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The analysis of Midsummer Night's Dream
The analysis of Midsummer Night's Dream
The analysis of Midsummer Night's Dream
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“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” (1.1.17-20). While this takes the title literally since Theseus won the Amazon queen over, love always has its obstacles: “The course of true love never did run smooth” (1.1.134). Lysander says this and refers back to famous lovers that ended up in tragedies, or had to fight their way to be together. In Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, written by William Shakespeare, the lovers have to face a series of events in order to find true merriment and happiness. Two couple that lives by this philosophy is Lysander and Hermia, and Oberon and Titania. To start it off, in the very beginning of the play, Hermia is begging her father to allow Hermia and Lysander to be together. “Full of vexation come I, with complaint/Against my child, my daughter Hermia.— /Stand forth, Demetrius.—My noble lord, /This man hath my consent to marry her.—/Stand forth, Lysander.—And my gracious duke,/This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child.— /Thou, thou, Lysander” (1.1.23-29). Back then parents dictated one’s marriage, but as Lysander’s saying can be applied to throughout history, teenage disobedience is similar. Lysander and Hermia decide to run away, since Theseus, …show more content…
In order for them to find happiness in their relationship, they work at the best of their abilities at that moment. Titania and Oberon’s, and Lysander and Hermia’s relationship can be displayed throughout history. Love never runs smooth and many that do fall as quickly as they fall in love. Titania and Oberon’s relationship seem somewhat destructive, but it has lasted for lengths of time unlike most because they can overcome obstacles and Lysander and Hermia’s relationship will last due to what they have
The Fickle Nature of Love Love is often a whirlwind of unexpected feelings and emotions, taking people on unpredictable journeys of intense highs and lows - and William Shakespeare knows it. Shakespeare manages to capture this element of unpredictability and unexpectedness within all the relationships displayed in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Throughout all of the love relationships that are shown to the audience in the play, the theme “love is unpredictable” manages to be entwined in the midst of it all, be it among the young and rash lovers or in the mature relationships depicted. In the play, Lysander says that “The course of true love never did run smooth.”
In act 1, Scene 1, we are introduced to the paternal love of Egeus and Hermia. Egeus, being Hermia’s father has all right over who she marries and so he chooses Demetrius as Hermia’s to-be husband however she doesn’t truly love Demetrius and has her heart set in Lysander. This led to troubled times for her as if she didn’t marry Demetrius she had two options: execution or becoming a nun.
Shakespeare captured the idea that true love’s course never runs smooth extremely well in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and several pieces of literature in modern times follow suit to that idea. Modern authors write stories about people who are in love and have to move away from each other, ultimately causing the course of true love to not run smooth. The popular novel, The Fault in Our Stars, also follows this idea since the two lovers are separated due to their cancer diagnosis. Outside of literature, things like divorce and laws against same sex marriage cause the course of true love to not run smooth. Both in Shakespeare’s times and in modern day, “the course of true love never did run smooth”(28) is an idea that proves itself again and again.
In the story, the supreme ruler of Athens, Thesius ends up marrying Hippolyta, the Queen of the Jungle. However, during the whole story, Hippolyta never throughly discusses her feelings and ideas about the marriage. She acts as if she has no choice but to marry Thesius. This can be proven by examining Hippolyta's position in the relationship between herself and Thesius. Hippolyta was captured by Thesius during battle and Thesius intimidates Hippolyta into marrying him since he is a supreme ruler and she was defeated by him. Thesius reveals that he capture Hippolyta in battle in the following quote, "I wood thee by my sword/ And won thy love doing thee injuries" (Act I, Pg 7). The above quote and the fact that Hippolyta never discusses her feelings about the wedding leads the re...
First, Shakespeare uses the motif of the seasons early on in the play to solidify the connection between love gone awry and chaos. The initial romantic conflict is established when Egeus brings his daughter, Hermia, to Theseus to try and force her into marrying Demetrius, the man of his choice. Hermia has no interest in Demetrius because she is madly in love with Lysander. Unfortunately for her, Theseus sides with Egeus and threatens to enforce Athenian law if she does not obey him. Obviously, this situation is awful for Hermia; she is being kept from her true love. Her options are dismal: she has the choice of disobeying Egeus, betraying Lysander, or living a lonely life as a nun. Either way, she loses. The situation seems completely hopeless. Shakespeare illustrates this hopelessness by connecting Hermia’s grim future with the winter. When Theseus describes Hermia’s potential future, he calls her a “withering” rose and a “barren sister,” destined to a life of “chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon” (Shakespeare 1.1.75). Essentially, Hermia will be trapped in an endless winter. This unnatural seasonal change will become a reality if she becomes a nun and remains celibate. For a young woman who is passionately in love with a young man...
