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. Lysander's love for Hermia is mostly shown from his eyes and what he sees. He doesn't think much for Hermia's feelings and he's caught overlooking situations throughout the play. At the beginning
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When Helena is first introduced into the play, she talks to herself (the audience) about love and the qualities about Demetrius that she loves, “So I, admiring of his qualities. Things base and vile, holding no quantity, love can transpose to form and dignity. Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” (1.1.32-35) Helena is saying that she admires Demetrius’s good qualities and she fails to notice his flaws. In other words, Helena is miserably in love that she sees Demetrius the way she wants to see him, she’s blinded by his faults such as his aggressive, negative attitude towards Helena. However, Helena isn’t the only blinded lover in the play; Demetrius has shown various blind loves towards Helena. Demetrius is charmed by Puck with the love-in-idleness flower in act 3, scene 2, hence causing him to wake up to Helena and magically fall deeply in love with her. The first few words that come out of Demetrius’s mouth after awaking were “O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!” (3.2.137) which is odd to Helena because only a few hours ago he was yelling at her words that were nowhere near as doted. Simply stated, Demetrius’s comment to Helena is vague but a considerable example of the illusion of love. For the most part, Demetrius and Helena are both dazed and uncertain of their true feelings for each
When Helena is first introduced into the play, she talks to herself (the audience) about love and the qualities about Demetrius that she loves, “So I, admiring of his qualities. Things base and vile, holding no quantity, love can transpose to form and dignity. Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” (1.1.32-35) Helena is saying that she admires Demetrius’s good qualities and she fails to notice his flaws. In other words, Helena is miserably in love that she sees Demetrius the way she wants to see him, she’s blinded by his faults such as his aggressive, negative attitude towards Helena. However, Helena isn’t the only blinded lover in the play; Demetrius has shown various blind loves towards Helena. Demetrius is charmed by Puck with the love-in-idleness flower in act 3, scene 2, hence causing him to wake up to Helena and magically fall deeply in love with her. The first few words that come out of Demetrius’s mouth after awaking were “O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!” (3.2.137) which is odd to Helena because only a few hours ago he was yelling at her words that were nowhere near as doted. Simply stated, Demetrius’s comment to Helena is vague but a considerable example of the illusion of love. For the most part, Demetrius and Helena are both dazed and uncertain of their true feelings for each