The unarguable theme in Shakespeare’s “A midsummer night’s dream” is love. Here the playwright explores how people fall in love and that the pursuit of love can make people irrational and foolish. By using the cliché that “the course of true love never did run smooth” Shakespeare suggests that love is “really an obstacle course with the capacity to turn us all into madmen.” (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008). Furthermore the love represented in this play is far from true and by placing his characters in the fairy realm Shakespeare suggests that love is simply an illusion.
The idea of difficult love is very often explored through the motif of” love out of balance”. (SparkNotes Editors, 2002) This loss of balance is represented in the asymmetrical love between Athenians – Hermia loves Lysander and he loves her back. On the other hand Helena loves Demetrius, but Demetrius loves Hermia, instead of Helena. Thus we have this love misbalance leaving one woman with too many suitors and another with no suitors at all.
One could say that love in this play is a character in its own right. It is an acting force which drives not only the characters forward, but also the whole plot of the play. However the represented love in this play is by no means true or faithful to reality. By using magic and fairies Shakespeare further stresses that the whole setting is false. True love exists only in the character’s words and feelings such as selfishness and obsession are mistaken for true love. By analyzing each character’s relationships one can argue that the characters are persuaded to falsely fall in love and that love is simply an illusion.
The questioning and persistence of true love begins with the opening scene. It is a dialog between a minor, ...
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Throughout A Midsummer’s Night Dream Shakespeare argues that the notion that is perceived as love is often not love at all and it’s rather selfishness or an obsession. Indeed true love appears in this play as a guest, as a character even, it is rather fleeting and dream-like. It was never meant to stay, even when by the end everything appears to be happy and arranged in order.
Works Cited
Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). A Midsummer Night's Dream Theme of Love. Retrieved April 15, 2014 from http://www.shmoop.com/midsummer-nights-dream/love-theme.html
SparkNotes Editors. (2002). SparkNote on A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Retrieved April 9, 2014, from http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/
Nostbakken F. (2003 )Understanding A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents Greenwood Publishing Group
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
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.
All passages from Midsummer Night’s Dream are quoted from The Norton Shakespeare, ed. Stephen Greenblatt et al. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997)
As exhibited many times throughout this wonderful piece of writing that Shakespeare has given to us, love is a mysterious thing. Love can be either for the better, or the worse. Love should be the choice of you, yourself, and not forced upon you by others. As the famous quote “Love is not for the faint of heart.” states, love is not an easy thing. Love is very unpredictable and love is not for everyone. You must undergo heartache, failure and rejection in order to succeed with love. This quote is very prevalent in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Love in humans is a powerful element that makes life meaningful. Love with its’ presence, cause, and effect, has our four main couples in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” trying to make sense of love. In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” we find four couples: Helena/Demetrius, Tatiana/Oberon, Theseus/Hippolyta, and Lysander/Hermia who find love after trials and errors, for love can be irrational in nature. Things base and vile, holding no quantity. Love can transpose to form and dignity.
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.
Theseus and Oberon are both compassionate and understanding towards the young lovers, Hermia and Lysander, and Helena and Demetrius. They are involved in a love triangle that encompasses matters of the law and love. Demetrius intends to marry Hermia, although, she shares a mutual love with Lysander; Helena loves Demetrius, although, he no longer loves her. Theseus, as the Duke of Athens, maintains the laws and standards of Athenian society. He acknowledges “the Ancient privilege of Athens” (I.1.41) that allows Egeus to “dispose of” (I.1.42) Hermia. This law permits Egeus to give his daughter to Demetrius or “to death, according to [the] law” (I.1.44). However, Theseus takes pity on Hermia and gives he...
The overriding theme of the play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare deals with the nature of love. Though true love seems to be held up as an ideal, false love is mostly what we are shown. Underneath his frantic comedy, Shakespeare seems to be asking the questions all lovers ask in the midst of their confusion: How do we know when love is real? How can we trust ourselves that love is real when we are so easily swayed by passion and romantic conventions? Some readers may sense bitterness behind the comedy, but will probably also recognize the truth behind Shakespeare's satire. Often, love leads us down blind alleys and makes us do things we regret later. The lovers within the scene, especially the men, are made to seem rather shallow. They change the objects of their affections, all the time swearing eternal love to one or the other. In this scene Shakespeare presents the idea that both false love and true love can prevail..
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.”
William Shakespeare, an illustrious and eminent playwright from the Elizabethan Age (16th Century) and part owner of the Globe theatre wrote A Midsummer Night’s Dream in which he portrays the theme of love in many different ways. These include the paternal love seen in the troubled times for Egeus and his rebellious daughter Hermia, true Love displayed with the valiant acts of Lysander and Hermia and the destructive love present in the agonizing acts of Titania towards her desperate lover Oberon. Through the highs and lows of love, the first love we clasp is the paternal love from our family.
Have you ever heard or seen one of Shakespeare's beautiful plays? He is one of the most talented play writers that everyone still enjoys and adores him today. Have you ever been in love so much that you would do anything to be them? This is the type of love that Shakespeare so wonderfully displays in some of his plays. He can make even the toughest and biggest of people to cry because of how sad and beautiful his plays are. In the play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by William Shakespeare, Lysander says “The course of true love never did run smooth” which means love can be hard and strenuous work, not everyone will approve of your love, and love can be confusing.
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.
Real love often becomes a very important theme in Shakespeare’s plays, especially A Midsummer Night’s Dream. However, it does not evidence in any of the characters. For example, Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena all chase real love and think they can find it in each other. In spite of this, it does not quite work out at first, since Lysander and Demetrius both love Hermia, while Hermia loves Lysander and Helena loves Demetrius. Yet as it typically does, everything works out and ‘true love’ wins the day. Seen here, love becomes fleeting, unfulfilling, and often, mistaken.
Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night revolves around a love triangle that continually makes twists and turns like a rollercoaster, throwing emotions here and there. The characters love each another, but the common love is absent throughout the play. Then, another character enters the scene and not only confuses everyone, bringing with him chaos that presents many different themes throughout the play. Along, with the emotional turmoil, each character has their own issues and difficulties that they must take care of, but that also affect other characters at same time. Richard Henze refers to the play as a “vindication of romance, a depreciation of romance…a ‘subtle portrayal of the psychology of love,’ a play about ‘unrequital in love’…a moral comedy about the surfeiting of the appetite…” (Henze 4) On the other hand, L. G. Salingar questions all of the remarks about Twelfth Night, asking if the remarks about the play are actually true. Shakespeare touches on the theme of love, but emphases the pain and suffering it causes a person, showing a dark and dismal side to a usually happy thought.