Preview

Irrational Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream By William Shakespeare

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
578 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Irrational Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream By William Shakespeare
Love has the effects of a drug. One can become an addict to love and act irrationally, just like the effects of a drug addiction. In the Elizabethan era romantic comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare reveals with a motif of the magic of a special violet flower the effects of love make people irrational, and can happen to anyone.
Love has effects that make one irrational. The play shows several times with the magical effects of two different flowers how irrational love can make people. The characters under the effects of the magic flower, Demetrius, Queen Titania, and Lysander , fall in and out of love throughout the events of the story and show great irrationality. The Athenian Duke Theseus states when being told of these …show more content…
Shakespeare shows the indiscriminate nature of love by having a common man and a supernatural queen of fairies fall under the effects of the love potion. Love even applies to nobles, such as with Duke Theseus, but with much less drama than other relationships within the play. When the effects of the love potion take hold on Queen Titania, she falls in love Nick Bottom, who has the head of an ass. Queen Titania states, “I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again./Mine ear is much enamoured of thy note,/So is mine eye enthrallèd to thy shape,/And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me/On the first view, to say, to swear, I love thee” a highly irrational statement, as an animal would be unable to sing well, nor would an animal have a shape that would appeal to one (Shakespeare III.i.139-143). Even though it is highly irrational, the Queen loves Bottom while under the effects of the magic flower. Also, the common man can fall prey to love, with Demetrius and Lysander as an example. Lysander rejects Hermia with the statement, “Thy love? Out, tawny Tartar, out!/Out, loathèd med'cine! O. hated potion, hence!” which demonstrates Lysander under the effects of the magical flower, and becomes fickle to the nature of love. Shakespeare uses a variety of characters to demonstrate that love affects all. Shakespeare shows with a supernatural fairy queen and two common men that anyone can fall prey to the effects of
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Effects Of Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream
    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Effects Of Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    To conclude, these circumstances add to the controversial marriages throughout the story, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. However, those forces negatively overcame mutual desire as in the case of the war-made couple Hippolyta, and Theseus, the couple who fell in love due to a potion Helena, and Demetrius, and a couple with true love but ridden with obstacles Hermia, and Lysander. Overall, Shakespeare has negatively impacted the book by allowing external forces to affect the marriage, and dictate the…

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Examine How Shakespeare Presents Love in Act 1 Scene 1 of ‘a Midsummer Night’s Dream’
    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Examine How Shakespeare Presents Love in Act 1 Scene 1 of ‘a Midsummer Night’s Dream’

    Examine how Shakespeare presents love in Act 1 Scene 1 of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’…

    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Theme Of Love In A Midsummer's Night Dream
    • 341 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Theme Of Love In A Midsummer's Night Dream

    “That’s the way of the world… for every man that is faithful to his true love, a million end up running after a different lover.” (pg. 91) Shakespeare uses the comedy of Midsummer’s Night Dream to show the many complexities of love. For example, Egeus wants his daughter Hermia to marry Demetrius, but she is in love with Lysander and him with her. Meanwhile Helena is in love with Demetrius, who obviously does not feel the same about her. Even the play that the rude mechanicals put on for Theseus is based around the humor and complexities of love.…

    • 341 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Examples Of Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream
    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Examples Of Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    In the play a Midsummer Night's Dream written by William Shakespeare, there are many lovers that are drawn to each other in various ways. One can fall in love at any age. The definition of love is a deep affection for someone or something. In the Shakespeare's play the three pairs of lovers encounter issues where Oberon instructs Puck to sprinkle "love juice" on an Athenian man's eyes. However, he did it to the wrong man, and the other lovers started turning on their loved ones and showing love and affection for another; in Titania's case it was an ass. While reclining with Titania, Bottom states the quote," reason and love keep little company nowadays". This quote is very significant to how love worked in the play and even in normal teenage life today. The quote is greatly signified by Garrett and Caroline,who both liked each other in high school but could not find reason of why.…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream Essay
    • 989 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream Essay

    As Helena says, "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind" (1.1.234) whereas in the play, most of the relationships of love is seen with the eyes rather than their minds. The characters don’t realize what reason they are falling in love with and only see what they want to see. William Shakespeare writes and demonstrates the effect of love through the character's eyes in his play A Midsummer Night's Dream. Shakespeare establishes the illusion of love through the relationships between Lysander & Hermia, Demetrius & Helena, and Bottom & Titania.…

    • 989 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Examples Of Helena In A Midsummer Night's Dream
    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Examples Of Helena In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    In William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night’s Dream there is a lot of love almost to much to go around. The characters in this book go through a lot of things dealing with love. People's emotions in the book get messed with by Oberon and Puck/Robin Goodfellow. Oberon is the king of the fairies and puck is his servant. The drama throughout the play creates many problems for the characters. One of the main characters that's feelings get messed with is helena. she shows us that love is crazy with she talks to hermia about it, she gives Demetrius permission to beat her because she's so inlove with him and when she talks to Demetrius in the woods why she was following…

    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Allusions In A Midsummer Night's Dream
    • 147 Words
    • 1 Page

    Allusions In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    The love of Hippolyta and Theseus is less playful than the four crossed lovers. But it is also less elastic, and lacks the endless sensory allusions that signal trouble. Titania and Oberon, who dwell in the sensory world, can embrace and bless the marriage state but cannot truly achieve it themselves. This triple wedding at the end of the play is not necessarily happy. Essentially, Shakespeare embraces the necessity of law without reveling in it. One cannot live their life in the sensory world without controlling their perception. This control is human reason, and judgement. The beauty of the world, and the capacity of our vision to perceive it, is even greater when we understand what we are seeing and why. A Midsummer Night's Dream is not…

    • 147 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Role Of Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream
    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Role Of Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    People of the twenty first century do not understand the real meaning of love. Men and women want love for the same reason today as they did in the sixteenth century. In William Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” he proves how people use love for the wrong reasons such as forced love, parental love, and romantic love.…

    • 668 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How does Shakespeare present love in the first three scenes in A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream?
    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages

    How does Shakespeare present love in the first three scenes in A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream?

