A William Shakespeare play called A Midsummer Night’s Dream is based off how dreams are part of reality, even if they’re not real. The play is a short magical story about four lover that have a conflict of the two men, Demetrius and Lysander, loving the same girl, Hermia, while the other lover, Helena is rejected by Demetrius’ love. Then a group of fairies try to fix this conflict of love by using Cupid’s flower, which when touch to any animal’s eye when their sleeping it makes the animal fall in love with the next creature they see. The conflict of love in this play empathizes the theme of love never running smooth. For example, Hermia, one of the lovers, is supposed to marry Lysander and because of her father’s creed they to run off into the forest …show more content…
During this Hermia is dreaming of a “serpent eating her heart away”, (2.2.154-7) Shakespeare here is using foreshadowing and irony to emphasize her being abandoned so her love can be with another; making their relationship complicated. Another example of love not running smooth is Helena trying to receive Demetrius’ heart. Near the end of the play both Demetrius and Lysander are fighting for Helena’s heart because they are under a curse, but Helena before was hated by both men and now believes that they are tricking her. At the end of the night, when they are asleep, Robin the fairy who holds the flower, fixes the situation by making Lysander normal again and leaves Demetrius in love with Helena. When they wake up, Shakespeare use a sense of humor and irony, when Demetrius wakes up trying to "recount [their] dreams" (4.1.208-9). The audience sees Shakespeare’s humor by calling their recent events a dream after they almost just killed each other and destroyed their love in reality, making it seem like nothing happened and it’s all okay. This is also is an example of love not running smooth because Hermia and Lysander basically just broke their engagement that night before and now are engaged again like nothing
To conclude, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” can be related to many experiences in life, like the weather in St. John’s; it is unpredictable and often deceitful on the inside. Shakespearean plays show the rollercoaster of young lovers falling in love often instantaneous, and their falling out of love. Hermia and Lysander both go through challenging times before they could be with each
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.
“The course of true love never did run smooth,” comments Lysander of love’s complications in an exchange with Hermia (Shakespeare I.i.136). Although the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream certainly deals with the difficulty of romance, it is not considered a true love story like Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare, as he unfolds the story, intentionally distances the audience from the emotions of the characters so he can caricature the anguish and burdens endured by the lovers. Through his masterful use of figurative language, Shakespeare examines the theme of the capricious and irrational nature of love.
Four lovers each with his or her own challenge in love, Lysander and Hermia who love each other but may never be together, and Demetrius who loves Hermia and rejects Helena’s truthful devotion. Shakespeare’s writing style is the essence that brings forth the emotions within his works. Throughout a Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, commonplace literary devices are used to emphasize his style of writing. , Shakespeare depicts the theme of love’s difficulty, especially with the use of figurative language, such as metaphor and personification, to show that though complications arise in complex situations, the ability to overcome becomes the true meaning of love. wise
In William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream is about the love quadrangle that develops among Hermia, Helena, Lysander, and Demetrius. While a group of actors rehearse a play in the woods, and find their lives changed by the doings of Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of the fairies. It begins with Hermia refusing to marry Demetrius and her running into the woods with Lysander. When Hermia finds out and reports this to Demetrius in hopes of gaining his attention. Hermia likes him but he does not like her back. These relationships on who likes who all get messed up thanks to Puck, who on Oberon’s orders puts a love potion in Lysander's eyes creating the love quadrangle. The reason for the love potion being Oberon is jealous of Titania and the changeling boy. Matt Groening once said “Love is a perky elf dancing a merry little jig and then suddenly he turns on you with a miniature machine gun.” and the audience can see this play out in a Midsummer Night’s Dream when things like the love potion come into effect and everyone is falling in love with the people they do not want to.
Shakespeare uses many different themes to present love; relationships, conflict, magic, dreams and fate. Overall, he presents it as something with the ability to make us act irrationally and foolishly. Within A Midsummer Night's Dream we see many examples of how being 'in love' can cause someone to change their perspective entirely. 'The path of true love never did run smooth' is a comment made from one of the main characters, Lysander, which sums up the play's idea that lovers always face difficult hurdles on the path to happiness and will usually turn them into madmen.
