Custom «The Play a Midsummer Night’s Dream» Essay Paper

Shakespeare is a famous writer with several works done in his name. Among this works of Shakespeare is the play a midsummer night dream in which he portrays the theme of superior “ture” love and an inferior obsessive “doting” love. In the story we are going to look at these two kinds of affection, what are the differences, which features portrays this love, how do they show it and most importantly if there is a cure for “doting” as per the play. This will be by looking at the play character by character as they occur in the unfolding of different scenes in the play.

The play a midsummer night’s dream is a complex satire that revolves around two sets of couples (Helena & Demetrius and Hermia &Lysander). They present romantic complications that are complicating and confusing as they enter the forest where we meet the rest of the characters. The main character is Puck who is full of tricks and pranks. The theme that the writer brings out is that at the end of everything love triumphs and the satisfaction of dreaming the impossible dream. The setting for the show is Athens in Greece and it falls in the category of comedy. It is most remarkable characters are Hermia, Bottom, Lysander, Titania, and Oberon. These main characters make love triangles that carry out the main theme in the play of difficulty of love which in the end will help us evaluate the difference between the superior and doting love.

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We now look at the various individuals basing on the most prominent ones in the play. Puck is the leading character in the play, and he is cruel and intelligent as he gets many of the show’s occurrences in motion. This he achieves by means of unfortunate mistakes and thorough pranks on the human characters. He is magical, fun loving, has humor and evocative language that creates the condition for the play. Puck illustrates many contrasts in the play like the wild contrasts. He is a rough, earthy artisan and at the same moment a dominant, delicate, and graceful man. The next character is Nick Bottom who is overconfident and dominates his fellow actors with an excess belief in his own capabilities. He believes he is suitable for every part in the play and yet he is a terrible actor and makes grammatical and rhetorical errors in his speech. The humor in this character is from the fact that he is unaware of his own ridiculousness and thinks that everyone is taking him seriously. The peak of Puck’s foolishness is when he transforms Bottom’s head into that of an ass.

Helena is another key character in the play, who is a lovesick young woman desperately in love with Demetrius. She thinks about this love, which makes sense as we see at the start of the play she is not present in the love triangle that encompasses Lysander, Demetrius, and Hermia. She says that love does not look with the eyes, but it sees best with its mind, (Shakespeare 234). Helena remains faithful to Demetrius despite her knowing his shortcomings and in trying to win his love tells him about the plot of Lysander and Hermia to escape into the forest. She has low self-esteem as she is not sure of herself, worries about her appearance and thinks that Lysander is mocking her. There is also Titania who is the queen in the forest, and her husband is Oberon, the king. Titania is not respectful to her husband and this makes the king angry. Another character is Hermia, who disobeys her father’s command to marry Demetrius and instead goes and escapes with her lover Lysander.

The play casting occurs in different scenes that display different characters. The events that occur in these scenes bring out the actors personality and beliefs. The two kinds of love present in this play are the superior kind of love and the inferior obsessive "doting" love. The superior “ture” love refers to the love that is unconditional; a true love while the inferior obsessive love refers to the extravagant or foolish love a person shows another. In other terms, it is also referred to as a doting kind of love. The difference between these two types of love is that the superior love comes with no conditions, and it is pure love while the doting love is where one person foolishly loves someone who has no interest in him or her. Doting is one sided, one person in love with the other while the other person does not return their love.

In the play, both kinds of love are present in some of the characters, and we see this in their personality and speeches. Looking at the first couple of Helena and Demetrius, Helena displays the doting type of love towards Demetrius. Demetrius is the suitor Egeus, a commoner, has chosen for his daughter Hermia to marry. Hermia does not love Demetrius, and she is in love with her choice Lysander, and wants to settle with him. In this love triangle, Helena has the doting type of love because she excessively loves someone who does not love her or even give her attention. The author tells us how Helena begs Demetrius to love her back, and she has obsessive thoughts about him. Helena is desperately in love with Demetrius that she is ready to do anything in order to be with him. In trying to please Demetrius, she tells him the plan that Hermia, and Lysander have of eloping to the forest. She thinks that for Demetrius to be in love with Hermia she must have used charms and she requests Hermia to tell her the secret so that she can win his heart. Demetrius, in response to Helena’s pleas of love, he tells her that she makes him sick at a glance and nothing she says or does will make him love her.

Focusing on the superior “ture” love, we see it in the couple of Hermia and Lysander. Their love is two way, with both parties in love with each other. Their love is unconditional, and both of them are ready to anything to be together. When Egeus, Hermia‘s father demands that she marries Demetrius, she disobeys him by saying that her choice is Lysander. In trying to save their love, they plan to run away together to the forest so that they can be together. Egeus claims that Lysander has bewitched his innocent girl with his mesmerizing love songs and giving her fancy rings, sweetmeats, and baubles.

Another example of the dotting love in the play is that of Queen Titania and Bottom. Titania and her husband Oberon are fighting, and in trying to get back at her, Oberon orders Puck to apply some fruit liquid on Titania’s eyelids. On waking up, Titania falls in love with the first individual she sees, and that is Bottom. Bottom, on the other hand, has no idea of what is happening as himself is acting in a transformed being. The author in his work shows us Titania’s love to Bottom by saying that she places musk roses around Bottom’s hairy head and kisses his floppy ears. At this moment, Bottom is thinking about oats and hay, not paying any attention to Titania’s advances. Titania also dotes on the child in the play, which brings about the argument between her and the husband. She is willing to go to any ends just to have the child whom, Oberon, the husband wants to take away from her life. In retaliation, Oberon orders Puck to punish his wife.

According to play, the remedy for inferior obsessive love is to let these persons to get a test of loving the people they are dreaming of daily. For example, for Helena’s case, letting her love Demetrius for some time will make her understand that he is not the perfect and better man she thinks he is. When human beings do not get what it is they want, they will keep on chasing it in the thought that it is best for them. As for Titania, after the transformation realizes that she was in love with a jerk, someone extremely low, below her standards. She tells her husband that she had visions where she was in love with an enormous ass, (Shakespeare 81, 82). For the people who foolishly love other people, their remedy is for them to get a chance to love these people. We see Helena thinking that the two men-Demetrius and Lysander are mocking her, when they declare their love to her. Later on when all characters get back to their usual form, they understand that it is not important for them to be with the people and at this point, the king orders for a mass wedding for the couples. The play ends with an excellent wedding and Puck leaves everyone with a message that it is not acceptable to dream and that forgiveness is powerful.