A Midsummer Night's Dream Love Analysis
Love is a mysterious journey. Love can either be for the better, or the worse. Love should be the choice of you, yourself, and not forced upon you by others. As the famous quote “Love is not for the faint of heart.” states, love is not an easy thing. You must undergo heartache, failure and rejection in order to succeed with love. This is very prevalent in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the case of Lysander and Demetrius. To Demetrius, love is more about gaining power, as opposed to actually obtaining a life partner, and someone who truly cares about you, and will stay by your side the entire time that you reside on this Earth. He continuously attempts to pursue Hermia, who does not love him back, and completely neglects the fact the Helena is begging for his love; telling him she will do anything to make the feeling mutual as stated when she says, “Neglect me, lose me. Only give me leave,/Unworthy as I am, to follow you./What worser place can I beg in your love—” (32,1:210-213). Demetrius’ hatred for Lysander is so strong that he is even accused by Hermia of killing him in his sleep, “If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,” (3,2:47), when actually, Lysander just followed Helena when he awoke from his sleep after
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being anointed with the juice of the flower by Puck. Lysander on the other hand, is the more heartfelt of the two. Lysander’s and Demetrius’ perspectives on love are vastly contrastful. Lysander for one, believes in true love; love that comes from the heart. This is proven through the play by him going against Egeus’ word and fleeing Athens to his widow aunt’s house, just so Hermia and himself may stay together “There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee,/ And to that place, the sharp Athenian law/ Cannot pursue us.[...]” (1,1:163-165) and countless small deeds that show his compassion for her. Lysander is arguably the most influential character throughout the play solely because of his strong beliefs of love that cause much conflict.
Lysander goes through many ups and downs throughout the play, such as the confusion with the juice of the enchanted flower.
In contrast, Demetrius and Lysander both have very different views/ beliefs on love.
Demetrius is more of a cold soul, but that is transfigured in the final bits of the play, and Lysander is the hopeless romantic of the play. He spoils Hermia with little knacks and treats and even sings to her at her window sill in the night “Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung/ With faining voice verses of feigning love[...]” (1,1:31,32). Though it is quite obvious that the two men are tremendously different, there also are some similarities, more so near the end of the play as opposed to the beginning/middle. Both men find a partner in which they marry. In the final act, Lysander and Demetrius lock away their differences, and resolve the conflict between the
two. To conclude, again bringing it back to when Lysander says “the course of true love never did run smooth”, that one line cannot be more true in the case of this comedy. It is impossible to have one definition of love that represents everyone. We all have our own outlook on it. The one thing that can be said about it is that it will always be filled with dilemma and conflict, but it’s what people do to overcome those problems, that define them in love.
being anointed with the juice of the flower by Puck. Lysander on the other hand, is the more heartfelt of the two. Lysander’s and Demetrius’ perspectives on love are vastly contrastful. Lysander for one, believes in true love; love that comes from the heart. This is proven through the play by him going against Egeus’ word and fleeing Athens to his widow aunt’s house, just so Hermia and himself may stay together “There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee,/ And to that place, the sharp Athenian law/ Cannot pursue us.[...]” (1,1:163-165) and countless small deeds that show his compassion for her. Lysander is arguably the most influential character throughout the play solely because of his strong beliefs of love that cause much conflict.
Lysander goes through many ups and downs throughout the play, such as the confusion with the juice of the enchanted flower.
In contrast, Demetrius and Lysander both have very different views/ beliefs on love.
Demetrius is more of a cold soul, but that is transfigured in the final bits of the play, and Lysander is the hopeless romantic of the play. He spoils Hermia with little knacks and treats and even sings to her at her window sill in the night “Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung/ With faining voice verses of feigning love[...]” (1,1:31,32). Though it is quite obvious that the two men are tremendously different, there also are some similarities, more so near the end of the play as opposed to the beginning/middle. Both men find a partner in which they marry. In the final act, Lysander and Demetrius lock away their differences, and resolve the conflict between the
two. To conclude, again bringing it back to when Lysander says “the course of true love never did run smooth”, that one line cannot be more true in the case of this comedy. It is impossible to have one definition of love that represents everyone. We all have our own outlook on it. The one thing that can be said about it is that it will always be filled with dilemma and conflict, but it’s what people do to overcome those problems, that define them in love.