Illusion And Reality In A Midsummer Night's Dream

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

Love is Difficult “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” by William Shakespeare is filled with many mixed emotions and lots of different themes. Although there are many different themes that readers can interpret, one that really stands out is that love is difficult. This theme is supported when Hermia 's father tries to tear Hermia and Lysander apart and they decide the best decision is to run away together. Also Oberon and Titania can 't stand each other and always get into arguments. The love potion throughout the play messed up Titania and Oberon’s true love.

Love has the power to make a person irrational and foolish. During love, a person tends to face many obstacles. There are many forms of love. In the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare portrays the different kinds of love through the couples. True love is presented through the love of Hermia and Lysander.

The impulse decisions made by Romeo and Juliet and the actions displayed for their “love” are emotionally charged and are based on initial feelings, therefore, their love is not true. Romeo and Juliet both have affection for each other, but it is truly only from the physical appearances they base their love on. When Romeo sees Juliet for the first time at the Capulet party, the first thought he had was that he loved her. True love isn’t based on just looks and looks were the only thing that Romeo could see at that point. When Romeo asked Friar Lawrence to marry him and Juliet, Friar says “Young men’s love then lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes,” (Act 2, Scene 3).

William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play which emphasises and explores love, free will and liminal dream-like spaces within both a fantasy realm and the real world. Within Act 2 Scene 2 lines 115-160, the Athenian lovers are experiencing a tense shift in dynamics. Lysander has been subjected to a love potion, and is leaving his relationship with Hermia in order to pursue a romance with their friend, Helena. During this passage, Shakespeare explores these key themes, and establishes a tense, uncertain reality, by providing an introduction to the conflict experienced by these characters within the entire text.

William Russell English 9 2/28/17 A Midsummer Night’s Dream Essay (Final Draft) For centuries, literary works have relied on love to establish engaging subplots and presidential character motivations; however, different authors have interpreted this complex emotion with varying degrees of success. In the play A Midsummer Night's Dream, love is depicted differently depending on the relational status of the characters and the situations in which they are involved in. In the beginning of the play, Shakespeare establishes the indecisive and conflicted relationship that has formed between Theseus and Hippolyta.

In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, love and hate fall hand-in-hand. The oxymoron “This love feel I, that feel no love in this” demonstrates the sensation of love burning in Romeo, whilst annexing a mention of his struggle that Rosaline, the woman he seemingly loves, doesn’t reciprocate the same affection, indicating a prime example of a darker side to love (1.1.187). The oxymoron divulges a contradictory issue arising internally in Romeo. Shakespeare’s utilization of these oxymorons reveal that Romeo’s love indeed comes from an enemy family of his. As much as Romeo desires a perfect love life, his feelings of endearment perpetually battle with the supposed feelings of hate.

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.

The story of Romeo and Juliet is the most well known and tragic tale of love to ever exist. Most say, that the two’s demise was written in the stars, that fate was the sole culprit of untimely death. However, this disregards other themes that take great precedent in the story, two powerful emotions, always warring, but without one the other could not exist. One on hand love, the word that embodies too many descriptions to ever communicate, but one will sacrifice anything and everything for it. Then there is hate.

Love can cause illusions and false realities that enhance the idea of perfection that does not really exist. Juliet’s idea of Romeo being a man of wax is questioned when Juliet learns that Romeo killed her cousin, Tybalt. She is conflicted as to whether she should hate Romeo or not for killing someone in her family. She exclaims, “Oh, that deceit should dwell/ In such a gorgeous palace!”

Indeed it is commonplace to describe lovers as under one another’s spell. Under the influence of a spell, a lover loses all control over his or her behavior. Shakespeare observes that this characteristic of love exposes the lover to “corruption,” foreshadowing

Despite popular opinion, love at first sight does not exist. The idea of “love” is widely misinterpreted as a mere attraction between two individuals. However, many do not understand that love goes much further than this, and what follows is a common misconception between love and lust. Shakespeare in his 17th century play Twelfth Night delves deeper into this idea of love. He presents the character Duke Orsino who appear to be infatuated and love-sick for the Countess Olivia, a woman with which he knows little about.

The individuals possessed by ideal love are not the only ones who are affected by it. In Romeo and Juliet, Friar Lawrence’s first reaction to Romeo’s drastic change of “love” was shocking : “Holy Saint Francis, what a

Toba Beta once said: "“Justice could be as blind as love.”  Shakespeare 's play A Midsummer Night 's Dream captures the blind bias of both love and justice.  Egeus, a respected nobleman in Athens, arranged for his daughter, Hermia, to marry nobleman Demetrius.  Egeus tells his daughter that she must obey his wishes: if she does not, she can either choose to become a nun, or die.  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 reciprocated love.  Lysander and Hermia are in love with each other.  Egeus does not approve of his daughter 's chosen love.  The couple wishes for Helena to be happy with Demetrius.

Shakespeare’s novel “Macbeth” demonstrates the many ways in which love can factor into a play. Through the connections built between characters, and the relationship Macbeth holds with power, the ways in which love are perceived through “Macbeth” are evident. In Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth,” there is a strong relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, the relationship between the two characters is known as the most obvious - yet this relationship challenges traditional perceptions of love. The attitude Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have towards each other constantly changes, thus making it hard to form a clear-cut opinion of their relationship.