A Midsummer Night's Dream

Hermia and Lysander’s relationship is difficult due to Athenian law and Egeus. The Athenian law states that a father has the power to decide who his daughter marries. Egeus states to the Duke of Athens,

Exposition: The story is set in Athens, Greece. Theseus and Hippolyta are both noble and wealthy and they were planning their wedding in 4 days. Hermia and Lysander were in love, but another guy named Demetrius was also in love with Hermia. Helena loves Demetrius but is all alone, because he does not love her. Egeus who is Hermia’s father is not happy about her relationship with Lysander, he wants her to marry Demetrius. Hermia and Lysander plan to run away to another city to be married. Helena tell Demetrius the plan hoping that he will forget Hermia and fall in love with her.

Another crucial aspect of love and the disorder that often follows in its wake is the idea of irrationality. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare uses the motif of dreams to show how irrationality and love are connected. By Act 5, Scene 1, all of the play’s romantic conflicts have finally been resolved. As Theseus and Hippolyta reflect on the tumultuous relationships of Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena, it becomes clear that they each have a different opinion on the subject. Although the young Athenians claimed to have awoken from a strange dream to find their conflicts resolved, Theseus and Hippolyta are not so sure whether to believe their story. Theseus, the more cynical of the two, believes that the four lovers were simply driven to insanity by love, and that the fairy world was probably just a figment of their imaginations. Hippolyta, on the other hand, believes that there is more than meets the eye to this story, and that it could be the truth. Both give interesting reasons for their viewpoints.

Throughout the play's first two acts, Hermia chooses to love Lysander even though her father has promised her to Demetrius. In the book, it says “I beseech your grace that I may know the worst that may befall me in this case if I refuse to wed Demetrius.” (1.1.64-66) This piece of evidence shows that Hermia is choosing Lysander over Demetrius because she is saying that she would not wed Demetrius and that she is not willing to give into the arranged marriage by her father. In addition, Hermia says “He shall no more see my face”.

Everyone in this play is in love but not all of them have it go their way. Lysander is one of the lovers who loves Hermia but can not marry her because of Hermias father Egues. Egues does not agree to the marriage of Lysander and Hermia and wants her daughter to marry Demetrius. Later on Theseus the king of Athens finds out that hermia is not obeying her father and tells her to obey her father or become a nun. Hermia then plans with Lysander in the woods to run away from Athens to Lysanders aunts house outside Athens. As they meet in the woods they start to run away from Athens, as they are running away from Athens they lose their way so they decide to spend the night in the woods. When Demetrius is looking in the for Hermia and Lysander,

At the time, Lysander and Hermia were completely smitten with each other. But her father Egeus disapproved of their relation and wishes for Hermia to marry Demetrius. He comes to Theseus with these concerns and uses his Athenian rights to chose the man his daughter wed. Disrespecting his daughter’s feelings and clearly biased against Lysander, Egeus went so far as to dishonor him before the duke and force Hermia into a position where she must follow his wishes, die or become a nun. Hermia refuses every option, but their love is clearly disrupted with this great obstacle. In contrast to Egeus’ claims of Lysander’s trickery, Hermia and Lysander are clearly devoted to each other. Hermia clings onto their love and Lysander comforts her in a manner that gives him the reputation of a romantic. Before concluding, “So quick bright things come to confusion”, he says that “The course of true love never did run smooth” (Shakespeare, P15). Love brings happiness, it nourishes the soul and completes one’s heart, but it can fall short just as easily and bring about even greater hate. Another example of this involves the Oberon and Titania, the King and Queen of fairies respectively. They start off as a separate layer in this play and though their fondness for each other isn’t described as thoroughly, their conflict stands

Demetrius’ character is best emphasized, directly and indirectly, through the dialogue and actions of himself and those around him. In Act One, Scene One, after Egeus explains to King Theseus that he wants his daughter, Hermia, to marry Demetrius instead of Lysander, Demetrius demands that Lysander relinquish his love and “control” over Hermia because marrying her is his “certain right”. After the demand, King Theseus is reminded that Demetrius “made love to…Helena and won her soul” and that Helena still “devoutly dotes” over him. In this scene,

