A Midsummer Night’s Dream Essay

How do different types of love impact upon the relationships in A Midsummer Night’s Dream?
Discuss with reference to couples in the play.

It is through the establishment of various, complex relationships in A Midsummer Night’s Dream

that Shakespeare is able to explore the effects of different types of love. Whilst presented as a

comedy, the play’s central Athenians are drawn into chaos as night sets in, victims of

manipulation of reality cause by a love potion concocted by fairies. Love comes to be represented

in a multitude of ways - fake, true and forced - as events unfold.

Love presents itself in complex ways through character relationships. From the beginning, the

concept that ‘the course of true love never did run smooth’ foreshadows the play’s farcical

proceedings. This statement from Lysander, who is set to fall in love with Hermia and Helena in

both a ‘true love’ and ‘fake love’ sense, is one of many demonstrations of Shakespeare’s intent to

present love in multiple and varied ways. One such way is through the assertion of power. For

instance, the play opens in daylight on Theseus having ‘won they love’ of Hippolyta ‘doing thee

injuries,’ professing that he believes gaining one’s love is achievable by brute dominance. Egeus

demonstrates authority over his daughter Hermia at the same moment, declaring ‘Demetrius - My

noble Lord,’ Theseus, ‘this man have my consent to marry her,’ despite the fact that Hermia does

not love Demetrius. The relationships and others, are further manipulated by Shakespeare as he

comedically explores love in greater depths.

Reality is frequently tampered with through the use of Oberon and Titania’s love potion.

Shakespeare introduces the potion as a symbol of the fickle, erratic yet powerful nature of love as

it is used to purposely fool with the dramatic circumstances of Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia and

Helena’s entwined romances. Oberon’s jester, Puck, observes that ‘what fools these mortals be!’

as the young Athenians chaotically frolic through the woods under the spell of his potion. One

demonstration of the farcical tampering of love comes after Demetrius is given the potion, where

‘now to Helena is [his heart] home returned’ despite previously stating ‘just looking at [Helena]

makes [him] sick.’ This powerful change in feeling is a direct reflection of the powerful nature of

love. Equally, Oberon’s accidental use of the potion to make Titania fall in love with Bottom, where
her ‘eye enthralled to thy shape’ of his appearance as an ‘ass,’ also demonstrates the radical and

manipulative exploration of love. Shakespeare therefore presents a complication driven by love,

for which he soon resolves in accordance with the play’s comedic tones.

As the events of the night come to a close, the chaotic disorder presented by Shakespeare

reaches resolution. Despite the complexities love imparts on the young Athenians and fairies

throughout the night, the play eventually concludes with harmony restored and love sealed

through marriage. The arrival of daylight coincides with the return of Theseus and Hippolyta,

symbolising the restoration of order and peace as they prepare to marry as one of three couples.

Theseus declares ‘these couples shall eternally be knit’ giving rise to the rightful coupling of

Lysander and Hermia as Puck’s potion wanes, with Egeus now giving ‘consent that [Hermia]

should be [Lysander’s] wife.’ At the same time, Demetrius professes that his love of Helena - his

first true love - ‘will for evermore be true.’ So ends the escapades of jealousy and disorder that

Shakespeare explores through the couples and their various experiences of love.

The complex exploration of love under the symbolic setting of night in Shakespeare’s A

Midsummer Night’s Dream eventually concedes that despite the trials and chaos experienced by

the young Athenians and fairies, harmony can be restored. As the love potion and all its

representations of love as a fickle, complex but overall powerful emotion takes effect,

Shakespeare’s true comedy is unleashed. The impacts of true love and various manipulations of

reality drive the play’s complication, but are eventually overcome as the potion fades and the

characters wed.