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What was shakespeare's interpretation of love in midsummer nights dream
Love and dreaming in the midsummer night dream
What was shakespeare's interpretation of love in midsummer nights dream
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Love in literature is not uncommon, but it is the obstacles, depictions, and interpretations in that love that give pieces of literature their meanings. The plays "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare and "The Lion and the Jewel" by Wole Soyinka are both plays that give a definitive portrayal of love and power. However, their portrayals have several similarities and differences. These relationships and contrasts lie in the male and female gender roles, and the obstacles which intervene with the true or ideal love. After all, "the course of true love never did run smooth." (Lysander, 1.1.134)
To start, males play a very important role in love, as they are one of the sexes. In both plays, males are portrayed as the dominant gender due to their imperious behaviour towards the females. This is first seen in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" when Hermia's father Egeus declares his daughter his "property" and gives her away to Demetrius, without regard for Hermia's feelings: "I beg the ancient privilege of Athens: As she is mine, I may dispose of her...(Egeus, 1.1.41-42)" also: "And she is mine, and all my right of her I do estate unto Demetrius." (1.1.97-98) If Hermia had been a man, she would've had more say in the decision. In "The Lion and the Jewel", Lakunle proclaims out loud to Sidi that "Women have a smaller brain than men." (page 4) As revealed, the two plays' men have a similarity in how they treat females. However, there still exists a distinction between them. In "A Midsummer Night's Dream", the male lovers are stereotypical gentlemen, always looking out for the women and their needs. This is demonstrated when Lysander asks Hermia if she is tired after their journey into the forest. Also, the Duke of Athens did...
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...om Hermia doesn't love. This initial conflict led to Lysander and Hermia's intended escape from Athens, and the resulting clash in the forest. In "The Lion and the Jewel", Sidi is pursued by both Baroka and Lakunle. The disparity, though, is found in how the conflicts were resolved. The conflict in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was resolved by inhuman means: the magic of the fairies. The Fairy King Oberon ordered his servant Puck to retrieve a magical flower that contained a nectar that will enchant whoever it is used on into loving the first living thing they see when they wake. Oberon uses this love juice to eventually dissipate the conflict of the competing suitors by using it on Demetrius so he falls in love with the other female. In "The Lion and the Jewel", however, the conflict was actually resolved by one of the suitors. This done by the clever Bale, who "
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.
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.
In this play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, true love plays a huge role in the play.
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.
Shakespeare’s play, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is centered around three couples whose actions provide both drama and comedy. Hermia and Lysander, Demetrius and Helena, and Oberon and Titania each have a relationship that is very different from the other two. Throughout the play, readers are shown that it is possible for love to be experienced in various ways. Each of these couples is unique and experience turmoil in their relationship before reaching a happy ending. Hermia and Lysnader and Helena and Demetrius are newlyweds at the end of the story, but Oberon and Titania had been in a committed relationship for years. Though all is well with the couples at the end of the story, will their relationships remain happy? By analyzing the personalities
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.
William Shakespeare, a creative literary artist, impacted his audience with the essence of love. Based on his play, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Lysander a main character explicitly states, "The course of love never runs smooth," expressing an opinion easily relatable to the modern generation. The story of an hour, written by Kate Chopin, is another literary work that easily expresses the same theme. With this in mind, both works revolve around the aspect of love and it's challenges that some May or may not overcome. Love is much more than an emotion, it's another world, another life that overcomes oneself into something unknown.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play of conflicted love. Thus semi-comedy displays the notion of, the spiritual and natural world working together. The play begins with a noble family discussing a planned marriage. Hermia is arranged to marry a man she does not love. In rebellion she and her lover (Lysander) flees to the woods so they can avoid Athenian law. Before leaving Hermia tells her sister about her plans to run away. In desire to gain revenge and find love herself Helena (Hermia’s sister) chases Hermia and her intended mate into the woods. The forest is where the spirits live, the fairy king, Oberon, is desperate to gain the affection of the fairy queen. He saw cupid shoot his love arrow, which landed on a flower. He is determined that,
In order to accurately describe the role of women in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, one must first explore the female characters in the text. Shakespeare's works had few females because women were not allowed to act in London in the late 1500s and early 1600s. Disregarding the standards imposed on women of his time, Shakespeare created many female characters that were strong-willed, intelligent, and daring. Hermia of A Midsummer Night's Dream is one such character. She disobeys her father, her king, and the Athenian law so that she might marry the love of her life. She discards all the luxuries of her familiar and comfortable existence for the uncertainties of a distant land in exchange for the freedom to love Lysander. The only complaint against Hermia by feminist critics stems from her willingness to defy one set of confinements derived and maintained by men-her father, the king, and the male authors of Athenian law-to become the subordinate of yet another man. However, even though she rebels away from the limitations she ultimately runs towards, she is much more indep...
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.
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.
In the play A Midsummer night's dream written by Shakespeare himself there is a young couple Hermia and Lysander who with each other have found true love. The couple
Love is defined in many different ways. As shown in the play, comedy and conflict are two main factors of love. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare breaks down the two main themes of the story, comedy in conflict, into smaller, more condensed themes to show how the uses of these themes define the nature of love through the actions and relationships of the Athenians, Rude Mechanicals, and Fairies. The males in the story have dominance over all of the women.