ipl-logo

A Midsummer Night's Dream Love Analysis

958 Words4 Pages

Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night’s Dream dealt with the theme of love and its four types, including loves many complications such as disappointment and confusion. The play rotates around different forms of love, two of them being friendship love (Phileo) and romantic (Eros) or true love. Love is the most important theme of the play and the asymmetrical love seen in the play between the four Athenians and romantic encounters cause conflict within the play. There is a strong friendship love between two characters, Hermia and Helena. However, their friendship love is tested throughout the play by their pursuit of true love which, in the end, ultimately prevails. The power of true love is evident in the play, the depiction of love reveals its true nature as in its pursuit it causes the characters to become irrational. True love in this play stems conflict from the troubles of romance by the actions of the lovers.
The friendship between Hermia and Helena is at stake because of the romantic love that exists between the different parties in the play. Helena mistakes her obsession with Demetrius with love even though he is very rude to her. On the other hand, Demetrius loves Helena’s friend, Hermia, and wants to marry her. However, Helena is still in love …show more content…

Although Helena had a strong Philia love for Hermia she betrayed her by telling Demetrius their plans to elope. Helena thought that by betraying her friend through telling Demetrius their plans, he would once again love her which was not the case. In the play when Hermia address her friend as fair, we see Helena agitated and responds by telling her, “Call you me fair? That fair again unsay, Demetrius loves your fair, O happy fair” (1.1.181-182). This shows how Helena is angry at her friend because the man she loves is in love with Hermia. This conflict shows again how romantic love is stronger than friendship

Show More
Related

  • Comparing Bless Me, Ultima And House On Mango Street

    1255 Words  | 6 Pages

    In the play A Midsummer’s Night Dream by William Shakespeare, many of the characters relentlessly pursue their goals in the face of illogical decisions, and, while fictional items such as the “love-in-idleness” flower are used to explain the character’s sudden love for each other, the play does illustrate how love and ambition can lead to unforeseen consequences. For example, when Puck accidently anointed Lysander’s eyes with the “love-in-idleness” juice, he started a chain of events leading to Lysander and Demetrius fighting over Helena while Hermia is treated as though she is worthless. Moreover, at one point, Lysander and Demetrius even threatened to duel each other when Lysander awoke after being anointed with the flower 's juice and said, "Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word is that vile name to perish on my sword" (61). This shows how the character’s love for certain other characters, and their ambition to pursue said love, can lead to the destruction of previous relationships and lead them to make dangerous decisions.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Honesty In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    776 Words  | 4 Pages

    The more I hate, the more follows me... His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine"(1.1.193-200). Indeed, it takes time and courage to express ones own feelings in front of others. Plus, it is even harder to express the feelings about someone that his/her best friend loves, while they do not. As in this play, even Demetrius is Helena's beloved, Hermia still expresses all her feeling to Helena,

    Read More

  • Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    1015 Words  | 5 Pages

    A Midsummer Night’s Dream dealt with the universal theme of love and its complications: lust, disappointment, confusion, and marriage, featuring three interlocking plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of Theseus, Duke of Athens and the Amazonian queen Hippolyta. The play rotates around different forms of love, two of them being love for friendship (Philia) and romantic (Eros) or true love. Love is the most important theme of the play and the asymmetrical love seen in the play between the four Athenians and romantic encounters cause conflict within the play. There is a strong friendship love between two characters, Hermia and Helena. These two ladies are regarded as sisters as they have grown up together always having each other’s

    Read More

  • Examples Of Crazy Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    735 Words  | 3 Pages

    Again they are deliriously in love because of the love drug. In the beginning of the play neither of the males want anything to do with Helena, she is blindly chasing after Demetrius desperate for his attention, but he brushes her off. Oberon orders puck to put the spell on Demetrius. “Thou shalt know the man by the Athenian garments he hath on.” (II, i ln 42 & 43)

    Read More

  • A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 2 Scene 1 Analysis

    895 Words  | 4 Pages

    In William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream the circumstances surrounding love have been put into question, this occurs when a magical nectar is put in the eyes of three major characters, and changes their feelings towards the people in their lives. Titania, Lysander and Demetrius all have had the nectar put into their eyes, though Demetrius avoids having this done to him in act 2 scene 2 which is the scene that the focus of this paper will be looking at. Throughout the play, we focus largely on the love life of Helena, which unfortunately does not seem to exist. She is in love with Demetrius, whom does not care for her in the same way, he does not cherish her at all before he is under the influence of magic. Once Lysander declares