In the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, emotions and beliefs can shape people’s view of the world. This play is about two lovers, Lysander and Hermia, running away into a forest because they can’t marry each other in their hometown, Athens. Two other characters, Demetrius and Helena, find out about their plan eventually and go to look for them. They did so because Demetrius admires Hermia, while Helena admires Demetrius. When they eventually find each other, things go downhill.
The Theme of Love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare In the play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ many aspects of love are explored. In this essay I will be exploring how Shakespeare conveys the theme of love including illusion, confusion, escape, harmony and lust. Historically, it has been suggested that ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ was written for a wedding, signifying the importance of love in this play, however there is no real evidence to prove this myth.
Love and Lust Have you ever thought about living back in a time where there were sword fights, love potions, and men turned into donkeys? Well, in William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s dream this happens. This masterpiece is all about love. Characters in the play fall in and out of love because of a love potion and plenty of mistakes and constantly tend to argue.
Additionally, love is focused; people do not bounce around from one relationship to the next and call it love. Also, love is patient and kind; it is not forced and it should not be rushed. In addition, love should not fail, yet love in the comedy fails often. Finally, Clemen's essay points out how Shakespeare makes the characters seem like puppets, as if they are being controlled, when in reality love is out of control. Therefore, love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is portrayed as
Love is a very common theme that is seen in literature, and love is one of the most powerful things that can be felt for someone or something. Love can drive a person to do incredible or horrible things, and we see many forms of love that take place in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This is demonstrated in the book by many characters including Hermia and Lysander who demonstrate true love. Titania and Bottom show magical love. In the play, love is also the cause of a few broken hearts. While there is no one common definition of love that suits all of the characters, the romantic relationship in the play all leans to one simple rule laid out by Lysander, “The course of true love never did run smooth.”
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare explores the subjectivity of love. The play shows the absurdity of love through its characters like an episode of “MTV The Real World”: they fall in love, break up, lose friendships, and someone will ultimately look like an ass. Shakespeare’s play examines the combination of both traditional and non-traditional gender roles affecting the character’s perception of their respective romantic relationships. Shakespeare then questions whether love is real through Lysander and Helena. Shakespeare’s play as a whole demonstrates how initial perceptions of love are subject to transformation. Both the characters and the play debunk that love is static, but rather an ever metamorphosing reality.
As Helena loved Demetrius, neither Hermia nor Helena understood what became of Lysander because the night before he had plans to run away and marry Hermia, he fell over cupids arrow called “nectar” and as he awoke he fell in love with Helena. Shakespeare shows Hermia’s character as loyal and devoted to Lysander even after he has fell in love with Helena. “…we have the makings of a romantic chase” (Midsummer). Hermia would have given her life to spend forever with Lysander and did not believe what he was saying to Helena, the chase describes the confusion and twist of the whole story. At the end of the play Lysander becomes renewed and loves Hermia again while Demetrius now loves and wants Helena.
The hilarious play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, tells the twisted love story of four Athenians who are caught between love and lust. The main characters: Hermia, Helena, Lysander, and Demetrius are in a ‘love square’. Hermia and Lysander are true love enthusiasts, and love each other greatly. Demetrius is in love with Hermia, and Helena, Hermia’s best friend, is deeply and madly in love with Demetrius. Hermia and Lysander try to elope in the woods because Egeus, Hermia’s father, disapproves of Lysander. Helena, hearing about their plans, tells Demetrius, and all four of them end up in the woods where Lysander’s quotation, “The course of true love never did run smooth”(28), becomes extremely evident due to several
The story of A Midsummer Night's Dream was mainly about love and its abnormal dealings. In the play, Shakespeare tried to show that love is unpredictable, unreasonable, and at times is blind. The theme of love was constantly used during the play and basically everything that was said and done was related to the concept of love and its unpredictable ness. Shakespeare made all of the characters interact their lives to be based on each other’s. At first, everything was very confusing, and the characters were faced with many different problems. In the end, however, they were still able to persevere and win their true love, the love they were searching for in the first place.