Factors That Negatively Affect Love In A Midsummer Night’s Dream
As per literature over the past centuries along with real-life experiences of those in love, attaining true love is difficult due to the many obstacles individuals encounter. William Shakespeare is best known for his surfeit of romantic comedies involving tragedies. William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream explorers the obstacles faced by love with much precision. Real life experiences along with examples in other literature of factors that negatively affect love differ from William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream explores the obstacles faced by love with a great deal of exactitude. Factors that negatively affect love in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream include jealousy, magic, and authority of power.
Jealousy is a negative source that applies to the lives of many, along with many pieces of literature. In William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream there are many parts in which jealousy is a negative factor, thou the most prominent is Oberon and titania’s fight over an Indian boy. The clearest part of jealousy can be seen during Oberon and titania’s altercation over the Indian boy that they both want. Titania highlights Oberon’s jealous nature when she and Oberon meet; she states “What, jealous Oberon!”(II, i, 61). Due to the anger between Oberon and Titania over the Indian boy, the lovers blame each other for seeing with other people, this can mainly be seen when Oberon lost his anger and said Titania doesn’t love him but does love Theseus. Oberon, being jealous of Titania, puts a strain on not only their relationship but also the environment and the fairies surrounding them and as the play progresses Oberon uses the love potion on Titania to seek vengeance and seize the changeling boy. The jealousy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is very palpable and has had an abundant negative effect on the love between Oberon and Titania.
Magic is a recurring uncontrollable factor affecting the characters in this play. The love potion assists the characters to betray one another, which negatively affects their relationship.
In Act 2 Scene 1, Oberon and Puck are conspiring to utilize this potion to create disorder between himself and Titania; “…drop the liquor of it in her eyes. The next thing then she waking looks upon… She shall pursue it with the soul of love” (II, i, 178-182). The love potion causes strife between Oberon and Titania without the approbation of Titania, thus negatively affecting love. Magic breaks the bond between Titania and Oberon because due to Oberon having this power and irresponsibly using it to get what he desires he is able to change Titania. If magic was not a possibility the lovers would be able to continue their lives with a few disputes such as all other relationships, although this path was not chosen which put a burden on their relationship. These instances of love potion negatively impact love by making it temporary and inequitable. This use of the love potion also occurs constantly throughout the play making it one of the largest obstacles affecting love in this play.
Finally, the most influential obstacle which negatively affects love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is the influence of a higher power. The rules and beliefs of a higher power negatively affecting a relationship is no foreign idea in this play. In this play, it is seen that Hippolyta is forced to marry Theseus because he conquers the Amazons with his Athenian army, he states “I woo’d thee with my sword, And won thy love, doing thee injuries” (I, i, 16-17). Theseus’s higher power is seen which results in Hippolyta being forced into a marriage that she doesn’t want to be a part of. We can interpret that Hippolyta is not willing to marry Theseus due to her lack of excitement and bringing up her adventures with other men. As per the Athenian standards, it is expected that Hippolyta is to abandon her life as a queen in order to subdue to Theseus’ lordship, which will continue to have its effects on their relationship. Succinctly, the influence of a higher power has very detrimental effects on love in this play, especially in cases of beliefs and choices.
As per the events in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “The course of true love did never run smooth” (I, i, 134) due to factors such as jealousy, magic and the influence of higher power. William Shakespeare’s precision in adding factors negatively affecting love adds deeper meaning and relation to real life for the readers. Jealousy has a tendency to create strife in the most perfect of relationships between both friends and lovers. The factors of magic which affect everyone’s lives are also present in this play, acting as negatively influential obstacles for love in the play. As for the authoritative powers in this play, they greatly influence the relationships fostered by the lovers due to their restrictive tendencies. Nonetheless, the lovers do end up with the one whom the love, teaching the reader about the power of love and its tendency to prevail through all odds.
Word count: 853 – 24 (the) – 26 (a,an) – 24 (quotes) = 779 words
Total words: 779
Work Cited:
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Second Edition. Ed. Ken Roy. Ontario: Harcourt Canada, 2001. Print.