The theme of Midsummer is love, but what exactly is Shakespeare saying about love in his play - Essay Example

Topic: The theme of Midsummer is love, but what exactly is Shakespeare saying about love in his play? Shakespeare’s theme of love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream shows love in different aspects. It is shown through the youthful love between Lysander and Hermia and the emboldened and mature love between Theseus and Hippolyta. Value of love is shown through sudden turns, making images blurred because of severities but in no time turning to romantic love, as shown between Lysander and Hermia; Hermia faces pressure from Egeus to marry Demetrius and shows disgust over selecting love in Act 1 Scene 1 line 140: "O hell!

to choose love with anothers eye."Lysander philosophizes love by saying in Act 1 Scene 1 line 134:“The course of true love never did run smooth.”Helena also expresses the same element of love that sees not with the eye but mind, which means love is blind. It cannot be understood with reasoning and cannot be bargained, as love is blind. Helena exclaims in Act 1 Scene 1 lines 234-35:“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,And therefore is wingd Cupid painted blind.”Shakespeare has expressed his emotions towards love through the characters of Piramus and Thisby by showing a play-within-the-play that ends in tragedy because of a misunderstanding like it happens in the play Romeo and Juliet where both die a tragic death.

Because it is a comedy, reality and consequences of love are shown in a drama by perceiving the sad end of the drama perhaps the lovers in the Midnight Summer thank their fate for resolving their misunderstandings they had in the wood for their good. There is a complex angle of love, described by Shakespeare through Lysander who finds that it is his love for Hermia the feelings of which are hidden somewhere in his psyche but when he gives vent to his emotions than hiding them, he finds that his love for Helena is much more precious that the feelings he has for Hermia.

The element of supernatural interference symbolizes that things turn out finally as desired by the phenomena beyond human reasoning, as in the play it is represented by Oberon and the fairies in the woods who decide the fate of love. Shakespeare wants to project the power of the unseen positive forces that help lovers in their own magic ways to resolve their misunderstandings. In the end, it is the celebration of love materialized into marriage; it is the romantic love for which Shakespeare is renowned in presenting dramatically.

Before the comic end and climax, there are a lot of coercions to compel the lovers to bow before the anti powers. True love is not easy to comprehend; related feelings of lust, hatred, and jealousy affect the natural process and flow of love. Love represents care, faith, affection and closeness in love relations, which Shakespeare is actually saying that true love can not be realized without facing opposition. Fate plays an important role in the meetings of lovers. Works Cited“Theme Analysis.

” Novel Guide. 29 April 2010 .