    William Shakespeare presents love in many complex ways in the first three scenes of A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream. The first three scenes introduce us to eight lovers. A part of the comic plot comes from a father, Egeus, attempting to thwart his daughter’s and Lysander’s relationship. Egeus threatens his daughter with life in a Nunnery if she refuses to marry his chosen suitor Demetrius. He does not paint a picture of this being a happy life, referring to it as “barren”, “cold” and “fruitless”. Despite him knowing that Hermia would rather die, “so die, my lord, ere I will yield my virgin patent up” than marry Demetrius, her father believes that he is doing the loving thing as he thinks that Lysander “hath bewitched the bosom of my child.”…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Human Condition Of Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream
    • 225 Words
    • 1 Page

    Human Condition Of Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    The couple who shows the thematic idea and human condition of love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is Hermia and Lysander because they’re unbreakable. An example of this is when hermia father tells her she has to marry demetrius’, she says, “I would my father looked but with my eyes”(1.1.56) Hermia is wanting her father to see the two boys as she see them. She wants to marry Lysander but she doesn’t have the choice of marrying Lysander. Her father wants her to marry Demetrius’ if she didn’t she had the choices of getting killed or being a nun besides marrying Demetrius’. Another example is when hermia realize what her choices were, she says, “If thou lovest me then, steal forth thy father’s house tomorrow night” (1.1.163-164). They planned to…

    • 225 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Return of Kracken
    • 1039 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Return of Kracken

    David Bevington argues that the play represents the dark side of love. He writes that the fairies make light of love by mistaking the lovers and by applying a love potion to Titania's eyes, forcing her to fall love with an ass.[6] In the forest, both couples are beset by problems. Hermia and Lysander are both met by Puck, who provides some comic relief in the play by confounding the four lovers in the forest. However, the play also alludes to serious themes. At the end of the play, Hippolyta and Theseus, happily married, watch the play about the unfortunate lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe, and are able to enjoy and laugh at it.[7] Helena and Demetrius are both oblivious to the dark side of their love, totally unaware of what may have come of the events in the forest.…

    • 1039 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A Midsummer Night's Dream Research Paper
    • 556 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A Midsummer Night's Dream Research Paper

    "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare frequently explores the complex types of love. Love is timeless subject. It will forever be the theme of much popular entertainment and the source of conflict for many men and women. No one understands the theme of love greater than Shakespeare and therefore I will look at how conflict is developed through love in "Midsummer Night's Dream"…

    • 556 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Comparing Love And Hate In A Midsummer Night's Dream By William Shakespeare
    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Comparing Love And Hate In A Midsummer Night's Dream By William Shakespeare

    Love itself is easily obtained and retained, however, with the uprise of conflict, feelings of spite develop when the two parties are at odds. In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “The course of true love never did run smooth”(3.2, 134), Lysander states that because his and Hermia’s love is real, he knows that conflict will occur. However, as the play continues, the conflict deepens when the love potion effects Lysander’s judgement and causes his feelings for Hermia to switch. Lysander begins to act hateful and cruel to Hermia because he believes that she would potentially come between him and his new love, Helena. The conflict that the love potion generates, leads to a hatred between not only Lysander and Hermia, but also a grudge between Hermia and Helena. It is within this scene that love and hate co-exist only when conflict occurs and the love is interrupted. It is first seen in this scene that love and hate can only co-exist when conflict is and love is interrupted…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Fairies In A Midsummer Night's Dream
    • 837 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Fairies In A Midsummer Night's Dream

    The Man Who was Forced to Love Did you know that in Harry Potter, Lord Voldemort is unable to feel love because he was conceived while his father was under a love potion? This will be further explained in this essay about Demetrius in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In this popular tale, the story revolves around love stricken people roaming around in the woods, meddling fairies, and silly actors. Demetrius, one of the person's in the woods that fateful summer night, follows the woman that he thinks he loves into the woods, only to get spun about by fairies addling his sense of love, a potion, and a false conception of love.…

    • 837 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Response to a Midsummer Night's Dream
    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Response to a Midsummer Night's Dream

    An earlier play entitled, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, by William Shakespeare, is a comedy outlining the destinies of two bothered couples. Shakespeare tactically demonstrates the love of two Athens individuals, Lysander and Hermia. The conflict is, Hermia’s father is against the marriage of the two and insists upon marriage with a man named Demetrius. However, the already complicated situation becomes more complex when Hermia discovers that Helena, a deep-rooted friend, is in love with Demetrius. My initial interest of the play arose during the introduction of this conflict.…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More