Intro
Hook
If love is magical, can love be created be magic? Is love created through a magical love potion as strong as genuine affection? How powerful is this illusion of magic, and will it withstand the reality of day? In A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, the lovers of Hermia, Helena, Demetrius and Lysander experience both real love and dream-like infatuation.
Thesis
Shakespeare illustrates the fine line between illusion and reality using love, which is a passion-driven combination of the two. The young lovers’ behavior, both in moments of potion induced dreams and wide awake reflection, highlight how close illusion and reality get when love is in the air, and how reason is all but thrown out when lovers reach a dream-like
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Concluding Statement
In conclusion, the force of attraction and love is something unique and hard to replicate. The fact that Helena’s blind love for Demetrius is something only fairy magic can replicate, as in the case of Titania and Bottom, is a testament to how strong their love is.
Paragraph 2 (reason and love keep little company together nowadays/the foolishness of love)
Topic Sentence
Unconditional love is a prevalent theme in A Midsummer Night 's Dream, and the blind nature of this love can be a great thing, especially since ignoring a romantic partner’s flaws can lead to a happier relationship. However, in A Midsummer Night 's Dream, Shakespeare takes his characters’ love to an irrational extent - so much so, that a prevalent theme of the play is the foolishness and folly of love.
Context
After being enchanted by Oberon’s love potion, Titania is awoken by Bottom, who she then falls madly in love with. She starts swearing her to love to him, to which Bottom responds:
Analysis
A poetic irony - Shakespeare gives one of the most thoughtful lines in the play, to the least thoughtful of characters. Bottom says it all; sometimes there is no reason to justify true love. Often, when one’s mind becomes obstructed by love, most reason, logic and rationale goes away in order to fulfill that love. Therefore love really keeps little company to reason, and can become very foolish and filled with
In the play A Midsummer’s Night Dream by William Shakespeare, many of the characters relentlessly pursue their goals in the face of illogical decisions, and, while fictional items such as the “love-in-idleness” flower are used to explain the character’s sudden love for each other, the play does illustrate how love and ambition can lead to unforeseen consequences. For example, when Puck accidently anointed Lysander’s eyes with the “love-in-idleness” juice, he started a chain of events leading to Lysander and Demetrius fighting over Helena while Hermia is treated as though she is worthless. Moreover, at one point, Lysander and Demetrius even threatened to duel each other when Lysander awoke after being anointed with the flower 's juice and said, "Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word is that vile name to perish on my sword" (61). This shows how the character’s love for certain other characters, and their ambition to pursue said love, can lead to the destruction of previous relationships and lead them to make dangerous decisions.
“You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” Dr. Seuss once said. This statement can be used to examine not only modern literature, but also literature of the past. More importantly, it can be applied to the Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, one of the most well known pieces of writing regarding love, to determine its purpose. Moreover, it can also show whether Shakespeare was successful in achieving this purpose.
"Love is like a pineapple, sweet and undefinable," -Piet Hein. In the common literature Romeo and Juliet, "My Shakespeare", and "Love's Vocabulary," they all share the same objective of attempting to define love. By using paradox, allusion and figuritive language, William Shakespeare, Kate Tempest and Diane Ackerman show how love is undefinable. In Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare uses paradox to define love.
Toba Beta once said: "“Justice could be as blind as love.” Shakespeare 's play A Midsummer Night 's Dream captures the blindness of both love and justice. Egeus, a respected nobleman in Athens, arranged for his daughter, Hermia, to marry nobleman Demetrius. Egeus tells his daughter that she must obey his wishes: If she does not, she can either choose to become a nun, or die.
In the real world, love is a very fragile force. Love can be easily broken and manipulated by multiple other outside forces. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the two most basic themes are the chaos and order that are the causes of all the actions that take place. Chaos versus order in A Midsummer Night’s Dream also is a representation of Yin and Yang. Yin, represents the bad or darkness in the world, this is the chaos in the play.
