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Dramatic persona of midsummer night dream
Midsummer night's dream characters
Midsummer night's dream characters
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Fairies, mortals, magic, love, and hate all intertwine to make A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare a very enchanting tale, that takes the reader on a truly dream-like adventure. The action takes place in Athens, Greece in ancient times, but has the atmosphere of a land of fantasy and illusion which could be anywhere. The mischievousness and the emotions exhibited by characters in the play, along with their attempts to double-cross destiny, not only make the tale entertaining, but also help solidify one of the play’s major themes; that true love and it’s cleverly disguised counterparts can drive beings to do seemingly irrational things.
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...
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Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name...
Such tricks hath strong imagination,
That if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!”
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.
The mood immediately changes and we discover that Hermia rather than being filled with filial love is determined to marry Lysander rather than her father’s choice for her. And so the love theme is made more complex as we have the wrathful love of her father confronted by the love of her daughter for the man who is not her fathers’ choice. The love theme is further complicated by the arrival of Helena. Here we see the platonic love of two friends.
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.
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.
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...
In this play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, true love plays a huge role in the play.
Humans wish to be loved by each other and to feel love and attraction from a significant other. In William Shakespeare’s plays, primarily A Midsummer Night’s Dream, love is one of the major themes. Due to the theme of love in the plays, most literary elements such as metaphor are also centered around love. In Act 1, Scene 1, lines 76-78, Theseus says to Hermia, “But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd Than that which, withering on the virgin thorn, Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness” (Shakespeare 1269). Through this metaphor, Theseus recognizes Hermia’s purity by his description of the distilled, or pure, rose. Theseus expresses to Hermia that he believes she should marry Demetrius. If she does this, then she would not have to either be executed or become a nun. Hermia’s father also believes that she should marry Demetrius, yet she is in love with Lysander. By disobeying her father, Hermia would be subjected to the consequences of execution or joining the sisterhood of the nuns. Theseus uses the metaphor of the virgin thorn to portray what Hermia’s life could look like due to her choices. If Hermia were to choose to not marry Demetrius, she would live a life of bleak and uneventfulness as a nun or die a meaningless life. Still, Theseus gives her the advice to choose between being happy or to live on in sorrow and unhappiness. In Act 1, Scene 1, lines 128-131, Lysander says to Hermia, “How now my love? Why is
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.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream consists of the dominant theme of love. It emphasizes marriage as proper contentment of romantic love. The conflict throughout the play stems from romantic troubles involving a number of romantic elements. This play implicates people who have a tendency to fall in love with those who are outwardly beautiful. The overall meaning of it is that outward beauty can become unappealing if it is all the love is based on. The power and passion of love threatens to terminate friendships, turn women against women, and turn men against 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
Shakespeare creates a situation in which two pairs of young lovers, Lysander and Hermia, are forced to elope from the oppressive authority of their Elders, here we see Lysander asking Hermia to flee to the woods, “there gentle Hermia may I marry thee; and to that place the sharp Athenian law cannot pursue us” Freedom is not permitted in Athens, therefore the two lovers plan to escape into the woods. Hermia has two options given from her oppressive father, ‘either to die the death, or to abjure for ever in society of men’. She disobeys his commands. Shakespeare uses images to reflect Athens, and to magnify and to solidify Lysander and Hermia’s love for each other, which is strong and cannot be broken, without the use of magic. ‘Withering on a virgin thorn, grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness’.
In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream composed by William Shakespeare, Nick Bottom the weaver once said, “reasons and love / Keep little company together nowadays” (3.1.131-32). He implies that love and logic do not go along side by side. This concept is explored through the play in several different scenes. Love is thought by many people as a positive characteristic, something that amends two individuals’ relationship. Nevertheless, love could not be more ridiculous when it contradicts its very virtue. Shakespeare portrays this folly of love through the contradiction of how love is both the origin of calmness and joy, but also the deep disturbance among the characters which is displayed through Lysander, Oberon, and the lovers in the comedy.
In conclusion, the relationship between Bottom and Titania, the application of the love potion, and the relationship between Hermia, Egeus, and Lysander all convey Shakespeare’s message that love is illogical very well, due to the introduction of magic, the head of a donkey, and the wish to die before loving another man, into the mix. It is conveyed very convincingly, as the foolishness of the whole situation is combined with a bitter sense of humor.
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 Nights’ Dream by William Shakespeare, the bonds of love are overpowered by interference, illustrating that true love is not invincible. Genuine and everlasting love appears as the goal in the play, but the only relationships present don’t ever attain it. This highlights the inability for any of the characters to have “in-conquerable” love. Manufactured love unseated the relationships of the many lovers, causing distress and eventually ending the relationships. At the beginning of the play, Lysander and Hermia were deeply in love with one another. After Bottom’s spell was cast, however, Lysander began to love another, Helena. His artificial love overpowers that of former Hermia’s,
Love is difficult, although A Midsummer’s Night Dream has many different individual stories, a majority of them play a role on how love is difficult and troublesome. Love is a cause of many actions, some of which are really idiotic. An example of this is how Helena and Hermia, two best friends, fought over a man they liked. Hermia loves Lysander, Lysander loves Helena, Helena loves Demetrius, and Demetrius loves Hermia, thus causing both Lysander and Demetrius to love Hermia. All this was caused by a spell put on them by Puck, which made them fall in love with the first person they laid their eyes on once awake. Love caused Hermia and Helena to forget their friendship briefly and argue over men. All this caused each Lysander, Hermia, Helena,