Shakespeare’s usage of metaphor and simile in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is best understood as an attempt to provide some useful context for relationships and emotions, most often love and friendship, or the lack thereof. One example of such a usage is in Act 3, Scene 2 of the play. Here, the two Athenian couples wake up in the forest and fall under the effects of the flower, thus confusing the romantic relationships between them. Hermia comes to find her Lysander has fallen for Helena. Hermia suspects that the two have both conspired against her in some cruel joke, and begins lashing out against Helena. She says “We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, / Have with our needles created both one flower, / Both one sampler sitting on one cushion, / Both warbling of one song, both in one key; / As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds, / Had been incorporate. So we grew together, / Like a double cherry, seeming parted; / But yet a union in partition / Two lovely berries moulded on one stem: / So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart; / Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, / Due but to one, and crowned with one crest.” (Shakespeare 2.3.206-13). Shakespeare writes this list of vibrant metaphors to establish the prior relationship between these two characters and to make it evident how affected Helena is by this unexpected turn of events, as well as to add a greater range of emotion to the comedy, thereby lending it more literary and popular appeal.

Although Shakespeare created a strong female character she was still conquered by a man, Theseus. In the beginning of the play he says, “Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword, /And won thy love doing thee injuries. But I will wed thee in another key-With pomp, with triumph, and with reveling.” (Shakespeare 1.1.17-20). In this line Theseus is referring to the fact that he conquered Hippolyta in his military conquest. The play eventually evolves back into patriarchal normalcy after Theseus won in combat and conquered Hippolyta and her Amazonian people. Hermia’s father, Egeus, wants Hermia to marry Demetrius although she does not want to because she is in love with Lysander. Egeus says, “As she is mine, I may dispose of her,/ Which shall be either to this gentleman/ Or to her death, according to our law” (Shakespeare 1.1.42-44). Egeus is willing to put his own child to death if she disobeys him. He also talks about her as if she is his property and has no rights of her own. Theseus backs up Egeus in forcing Hermia to marry Demetrius, but he proposed her going into

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the audience was able to clearly see numerous incongruities between four primary characters: Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena. These individuals are representative of the human race; they are irresolute, disobedient, yet ultimately endearing and relatable. The befuddled lovers are the laughing stock of not only

Weird, unusual, different. These are all the words we can use to describe the book A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. In the book, Bottom gets turned into a donkey, which you don’t see very often. Lysander shows that love is strong when he shows love to Hermia in the play and when he shows love to Helena. Lysander is a regular person who loves girls and wants to be with them. However, Hermia’s father did not want this marriage to happen because he wanted Hermia to marry Demetrius.

Shakespeare's play “Midsummer Night’s Dream” was portrayed very effectively through the Hoffman movie as it followed the themes of the original play, it effectively uses cinema techniques, and helps the audience connect and learn. Theme are an important part of a play and the Hoffman movie admires these themes and portrays them phenomenally well. The Hoffman movie shows the power of dreams and how real they seem but at the end some of us are affected as others are just touched. A major theme of shakespeare's play is reality vs dream, the Hoffman movie portrays this theme very similarly resulting in a more influential play that follows shakespeare's ideas and so without the replica of these themes the movie wouldn't seem as a effective representation.

Characters within the play also demonstrate compassion towards love. After seeing Helena scorned by Demetrius, Oberon feels sympathetic towards her. As a result of this he says to Puck, “A sweet Athenian lady is in love /With a disdainful youth. Anoint his eyes.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream has several themes but there is one that stands out to me. There are many conflicts throughout the play but a majority of them are caused by one character. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare brilliantly displays how love is never clear cut by his use of Puck’s character (who is always muddling everything up).

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, the supernatural helps to produce both negative and positive outcomes in the play. The supernatural in A Midsummer Night's Dream is represented through the activity of fairies, magic, and gods such as Cupid. The supernatural works to join the imperfect world of mortals while at the same time upholding the dreamlike state of the ideal world. The conflict begins when Oberon punishes his wife, Titania, for not obeying him and refusing to surrender the Indian boy to him.