In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream, the main theme of the book focuses on love and whether or not true love exists. In the book there are four main characters who fall in and out love with each other. Love is fickle as shown through these characters, proving that true love does not exist.
Feelings can change very quickly, as shown when the magic is put into the eyes of the two Athenian boys, Lysander and Demetrius, whose fawning of Hermia changes to Helena. Both boys had loved Hermia and when their love switched to Helena she believed they were teasing her, that this could not be true. Hermia could not believe that Lysander, the boy she loved, did not love her back. She directly asks him why he is being mean to her “Why have you grown …show more content…
He responds that he doesn’t love her and that he finds her disgusting, “Thy love? Out, tawny Tartar, out! Out loathed med’cine! O, hated potion, hence!” (Shakespeare 3.2.274-275) However, earlier in the play he spoke loving words to her referring to her as “love” and “my Hermia”, “Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena,” (Shakespeare 1.1.182) His feelings for her changed overnight due to the potion, revealing that no matter how much he may have loved her before, she could lose his love just as easily. Shakespeare is trying to convey love as silly or joke worthy in this comedy, as he has Lysander foreshadow the bumpy course the four lovers will go through, “The course of true love never did run smooth,” (Shakespeare 1.1.136) Shakespeare also includes another pair of lovers, the fairy king Oberon and the fairy queen Titania. Oberon becomes jealous of Titania for having an Indian child who she …show more content…
In Act 1 Scene 1, Hermia discusses how love can change our view on the world, and in this play she goes from seeing heaven to hell, back to heaven as Lysander falls in and out of love with her. Every character seems to be unable to choose how they feel with or without the influence of the magic potion. Feelings of true love as so easily manipulated just as people can be fickle, that true love cannot be an entirely real thing but rather more of a comedic
Feelings can change very quickly, as shown when the magic is put into the eyes of the two Athenian boys, Lysander and Demetrius, whose fawning of Hermia changes to Helena. Both boys had loved Hermia and when their love switched to Helena she believed they were teasing her, that this could not be true. Hermia could not believe that Lysander, the boy she loved, did not love her back. She directly asks him why he is being mean to her “Why have you grown …show more content…
He responds that he doesn’t love her and that he finds her disgusting, “Thy love? Out, tawny Tartar, out! Out loathed med’cine! O, hated potion, hence!” (Shakespeare 3.2.274-275) However, earlier in the play he spoke loving words to her referring to her as “love” and “my Hermia”, “Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena,” (Shakespeare 1.1.182) His feelings for her changed overnight due to the potion, revealing that no matter how much he may have loved her before, she could lose his love just as easily. Shakespeare is trying to convey love as silly or joke worthy in this comedy, as he has Lysander foreshadow the bumpy course the four lovers will go through, “The course of true love never did run smooth,” (Shakespeare 1.1.136) Shakespeare also includes another pair of lovers, the fairy king Oberon and the fairy queen Titania. Oberon becomes jealous of Titania for having an Indian child who she …show more content…
In Act 1 Scene 1, Hermia discusses how love can change our view on the world, and in this play she goes from seeing heaven to hell, back to heaven as Lysander falls in and out of love with her. Every character seems to be unable to choose how they feel with or without the influence of the magic potion. Feelings of true love as so easily manipulated just as people can be fickle, that true love cannot be an entirely real thing but rather more of a comedic