“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid
painted blind” (Shakespeare, 1.1). The central theme of William Shakespeare’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream is love. Of the four story lines going on during the play,
each of them includes a different type of love. These examples are existent in many
instances through Demetrius and Hermia’s forced marriage, Lysander and Hermia’s
true love and Hermia and Helena’s friendship love.
The first type of love established in the play is forced love. The story begins with
Theseus, King of the Athens, settling the dispute over the marriage of Demetrius and
Hermia. “But I beseech your Grace that I may know, the worst that may befall on this
case if I refuse to wed Demetrius”
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To continue, forcing Hermia into marrying someone she does not love
only causes her to go with what her heart truly desires.
Friendship love is the third type of love expressed in the play. “So we grew
together like to a double cherry tree, seeming parted, but yet an union in partition,
two lovely berried molded onto one stem” (Shakespeare, 3.2). The two main female
characters, Hermia and Helena, have been close friends for as long as either of them
can remember. “Injurious Hermia, most ungrateful maid, have you conspired, have
you with these contrived to bait me with this foul derision” (Shakespeare, 3.2)? Once
both the men are accidentally in love with Helena, she begins to suspect they are
only mocking her and she grows angry. She questions her and Hermia’s friendship,
thinking her best friend is in on the joke, as well. In the end, though, the two women
mend their friendship and marry the man they love without arbitration.
In conclusion, the overall theme of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s
Dream is love. The various types of love in the play are existent in many instances
through Demetrius and Hermia’s forced marriage, Lysander and Hermia’s true
"...If then true lovers have been ever crossed...as due to love as thoughts, and dreams, and sighs..." (1.1. 152, 156)
be that love is a good thing, but in the play it is love that leads to
A Midsummer Night’s Dream title page of the first quarto was published in 1600, stating that the play ‘hath been sundry times publicly acted’ by the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Shakespeare’s creation sends you on an imaginative voyage from a world of social conflict into a whimsical realm, ending in the return of reality that has itself been partly altered by the experience of the journey. Each of the four main plots, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, includes one or more pairs of lovers whose happiness has been aggravated by misunderstanding or parental disapproval. Shakespeare draws from various sources in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, such as integrating English country fairy lore and the Greeks mythological gods and goddesses.
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.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play based on love. Also in this play, there were three types of love shown−love between friends, family members and lovers. Through this play, man can learn many things such as love is influential and that love is strong enough to change the world both positively and negatively bringing readers to the conclusion that love makes us crazy, but it moves the world.
Vickers, Brian. "A Midsummer Night’s Dream." The Review of English Studies May 1998: 215. http://web7.searchbank.com(12 Nov. 1998).
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.
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream with Related Readings. Albany: ITP International Thomson, 1998. Print.
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.
Shakespeare also incorporates illusion as a tool to make the reader connect the two love stories without having to explain the moral of Cupid. When he says that “love looks not with the eyes but with the mind; and therefore is the winged Cupid painted blind,” he is trying to say that love is more than just looks, but the connection between two people (240-241). Cupid is the universal symbol of love which leads the readers to understand the meaning of the speech; Helena has so much affection for
In final consideration, both Helena and Hermia represent love but in a totally different ways. It’s the evil and the good gap that is between them two. I also say that, I don’t blame Helena for the things she did because it hurts to be not loved back by someone who you love truly. However, it was a happy ending for both ladies because at the end they both married who they loved.
In this play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, true love plays a huge role in the play.
Love is superficial. In "A Midsummer Night's Dream" multiple love triangles exist that switch between the plots. Historical and gender roles are a key point in this play. One key point explains the troublesome choices one can go through while in love. While another key point directed toward on cultural norms and perception of love. In the Ancient world of Athens males dominated their culture ultimately deciding the lives of many woman and men.
The theme of love is brought up over and over again in the play. It is
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the main conflict is between love and social relations. The play revolves around the magical power of love which transforms many lives. As a result of this, it gets the reader’s emotionally involved through ways of reminding us of love’s foolishness and capabilities, as well as violence often followed alongside of lust. This play shows passion’s conflict with reason. For example, the father presented in the play Egeus, represents tradition and reason while Hermia represents passion for love and freedom. Egeus wants Hermia to marry Demetrius and accuses Lysander of “bewitching” Hermia with love charms and songs. This is one way love’s difficulties are presented in the play between father and daughter. Additionally, Helena recognizes love’s difficulties when Demetrius falls in love with her best friend Hermia. Helena argues that strong emotions such as love can make extremely unpleasant things beautiful. This is another way the play presents love’s difficulties between lovers and capricious emotions.