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Love in literature essay
Love in literature essay
Love in literature essay
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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.
The story starts with a fight about love. Egeus, who is Hermia’s father, does not want Hermia to be in love or with Lysander at all. Egeus wants his daughter to be with Demetrius who is in love with Hermia, but Hermia does not love him. Egeus goes to Theseus who is the Duke of Athens. Egeus tells him about the situation, and of course the Duke will go with Egeus side since he is the father of Hermia and he decides what she should do. Now Hermia is stuck with marrying Demetrius, becoming a nun, or being put to death. Hermia and Lysander decide to run away in the woods where there are no rules and where nothing can stop them from being in love. Hermia trusting Helena, who is her best friend with the secret she tells her. Helena is in love with Demetrius. She goes to tell Demetrius that Hermia has decided to run to the woods in hopes Demetrius would take her back.
A main portion of Shakespeare’s play takes place in a magical Forrest. Although is seems a bit far fetched, true magic arises from it's deepest parts. The Fairy King, Oberon, alters love, the strongest kind of magic. With his mischievous doings, Lys...
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...speare’s quote “The course of true love never did run smooth” is one of the best quotes to be ever said. Finding love is one of the hardest things, and getting approval for it is one of the other hardest things. No matter what love will find it’s way but the path to true love never did run smooth so patience is the key.
Works Cited
Bach, Rebecca Ann. "The Animal Continuum In A Midsummer Night's Dream." Textual
Practice 24.1 (2010): 123-147. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature:
Reading, Thinking, Writing: Resources for Teaching. By Michael Meyer. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2012. 15-16. Print.
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 1595. Thinking and Writing about
Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 2nd. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001. 859-906. Print.
True love is like a precious black pearl, it is so rare that many believe it to be a myth, but Hermia and Lysander found true love according to the following excerpt said by Lysander from A Midsummer Night's Dream.
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.”
Comedies contain blocking figures and in this play it is Egeus. If he was not in the way, Hermia could marry Lysander. Since he is causing problems in his daughters life by trying to make her marry Demetrius, this begins the journey into the woods. Egeus threatened Hermia with death if she were to marry Lysander so she thinks the only way they can be together is to run away.
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 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.
Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. Tenth edition. Edited by Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. New York: Longman Publishers, pp. 371-377, 2008.
Unlike the other characters in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night", Viola's feelings of love are genuine. She is not mistaken about Orsino's true nature and loves him for who he really is, while the other characters in the play seem to be in love with an illusion. Viola's love for Orsino does not alter during the play, nor is it transferred to another person.
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...
Although “Human control of magic in Shakespeare seems somewhat limited” and magic is sometimes “entirely within the control of supernatural figures who appear beyond human influence”, (magic, p.283, 284), we also discover that love works more magically than Puck’s potion or Prospero’s white magic. Shakespeare’s focus on the settings of each play highlights the relationship between the natural world and the supernatural, magic filled worlds. Readers of these plays may find themselves enthralled in the magical experience of the woods and the island. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Queen of the Fairies, Titania, reveals this connection when she speaks of the natural world being disturbed by her quarrels with Oberon in the magical world. “ The spring, the summer, the childing autumn, the angry winter, change their wonted liveries; and the mazed world, by their increase knows not which is which.
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.
In love, many conflicts arise that cause major problems and difficulties in a relationship. This is a visible concept in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy written by William Shakespeare. “The Course of true love never did run smooth” (1.1.134) becomes evident to the pairs of lovers in the play. The pairs of lovers: Lysander and Hermia , Demetrius and Helena, and Oberon and Titania experience struggles with their love lives because of their challenges with love potion, a changeling, unrequited love, and the Athenian law.
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.
Demetrius, Helena, Lysander, and Hermia are the for young teens of the story. At the beginning of the play it is Lysander and Helena who are madly in love, and are planning to to escape from Athens to elope. Helena is in love with Demetrius, and Demetrius cared for Helena and liked her a lot but was not in love with her. As soon as Demetrius sees Hermia he immediately stops having any feelings for Helena whatsoever and is deeply in love with Hermia. Demetrius thought that he had fallen in love at first sight, but Helena was determined to show him differently. Demetrius: ³ Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit,/ For I am sick when I do look on thee.² Helena: ³And I am sick when I look not on you.² (Act II, sc. i, lines 218-220) This piece of dialogue shows how much Demetrius is now in love with Hermia from just seeing her, and how disgusted he feels when he looks upon Helena who he used to care about. Helena is simply just expressing how much she is love with Demetrius and how bad she feels that he is treating her in such a manner of hatred.
The stance of true love in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is fake because the characters in the play were not truly in love. It was Puck who placed the love juice on Demetrius and Titania’s eyelids. When they woke up, they would fall in love with the first living thing they saw. It was not really their heart’s desire. Another couple that supports false true love in “A Midsummer Night’s dream” is Hermia and Lysander. Hermia did not trust Lysander when they were in the woods.
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.