A Midsummer Night's Dream: The Irrational Nature of Love
A Midsummer Night's Dream The Irrational Nature of Love
“Love is blind and lovers cannot see the pretty follies that themselves commit,this quote from the Merchant of Venice describes the four lovers' dilemmas in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Nevertheless, in A Midsummer Night's Dream this statement not only applies to the 搕rue lovebetween original couples Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena, but also the 揻alse lovebetween Titania and Bottom and Lysander and Helena. As the story progresses in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream, it becomes increasingly obvious that not only is love irrational, it is a catalyst for disorder, and in the end, love may turn out to be only a fanciful illusion. There is a fine line between love and mania. Though many of the characters' actions indicate that they lean toward mania, the play ultimately ends with a happy ending for the characters, as well as a presumably happy marriage. Nevertheless, if what those characters felt was love, then love is an unhealthy obsession. Helena's obsession with Demetrius might be the most obvious example. In Act II scene i lines 203-10 Helena reveals her feelings towards Demetrius with this soliloquy:
I am your spaniel; and Demetrius
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me strike me,
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
What worser place can I beg in your love, —
And yet a place of high respect with me, —
Than to be used as you use your dog?(2.1.203-10)
Rather than a confession of love, this speech seems more like the pleading from a frequent victim of domestic abuse who is begging her partner to come back to her. Demoting oneself to a dog, welcoming abuse and neglect and enjoying every moment of this treatment is definitely not what is considered to be the norm, even when it's love.
After Helena's madness there is Titania, the Fairy Queen, who falls in love with a commoner named Nick Bottom who has
“Love is blind and lovers cannot see the pretty follies that themselves commit,this quote from the Merchant of Venice describes the four lovers' dilemmas in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Nevertheless, in A Midsummer Night's Dream this statement not only applies to the 搕rue lovebetween original couples Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena, but also the 揻alse lovebetween Titania and Bottom and Lysander and Helena. As the story progresses in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream, it becomes increasingly obvious that not only is love irrational, it is a catalyst for disorder, and in the end, love may turn out to be only a fanciful illusion. There is a fine line between love and mania. Though many of the characters' actions indicate that they lean toward mania, the play ultimately ends with a happy ending for the characters, as well as a presumably happy marriage. Nevertheless, if what those characters felt was love, then love is an unhealthy obsession. Helena's obsession with Demetrius might be the most obvious example. In Act II scene i lines 203-10 Helena reveals her feelings towards Demetrius with this soliloquy:
I am your spaniel; and Demetrius
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me strike me,
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
What worser place can I beg in your love, —
And yet a place of high respect with me, —
Than to be used as you use your dog?(2.1.203-10)
Rather than a confession of love, this speech seems more like the pleading from a frequent victim of domestic abuse who is begging her partner to come back to her. Demoting oneself to a dog, welcoming abuse and neglect and enjoying every moment of this treatment is definitely not what is considered to be the norm, even when it's love.
After Helena's madness there is Titania, the Fairy Queen, who falls in love with a commoner named Nick Bottom who has