Some of the Characters Contradicts Themselves A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s dramas that explore how love can change people’s behavior. Love can make people get the best of them and also it can force them to act the worst. Lovers sometimes contradict themselves with different situations. Throughout William Shakespeare ‘s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, it is emphasized that love most of the times is illogic, childish and depends mainly upon looks and attractiveness or upon love potion that charm the eyes, but along the way there are certain contradictions in some of his characters’ behavior while expressing their love towards each other.
Dream like quality of love that Shakespeare may believe in is obvious in different
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Theseus described lovers as “Madmen”. Helena was the character that really showed this aspect of love. She always felt ashamed and she always blamed herself for loving Demetrius despite his bad treatment to her and his love towards her friend Hermia. Nevertheless, she is still loyal to their old promises. She cannot find explanations for his abundance as she knows that she is as beautiful as Hermia but she also believes that “Love said to be a child, because in choice he is so oft beguiled.” In her article Discordia Concors on the Order of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jane Brown contrasts Helena and Hermia’s conviction about love when she writes,” Helena insists on the blindness of love.” That is to say, she gives herself the excuses to act that recessively when she believes that her heart is forced to do so and she has to follow it. Same thing with Demetrius, his heart is blind and he is helpless in following it. Accordingly, she deprived herself from dignity and wished that he can use her as his “Spaniel”. Moreover, she humiliated herself more when she pursued him in the woods although she declares that women “Should be wooed, and were not made to woo.” Later on in the next act and after the love potion was dripped in Demetrius eyes, Helena gets so mad when he complimented her as a “Goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!” She protests,” Never did mockers waste more idle breath.” This contradicts her …show more content…
She refuses this marriage proposal in a bold and courageous speech as she declares, “My soal consents not to give sovereignty.” Hermia here is presenting in this play the type of the strong woman who can stand out for her rights in deciding her destiny. Jane Brown, in her article Discordia Concors on the Order of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, agrees when she writes, ”As a nun her love of the divinity would be strictly spiritual.” Moreover, in this drama love was sometimes based on looks, attractiveness and external beauty. Hermia interpreted the sudden change in Lysander’s feelings towards her just because Helena is taller than her and she has fairer skin. In other words, she considers herself less appealing than Helena. This also contradicts her strong personality that some readers admired earlier in the play. In addition, this also contradicts her trust in Lysander himself and his love that gave her the bravery to face her father and Theseus that courageously. My point is not that Hermia stopped trusting Lysander any more, as she accepted to marry him at the end even after his betrayal to their promises when he expressed his love towards her friend Helena. In addition, she “continues to worry about Lysander’s safety even after he has abused and abandoned her.” As explained by
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.
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.
Love can be quite chaotic at times. As much as poets and songwriters promote the idea of idyllic romantic love, the experience in reality is often fraught with emotional turmoil. When people are in love, they tend to make poor decisions, from disobeying authority figures to making rash, poorly thought-out choices. In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare uses various motifs to illustrate how love, irrationality, and disobedience are thematically linked to disorder.
As in the case of Demetrius, infatuation causes Helena to be selfish, thinking only of her own relationship betterment with Demetrius, thus Helena betrays Hermia and Lysander?s secret in the hopes that Demetrius will be grateful to her and that she could meet him. Helena, too, is infatuated with Demetrius, who ?dotes, devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry? on Demetrius. The repetition of the word ?dotes? emphasizes on the extent of Helena?s besotted state. Helena fails to consider Hermia and Lysander?s feelings and the consequences of her actions, only contemplating on how to have Demetrius? ?sight thither and back again?.
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.
When we first meet Hermia in the play called A Midsummer Night's Dream, written by William Shakespeare, she is a girl in love against her father's wishes. From the very start of the play we can see how much enamored she is with Lysander. We can also see that Hermia is a woman with her own desires, and does not liked to be forced to do things that she does not want. She does not want to marry the man that her father betrothed to her, even though it could mean her demise. Her choices of living in a nunnery and live the life of chastity was not an option for Hermia. She loved Lysander and all she wanted was to be with him.
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.
In act five, scene one, Theseus gives a speech to Hippolyta regarding the foolish dreams Helena, Lysander, Demetrius, and Hermia just had. Before this, Helena, Lysander, Demetrius and Hermia all wake up cloudy and confused about being anointed by the flower and falling in love with the wrong person. Lysander and Hermia recount their plan of escaping and the forest as well as Helena who chose to follow them into the forest. Egeus refuses to allow Lysander’s love for Hermia, but Theseus rules against Egeus allowing Lysander and Hermia and Demetrius and Helena to marry. Before the wedding Theseus talks to Hippolyta about the confusing stories of these dazed lovers. Theseus believes these people have overactive imaginations and dismisses what they say as foolish.
Helena was the younger sister of Hermia. It often bothered her that her sister got all the attention, and she even want it. Helena was madly in love with Demetrius, However Demetrius was arranged to marry Hermia. Helena truly believe she was not good enough, and could not understand why Demetrius did now want
A Midsummer’s Night Dream, written by William Shakespeare, is a complicated love story that involves four teenagers. Hermia and Lysander are so in love; however, Hermia’s dad wants her to marry Demetrius. Helena is chasing after Demetrius, who treats her like a dog. The speaker is none other than the love-struck Helena. Her speech is not directed to anybody because Helena was alone, yet she still wants to make it clear how deeply in love she is with Demetrius. Shakespeare uses many literary devices to further explain and state that Helena loves Demetrius.
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.
While true love is treasured when achieved, its rarity can be attributed to the multitude of obstacles lovers must face. Couples often have trouble expressing their love for one another or may face challenges within the marriages. Whether it be disagreements, affection of surroundings, friendships lost, or jealousy, the quest for true love has its consequences. This concept is expressed several times in A Midsummer’s Night Dream, in the cases of many of the lovers. However, it can be argued that although complications ensue, true love is worth a life of trouble.
During much of the play, Helena relentlessly chases Demetrius, giving him love no matter how many times he spurns her. While in pursuit of him in the woods, where he tells her that he will never reciprocate her feelings, she tells him, “I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,/The more you beat me, I will fawn on you” (II.i.203-204). She is so desperate to win him over that she lowers her own status, calling herself his dog; no matter how many times he may abuse her, she will always adore him. Out of love, Helena is willing to swallow her pride to prove her devotion to him. More evidence of Helena’s blind love towards Demetrius can be found in her overlooking the flaws in Demetrius’ character. For example, he proves himself to be quite insensitive towards Helena: when they are in the woods, he says he will “leave [her] to the mercy of the wild beasts” (II.i.228) if she doesn’t stop following him. He also says to her, “…I am sick when I do look on thee” (II.i.212). Lastly, he threatens her, saying “…if thou follow me, do not believe/But I shall do thee mischief in the wood” (II.i.237). Helena acknowledges this aspect of his character, though choos...
The overriding theme of the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare deals with the nature of love. Though true love seems to be held up as an ideal, false love is mostly what we are shown. Underneath his frantic comedy, Shakespeare seems to be asking the questions all lovers ask in the midst of their confusion: How do we know when love is real? How can we trust ourselves that love is real when we are so easily swayed by passion and romantic conventions? Some readers may sense bitterness behind the comedy, but will probably also recognize the truth behind Shakespeare's satire. Often, love leads us down blind alleys and makes us do things we regret later. The lovers within the scene, especially the men, are made to seem rather shallow. They change the objects of their affections, all the time swearing eternal love to one or the other. In this scene Shakespeare presents the idea that both false love and true love can prevail..