The Role Of Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream

People of the twenty first century do not understand the real meaning of love. Men and women want love for the same reason today as they did in the sixteenth century. In William Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” he proves how people use love for the wrong reasons such as forced love, parental love, and romantic love. Enchantment plays a major role in the play. However some characters are given the opportunity to reject love while others are not. Forced love is portrayed in the play between Theseus and Hippolyta, the queens of the Amazons. Since Theseus has won the battle and we see him and Hippolyta marry each other, but not because they love each other but they are forced to. “I wooed thee my sword, and won thy love doing thee injuries” (1.1.16-17)In this line Theseus says how he made her fall in love with him by injuring her. Throughout the play their love for one another grows. In Act 5 Scene 1 Hippolyta says “My Theseus, that these lovers speak of” (5.1.1) She is saying how she is willing to marry him. How their love at the beginning of the play was forced then slowly turned into true love, during the play forced love was also used by parents.
A parent would go to any length for their children to show their love to them. Shakespeare shows parental love in the play between Egeus and Hermia. Egeus is a very strict and commanding father. He believes that whatever he says is right because he has authority over his daughter. The reason behind Egeus being so strict and mad is because Hermia is in love with Lysander. “Against my child, my daughter Hermia.-Stand forth, Demetrius.-My noble lord, This man hath my consent to marry her.-Stand forth Lysander.- And my gracious Duke, This man hath bewitched the bosom of my child. Thou, thou Lysander, thou has given her rhymes and interchanged love tokens with my child” (1.1.23-29) But Egeus