    Read More

  • Manipulation In A Midsummer Night's Dream Analysis

    523 Words  | 3 Pages

    Control can get out of hand when given to one single human being and can create major egregious problems to others. An infamous example is how Adolf Hitler attempted and almost succeeded to eliminate the entire Jewish population because he believed they were an inferior race. In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the characters constantly try to control each other for the sake of who they love, to gain control over people’s lives, as well as the sole idea of revenge. A vital point in, A Midsummer Night's Dream is using control along with manipulation to gain love.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Love And Justice In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    757 Words  | 4 Pages

      Hermia, much to her father 's dismay, is deeply in a mutual love with a different nobleman, Lysander.   In addition, Hermia 's childhood best friend and Demetrius were in love prior to his sights turning towards Hermia.   This crushed Helena, causing her to lose self-confidence, but still: she yearns for Demetrius 's love.   Hermia and Lysander 's love, Egeus 's harsh rule, and Helena 's unrequited love for Demetrius causes the lovers to leave Athens.

    Read More

  • Lysander And Hermia's Relationship

    948 Words  | 4 Pages

    In our scene, lines 42-179 of Act One, Scene One, the characters who try to force love upon others are seen antagonistically, while Hermia and Lysander, who strive for true, naturally occurring love, are seen as protagonists whose love should be defended. The overlying message of the play is that love should not and cannot be forced. Theseus, Egeus, and Demetrius use their power, both as nobles and men, to try and force Hermia into marrying Demetrius. Egeus, in an attempt to bully Hermia into marrying Demetrius says, ‘‘‘She is mine, and all my right of her I do estate unto Demetrius’’’ (1.1.97-98). He sees his power as Hermia’s father as a way to force her into a marriage that will benefit him.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Helena In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    710 Words  | 3 Pages

    The strong effects of love makes Helena a bit foolish and blind in the ways she reacts to it. In scene one of act one, the readers learn that Helena still loves Demetrius even though he loves her friend, Hermia, now. When Helena is first introduced, she demonstrates her jealousy and insecurities by asking Hermia for some of her beauty to win Demetrius back. Hermia and Lysander inform her that they are running away, and that

    Read More

  • Justice In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    779 Words  | 4 Pages

      In addition, Hermia 's childhood best friend and Demetrius were in love prior to his sights turning towards Hermia.   This crushed Helena, causing her to lose self-confidence, but still: she yearns for Demetrius 's reciprocated love.   Lysander and Hermia are in love with each other.   Egeus does not approve of his daughter 's chosen love.

    Read More

  • A Midsummer Night's Dream Theme Essay

    483 Words  | 2 Pages

    With many of the different scenes throughout the play, the theme of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is that love is difficult. In the play when Hermia 's father tries to tear Hermia and Lysander

    Read More

  • Effects Of Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    848 Words  | 4 Pages

    The strong effects of love makes Helena a bit foolish and blind in the ways she reacts to it. In scene one of act one, the readers learn that Helena still loves Demetrius even though he loves her friend, Hermia, now. When Helena is first introduced, she demonstrates her jealousy and insecurities by asking Hermia for some of her beauty to win Demetrius back. Hermia and Lysander inform her that they are running away, and that

    Read More

  • Courtship And Marriage In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    1633 Words  | 7 Pages

    It is the first goal of our essay to understand how marriage and courtship in Shakespeare´s plays are an important exciting theme because it was something real during XVI century. The objective of the essay is to examine how courtship and marriage affects the issues and formation of the play named A Midsummer Night´s Dream (The Malone Society, 1996) focusing on the social and emotional relationships between men and women. Consequently, the aims are: first, to show the importance of the female character in the play according to virginity, chastity and sexuality; second, to explain how love is treated in the play; and lastly, to illustrate how courtship and marriage are depicted through the characters. It is crucial to understand that all of

    Read More

  • The Role Of Love In Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing

    1622 Words  | 7 Pages

    When it comes to learning about the characters in a story, analyzes look at the characters’ characterization through the plays. For Shakespeare, he focused on the relationships of his characters in his plays to underline the true meaning of love. From his comedic plays to his tragedies, the love between two or more characters signified an irrational and crazy way love operates in his plays. In his play, Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare described the typical “perfect” couple, Hero and Claudio, and the “surprising” couple, Benedick and Beatrice. In Act 4, these relationships are put to the test whether their relationships are true and honest after the wedding.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Hermia In 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'

    895 Words  | 4 Pages

    What is Hermia Like? She is described as an independent individual who wants nothing but to follow her heart, but here’s the catch… That is not what her dad wants for her! She is better yet characterized as Feisty;She knows what she wants and does what it takes to get it, she was even prepared to give up on her family and way of life to marry Lysander. In this play she can be Defensive (Compelled to fight for her love and was willing to fight her friend) “

    Read More

More about A Midsummer Night's Dream Love Analysis

Open Document