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Love in midsummer night dream
A midsummer night's dream main characters
Love in midsummer night dream
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The Unrequited And Forbidden “. . . The course of true love never did run smooth. . .” (Shakespeare 1.1). In William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream there are many challenges and obstacles. One being the love between the young lovers and the fairies. Love is not always easy and this play defines not easy, Through the lives of Helena, Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, Titania and Oberon.
The couple Titania and Oberon, live in the forest, they are the king and queen of fairies. They are fighting over a boy who Titania brought over from India. His mother was Titania's friend, she died during childbirth. Titania won’t give the boy up. So Oberon sends Puck to get a flower for him. “. . . Yet marked I where the bolt of Cupid fell. It fell upon
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In love with Demetrius, a young man in love with Hermia. Hermia confides to Helena that she is running away to marry Lysander, the man she loves. Helena soon tells Demetrius of this, hoping he would change his mind and love her. “I love thee not, therefore pursue me not. Where is Lysander and fair Hermia. . . ? Thou told’st me they were sta’n unto this wood. And here I am, and wood within this wood, because I cannot meet my Hermia. Hence, get thee gone and follow me no more” Shakespeare. 2.1.175) Demetrius says to Helena after she follows him into the woods. They go on into the woods and Puck puts the flower’s juice on Lysander and Demetrius eyelids. Making them both fight over her. As she believes they are making fun of her. Soon Puck sees what he has done and Oberon tells him to fix it. After he does, Demetrius and Helena are in …show more content…
As he wants her to be with Demetrius. He goes to the king, and he gives Hermia two choices, to be killed or to marry Demetrius. So Lysander and Hermia run off to the woods to be happy together. They grow tired and stop to rest. Lysander lays on the other side of the wooded area from Hermia. Puck sees Demetrius and believes he is the man Oberon wanted to put the flower’s juices in his eyes. So he does. Puck believes this is Demetrius not Lysander. When he awakes, the first person he sees is Helena. He fell in love with her instantly. Helena believes this is some kind of big joke being played on her. “Do not say so Lysander. Say not so. What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though? Yet Hermia still loves your. Then be content” (Shakespeare 2.2.80). He follows after her leaving Hermia alone and asleep in the woods. As he fights with Demetrius to win the love of Helena. Puck is told by Oberon to fix the mess he made. So he does he lulls them to sleep and reverses Lysander, so he is truly in love with Hermia. So the Hermia and Lysander marry, as well as Helena and Demetrius
Lysander tells Theseus that Demetrius "Made love to … Helena, And won her soul.” Helena says that before Demetrius looked upon Hermia, "He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine.” In an attempt to win back some of Demetrius's affection, Helena tells him of Hermia's plan to meet in the wood and elope with Lysander.
In act two scene two Lysander continues to insult Hermia. For example in the book it states “ Content with Hermia? No, I do repent…” (2.2.118-120). This shows that Lysander wants Helena’s love, but he is trying to hard to get it. In act three scene two Helena finds that both Lysander and Demetrius are “mocking” her. For example in the book it states “ ...I pray you,though you mock me, gentlemen.” (3.2.314). This shows that Helena doesn’t believe that Demetrius and Lysander “love” her. Oberon and Lysander find it impossible to control love.
After the love potion has been administered and Lysander and Demetrius have both fallen in love with Hermia, they both plot to kill one another instead of fairly attempting to in Helena’s love. When Lysander is searching for Demetrius, he states, “ I'll find Demetrius and revenge this spite/... Where art thou, proud Demetrius?/ speak thou now... /Here, villain; drawn and ready.” Lysander is drugged from the power that the love potion has over him.
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.
She knows the consequences of refusing her father and the Duke, she exclaims, “If I refuse to wed Demetrius”(I.i.66). After she said this, the Duke explained that the law did not include her choice to be with Lysander; consequently, Lysander came up with a plan to get away from Athens which is why they were in the woods at all. Because Hermia chose to disobey her father, she and Lysander had to run away to be together taking a path through the woods. While Helena complains that Demetrius will never love her, Hermia informs Helena that Demetrius will not see her again. As she speaks to Helena telling her the plan, Helena is given the option to tell Demetrius that his potential bride plans to leave. Hermia explains to Helena, “Take comfort: he no more shall see my face. / Lysander and myself will fly this place”(I.i.207-208). Because Demetrius does not love Helena, Hermia reassures her friend that he will no longer see her around, and Helena can have him to
The play moves into the woods which is haunted by fairies who are there to bless the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. The quarreling between Oberon and Titania over the changeling boy leads to the king wanting to embarrass Titania with the love juice by making her fall in love with a monster. The first person she sees is Bottom and she falls violently in love with him.
