Control is an important theme in literature, and in life. In the majority of William Shakespeare’s famous plays and sonnets, important themes and ideas are subtly introduced to the audience, ones that remain relevant to human life even today. In the majority of William Shakespeare’s famous plays and sonnets, the characters are no strangers to conflict, and often, these subtle themes are the cause. In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, control is to blame for the majority of conflict, as parental and governmental control compels Hermia and Lysander to flee into the wood, magical control provokes conflict between Helena and Hermia, and a prank played on Bottom is the cause of conflict and unrest amongst the workmen. The first example of …show more content…
This is first evidenced when Puck states, “Captain of our fairy band,\ Helena is here at hand,\ and the youth mistook by me,\ pleading for a lover’s fee.\ Shall we their fond pageant see?\ Lord, what fools these mortals be!” (3.2.112-117). Puck has assumed control of Demetrius and Lysander’s love through the use of a magical flower, transferring their affections from one girl unto another, and though such had occurred by mistake, as an infamous prankster, Puck is gleeful with the knowledge of the chaos that would undoubtedly ensue. “And will you rent our ancient love asunder;\ to join with men in scorning your poor friend?\ It is not friendly; ‘tis not maidenly.\ Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it,\ though I alone do feel the injury” (3.2.220-224). As a result of the boy’s sudden, unexpected change of heart, Helena feels bullied and belittled, believing herself to be the subject of some mean-spirited joke, and when Hermia enters the scene, appearing completely bewildered, Helena decides that Hermia is to blame, and confronts her. “O me! You juggler! You canker-blossom!\ You thief of love! What, have you come by night\ and stol'n my love’s heart from him?” (3.2.296-298). Like Helena, Hermia does not know that Puck and …show more content…
It could be said that, in the instance of Helena and Hermia, their conflict was not caused by control, but by their own love for the boys; that they began fighting upon discovering that Demetrius and Lysander had miraculously become enamored with one girl instead of the other, whom they had previously loved. Although love did indeed play a role in this conflict, it was not the primary cause, as the two boys’ love was being controlled by another. If the four youths had not previously been stuck in a tangled web of affections, this event still would’ve happened in pretty much the same manner, while on the other hand, if control did not exist in this scenario, the entire event wouldn’t have happened. Therefore, control was predominantly responsible for conflict in this case, not love. It could also be argued that love was the main cause of conflict between King Oberon and Queen Titania, but this, too, is an erroneous statement. Critics would opine that Oberon loved Titania, and became jealous when she spent more time with the changeling boy than she did with him. Evidence suggests, however, that Oberon’s jealousy was based more on his controlling nature than his love for Titania; it appears that Oberon was more jealous of the fact that Titania wouldn’t submit to his demands, and unlike him, had a righteous reason for wanting to keep the
Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream involves a lot of the idea of agency and choosing whether to listen to voices of authority and lose your freedom, or to do what you believe you should do at the risk of losing everything . The plot opens up many opportunities for characters to demonstrate agency. Many characters are strong and demonstrate agency throughout the play, such as Hermia and Lysander. Others only show agency for part of the play, such as Titania. The play shows that when the power in the play is being abused, the characters that choose to have agency and strength end up being more successful at the end.
In many books, movies or real life there can be a lot of situations of gaining control either of someone or something. That might not always lead to happiness, but instead unhappiness . In the play A midsummer night’s dream by Shakespeare there is a lot of control that doesn’t always end in happiness. Also in the movie She’s the man by Ewan Leslie it shows how controlling does result in a lot of happiness. So gaining too much control can result in unhappiness, but can also lead to happiness. Like in the play and movie it either end up in unhappiness, happiness or both. Gaining control can lead to happiness, but having too much can result in unhappiness. This can be because if someone has too much power they could get too controlling over people.
In the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare, three completely different situations that have to do with different topics become intertwined in the magical forest locates in the suburbs of Ancient Athens. Throughout the play, there are many representations of the character’s emotions and feelings, such as jealousy, betrayal, and most importantly, love. The main reason everyone get into their troubles is due to one reason; love. Hermia and Lysander made a decision to elope because of their love for each other; Demetrius chases after her because he loves her; Helena chases Demetrius due to love, etc. In this comedy of Shakespeare’s, love is displayed as something fantastical and bizarre.
Exerting the type of power that is influenced by malicious intentions can cause one to make decisions that are not beneficial to others. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is written within a time period and setting that favors men instead of woman. In other words, men have all the authority to control the events that occur in their own lives as well as the lives of others whom are considered insignificant. The plot displays the catalysts that ignite many characters’ desire for control that is misused by higher status people. Shakespeare’s use of characterization demonstrates how the wanting of control causes the characters to act irrationally through the misuse of power. Shakespeare’s use of setting, plot and characterization causes the ordeals
Firstly, the rash characters betray each other to pursue their ever-changing love interests. While Hermia and Lysander discuss their plan to elope, Helena enters, distraught and jealous of Hermia’s good fortune. Hermia attempts to comfort Helena by telling her about her and Lysander’s plan to elope to a neighbouring city. Immediately, Helena devises a plan to “go tell [Demetrius] of fair Hermia’s flight…for this intelligence, If I have thanks it is a dear expense” (I.i.246,248-249). Desperate for even a moment’s attention from Demetrius, the love of her life, Helena is willing to potentially ruin Hermia’s life. Her motives for deceiving Hermia in this manner are: her desire to win Demetrius back, jealousy of Hermia’s good fortune in finding love, and her physical appearance. Later in the play, Puck puts the love-in-idleness juice on Lysander, causing him to dote hopelessly over Helena. When he awakens, Lysander leaves Hermia to confess his love to Helena, who questions how he could dare to leave Hermia. He confidently replies, “[It
Have you ever been pulled over by a police officer? Or been told what to do by a boss at work? If you have and you do what the person asks then that person has succeeded in controlling you. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, control is a major theme. Within this play there are many characters that are able to control others and there are people that are controlled. The play is about Hermia, an Athenian lady, who wants to marry her true love, Lysander, but can not because her father is forcing her to marry a man she doesn’t love. Another manipulative character in this play is Oberon, the Fairy King. He puts a magic love spell on three of the characters throughout the play. A character
Control means to influence, convince or manipulate someone into doing something or thinking/believing what you want. Control is a major theme in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. In the play, each character tries to make someone else do what he or she wants. One example is Egeus, the father of Hermia. Egeus forces Hermia to marry Demetrius and when she refuses because she’s in love with Lysander, Egeus tries to control her by bringing her to the Duke to be put to death.
