Midsummer Night's Dream
“"You simply cannot control other people's thoughts or actions and you can't even necessarily control your own thoughts and feelings... All you can do is make your choices of what you do with your life and what your actions are and sometimes when you do let things go and you're more passive or more active” (Tobey). What this quote means is that no one has control over other people’s actions and that you can only control yourself, you should allow things to happen on their own and they shouldn’t be forced. The play, A Midsummer Night's Dream tells the story of Athenian’s, Fairies and Mechanics. Egeus who is Hermia's father tries to control her by making her marry Demetrius when she loves Lysander. Hermia refuses to marry him and runs away into the woods with him. In the same woods, they escape there are two groups of people, the, and mechanics.The Mechanics are a group of craftsmen who are rehearsing a play to perform for a wedding. The king fairy Oberon and his servant, Puck put potions on the Athenian’s, Mechanics and
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Puck who was Oberon’s servant did control Lysander and Demetrius by making them fall in love with Helena. In act two scene two, Puck put juice into Lysander's eyes. “This is he my master said, Despised the Athenian maid: And here is the maiden sleeping sound… Churl upon the eyes I throw all the power this charm doth owe. When thou wak’st, let love forbid” (2.2, lines 73-79). In act 2 scene two, after Puck puts the juice on Lysander he wakes up and he falls in love with Helena. “Transparent Helena, nature shows her art that through thy bosom makes me see thy heart”( 2.2, lines 104-105). Even though Lysander and Demetrius were now both in love with Helena, they were both being controlled by the potions, not Puck. When people are under control with magic they have no idea what's going on. Puck, in the end, did not truly control Lysander and
• “The course of true love never did run smooth.” (Shakespeare 15) Act 1 Scene 1 This quote in “A midsummer night’s dream” means that love isn’t always easy. Its saying the love doesn’t come on a silver platter and that there are always problems in a relationship. This quote is said by Lysander to Hermia, trying to comfort her.
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
Love is a timeless topic which Shakespeare explores in depth in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream “. Shakespeare utilizes the format of a play within a play to communicate the complexities of love. Love is a force that characters cannot control. The play includes scenes of lovers searching for fulfillment in the arms of characters who are unavailable. The magic love potion wreaks havoc between actual lovers and it is clear just how negatively it is portrayed. The entire play revolves around the difficulties of maintaining love and how foolish and insecure the pursuit of love can make us. It also touches on the fickleness of love, that love can be
According to an article written by Christine Hsu, brain scans reveal that when one falls in love, their frontal lobes completely shut down. Without one’s frontal lobes, judgement is lost in many, and love ends up forcing one to get completely thrown off their mentality. When one forces someone else into doing something, it is obvious that this is a form of bullying. The curse of love hits characters of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with extreme force causing readers to question loves role in the play. After readers closely examine love in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one can see that love acts as a bully because it brings out jealousy in others, causes its victims to act out of their character, and starts fights.
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
Displaying her anger, she tells Helena: “I am amazed at your passionate words. /I scorn you not: it seems that you scorn me.”(III.ii.223-224). Although it is nice that Oberon cared about Helena, he should not abuse his power by meddling with the affairs of humans. Though Oberon tried to blame Puck for all the problems: “This is thy negligence. Still thou mistakest, /Or else committ’st thy knaveries willfully.”(III.ii.356-357), It was of no fault to Puck that the love potion was used on the wrong man because the only way that Oberon described Demetrius was by his Athenian garments, and both Demetrius and Lysander were wearing Athenian garments: “Did you not tell me I should know the man /By the Athenian garment he had on?”(III.ii.359-360). It was Oberon’s fault that the four lovers had a confusion because he was the one who ordered Puck to use the juice on Demetrius and Lysander. Also, Oberon knew that Puck was careless and should not have trusted him with such an important task. Although Oberon did not give precise instructions, Puck rushed and acted without thinking, much like his Master often does. When he was searching through the forest, Puck said:
Hermia’s speech in Act 2, Scene 2, of Shakespeare 's A Midsummer Night’s Dream, contains an abundance of dream imagery. She has awoken from a terrible dream after falling asleep in the forest with Lysander. They were lost and tired so they decided to rest. Lysander wanted to sleep beside her but, she refused since they are not yet married and while they slept Puck applied a love potion on Lysander’s eyes thinking he was Demetrius. Lysander wakes and is repulsed by the sight of Hermia and never wants to see her again because he is now in love with Helena. Hermia awakes from her terrible dream and retells it thinking that Lysander is nearby listening. Then she realizes that he is not there and she does not see him anywhere. Hermia expresses the sentiment that she will find Lysander or she will surely die. She stated,
Controlling one's action can lead to unexpected results as seen in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In the beginning we are introduced to a man named Egeus who has a daughter, Hermia.
