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Love causes people to behave differently. These behavioural changes differ from person to person. For some, love’s impact is good, while for others it is bad. Shakespeare displays love as having a negative effect. It causes several of the characters in “ A Midsummer’s Night Dream” to go crazy. In this play, love’s influence is harmful because it is a catalyst for craziness. Hermia’s love for Lysander clouds her judgment. After Egeus tells Hermia that she isn’t allowed to marry Lysander, she forms a plan to run away with him. Out of friendship, Hermia divulges her plan to Helena. She says, “ Lysander and myself will fly this place./ Before the time I did Lysander see,/ Seemed Athens a paradise to me” ( 1.3. 203-205). Hermia’s love for Lysander …show more content…
After Oberon puts the “ Love in Idleness” flower on Titania’s eyes, she falls in love with Bottom. While in love, she says to Bottom, “ What angel wakes me from my flowery bed” (3.1. 107)? Titania’s new found love for Bottom shows the influence of the flower. Titania, the fairy queen, falls in love with Bottom, a commoner with a Donkey’s head. She is so in love with Bottom she doesn’t care that she is dating someone with an ass head who is a lowly peasant. Love makes Titania crazy enough that she doesn’t mind about the inadequacy of her love. After Titania is released from the spell of the flower, she does care about this and consequently she loses all her love for Bottom. She even says “ O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now” (4.1. 76)! Titania’s change in attitude about Bottom is due to the removal of the flower’s powers. If Oberon hadn’t put the spell on Titania in the first place, Titania would have never fallen in love with Bottom. This displays how love can make a person crazy enough to love one who in common sense one would never dream of …show more content…
Even though Demetrius has left Helena for Hermia, she still still loves him. This causes her to do insane things in order to try to win his affection. For example, When Hermia tells Helena her plot to run away, Helena reveals the plot to Demetrius. She says, “ I will go tell him [Demetrius] of fair Hermia’s flight” (1.1. 246) Helena’s attempts at winning Demetrius’s heart displays her insanity because her plans are just shots in the dark, and in no way could they help her. By telling Demetrius of Hermia’s plan, she has hurt herself in two ways. First, She has betrayed her best friend. Second, she has enabled Demetrius to find Hermia, bring her back to Athens and possibly marry her. Demetrius Marrying Hermia would ruin Helena’s ability to marry Demetrius, therefore ruining Helena’s plan. Helena’s plan demonstrates how crazy her love for Demetrius has made her, because she will do anything to try to win Demetrius’s affection, including things that have a very little chance of working. Love causes people to change. In this play, Shakespeare gives us a negative interpretation of the effects of love. His interpretation is that love causes people to become crazy. His interpretation is visible in his play, “ A Midsummer’s Night Dream”. In this play, we see many examples of love making people crazy. These examples can be seen in Hermia, Helena, and Titania. Each character has their own change, depending on the person and the beloved. The
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a Shakespearian comedy where Shakespeare shows many forms of passion. There are many passions shown many times in this play that would change the whole story if they were taken out. It is a trait that can reveal a person’s strong inner emotions such as in this story, friendship, love and jealousy. Helena shows a deep passion for friendship with Hermia when she thinks she has been betrayed, Titania passionately loves Bottom, and Oberon genuinely shows jealousy towards the Indian boy Titania tended to.
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.
Every action made in A Midsummer Night’s Dream revolves around the idea of love. It is a concept which few people can understand because of the extremity a person can go through to go after their love. “Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, such shaping fantasies that apprehend more than cool reason ever comprehends.” Lovers see the world in a way which everyday people cannot comprehend. The idea of love leads to them making irrational choices which may seem
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.
This is evident in the quote where Lysander says, “Athenian law cannot pursue us.” This would not of been a trial for them, but fate had something else in store. “Content with Hermia? No, I do repent The tedious minutes I with her have spent. Not Hermia, but Helena I love” (II.i ll. 118-12). Puck, a fairy, put cupid’s love juice into Lysander’s eyes. This is evident in the quote, “Night and silence! Who is here? Weeds of Athens he doth wear. This is he my master said, despised the Athenian maid, and here the maiden, sleeping on the ground. Pretty soul, she durst not lie near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy. Churl, upon thy eyes I throw all the power of this charm doth owe” (II.i ll. 76-85). As it states in the quote, it made him fall in love with the first person he saw, which happened to be Helena. This is proven when Lysander said, “but Helena I love”. Lysander told Hermia he was in love with Helena, not her, so the elopement was off. This is evident when he says, “I repent the minutes I spent with her.” This is difficult for Hermia because she is confused, and does not know what is going on, or why Lysander was acting this way. This is evident when she takes her
Staying true to one's love is so very important when one believes in their true love with every fibre of their being. Hermia and Lysander are so in love that nothing else seems to matter. They want to be together at all costs and they will not let anything get in their way, this is true especially for Hermia. In this example she is defending her true love and standing up for herself, “I do entreat Your Grace to pardon me./ I know not by what power I am made bold,/ Nor how it may concern my modesty/ In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;/ But I beseech Your Grace that I may know/ The worst that may befall me in this case/ If I refuse to wed Demetrius” (Shakespeare 1.1: 58-64). This shows that although she has no way of controlling what happens to her future she still wants to let others know of her convictions. No woman in that time period would ever attempt to defy the command of her father and the law, but in this case Hermia's true love has taken over. She wants the world to know that her and Lysander share this same true love. She is willing to sacrifice her life and become a nun or even face the ultimate finale of death in order to get what she wants at this point. Lysander also came up with an idea to temporarily get them out of this situation, “A good persuasion. Therefore, hear me, H...
Infatuation causes Helena to lose all sense of dignity, as can be seen when in the woods, she desperately pleads with Demetrius to ?but treat me as your spaniel?. Here, Helena also becomes irrational, obsessed with pursuing Demetrius, though it is obvious that Demetrius is fixated on winning Hermia?s hand in marriage. Helena?s infatuation also causes her to see things from a skewed perspective, for she falsely believes that when she divulges Hermia?s plans for eloping with Lysander, Demetrius? love for Helena will rekindle. As the audience, we know that the most probable course of action for Demetrius upon hearing such news is to pursue Lysander and Hermia, or to report them to Theseus or Egeus. Clearly, infatuation has clouded Helena?s ability to think clearly, and she sees things in her own idealistic way.
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
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.
William Shakespeare has a habit of creating complicated plots, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream is no exception. Three distinct worlds are presented within the play, and the story’s theme is most prevalent when they collide or mirror one another. Shakespeare’s allusions very intentionally cast light on these themes as he uses them to develop characters, settings, and comedy. The point of that development is the effective delivery of the theme that love renders us equals.
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.
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a play based on a romantic love story. In this play, there are several types of love displayed between several of the main characters in the play. One of the most famous quotes from the play was by Lysander and it was “The course of true love never did run smooth” (Act 1, Scene 1). This meant that with any type of love, a person will experience its ups and downs, they will agree to disagree, but more importantly, love is unpredictable. Parenteral love, forced love, and true love are 3 types of love displayed/expressed in the play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
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.
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.
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