Love can cause illusions and false realities that enhance the idea of perfection that does not really exist. Juliet’s idea of Romeo being a man of wax is questioned when Juliet learns that Romeo killed her cousin, Tybalt. She is conflicted as to whether she should hate Romeo or not for killing someone in her family. She exclaims, “Oh, that deceit should dwell/ In such a gorgeous palace!”
Toba Beta once said: "“Justice could be as blind as love.” Shakespeare 's play A Midsummer Night 's Dream captures the blind bias of both love and justice. Egeus, a respected nobleman in Athens, arranged for his daughter, Hermia, to marry nobleman Demetrius. Egeus tells his daughter that she must obey his wishes: if she does not, she can either choose to become a nun, or die. Hermia, much to her father 's dismay, is deeply in a mutual love with a different nobleman, Lysander.
In A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Shakespeare let the readers to explore his imagination and bring them to fantasies. A Midsummer Night’s Dream implies a world of imagination, illusion and unconsciousness through the word ‘dreams’. In the last scene of the play, act V scene I, the audience experience there is different thought of Theseus and Hippolyta in interpreting the love stories of Hermia, Lysander, Helena, Demetrius and the imaginations of many other characters. The scene of Theseus talking to Hippolyta lead to a controversy about the value of imagination and reason. From the play, the audience indeed witnesses magical incidents in the fairies’ forest, where the fairy king and queen, Oberon and Titania, rule over the natural processes.
With many of the different scenes throughout the play, the theme of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is that love is difficult. In the play when Hermia 's father tries to tear Hermia and Lysander
Emotions are like an infection in the play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. An infection that spreads to the purest of characters and the most vile ones. Shakespeare writes beautiful and well-thought-out scenes about questioning people’s emotions and how irrational people can be the cause of chaos. Emotions run high throughout the play and envy, anger and devotion to love lead the characters to act irrationally and go against their better judgment. Jealousy is an amazing example to start off the chaos inflicted by this emotion.
The strong effects of love makes Helena a bit foolish and blind in the ways she reacts to it. In scene one of act one, the readers learn that Helena still loves Demetrius even though he loves her friend, Hermia, now. When Helena is first introduced, she demonstrates her jealousy and insecurities by asking Hermia for some of her beauty to win Demetrius back. Hermia and Lysander inform her that they are running away, and that
And all the readers in all these centuries have been interpreting a dramatic idea of love not based on reality but on impulsive feelings as “The ideal Love” . Romeo’s longing for ideal love is the primary driving force behind most of his actions, that reveal themselves as impulsive and stupid. In the tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, mutual love and devotion are the main characteristics of Shakespeare’s ideal love. He also portrays the idea of lovers making sacrifices in order to be together, even if it means forsaking things that are valuable to their existence, including their lives.
Romeo & Juliet William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet entails a story of a young impulsive love that ends in a disaster. This traces the secret romantic relationship between the two families in Verona, as they carry an ancient feud, deepening from generation to generation. Romeo—a Montague—falls deeply in love with Juliet—a Capulet—at a masquerade ball arranged by Juliet’s father. Later during the night, these two lovers expose their love to each other as they decide to marry each other next day. However, life does not follow plans.
Despite popular opinion, love at first sight does not exist. The idea of “love” is widely misinterpreted as a mere attraction between two individuals. However, many do not understand that love goes much further than this, and what follows is a common misconception between love and lust. Shakespeare in his 17th century play Twelfth Night delves deeper into this idea of love. He presents the character Duke Orsino who appear to be infatuated and love-sick for the Countess Olivia, a woman with which he knows little about.
Shakespeare’s novel “Macbeth” demonstrates the many ways in which love can factor into a play. Through the connections built between characters, and the relationship Macbeth holds with power, the ways in which love are perceived through “Macbeth” are evident. In Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth,” there is a strong relationship between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, the relationship between the two characters is known as the most obvious - yet this relationship challenges traditional perceptions of love. The attitude Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have towards each other constantly changes, thus making it hard to form a clear-cut opinion of their relationship.