“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Essay “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies, is generally thought of as a comical romance. A very important factor that makes the whole play a comedy, is magic, which is used to affect the lives of four Athenians: Hermia, Lysander, Helena and Demetrius.
Bottom, also a simple human, falls victim of the fairies’ mischievous magic. The magic reaches these characters by Puck, a naughty fairy, and Oberon, the king of fairies. Puck decides to cast a spell on Bottom, making him grow a donkey head, and Oberon decides to cast a spell on Titania, making her fall in love with Bottom.From a simple mistaken spell, a rollercoaster of emotions, conflicts and laughter emerge.
Magic is a vital element in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” because it gives the four Athenians a new life after the two men get cast a spell on, and Titania, falling in love with an ass head. Magic also causes the lovers to find that love is no smooth enterprise as stated by Lysander; "The course of true love never did run smooth. " (1-1 ll. 134).
Their pursuit of love may not run smooth but most, although not all, of the lovers end up happy.Hermia and Lysander find that they cannot be together so they elope to the woods where they then become victims of Puck and Helena cannot seem to make Demetrius love her until Puck's interference, and then she does not believe it. The four Athenians are divided into two main groups: Helena and Demetrius and Lysander and Hermia. Helena is always running after some one to love because she wants to be loved and appreciated, risking to be taken advantage of, because she would do anything to be loved especially by Demetrius.Demetrius is one of the men that gets cast this magical love spell on, and that makes him behave in a strange way after the potion starts having an effect on him. When Demetrius opens his eyes, the first person he sees is Helena, which meant that he now loved Helena with all his heart.
Demetrius shows no love for Helena before the spell is cast. Demetrius says, "I'll run from thee, and hide me in the brakes, And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts. " (2-1 ll. 227-228). "Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair? Or rather do I not in plainest truth Tell you I do not, nor I cannot love you? (2-1 ll. 199-201) Demetrius clearly illustrates to Helena that he has no interest, but Helena persists.
Helena says, "And even for that do I love you the more. I am your spaniel and, Demetrius, the more you beat me, I will fawn on you. " (2-1 ll. 202-204). "Your virtue is my privilege.
For that It is not night when I do see your face, Therefore I think I am not in the night;" (2-1 ll. 220-222). This proves that Helena is a fool because Demetrius doesn’t love her, but she still continues in her pursue of love with him.After he potion gets put on his eyes, it starts having an immense effect on his behavior and perspective towards Helena, so much that he actually starts telling her how much he loves her, how beautiful she is and that he needs her. Helena responds to this behavior badly by crying and scolding him because she has always been made fun of by Demetrius, and now she thinks that he is teasing her even more by telling her that he truly loves her and needs her.
Helena thinks that Demetrius does all this so that she gets very angry at him and stops loving him.At this point in the play the sweet, pathetic Helena has no residue of love left in her heart to love Demetrius. Writing about forced love, there is also another target that gets given a funny donkey head, Bottom, who then is forced to love Titania, even though he really doesn’t like her at all. Bottom, then starts liking Titania after she tells her servants to bring him, or do whatever he says, and Bottom wouldn’t mind having everyone at his feet and possibly become the new king of the fairies, if their “relationship” continued.The theme of magic is also portrayed through another couple: Lysander and Hermia. These two lovebirds have always been in love with each other, so much that they decided to elope one day and get married in the woods without anyone knowing.
Lysander had a strong love for Hermia, but a love potion was accidentally placed on his eyes causing him to fall in love with Helena and started having a strong dislike towards Hermia. Hermia and Lysander’s relationship represents true love.The course of their love doesn’t run smooth, as stated by Lysander “The course of true love never did run smooth. ” (1-1 ll. 134).
