A Midsummer Night's Dream Research Paper

First, Hermia went through many different issues and conflicts throughout the story. Hermia was put in the situation of being forced to marry either Lysander or Demetrius. They both loved Hermia, but Hermia only loves Lysander and despises Demetrius. Egues comes to the decision of Hermia marrying Demetrius. Hermia states “If then true lovers have been ever cross'd,It stands as an edict in

Although Hermia had to face her struggles fighting for true love, she could have been killed under the Athenian law. Despite the prevailing circumstances of the danger she had been faced with, the belief in true love and happiness guided Hermia into facing her fears, discovering her abilities and finding happiness within a man. After running away from her father, Hermia was faced with various amounts of conflicts throughout Shakespeare’s novel, however, Shakespeare portrayed her as the type of person that does no give up hope and leads with a heart full of love. As a result of her bravery and passion toward Lysander, the king decided that “fair lovers, you are fortunately met. Egeus, I will overbear your will.

In the opening scene, Hermia refuses to follow her father’s orders to marry Demetrius and instead, demands to stay with Lysander. To act on the situation, Egeus appeals to the duke, Theseus, to force his daughter to marry Demetrius. Turning to Hermia, Theseus then tells her:

Earlier in the play, Egeus grants Demetrius permission to marry Hermia by stating, “Demetrius. My noble lord, This man hath my consent to marry her.” (1.1.24) This is proof that Hermia’s love was controlled by fate due to who her father thought was the worthiest man to wed his daughter. However, we later find out that Hermia does not want to marry Demetrius and says, “I refuse to wed Demetrius.”

Lysander and Hermia represent a love so strong it can make you think irrational. Love can mess with your feelings when you are willing to do anything for each other. This is a couple which refuse to deny their feelings and risk the consequences in order to be together. Hermia is a big personality with her own opinions. Hermia feels that she should be able to choose whom she marries. Hermia’s choice to be her man is Lysander, a charming, kind, hopeless romantic. It is not Hermia’s choice, it is her father’s Egeus who forces her to marry Demetrius. These two react to their situation in the only way they can think of. The two young lovers, while companions don’t agree with this coming together decide to experience life and confront the conflict of growth with one another (Kennedy and Kennedy 272).This love is so strong that they run away from their families. Being told “no” makes them want to be together even more, it’s the forbidden fruit that drives you to do things you wouldn’t normally do. Hermia and Lysander love is young and rebellious. Lysander sums up the meaning of the play and the relationship with Hermia with “Aye me, for aught that I could ever read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth…” (Shakespeare 1397). Lysander understands that if he and Hermia are to be together then there will be many obstacles they must face but they will face them together. Lysander is

The authorities (like Egeus) directky control the arranging of relationships and marriages. Here, love is true but also confined. All of the characters are not influenced by potions that cover up true feelings. The characters are, however, confined by the authority and expectations of organized society. Demetrius never truly loved Hermia.

Furthermore, the law was another problem obstacle that influenced affected love negatively. The Athenian law states that every woman must obey obey her father. “To you your father should be as a god.” (Shakespeare, 11). This quote states that to women, their father should be their God, only obeying him. and the only one they should obey. Hermia’s father, Egeus, refuses to allow to her to marry Lysander, as we wants her to marry Demetrius. Egeus uses using the power of the law over Hermia and this is is demonstrated when he says “As she is mine, I may dispose of her.” (Shakespeare, 11). Lysander and Hermia’s relationship is affected because Hermia must obey her father or face the consequences of the law. Additionally, the law impacts affects the love between Hermia and Lysander because Egeus takes the issue to the Duke, Theseus. Theseus states;

In the book, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, Hermia is a strong-willed woman who wants to be free to marry her true love Lysander. She cannot marry him, because her father, Egeus, is making her marry Demetrius. She has two other choices, to either become a nun or die. She is not happy with his decision and feels he is being unfair. Lysander and Hermia plan to run away with each other to escape her father and the Athenian law. Hermia’s friend, Helena, may stop those plans though, because she is in love with Demetrius. She hopes to win Demetrius back by foiling Hermia’s plans. We will hear more about this intriguing story in just a bit. Hermia will make an appearance on the show, Talking with the Athenians, where we will interview her on her ideas of love.