The book has some moments when things went well for the characters after they sought to control someone. Oberon and Titania had been fighting for a while and part of the reason was because Titania wouldn’t give him the changeling boy. “ I then did ask of her, her changeling child which straight she gave me.” Oberon is now satisfied because after putting the potion in Titania’s eyes, she gave him the changeling child with no hesitation. Still in the end section of the play, things are finally coming to good terms, for one the lovers are getting married. “ Sing and dance trippingly… will we sing and bless this place.” This is the scene where they are celebrating due to the success of getting the couples together.Which included controlling Lysander to get him to love Hermia again. As you read A Midsummer Night's Dream, you might notice that there are more downfalls than victories when it comes to control. Although some might look at the broad picture being drawn, if you dig deeper you will notice that Shakespeare makes known that controlling isn’t possible. Even though in the play Oberon seemed to have it his way, in reality things don’t always turnout that way, especially when dealing with
Though Puck adds much humor to the play while tormenting and drugging the lovers in the forest, he also acts as a catalyst in redirecting their devotions among one-another, thus demonstrating the fickle nature of love. For example, Lysander, who in one instant is blindly in love with his fair Hermia, will suddenly wake to find himself obsessed with
In act 3 scene 2, Hermia cried out to Lysander, who had betrayed her, “Why are you grown so rude? What change is this, Sweet love?” but Lysander says, “Thy love! Out, tawny Tartar, out! Out, loathèd med'cine! O hated potion, hence!” (3.2.172-175) Because Lysander falls in love with Helena because Puck mistakenly put his love potion on Lysander, Hermia, the actual lover of Lysander, got hurt by him. She could not believe that Lysander did not love her anymore. This was wrong. Helena was not the true love of Lysander. However, because of the blind love effect of the love potion, Lysander forgot his true love.
The strong friendship between Helena and Hermia quickly disintegrated when they became involved with the two men. The love potion was meant to help, but Puck's mistake managed to completely reverse the relationship. When both Demetrius and Lysander were under the influence of the "love-in-idleness" flower, Helena believed that both were mocking her.
Hermia was hurt and suffering because her Lysander left her unpredictably and so sudden. Was she not good enough, who is to blame? Hermia’s answer to these questions were Helena, her dear childhood friend. Hermia blamed her for the chaos that was brought into her life and the sudden loss of her loved one’s interest. But unfortunately, Hermia was unaware that Helena had nothing to do with this chaos. It was all love that twisted a perfect relationship of true love into a chaotic monster.
Oberon conjures up a plan in order to get a young child away from Titania, queen of the fairies, whilst doing this he is met with two of our other characters, Helena and Demetrius, “A sweet Athenian lady is in love/ with a huge disdainful youth. Anoint his eyes with the flower as well,” (II.i.268-269) in this point of the story Oberon encounters Helena who is trying to get the attention of Demetrius, who is completely ignoring her. This displays his need to place forceful authority because he is trying to controls Demetrius’s love, by putting him under a spell and making him fall in love with Helena. Unlike Egeus though, Oberon takes control over more than just one character, we see this in act 2 scene 1 lines 83-85 which says “Having once this juice,/ I’ll watch Titania when she is asleep/ And drop the liquor of it in her eyes,” out of the two Oberon would have to be the most controlling, because he in these three lines it shows yet another character Oberon is controlling. In this line though he is attempting to manipulate Titania in order to get the young changeling boy. Thereupon showing that in the face of love, control still will not
The rise of tension between characters is another characteristic of comedic plays. After Oberon sees the way that Helena has been treated by Demetrius, he orders Puck to apply the juice to the eyes of Demetrius. Puck accidentally applies the juice to Lysander’s eye, which causes him to fall in love with Helena. After the mistake had been caught, Oberon sends Puck to watch Helena and Oberon applies the juice to Demetrius’ eyes. This causes both men to fall for Helena and now the battle is for Helena and not Hermia. Helena is convinced that this is a joke or prank because neither of the two men loved her before. Now because of Puck’s mistakes the four decide to find a
Love is one of the most difficult mysteries of life. The difficulty of love is shown throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In the play, the characters have to deal with jealousy that comes along with being in love. Love’s difficulty in the play comes from love being out of balance. Love being out of balance is a romantic situation where a difference gets in the way of happiness in the relationship. William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream demonstrates these conflicts with a little bit of humor and buoyancy. The four young Athenians have many difficulties with love. Hermia loves Lysander and Lysander returns the feelings; Helena loves Demetrius but Demetrius loves Hermia. The two men love the same women, which leaves Hermia