When given the opportunity, people change themselves in order to find love. One often feels as though his or her identity does not possess the proper qualities for love and seeks to develop the qualities in which he or she believes she needs. The search to find love and the search to protect love causes people to seek new identities. Imagine a young girl in middle school. The girl likes another student, however she feels as though he will not like her for her real identity. She starts to wear more make-up and does not hang out with her old friends, who she does not see as fit enough to spend time with her. She completely transforms herself in her chase after the boy and love. In both Charles Dickens’ 1861 fictional novel Great Expectations and William Shakespeare’s 1600 comedic play A Midsummer’s Night Dream, the authors show how one’s perception of his or her identity affects the way in which he or she searches for love, in order to criticize the way one will change his or her identity in his or her pursuit of love and encourage people to stay true to themselves in order to live happily.
One seeks to change his or her identity, or to create a new one, in order to find love. In both Dickens’ novel and Shakespeare’s play, the two protagonists, driven by love, flee from their normal lives in order to search for a better existence. Shakespeare illustrates that when love consumes people, they will do whatever it takes to protect it: “There my Lysander and myself shall meet, and thence from Athens turn away our eyes to seek new friends and stranger companies” (Shakespeare I.i.222-224). Shakespeare asserts that the two characters Lysander and Hermia must protect their love, so they choose to run away into the forest. In order to protec...


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...ns shows what happens when one chases false pretenses. Pip’s entire reason for obtaining a higher social status exists because off of an assumption he believes about Miss. Havisham and Estella’s feelings for him.
Both Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare portray love as a driving force for one to adapt and find a new identity. Both authors encourage the audience and reader to follow love, but however, to not find it necessary to change one’s identity in order to find that love. The young girl in school soon realizes that she does not need to change herself in order to capture the boy’s attention. She realizes that who she is, her identity, will prevail and she will find someone who appreciates her true personality. One can only feel truly happy and can only experience true, organic love if he or she remains true to him or herself and embraces his or her identity.