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Weathering the Storms of True Love

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Sitting on a porch swing with one's true love hugging and kissing as the moon smiles down upon them, seems like the perfect situation for true love. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. Shakespeare presents the truth about true love in his comical tragedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. Lysander clearly stated loves situation when he told Hermia "the course of true love never did run smooth" (Griffiths 94). "In some ways Lysander's declaration becomes the play's structural and thematic point" by which Shakespeare uses to explore the storms of love (Bloom 12). In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare uses young lovers to depict how "love masters young people" and pushes them to extreme measures (Comtois 20). The explanation Shakespeare gives for people doing nearly anything for love is that "reason and love keep little company together nowadays" (Griffiths 149). Shakespeare does not label love as a failure, he simply states that it is hard to come by and even harder to preserve.

William Shakespear was born in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 23, 1964 (Bloom 7). He was the third child of John and Mary (Arden) Shakespeare (Bloom 7). At eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway and they had three children, Susan and twins Hamnet and Judith (Bloom 8). In 1592, he became a recognized actor and wrote his first play, Henry VI, Part one (Bloom 7). The success of the play impelled him to write the second and third parts (Bloom 7). In 1594, he acted in a comedy before Queen Elizabeth and many more royal performances followed (Bloom 8). In 1596, Hamnet died, that same year Shakespeare bought a home, New Place, in the center of Stratford (Bloom 8). Shakespeare began the Lord Chamberlain's Company and they performed in the G...

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...Lovers in A Midsummer Night's Dream." Essays in Literature 12.1 (1985): 12-25.

Dent, R.W. "Imagination in A Midsummer Night's Dream." A Midsummer Night's Dream: Critical Essays. Ed. Dorothea Kehler. New York: Garland, 1998. 85-106.

Garner, Shirley Nelson. "A Midsummer Night's Dream: `Jack shall have Jill;/ Nought shall go ill'." New Casebooks: A Midsummer Night's Dream. Ed. Richard Dutton. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996.

Girard, Rene. "Myth and Ritual in Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night's Dream." Modern Critical Interpretations: William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1987. 15-36.

Griffiths, Trevor R. Shakespeare in Production: A Midsummer Night's Dream. New York: Cambridge UP, 1996.

Young, David P. Something of Great Constancy: The Art of A Midsummer Night's Dream. London: Yale UP, 1966.
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