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.
Eqeus attempts to steal Hermia’s free will through the Athenian Law. For example, “Full of vexation come I, with complaint against my child, my daughter Hermia” (1.1, 23-34, Shakespeare). In this quote, Eqeus is attempting to steal Hermia’s free will. Eqeus is explaining to Theseus that Hermia is disobeying his command. Hermia wishes to marry Lysander, but her father wants her to marry Demetrius. Therefore, Eqeus is attempting to strip Hermia of her free will and use power to carry out his actions. Furthermore, in Act Two, Shakespeare incorporates fairies. The reader is introduced to Puck, Oberon, and Titania. Oberon, the king of the fairies, Titania, the queen of the fairies, and Puck, a servant. Using lines, “Churl, upon thy eyes I throw all the power this charm doth owe” (2.2, 78-79, Shakespeare), the reader learns fairies can use magic to manipulate free will. Puck placed a love potion on Lysander’s eyes, which results in chaos. The lines, “Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word. Is that vile name to perish on my sword!” (2.2, 106-107, Shakespeare), show this chaos, Lysander now wishes to kill Demetrius for
Sometimes trying to control someone doesn't go as planned and leads up to turning into a fool. In a Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, Hermia and Lysander are a couple that are not allowed to get married because her dad wants her to marry Demetrius but her best friend Helena loves him. In this story everyone is either trying to control themselves or someone. This story shows that trying to control someone else is impossible because the results are unpredictable, temporary, or both.
Modern Old Wisdom With the way modern life is now, it’s rare for anything to be timeless. What is modern is forever changing as what is modern right now can become totally obsolete in less than a year. This is largely because development of things, particularly technology, are very quick and new improvements are being made insanely fast. This makes it so most of the time words that are not said in the last year or so are left in the dust. This makes it very hard for these words or to remain relevant for an extended period of time in this fast paced world.
Above all the tensions created by the discussion of marriage, Lysander deliver a quotes to his love Hermia. “The course of true love never did run smooth…” (Act 1, Scene 1, line 134) is a famous quote by Lysander. In the quote he conveys to readers that love is not perfect, it also has its ups and downs and that he and Hermia are going through a tough situation. Hermia and Lysander both love each other and have made a plan to meet in a forest and then escape Athens however the problem arises when Hermia has tells Helena this and she plans to tell Demetrius about this so that he will love her and not Hermia. The King of fairies− Oberon hears all this and decides to settle the dispute between all of them. He instructs his assistant Robin Goodfellow to search for Demetrius and put the love juice on his eyelids so that he is compelled to love Helena, he informs him about the dressing style of Demetrius in "thou shalt know the man by the Athenian garments he hath on" (Act 2, Scene 1, line 263-264). However there is a problem, in the forest there are two Athenian men dressed in Athenian garments and their identities were mistaken; instead of putting the love juice on Demetrius's eyelids Robin Goodfellow put it on Lysander's eyelids. Now Lysander "loves" Helena and wants to get away from Hermia. After discovering Robin Goodfellow's mistake, Oberon tries to correct this mistake by putting the same love juice in Demetrius's so that he loves Helena eyes however
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play about four Athenian lovers. Theseus listens to both Hermia and her father’s request and he tells her to bend to her father’s will or die due to the old Athenian law. Hermia and Lysander flee Athens, into the domain of the fairy kingdom. At this time, Oberon is in a fight with Titania. This fight is over a human child of Titania’s friend. Oberon tells Puck, one of his loyal servants, to get a flower hit by Cupid’s arrow, and drop the oil into Demetrius’s and Titania’s eyes. However, Puck drops the oil into Lysander’s eyes due to Oberon’s vague description, making him fall in love with Helena and despise Hermia. Titania falls in love Bottom, who has the head of an ass, after Oberon places the oil
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