Examples Of Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream

When someone is in love, odds are, they will do almost anything just to get with their loved one. People go crazy for their crushes or infatuations. The four lovers in the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, are prime examples of what being in love can do to you. In this play, written by William Shakespear, the two characters, Lysander and Hermia, are in love with each other, but Hermia’s father, Egeus, wants her to marry Demitrius. Hermia refuses to marry him and decides to try and run away from Athens with her beloved Lysander. While this is happening, Helena is chasing after Demetrius while he is looking for Hermia. Meanwhile two fairies, Oberon and Puck, see this and attempt to put a love juice from a flower on the eyelids of Demetrius to

For instance, after Helena tells Demetrius that Lysander and Hermia are meeting in the woods and are going to run away from Athens, Helena follows around Demetrius and begs for his attention. She even tells Demetrius that she doesn’t care if he beats her or treats her like a dog, she just wants to be in his company. “I am your spaniel, and Demetrius,/The more you beat me I will fawn on you./Use me but as your spaniel:Spurn me, strike me,/Neglect me, lose; only give me leave/(Unworthy as I am) to follow you” (2.1.210-214). When Helena uses the phrase, “I will fawn on you,” she is saying how the more Demetrius beats her or treats her without respect, the more she will love and adore him. This is very crazy for her to say how he could just treat her like a dog and beat her, but yet she would just love him even more. Normally people would love someone more if they treated them great, but Helena is so in love and crazy for Demetrius that she does not care how he treats her. She thinks that she is just so lucky to even be able to be around him. Another case, where love can make someone act crazy or do crazy things, is when Lysander falls in love with Helena. After Puck puts the love juice from the flower on Lysander’s eyelids, Lysander wakes up to see Helena. When he sees Helena, all his feelings towards Hermia vanish. Even though he was just explaining to Hermia that only death would stop him from

This causes Demetrius to fall in love with Helena once he awakens. This means that now Demetrius and Lysander are both in love with Helena now instead of Hermia. This causes the two to challenge each other to fight over the love for Helena to see who is worthy enough to bear her love. Lysande takes initiative and tells Demetrius to follow him to fight, “Now follow, if thou dar’st, to try whose right,/Of thine or mine, is most in Helena” (3.2.356-357). Lysander is telling Demetrius that if he dares to follow Lysander to battle, they will see who truly gets the right to be with Helena. Since Demetrius and Lysander both used to be in love with Hermia and they are now in love with Helena, this causes a tension between Helena and Hermia. Hermia becomes very angry and Helena just tries to reason with her. “Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me./I evermore did love you, Hermia,” (3.2.322-323). Helena is saying this because she and Hermia used to be best friends. Although, now that Lysander loves Helena, this comes between the friendship. Now the two former friends fight and argue over love. This shows that love can even over power lifelong friendships and to many, love is over