A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a romantic comedy, written by William Shakespeare around 1595. It’s full of joy, laughing, and love, as well as magical fairies and dreams. However, there are many complex interplays between the plot and the characters. The play is set in two places and is in Athens and a forest outside Athens. As there are many characters and many scenes in the play, I have found act one scene one particularly intriguing me a lot. From this scene, I’ve discovered love is a mysterious energy that causes individuals to behave in illogical ways.
In act one, scene 1 of A midsummer night’s dreamTheseus, the Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta, former Amazon Queen, discuss their upcoming wedding in four days. Egeus, a nobleman, complains to Theseus about his daughter Hermia’s preference for Lysander over Demetrius. Hermia declares that she cannot marry Demetrius and that she would prefer to die than marry anyone other than Lysander. Lysander has found another woman Helena is in love with Demetrius. Theseus said Hermia has to obey her father otherwise her choices are to die or become a nun. Hermia and Lysander decided to run away from Athens. Then Helena walks in, expressing how much she loves Demetrius but her love is not acknowledged. Hermia and Lysander tell their plan to Helena and she tells Demetrius Hermia and Lydsnders plan where they are going just so she can have a chance to see Demetrius. This scene introduces many key characters and sets the stage for the play’s major conflict. When the four lovers entered the woods, the real confusion in the play starts. When Robin Goodfellow, a fairy, employs magic to make Demetrius love Helena again, he accidentally causes Lysander to fall in love with Helena. He attempts to straighten things out, and he succeeds in making Demetrius fall in love with Helena. Both men now love Helena, but neither loves Hermia. Almost everyone is unhappy until Robin sorts out the problem and the four Athenians pair off into couples making everyone happy.
Helena’s character is my favorite in this play because she reflects on the illogical nature of love as she explains her affections for Demetrius, despite the fact that he has treated her horribly.
According to Lysander’s statement, one of a Midsummer night’s Dream “The course of true love never did run smooth,” which indicates one of the major themes of A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s that is the difficulty of love. This significance is exemplified by the imperfect affection between the four young Athenians. Lisander likes Hermia, Hermia likes Lisander, Helena likes Demetrius and Demetrius likes Hermia more than Helima. A typical number imbalance where two men create emotions towards the same woman resulting in one woman having too many suits and the other having too few. The play has a lot of promise for a conventional conclusion, and the story is built on a quest for internal balance in many ways; that is, when the lovers’ tangle resolves into symmetrical pairs, the play will have reached its typical happy finish.
Violet, you do a fine job capturing the “complex interplays” of love between the varied characters in this play. Your appreciation for Helena is also well handled.