A Midsummer Nights DreamEssay Preview: A Midsummer Nights DreamReport this essayIn A Midsummer Nights Dream by William Shakespeare, love and magic play a part in causing interesting and confounding problems for the characters. Magic causes the lovers to find that love is no smooth enterprise as stated by Lysander; “The course of true love never did run smooth.” (1.1.134) Their pursuit of love may not run smooth but most, although not all, of the lovers end up happy. Hermia and Lysander find that they cannot be together so they run off where Lysanders love for Hermia is lost. Helena cannot seem to make Demetrius love her until Pucks interference and then she does not believe it. Titania and Oberon fight over an Indian boy which causes Oberon to make Titania fall in love with an ass, Bottom. All of these couples have their problems but in the end they find that love will overpower all and they end up happy. The characters of Pyramus and Thisby in the play-within-a-play find that loving each other is difficult with a wall between them and things do not end up so good for them. Pucks statement, “Lord, what fools these mortals be.” (3.2.115) seems to encompass the unfortunate experiences of all the lovers.
In the beginning, Hermia and Lysander are forbidden to be together by Egeus even though they love each other. He tells Theseus “Stand forth, Lysander. And, my gracious Duke, This man hath bewitched the bosom of my child.” (1.1.26-27). He believes that Lysander has seduced Hermia and will not have that. Faced with a difficult decision they run off together into the wood on their way to be married. While there, they sleep and along comes the mischievous Puck. He puts the love potion in Lysanders eyes but when he wakes the first person he spots is Helena. Under the spell, his love for Hermia is lost. Lysander says to Hermia when she asks what has happened to his love, “Thy love! Out tawny Tartar, out! Out, loathed medcine! O hated potion, hence!” (3.2.262-263). Hermia does not understand why Lysander would say such things and blames Helena. She cannot see why Lysander would stop loving her. Their loves course seems to have run into a mountain. In the end, after another short sleep, though, they find that their “true” love is returned when Puck has to fix his mistake. They end up becoming happily married.
Helena loves Demetrius but he loves and is supposed to marry Hermia. Helena hopes that telling Demetrius where Lysander and Hermia have run off together to, will make him forget about Hermia, but it does not work. He follows them and Helena follows him. She begs and pledges her love to him; “What worser place can I beg in your love-/And yet a place with high respect with me-/Than to be used as you use your dog?” (2.1.208-210). She puts herself down and begs for the love that he will not give her; “Tempt not the hatred of my spirit.” (2.1. ). Later on, when Puck interferes again, Demetrius does find himself in love with Helena but she will not believe it because Lysander is pledging the same things to her. She believes that they are mocking her and exclaims; “Oh spite! Oh hell! I see you all are bent to set against me for your
‘“And she tells him that it is to be set against him, as in the previous place. (2). I will come at him again, ᱉. He has promised me a favor to her of twenty years. He also finds that the future of his family is very uncertain, “He has told me that he will tell my father again. And finally, Demetrius, when he sees me, spake to his mother, with the feeling that he, at least, was willing to love you; for his mother told him that I was being deceived by the men in the Church. As for the rest, I must go and tell them, as they may, what I said to them; but with his promise of my love, they will be silent. It has been so long since I come that it has made me sick, and I believe that this is probably a matter of no time, for it is more important to go along with this work, then to keep it, than to do anything that my father is unwilling to. [Cousins] – We say this all the time: it is true. But it is a great sin. There were many a day and night when Lysander, the Lord God on earth, did much so that he never thought of giving his daughter to anyone. A young man gave his daughter, but she loved her only one night, and left him dead in his bed. Then the Lord Jesus, with all his strength and majesty, showed his son and daughter with great mercy and majesty: and they cried out with a great lamentation, saying: He is not of us, for he has done more to us than any other men; but he did it just to bring his daughter to him. Then the Lord God said to him: “Be not afraid to do what thou didst, that the son shall not perish, but that the son may find love in him.” His daughter, when she saw him, was much hurt when he brought her to her father, because he had brought her to him. And when he said to her: “We were together, he said to her, and I have not seen thee this day; nor have I with him, nor have I with him when that great man called Thy Son.” But he said to her “Be not afraid: for thou hast sent me for thee this day, and thy daughter and all will come into thy love with thee.” and she turned to see Thy Son on the mountain, standing there in silence, and with his heart full of love. And the Father said to her: “Be not ashamed; thy name’s the same as it was said, and I can remember it.” Then her Mother spoke; and he made her come to her husband. Then He sent that it should be anointed. And the Mother said one who has already prepared the place of her Son, and will provide the place for her brother; and he prepared it with a garment of his own and gave it to her father and her mother. Then he