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.
In response to Hermia’s defiance toward marrying Demetrius, Theseus offers Hermia three choices in the first scene: to obey her father’s will; to become a nun and forever stay an unwed virgin; to die. The extremity of these punishments presented by Theseus, and Hemia’s decision to accept these punishments rather than marry Demetrius, exaggerates how love can lead to irrational sacrifices. Shakespeare then compares a married woman to a plucked and distilled rose, and an unwed woman to a withering unplucked rose on a “virgin thorn.” This potent imagery contrasts the sweet smell of perfume to the harmful touch of a thorn. If Hermia continues to defy the desires of her father, she is sacrificing a happily married life in hopes of following he...
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...erfections. Also, just as a poet can create poems out of nothing, a lover can see things that do not exist, such the reciprocation of a flirty gesture, simply because that is he or she want to see.
Deceiving and irrational, love can be a challenging emotion to endure. It can be difficult to find happiness in love, and on the journey to find that happiness, love can influence one’s thought process. Shakespeare uses specific wording in his play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to poke fun while exploring the individual’s quest for love. The desire to find love and a happy ending with a lover is so strong in the foundation of mankind, that people will not accept a life without it. In fact, they would rather give up their attribute of rationality than their opportunity to find a significant other. The heart’s control of the mind can make a foolish man.
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.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream begins with commentary on the classic gender roles of an engaged couple Hippolyta and Theseus. However, the classic gender role of women’s subservience to her husband is made complicated by war and victory. Theseus, duke of Athens, conquers the Amazons, and consequently takes Hippolyta as his prize. The prize mentality that Theseus embraces is rather barbaric, similar to wild animals fighting for a mate, and aids in reinforcing detrimental gender roles. Previous to being conquered, Hippolyta had been the ruler of a great nation and was by no means a weak or submissive woman. Although she had been shamefully conquered for marriage, Hippolyta refuses to be a beautiful statue that lies in the outskirts of the palace to be gawked at. Hippolyta secretly has control over her situation, as shown in the first passage of the play in Act 1, Scene 1. In this scene, Theseus discusses their wedding day with a tone of longing. Imagery of anticipated seasons of the year with slowly moving days is used when he fantasizes about the wedding day and describes Hippolyta as holding his desires from him. Although Hippolyta has an intimidating Amazon warrior image, Theseus is enamored by Hippolyta’s beauty and will do anything to gain...
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.
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
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.
Extreme passion results in irrational actions with horrifying consequences. The indecisive and fervent whims regarding love and the human heart are often selfish and fickle. For the victims of love, destruction is often inevitable. In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, unrequited love forces both Romeo and Juliet to commit suicide, as neither one believes it is possible to continue life without the other. Both, through mere days of desperation, elation, deception, and grief, were ultimately cheated out of their lives by their love. Shakespeare develops a similar opinion through Helena in A Midsummers Night’s Dream. Helena is able to recognize love as a volatile creature, yet with uncontrollable power over the heart.The transient nature of love is channeled through deception and clouded judgement.
At it’s heart, love is a chemical reaction. Norepinephrine, dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin work together to create a cocktail of passion, desire, and that heart-fluttering feeling of love. There are varying levels, of course, like there is with anything. Love that is short and fatal, and love that is long and everlasting. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a play by William Shakespeare, seeks to explore love in through a critical lense of reality, and the blur of the fantastic. Using a particular sprite as his tool, Shakespeare drafts and builds a dialectic surrounding love that never reaches completion; that is, he never answers the questions he composes through the play using metaphors, characters, and dialogue. Robin Goodfellow, also known as
Understanding of love and true devotion is one of the most prevalent themes, if not the theme, in literature since the beginning of time. William Shakespeare often wrote of the implications of love and how truly foolish it can be. This is made most apparent in his work, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in which love is cast about from person to person by the power of a flower’s juice in the eyes of its victim. The scene in which both pairs of lovers reunite after having the love spell cast on them by Puck is one of the best displays of the transient and seemingly foolish nature of love through the use of clever syntax, diction, and vivid imagery for which Shakespeare is known.
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...
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.
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.
Hermia and Lysander are forbidden by their families, Helena and Demetrius qquwkare engaged to different people. Bottom and Titania both love each other despite the circumstances. Shakespeare shows that anything can happen in a dream, as a dream is not natural. Love is not only apparent in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but also in anyone of Shakespeare’s plays. Love is found everywhere and is the conflict to almost every good film. The recipe for a good tale is one with a protagonist who has a love interest. From The Titanic to Scarface, from The Great Gatsby to The Scarlet Letter, love can be found in each of these masterpieces. It is what grasps the audience’s attention. A decent love story can make someone feel alive, heartbroken, or exasperated. What is life without love? A Midsummer Night’s Dream is an existing tale that contradicts Geisel’s opinion. It shows that even sometimes, dreams are better than