Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream By William Shakespeare

There are many roadblocks that can get in the way of two people being together. In William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the role of love is very prevalent and influences the outcome for the story. The characters fall erratically in and out of love while they chase each other around the woods, and the fairy queen falls in love with a literal ass. Hermia is threatened with placement in a convent, or worse, if she doesn’t marry the person her father Egeus wants her to. Shakespeare’s play demonstrates how obstacles complicated and simple can affect love and relationships.

One obstacle that plays a big role in relationships of the play is parental influence. Taking place at Theseus’ palace, Egeus has come to see him with a complaint. Egeus has promised Hermia in marriage to
When the love potion is first introduced, Theseus tells Puck to find a young athenian youth (Demetrius) and put the juice in his eyes. He tells him he will “know the man by the Athenian garments he hath on.” (72) Puck sees a man who meets that description, but it is Lysander. Helena is the first person he sees when he wakes up because she had been chasing Demetrius. Lysander then falls madly in love with Helena and runs after her through the forest. Oberon’s love potion mimics what happens in real life a lot, commonly with teenagers. People seem to “fall in love” in an instant, without warning, and falling out of love can happen just as fast. Shakespeare seems to be making fun of this, because he uses something magical and unreal to cause the same affect that people seem to feel. Demetrius has no feeling left for Hermia and he wants her to “not haunt [him] like this.” (80) The love potion eventually ends up affecting other characters like Titania and Demetrius. Although love potions and magic don’t exist in the real world, Shakespeare uses it as a big symbol for things that do happen