The main example of this is the sad situation of Helena and Demetrius during the early stages of the play. Helena is madly in love with Demetrius and would give her life for just one kind word from him. In this play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, true love plays a huge role in the play. Several relationships begin with true love such as Hermia and Lysander’s and Hypolyta and Thesus’ but some that did not begin with true love, end with true love such as Helena and Demetrius’. Helena and Demetrius, in my perspective, were meant to love each other so that everyone may be able to love each other in harmony.
Demetrius is willing to go to any extent to have Hermia marry him, even allowing Hermia to be subject to a life of a nun or death, if she does not marry him. Demetrius? infatuation with Hermia brings out the tyrannical and possessive part of his character, as can be seen when he says ?and, Lysander, yield thy crazed title to my certain right?
From the beginning, Hermia defiantly denies her father’s attempts at an arranged marriage, in favor of her whirlwind romance with and marriage to Lysander. In her defense, she uses words of chastity and moral purity to claim her fidelity and love towards Lysander and inability to wed Demetrius “I know not by what power I am made bold / nor how it may concern my modesty” (pp). The concern, or befitting, of Hermia’s modesty, by not wedding Demetrius, is protecting the very essence of her womanhood from someone whom she feels isn’t worth of the ultimate consummation of love – marriage (and the subsequent sex). This is continued in her next dialogue, where Hermia states that she would rather die “quote” (pp) or become a nun than give up her virgin “privilege” “quote” (pp). Hermia’s claims of “privilege” and “sovereignty” validate her chastity and moral purity as something that should only be shared with Lysander, not Demetrius. However, the sovereignty of Hermia’s claims also fits in with Demetrius’ arguments regarding his rights to Hermia’s hand in marriage: “quote” (pp). Demetrius’ use of “sovereignty” and “right” turns the supposed “love” of Hermia and Demetrius’ arranged marriage into a legal contract, where Hermia is property and social placeholder instead of a loving companion.
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
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.
The tone of the play is set early with a conversation between Hippolyta, fierce queen of the Amazons, and her husband to be, Theseus. While Theseus is in a hurry for his weeding night to arrive Hippolyta fears “the rapid pace that will transform the moon into a companion weapon for Theseus’s sword, ‘a silver bow,’ and force her into his bed” (Pollack-Pelzner 580). Hippolyta is being forced to be a trophy wife after Theseus defeats her in battle, a fact that he flaunts in her face early in the play starting on line 17 when he declares: “Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword, And won thy love, doing thee injuries”(Shakespeare Act 1. Scene 1. Lines 17-18). While her predicament does not cause laug...
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...
This element of intense similarity between characters serves to illustrate how fickle and easily changed feelings between young people can be. For example, the strong similarities between Demetrius and Lysander are discussed relatively early in the play; at Theseus’s assertion that Demetrius, the man she is reluctantly betrothed to, is “a worthy gentleman”, Hermia shoots back that “so is Lysander.” (1.1, 53-54). Lysander himself is also quick to point out the strong similarities between himself and his romantic rival, stating that he is “as well derived as he/As well possessed…/My fortunes every way as fairly ranked” (1.1, 99-101.) The apparent identical traits of Lysander and Demetrius lend themselves to the mystery of why Hermia loves
In the struggles of Hermia and Lysander to find a place where they can freely express their true love, it is evident that the course of something as scarce as true love always comes with obstacles. Lysander says: “How now, my love? Why is your cheek so pale? / How chance the roses there do fade so fast?” (1.1.130-131), showing that he and Hermia make a faithful couple truly showing their adoration for each other. However, Hermia’s father Egeus refuses to allow to these two lovers marry. This is the conflict Hermia faces: to disobey her father (and the Athenian law), or to mind her father’s will and allow this “edict in destiny” to lose course. “O hell, to choose love by another’s eyes!” (1.1.142), Hermia decides. Hermia chooses to follow the path her true love brings rather than to do what her father insists. In this example, complications manifest in the troubles with true love. In addition, even Titania and Oberon have difficulties
Lysander's literal losing of his way anticipates his metaphorical losing of his way, in pursuing the wrong woman. Demetrius speaks to Helena in a manner no gentleman would care to use ...