Effects Of Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream

Love, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is “a feeling of strong or constant affection for a person, which is mutual.” In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, there are three couples who are in love, but all under very different circumstances. At the beginning of the play, Egeus forbids his daughter Hermia to marry Lysander, her true love, in favor Demetrius. Puck, a hobgoblin and mischief-maker, puts a spell on Lysander and Demetrius to make them fall in love with Helena. Throughout, the story we see three couples who wed because of external force, not mutual affection which negatively affects the story; one for the sake of peace as is the case of Hippolyta and Theseus, the second between Demetrius and Helena due to a love potion and finally, and a third couple who lives up to the definition of love, Hermia and Lysander.
War, what are the effects of it towards the conquered, and victorious? Duke Theseus, ruler of Athens, had defeated Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazon in war; “I wooed thee with my sword,” (1.1.16). In the treaty,
Ay me, for pity! What a dream was here!
Lysander, look how I do quake with fear
Methought a serpent ate my heart away, ”(2.ii.153-158). Her nightmare was after Lysander and Demetrius went from fighting over her to discarding her. It was complete turn of events which put Hermia into shock. Eventually the spell was lifted from Lysander and the couple would go on to wed happily.
To conclude, these circumstances add to the controversial marriages throughout the story, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. However, those forces negatively overcame mutual desire as in the case of the war-made couple Hippolyta, and Theseus, the couple who fell in love due to a potion Helena, and Demetrius, and a couple with true love but ridden with obstacles Hermia, and Lysander. Overall, Shakespeare has negatively impacted the book by allowing external forces to affect the marriage, and dictate the