Similarities Between Romeo And Juliet And A Midsummer Night's Dream

Solving the Puzzle That Is Love
Love is one of the most perplexing manifestations in human existence and artists have long debated over what it is and what it means to them. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, love is seen through a tragic lens, ending in suicide. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, love is a folly and used to evoke laughter. However, some of the notions of love presented in either play tend to coincide, as in Friar Lawrence’s speech in Act 2, Scene 6 and Lysander’s lines in Act 1, Scene 1. Each speech features rhetoric used to create imagery about love usually representing light in the darkness. The Friar’s words are used to caution Romeo on the violence of his passion, and hint at his dark conclusion. Lysander’s words on the other
For instance, in Lysander’s speech when he says, “Brief as the lightning in the collied night, / That, in spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth” (MND 1.1.145-46). In this simile, love is the lightning that brightens the night, shining a light over everything. The wording used in this sentence conveys an idea that love offers some type of insight by enlightening heaven and earth, or realms beyond our everyday reach. If one accepts the argument that love offers understanding, and then applies it to the situation in Romeo and Juliet, it offers an interesting conclusion. The reader can now say that because Romeo and Juliet are in love, they also receive insight and clarity into the world around them. This could explain the overall message that feuding is a waste of time, since the lovers had to fall in love to end the feud. Moreover, by falling in love, they themselves overcame the dispute to reach enlightenment. This is paradoxical to the Friar’s views that intense love is foolish and should be avoided. However, one can mimic this exchange and note that the Friar’s views on love can be applied to the relationships shown in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in the sense that they are imprudent and rash. In this way, the two speeches lend themselves to the corresponding play, while complicating the picture they paint about love and those who fall in
In true tragic fashion, Romeo and Juliet’s bright love is crushed under the weight of the rivalry between their respective families. The children of the Capulets and Montagues are used as an example of overcoming petty differences, and their story reminds the audience that life, like love, is fleeting. Romeo and Juliet use love as a means to an end since their love is what ultimately ends the feud, and the Friar’s speech offers a voice of reason that, although Romeo and Juliet cannot follow, their readers can. Conversely, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, love’s transiency is proof of its silliness. All three couples end the play happily at their wedding ceremony, showing that love can be trivial but harmless. The love shown in this play is much lighter; it argues that all humans are foolish and irrational in love, as Lysander says, “So quick bright things come to confusion” (MND 1.1.149). His word choice is noteworthy as it foreshadows the mix up of the love potion, and consequent confusion among the four lovers as they grapple with what is real and what is fantasy. The overlapping theme extended to both works is that despite whether love is trivial or serious, each person has a right to choose their significant other for themselves and be