William Shakespeare is known for his elaborately poetic stories of love, loss and everything magical, and the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is no exception. Through the use of the literary device known as metaphor, where hidden meanings between two objects or people can be used to expand the meaning and symbolism in writings such as plays. Based around the development of characters through their words rather than long descriptions, play writes include literary devices such as metaphors to enhance their writing. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, some of the characters go through a great deal of pain and hardship to find true love, and an underlying struggle for dominance proceeds to develop the characters into strong individuals. Through specific
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Hermia enters the play as a helpless lover, who is being forced to marry a man whom she has no love for, but is open about her love for another man who does not have the permission of her father. By refusing her father wishes, essentially disobeying her god, she is afraid to face the repercussions. The love that she exemplifies for Lysander, leads her to want to run away with him, living a life of destitution. The metaphor that Shakespeare uses to compare Egeus to god helps the reader to understand how truly in love Hermia is to Lysander. Upon hearing that her only options are either to marry Demetrius, live a life without love or in the worst case die, Hermia’s choice of running away shows that there is no other escape for her father’s decisions, as he has the right in this society to decide who she …show more content…
It shows the hierarchy of who has control over who. Theseus, the character who says the metaphor is at the top, followed by Egeus who has control over Lysander and Hermia. This power structure helps the reader to get an early understanding of the society in which the play is set, as well as a reason for the choices that the characters make throughout the rest of the play. Knowing that Egeus has power over Lysander and Hermia, it is for this reason that they decide to run into the forest. Following this, when they are found after their adventure in the forest, it is this same hierarchy that Theseus uses to decide that the lovers are allowed to get
Hermia enters the play as a helpless lover, who is being forced to marry a man whom she has no love for, but is open about her love for another man who does not have the permission of her father. By refusing her father wishes, essentially disobeying her god, she is afraid to face the repercussions. The love that she exemplifies for Lysander, leads her to want to run away with him, living a life of destitution. The metaphor that Shakespeare uses to compare Egeus to god helps the reader to understand how truly in love Hermia is to Lysander. Upon hearing that her only options are either to marry Demetrius, live a life without love or in the worst case die, Hermia’s choice of running away shows that there is no other escape for her father’s decisions, as he has the right in this society to decide who she …show more content…
It shows the hierarchy of who has control over who. Theseus, the character who says the metaphor is at the top, followed by Egeus who has control over Lysander and Hermia. This power structure helps the reader to get an early understanding of the society in which the play is set, as well as a reason for the choices that the characters make throughout the rest of the play. Knowing that Egeus has power over Lysander and Hermia, it is for this reason that they decide to run into the forest. Following this, when they are found after their adventure in the forest, it is this same hierarchy that Theseus uses to decide that the lovers are allowed to get