One of the reasons for this situation was Hermia’s father, Egeus. By law Egeus has power over her and what he wants for is daughter is what must happen. Hermia and Lysander's determination brings the two through, again supporting true love as strong. Egeus and the Athenian Law are both obstacles that result in their relationship not running smoothly.True love is mutual, and their decision to elope is also a mutual decision, this seems rash and could imply their love to be passionate. However, their decision to reveal their plan to Helena was foolish and illogical; this shows Hermia and Lysander's love to be young, fun and secretive, though they are excited and both cannot wait to share their secret with their closest friend.
Yet this action just proves to result in yet another obstacle, also their youth, perhaps their immaturity and their lack of thinking things through.Despite the obstructions that face the couple, their love succeeds in the end to show true love is strong and cannot be ignored and prevails with determination. After having been under the effect of Puck’s spell, Lysander finds Helena and also starts professing his love to her, and telling her how much she needs her. Helena, seeing that there are two men in front of her that keep on swearing their love to her, bursts into tears and feels that she is becoming a mockery to everyone only because she doesn’t have anyone to love and appreciate her.
Helena becomes very angry and says “Can you not hate me, as I know you do, but you must join in souls to mock me too? If you were men, as men you are in show, you would not use a gentle lady so; to vow, and swear, and super praise my parts, when I am sure you hate me with your hearts. You both are rivals and love Hermia, and now both rivals to mock Helena. ” (3-2 ll. 149-156).
Helena expresses her feelings with the two men and scolds them by telling them that it is not right to tease a person in such manner, when they already know that they are not wanted or loved by anyone.Hermia awakes thinking that Lysander would be right next to her, but he wasn’t, he was professing his love to Helena, in company of Demetrius. Hermia then finds him and hears all the nice, sweet and sensitive things that he is telling Helena and is surprised because she thought that she was the only person in the whole world that he loved. An outburst of fighting between Lysander and Demetrius and Hermia and Helena begin.After all the discussions, problems and bad tempers that Puck and Oberon saw they caused, they both decided to annul the magic spell without the humans knowing that all of this was going on, and that everything happened by a simple mistake. Hermia and Lysander get married and neither of the two remember what had happened, it was as if the whole spell never got cast on them.
Helena and Demetrius go back to their normal lives, both also not remembering what had occurred. A falling victim of her own talent is Titania, the queen of the fairies.Oberon, her husband and king of the fairies, decides to put the magic love potion on her eyes so that she too could fall in love with the first person she saw when she awakened. The reason why Oberon decides to pull this trick on Titania is because she had adopted her cleaner’s son, that had passed away, and the cleaner asked her if she could take care of her son as if he were her own.
Oberon wants that child so badly because he wants him to become a soldier and teach him about hunting and raise it as if it were his son.Puck decides to cast a funny and mischievous spell on poor Bottom, that had nothing to do with what was going on. Puck gave Bottom a donkey head, with nice long furry ears and a nice shade of soft grayish fur to complete his new look. When Titania awoke from her sleep the first person she sees is Bottom, causing her to fall in love with him rapidly.
Bottom doesn’t really like Titania, but she insists that he stay and starts caressing his long ears and says “ (3-1 ll. 144) Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful. Puck and Oberon have fun watching a full grown woman fall hostage of this trickery and, once they think that she has had enough, they annul the love spell on Titania and Puck’s spell on Bottom’s head. The annulment of the spells causes both Titania and Bottom to have no remembrance of what had happened, which shows the strength of the potion Bottom was so confused, but at the same time amused of some small things that he remembered had happened, that he decided to make up a song about it. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” ends with several happy (if magically-induced) weddings and an introduction to new a life for everyone.In the end, we don’t know if the newlyweds are experiencing the beauty of matrimonial bliss or if the discord that has been bubbling up throughout the play has unsettled them.
Titania goes back to her normal life and continues on ruling the magical fairy world in company of her husband Oberon, and she also remembers nothing of what had happened. Puck shuts the audience out by saying “… So, good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, and Robin shall restore amends. ” (5-1 ll.
424-426)
