things are done out of love. In conclusion, A Midsummer Night’s Dream displays the blindness of love and how it greatly contradicts with reason.
In "A Midsummer Night's Dream," William Shakespeare explains the difficulties of the nature of love. Both false love and true love prevail in the end, leading the reader to come to the conclusion that all types of love can triumph. Hermia and Lysander represent the existence of a "true love", while Helena and Demertrius represent the opposite extreme. Shakespeare presents the idea that love is unpredictable and can cause great confusion. Love is something that cannot be explained, it can only be experienced. Shakespeare challenges us to develop our own idea of what love truly is.
The theme of love is brought up over and over again in the play. It is