Examples Of Obstacles In A Midsummer Night's Dream

" Theseus decides that there will be no punishment for the crimes of the lovers. Egeus is furious, and wants them to be killed, and even though Lysander and Hermia's intents were completely against the rules, Theseus

Although Hermia and Lysander are in love, Egeus attempts to exert control over them by arranging Hermia to marry Demetrius. He declares, “As she is mine, I may dispose of her;/Which shall be either to this gentleman/Or to her death, according to our law” (1.1.42-44). At his side, Theseus furthermore exerts control with an additional option, “To death, or to a vow of single life” (1.1.121). This also affects Helena’s love for Demetrius, since the marriage is arranged by Egeus rather than between Hermia and Demtrius. However, Demetrius himself attempts to exert his control her as well as Lysander by declaring “Thy crazed title to my certain right” (1.1.92).

The love that Lysander and Hermia share is very unlike the relationship between Helena and Demetrius. Lysander and Hermia have loved each other for a very long period of time and have dreamed of getting married. However, Hermia’s father, Egeus, disapproves of this couple. Hermia and Lysander’s love for each other is tested when Egeus tries to shatter their relationship

The story of A Midsummer Night's Dream was mainly about love and its abnormal dealings. In the play, Shakespeare tried to show that love is unpredictable, unreasonable, and at times is blind. The theme of love was constantly used during the play and basically everything that was said and done was related to the concept of love and its unpredictable ness. Shakespeare made all of the characters interact their lives to be based on each other’s. At first, everything was very confusing, and the characters were faced with many different problems. In the end, however, they were still able to persevere and win their true love, the love they were searching for in the first place.

People come up with contradictory answers when they try to describe love. Love lasts forever between two people whom fate matches together. Love changes like the tide; it spreads any direction on a whim as one gleans new information about the object of his or her affection. Some people say they control their own emotions; they allow themselves feel what they want to feel. Yet others say free will does not apply to emotions, love in particular, and that everyone lives without knowledge of what can appear just around the corner. In the Elizabethan era romantic comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare uses hilariously absurd situations to attempt to explain human behavior in the face of love, to prove that love turns people into complete fools when they fall for someone else.

There will always be someone trying to change someone’s feelings on who they love. Hermia’s father, Egeus, wants her to marry Demetrius, someone who he picked out, and not Lysander who is the one she is in love with. Hermia then argues that she wants to marry Lysander. Hermia and Lysander then come up with a plan to run away into the woods. Demetrius is actually in love with the person he is forced to marry. He told Hermis that the title of husband would be his. He also told Helena to quit following him in the woods while he was trying to look for Hermia. Theseus also told Hermia that he would give her four days to decide if she wants to marry Lysander or Demetrus. He told Hermia that Demetrius was a lovely gentleman and it wouldn’t be bad if she married him. However, he did not want to

I’m hither, with abhor, to complain about mine daughter Hermia. My lord, this sir, Demetrius, hath mine permission to marry that lady. Step forward, Lysander. —But this other sir, Lysander, hath cast a magic spell ov'r mine child’s heart. You, thee, Lysander, you’ve given that lady poems, and switch thy love with mine daughter. You’ve connived to steal mine daughter’s heart, making that lady stubborn and harsh instead of obedient, I asketh thee to alloweth me exercise the right that all fathers has't in Athens. Since the lady belongs to me, I can doth what I want with her, as the law says: I can either maketh that lady marry Demetrius—or hath that lady killed.

Love is such an abstract and intangible thing, yet it is something that everyone longs for. In Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the difficulty of love is explored through the obstacles that characters have to face while pursuing their loved ones. Those characters that are in love in the play were conflicted with troubles; however, the obstacles of love do not seem to stop them from being infatuated with each other. The concept of true love is examined throughout this play. By creating obstacles using authority and a higher power, Shakespeare examines the power of love. Through Hermia and Lysander’s loving words, it is reasonable to conclude that love conquers all if you believe in it.

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, their ‘false love’ could not be helped; there was nothing that they could do to fix it until the spell itself was broken. Both relationship abuse and the

Why should not I then prosecute my right?”(Shakespeare 1.1 100). Lysander loves Hermia and Hermia loves Lysander. Lysander because of that believes that he deserves to marry Hermia more than Demetrious. “Relent, sweet Hermia—And, Lysander, yield Thy crazèd title to my certain right.” (Shakespeare 1.1 91). Demetrious believes he deserves to marry Hermia because her father gave him the right. Its law that Hermia has to marry Demetrius. “Where is Lysander and fair Hermia? The one I’ll stay, the other stayeth me. Thou told’st me they were stol'n unto this wood. And here am I, and wood within this wood, Because I cannot meet my Hermia.”(Shakspeare 2.1 174). Hermia has run away with Lysander so they can be married. Demetrious finds out and tries to find them so he can marry

In Athens, women had very little rights. Womens fathers were the ones who got to choose whom they married, and that caused trouble for the lovers. Hermia’s father, Egeus, strongly believed in this rule. At the beginning, Egeus decides that he wants Hermia to marry Demetrius, which is good for Demetrius but bad for Hermia. Hermia, daringly refuses her father’s wishes, so they seek the help of Theseus, the Duke of Athens. Theseus listens to their situation, and being the authority in the situation, tells Hermia: “Either to die the death, or to abjure for the society of men. Therefore, fair Hermia,... if you yield not to your father’s choice, you can endure the livery of a nun...”(24). This shows how authority, in this case the law, gets in the way of “the course of true love…”(28). Egeus’s decision to have Hermia marry Demetrius does not only affect Hermia but also affects Helena. When Hermia’s father chooses Demetris to be her

In the play the reader gets the truth that Hermia’s father wants her to marry Demetrius, and as a woman living in a patriarchal society, she must obey; at least that is what the reader is lead to believe. Hermia takes a stand for herself and becomes powerless in her love for Lysander. With no reasonable explanation, besides her love for Lysander, she defiantly denies her father’s attempt for an arranged marriage. Since their love for each other is so immense, they prepare for the underlying bad circumstances they are going to suffer from for not obeying the wishes of her father. Hermia’s love for Lysander means so much more to her than the property or social placeholder she would gain by marrying Demetrius. Hermia dedicates herself to Lysander, saying he is worthy of the ultimate consummation of her love. She must convince her father that Demetrius is disgraceful and immoral. At the end of the play, Hermia and Lysander are eloped, and unlike Katherine and Petruccio in TOS, they demonstrate their dedication for each other from the beginning, disregarding a few

This demonstrates how there is money and power involved in the story. Egeus, Hermia’s father, removes all of her power. Egeus has her power and controls his daughter, Hermia. In the story, Egeus arranges her marriage with someone whom she doesn’t love, and he doesn’t let her marry who she loves, Lysander. Not only that, but also shows how money also is being used in the story.

Hermia is recognized as an inferior character due to her fathers commands-Egeus. Hermia endeavours to get Egeus to give permission for Lysander and herself to get married. However, he responds with a rational answer, giving her two choices: “Consent to marry with Demetrius…” “…or to her death, according to our laws…” (Shakespeare 1:1 40,44). This passage stats how Hermia is given the option to marry Demetrius or to be killed by her fathers request. Also, it describes that this act is legal and right in the laws of the Athenians as Egeus mentions. This means that women throughout the town are forced to do what their fathers say. Which proves that woman are powerless and males are given the role of superiority, this makes the society unjust. Hermia is shown as powerless towards what

5. She decides to enter a nunery and live alone if she cannot marry Lysander.