William Shakespeare’s writings are famous for containing timeless, universal themes. A particular theme that is explored frequently in his writings is the relationship between men and women. A Midsummer Night’s Dream contains a multitude of couplings, which are often attributed to the fairies in the play. Each of these pairings has positive and negative aspects, however, some relationships are more ideal than others. From A Midsummer Night’s Dream the optimal pairings are Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena, and Oberon and Titania; while the less desirable pairings are Theseus and Hippolyta, Hermia and Demetrius, Lysander and Helena, and Titania and Bottom. Throughout A Midsummer
The funniest part of this play seems to be when Puck, the trickster, keeps mixing up the people who he is assigned to put the love juice on. Even when he did put the love juice into the right people's eyes, they still fell in love with the wrong people sometimes. The first example of this mistake of Puck's is where he puts the love juice in Lysander's eyes, mistaking him for Demetrius. Oberon tells Puck to put the love juice in the eyes of an Athenian man, Demetrius, and to make sure that the first thing he sees after this is the woman whom he hates, but who loves him so much, Helena. Puck ends up finding Lysander and Hermia, lovers, sleeping on the forest floor. He puts the love juice in Lysander's eyes and leaves. Then along come Helena and Demetrius to this spot. They are still arguing and Demetrius leaves her with the sleeping Lysander and Hermia. Helena notices them there and tries to wake Lysander. Lysander wakes and the first thing he sees is Helena. "And run through fire for thy sweat sake. Transparent Helena! Nature shows art, That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart."(2.2.103). This is what Demetrius says to Helena when he sees her. He has fallen in love with her. This is where the comedy of this love mix up begins. Now Helena is confused and thinks that Lysander is playing a trick on her so she runs away. This is a most particularly funny part of the play and these mix ups with whom loves who seem to be the funniest pieces of the play.
Demetrius is one of the sturdy young men in this play, is a young Athenian fellow who is engaged to a youthful Athenian girl, who is Hermia. Demetrius also thought that Hermia was attractive, but Hermia prefers Lysander. Throughout the story, Demetrius continues to pursue Hermia. As with Helena, Demetrius bitterly rejected her for the main section of the play, but all in well time Puck juices his eyes, after having one failed attempt, all the lovers are successfully consolidated and paired
In the beginning Lysander and Hermia run off to the forest to try to escape the king’s commandments, so they can be together. They believe if they can escape their problems and go somewhere where there is no rules they can finally be happy together. In an essay Bouloussa states how the Athenian lovers (Hermia & Lysander) attempt to escape their problems because they believe this is where there happiness lies. But Helena tells Demetrius and he goes after them, which leads Helena to follow. One day while out Puck and Oberon see Helena and Demetrius fighting and Oberon decides to use the love potion on Demetrius to attempt to fix the love mess. Initially, Puck is only supposed to use the love potion on Demetrius not Lysander. But of course Puck messes up, and ends up using the love potion on both of them, which causes them both to chase after Helena for her love and affection. Furthermore, when she sees them acting this way she believes they are mocking her, so she rejects their
After all, Puck has no idea that there is an actually two Athenians in the forest that night and innocently mistake Demetrius for Lysander. However, Puck puts the love potion on Demetrius’ eyes as well so that the two Athenian men are following Helena. This error creates a high allotment of conflict among the characters for various reasons: (a) Helena doesn’t believe that any of the two gentlemen is sincere and believes that both of them and Hermia are playing jokes on her. (b) Now that Lysander is also following Helena, the poor Hermia is left without any sexual partner. (c) This mix-up creates lots of animosity among the characters more so the two ladies who now feel betrayed by one another. Therefore, we observe that the supernatural flower or the magic created another conflict in the play. Puck takes great enjoyment in this battle as seen in the phrases, “Shall we their fond pageant see? / Lord, what fools these mortals be!” (115-116). Nevertheless, again, everything is restored back before the play comes to an end. Puck uses the supernatural powers to make Lysander fall for Hermia again as Demetrius remains in love with Helena.
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.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream could have easily been a light-hearted, whimsical comedy. Complete with a magic forest and a kingdom of fairies, it is an iconic setting for amorous escapades and scenes of lovers. But Shakespeare’s writing is never so shallow; through this romantic comedy, Shakespeare postulates an extremely cynical view of love. A Midsummer Night’s Dream becomes a commentary on the mystery of love, and lovers in general emerge shamed. Especially in the episodes among the four young Athenians, the lover is painted as a fickle creature, always changing his or her mind, and love as a passing phenomenon. Love is not an unfathomable, kind emotion, but it is ironically cruel, and by the end of the play, the concept of true love is tinged with doubt.
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.
/ I scorn you not. It seems that you scorn me” (III, ii, 220-221). Even she misinterpreted Helena’s actions, not recognizing the depths of her feelings. At the short reply, though, Helena just breaks down further and as the scene progresses so does their friendship deteriorate. It is not put to rights until the love-spell on Lysander is lifted, forcing the four into couples ready for marriage. In the final scene of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the newly weds alongside newly married Theseus and Hippolyta watch the play being performed by the machinals. Theseus, Demetrius, and Lysander actively make snide comments throughout the performance while Helena and Hermia are uncharacteristically quiet. They have now fully slipped into their roles as subservient wives, which explains why now Helena can easily accept how Demetrius is in love with her now. So long as Demetrius acts in the dominate role as Helena believes a husband must, she will believe that their love is