Comparing Love And Hate In A Midsummer Night's Dream By William Shakespeare

Primetime television has a long history of ending blossoming careers. Many major cable network shows are lucky to be renewed for a second season and enduring until syndication is a feat few achieve. While cable shows strive for multiple seasons of success, Shakespeare has endured the test of time and for centuries his works have been favorites of many. While his writing is both beautiful and complex, it is his relatable themes that keeps him at the forefront of english literature. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare masterfully explores the themes of Love and Hate and presents a unique perspective of the two. Like a 90’s sitcom entering it’s third round of syndication, love and hate have coexisted and persisted in literature for millenniums and will undoubtedly continue. While usually seen as contraries both love and hate have more similarities then many would expect.
Love itself is easily obtained and retained, however, with the uprise of conflict, feelings of spite develop when the two parties are at odds. In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “The course of true love never did run smooth”(3.2, 134), Lysander states that because his and Hermia’s love is real, he knows that conflict will occur. However, as the play continues, the conflict deepens when the love potion effects Lysander’s judgement and causes his feelings for Hermia to switch. Lysander begins to act hateful and cruel to Hermia because he believes that she would potentially come between him and his new love, Helena. The conflict that the love potion generates, leads to a hatred between not only Lysander and Hermia, but also a grudge between Hermia and Helena. It is within this scene that love and hate co-exist only when conflict occurs and the love is interrupted. It is first seen in this scene that love and hate can only co-exist when conflict is and love is interrupted