Love in Midsummer Night's Dream 
Gabriel Elisavetsky
10/15/2013
Per. 3
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Essay
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, the adventurous story of love is clearly apparent throughout the play. The quest for love has the power to make us foolish and irrational. In the play, magic love juice from flowers causes characters to fall irregularly in and out of love as they chase each other around the woods, where a Fairy Queen literally falls in love with an ass.
The forest plays a very big role in the play; it creates a crazy, dark, wild, and mysterious atmosphere in which the magical elements of Shakespeare’s plot can be played out. For example, while in the forest, Oberon asks Puck to “Fetch me that flower; the herb I showed thee once. The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid will make or man or woman madly dote upon the next live creature that it sees” (p. 42). When the magic love juice is sprinkled into someone’s eyes, it causes the person to fall instantly in love with the first creature he or she sees. This seems to be very symbolic of “love at first sight.” In addition, Demetrius tells Helena that “Thou told’st me they were stol’n unto this wood. And here am I, and wood within this wood, because I cannot meet my Hermia” (p. 45). The woods are contributing to his spurning attitude and it is negatively impacting the relationship between the two. Furthermore, during the same part, Helena yells, “We cannot fight for love as men may do, we shall be wooed and were not made to woo” (p. 48) at Demetrius this as he leaves the scene. Women cannot woo guys and men should be working to show the woman that they love them because it's rather easy for women to express how they feel towards the ones we love whether it's a romantic love or not. It is perhaps one of the most powerful lines of the whole piece. Being in a location far from civilization does make people act a little bit differently since the rules are not constrained.
While in the palace, Lysander reveals that
10/15/2013
Per. 3
A Midsummer Night’s Dream Essay
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, the adventurous story of love is clearly apparent throughout the play. The quest for love has the power to make us foolish and irrational. In the play, magic love juice from flowers causes characters to fall irregularly in and out of love as they chase each other around the woods, where a Fairy Queen literally falls in love with an ass.
The forest plays a very big role in the play; it creates a crazy, dark, wild, and mysterious atmosphere in which the magical elements of Shakespeare’s plot can be played out. For example, while in the forest, Oberon asks Puck to “Fetch me that flower; the herb I showed thee once. The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid will make or man or woman madly dote upon the next live creature that it sees” (p. 42). When the magic love juice is sprinkled into someone’s eyes, it causes the person to fall instantly in love with the first creature he or she sees. This seems to be very symbolic of “love at first sight.” In addition, Demetrius tells Helena that “Thou told’st me they were stol’n unto this wood. And here am I, and wood within this wood, because I cannot meet my Hermia” (p. 45). The woods are contributing to his spurning attitude and it is negatively impacting the relationship between the two. Furthermore, during the same part, Helena yells, “We cannot fight for love as men may do, we shall be wooed and were not made to woo” (p. 48) at Demetrius this as he leaves the scene. Women cannot woo guys and men should be working to show the woman that they love them because it's rather easy for women to express how they feel towards the ones we love whether it's a romantic love or not. It is perhaps one of the most powerful lines of the whole piece. Being in a location far from civilization does make people act a little bit differently since the rules are not constrained.
While in the palace, Lysander reveals that