Similarities Between Romeo And Juliet And A Midsummer Night's Dream

Solving the Puzzle That Is Love
Love is one of the most perplexing manifestations in human existence and artists have long debated over what it is and what it means to them. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, love is seen through a tragic lens, ending in suicide. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, love is a folly and used to evoke laughter. However, some of the notions of love presented in either play tend to coincide, as in Friar Lawrence’s speech in Act 2, Scene 6 and Lysander’s lines in Act 1, Scene 1. Each speech features rhetoric used to create imagery about love usually representing light in the darkness. The Friar’s words are used to caution Romeo on the violence of his passion, and hint at his dark conclusion. Lysander’s words on the other
hand, are employed in convincing Hermia of their relationship, in hopes of defying the law and running away together. Although their motives differ according to their plays’ themes, both speeches emphasize how short-lived love can be, and how many obstacles true love can face.
In addressing love, both speeches capitalize on the transiency of love. In Romeo and Juliet, we see the trope of love at first sight in the titular characters’ first meeting. Romeo is overcome with passion for Juliet as soon as he lays eyes on her; likewise, Juliet’s feelings are quickly apprehended. The Friar is cautious of how quickly things are moving, advising them that love that “too swift arrives as tardy as too slow” (RaJ 2.6.15). He recognizes that hasty love can end in disaster, just as love that is too slow. This mirrors timing issues the couple faces in the final act, which eventually leads to their demise. Furthermore, Romeo was hung up on Rosaline not five minutes before meeting Juliet. The Friar addresses this notion of love acting swiftly in his speech, saying “The sweetest honey / Is loathsome in his own deliciousness / And in the taste confounds the appetite” (RaJ 2.6.11-13). He compares Romeo’s young love to a sickly sweet honey, arguing that something too sweet actually becomes disgusting to the palate and can ruin one’s appetite. He uses this analogy as a warning to Romeo by saying that love that burns too strong, too fast can be unbearable. The analogies continue in Lysander’s speech, when he proclaims love is “Swift as a shadow, short as any dream / Brief as the lightning in the collied night” (MND 1.1.144-45). One can see a more literal representation of how fleeting love is throughout the remainder of the play as the fairies use the love potion to change instantaneously the young lovers’ emotions. Both plays use love’s fickle nature, but in contrasting ways. In Romeo and Juliet, their hormonal passions are overlooked in favor of the family feud that plagues the city; in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, transient love is used as a source of confusion and humor.
Another interesting exercise can come from taking the speeches and applying them to the other play.
For instance, in Lysander’s speech when he says, “Brief as the lightning in the collied night, / That, in spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth” (MND 1.1.145-46). In this simile, love is the lightning that brightens the night, shining a light over everything. The wording used in this sentence conveys an idea that love offers some type of insight by enlightening heaven and earth, or realms beyond our everyday reach. If one accepts the argument that love offers understanding, and then applies it to the situation in Romeo and Juliet, it offers an interesting conclusion. The reader can now say that because Romeo and Juliet are in love, they also receive insight and clarity into the world around them. This could explain the overall message that feuding is a waste of time, since the lovers had to fall in love to end the feud. Moreover, by falling in love, they themselves overcame the dispute to reach enlightenment. This is paradoxical to the Friar’s views that intense love is foolish and should be avoided. However, one can mimic this exchange and note that the Friar’s views on love can be applied to the relationships shown in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in the sense that they are imprudent and rash. In this way, the two speeches lend themselves to the corresponding play, while complicating the picture they paint about love and those who fall in
love. This portrayal of love is common in young couples, as society tends to associate teens as falling in and out of love very easily. Because of this assumption, both plays feature familial disapproval. Juliet’s father does not allow her to make her own decision regarding her love life, instead arranging a marriage to Paris in spite of Juliet’s protestations. Egeus too has his own ideas on whom his daughter should marry, favoring Demetrius over Lysander even though both men seem to be of equal standing. Both father figures represent a common force that drives love apart, which is a primary focus of each speech. Lysander laments “Or, if there were sympathy in choice, / War, death, or sickliness did lay siege to it” (MND 1.1.141-42) to true love, thereby proving to Hermia that since they face this obstacle their love is real. He uses his speech to provoke these feelings of injustice in her and incite her to elope, despite risking death if she is caught. His words take a darker turn as he explains how if love does manage to thrive the “jaws of darkness do devour it up” (MND 1.1.148). These words conjure the image of darkness as a monster that consumes love, and in devouring it creates a violent image. This creates a direct parallel to one of the Friar’s most famous lines that “These violent delights have violent ends / And in their triumph die” (RaJ 2.6.9-10). Friar Lawrence’s language serves as strong foreshadowing of the fate that awaits Romeo and Juliet, predicting their subsequent deaths. He wants to warn Romeo of the possible consequences that such consuming passions can have. He counsels Romeo by pleading him to “love moderately: long love doth so” (RaJ 2.6.14) as if he knows their love can end as quickly as it began. As he proclaims “like fire and powder / Which, as they kiss, consume,” (RaJ 2.6.10-11) his speech is a perfect mingling of the deadly and romantic, offering up the image of a loving gesture that brings about destruction.
Though both plays offer similar views on love, they differ in the message they offer the audience on the subject.
In true tragic fashion, Romeo and Juliet’s bright love is crushed under the weight of the rivalry between their respective families. The children of the Capulets and Montagues are used as an example of overcoming petty differences, and their story reminds the audience that life, like love, is fleeting. Romeo and Juliet use love as a means to an end since their love is what ultimately ends the feud, and the Friar’s speech offers a voice of reason that, although Romeo and Juliet cannot follow, their readers can. Conversely, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, love’s transiency is proof of its silliness. All three couples end the play happily at their wedding ceremony, showing that love can be trivial but harmless. The love shown in this play is much lighter; it argues that all humans are foolish and irrational in love, as Lysander says, “So quick bright things come to confusion” (MND 1.1.149). His word choice is noteworthy as it foreshadows the mix up of the love potion, and consequent confusion among the four lovers as they grapple with what is real and what is fantasy. The overlapping theme extended to both works is that despite whether love is trivial or serious, each person has a right to choose their significant other for themselves and be
happy.