Obstacles In A Midsummer Night's Dream

Luke Seale

Busby

AP Literature

4 April 2016

Are the Obstacles of Love Worth Overcoming?

Early on during the play of A Midsummer Night’s Dream written by William Shakespeare, the character of Lysander says: Ay me, for aught that I could ever read,

Could ever hear by tale or history,

The course of true love never did run smooth;

But either it was different in blood-- (1.1.132-135).

This line is a foreshadow of events to come throughout the work as a whole. Every human character present within A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with the exception of those considered to be members of the ‘mechanicals,’ face some sort of obstacle over what they consider to be “true love.” The response to Lysander’s line is given by the character of Hermia, “O Cross!

There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee.

And to that place the sharp Athenian law

Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then,

Steal forth thy father’s house tomorrow night.

And in the wood, a league without the town,

Where I did meet thee once with Helena

To do observance to a morn of May—

There will I stay for thee (1.1.156-168).

No characters seem to overcome anything near the high amount of treacherous obstacles and sacrifices that Hermia and Lysander do throughout William Shakespeare’s play, and these lines are a prime example of that. While on the surface it may just seem as if Lysander is suggesting that they act like juvenile kids and rebel from their parents and society, he means something much more mature. Lysander is willing to throw away everything that he has just for the chance to live in peace with the one that he loves. Lysander’s words and actions from only a few lines of this five act play, tell the reader exactly how he feels about love.

The fourth young human character to join the situation is Helena. Helena obsesses over Demetrius, who has no interest for her. Helena discusses her feelings on her situation, and the sacrifices she would make to be with Demetrius in the later part of her