(1.1.41- 45) After all, the two lovers just wanted to be together, so much. That they ’d risk their lives for one another by courageously running away together, defying the law. No matter how strong the love may be, Hermia has little decisions about what she can do. The lovers are always surrounded by this wall in the attempt to stop them from loving each other and have to fight their hardest to be together.

Be advised, fair maid: To you your father should be as a god, one that composed your beauties, yea, and one to whom you are but as a form in wax, by him imprinted and within his power to leave the figure or disfigure it. Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.” To start, Theseus is praising Egeus, because he is the one that has all the power over Hermia. The men of this time rule in complete patriarchy, leaving no choices for women to make, and almost every aspect of a woman's’ life is completely chosen for them by men. Theseus is practically telling Hermia saying the is the reason she even has someone to be wed to.

Lysander and Hermia also portray true love. Refusing to marry her suitor, Demetrius, she willingly gives up everything and runs away from Athens with her lover, Lysander, “There my Lysander and I shall meet, and thence from Athens turn away our eyes.” In the play within the play, Pyramus and Thisbe also present us with true love. Their situation

In the play the reader gets the truth that Hermia’s father wants her to marry Demetrius, and as a woman living in a patriarchal society, she must obey; at least that is what the reader is lead to believe. Hermia takes a stand for herself and becomes powerless in her love for Lysander. With no reasonable explanation, besides her love for Lysander, she defiantly denies her father’s attempt for an arranged marriage. Since their love for each other is so immense, they prepare for the underlying bad circumstances they are going to suffer from for not obeying the wishes of her father. Hermia’s love for Lysander means so much more to her than the property or social placeholder she would gain by marrying Demetrius. Hermia dedicates herself to Lysander, saying he is worthy of the ultimate consummation of her love. She must convince her father that Demetrius is disgraceful and immoral. At the end of the play, Hermia and Lysander are eloped, and unlike Katherine and Petruccio in TOS, they demonstrate their dedication for each other from the beginning, disregarding a few

In Athens, women had very little rights. Womens fathers were the ones who got to choose whom they married, and that caused trouble for the lovers. Hermia’s father, Egeus, strongly believed in this rule. At the beginning, Egeus decides that he wants Hermia to marry Demetrius, which is good for Demetrius but bad for Hermia. Hermia, daringly refuses her father’s wishes, so they seek the help of Theseus, the Duke of Athens. Theseus listens to their situation, and being the authority in the situation, tells Hermia: “Either to die the death, or to abjure for the society of men. Therefore, fair Hermia,... if you yield not to your father’s choice, you can endure the livery of a nun...”(24). This shows how authority, in this case the law, gets in the way of “the course of true love…”(28). Egeus’s decision to have Hermia marry Demetrius does not only affect Hermia but also affects Helena. When Hermia’s father chooses Demetris to be her

Egeus believes that Lysander, “both bewitched the bosom of my child”, (1.1 28). Egeus also states to Theseus, “of strong prevalent in unhardened youth. With cunning hast thou filched my daughter's heart, Turned her obedience (which is due to me) To stubborn harshness.” These statements, stated by Egeus, help to prove that he perceives Lysander as a nasty person, and that Hermia has to marry Demetrius. Hermia, on the other hand, believes the complete opposite of Egeus. Hermia states, “Tomorrow truly I will meet with thee” (1.1 181). This statement helps to prove that she will do anything to marry Lysander. These quotes by both Lysander and Hermia help to prove that one character wants something to happen, which the other character wants the complete opposite of, which helps to show the main conflict in this imbalance in power. They both believe they deserve the power of choice. When Hermia states, “I do not entreat your Grace to pardon me. I know not by what person I am made bold, Nor how it may concern my modesty in such a presence here to plead my thoughts; But 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 60-66), it truly helps to reveal how Hermia believes she is her own person and should not be bossed, which helps to reveal the greediness that comes with having power. Even

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hermia defies the reality of her fate, as she fights to achieve what she desires: marrying the man of her selection. In this selection from the play, Egeus and Theseus represent the natural ways in which men in Elizabethan times would use their dominance over women. It was a fixed