Control In A Midsummer Night's Dream

Control is never achieved easily, and if perchance someone does obtain power over a person, is it really a consequence of their approach at control? In A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, Control is a very important theme in the play and is used throughout the whole play. Shakespeare uses many characters to convey the theme of control. Two examples of control are Egeus trying to gain control over Hermia’s marriage to Demetrius while Hermia is trying to gain control over her own life and resisting against Egeus’s attempts at control. Looking at these two characters shows how Shakespeare made the case that it is not possible to control someone else’s actions. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Egeus is an important character in the introduction of the theme of control. He pushes Hermia to marry Demetrius until he finally threatens her, and he thinks that she will surrender and finally marry who he chose for her: “Either to die the death, or to abjure forever the society of men”(1.1.65-66). His attempts to blackmail Hermia, however, go in vain and Hermia makes plans to run away with Lysander to marry him: “Lysander and myself will fly this place”(1.1.202)”There Lysander and myself shall meet,/And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,”(1.1.217-218). Egeus feels that he has Hermia cornered, but in reality this attempt to control Hermia
Control is only seen is accomplished when it was a consequence from something that the person did, and not an unpredicted result of someone else’s approach at control. Egeus and Hermia express this theme very strongly throughout the whole play and show that you don’t always get the control that you want. A Midsummer Night’s Dream shows that you can get your way and still not be the one in control, but does anyone ever accomplish gaining