Does the power of love truly conquer all? In the beginning of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, we are introduced to the character of Hermia who is put into a dilemma. Her father wants her to marry one man, Demetrius, who she is not in love with. Hermia would rather marry Lysander, the man who apparently she feels destined to be with. Maybe she is. Who are we to argue with destiny? Of course, her father is not pleased. Bringing her to the Duke and making the threat of what may come because of her inability to listen to her father’s wishes, Hermia decides that she and Lysander must run away.
Then we meet Helena. Helena is hopelessly in love with Demetrius, the man who she feels is her true love. Despite his protests, Helena follows Demetrius as he goes to chase after Hermia. All four characters go into the forest and a mess ensues. The mess is resolved and we think that all is done. That is, until the Duke, his bride-to-be, and Hermia’s father, Egeus, arrive in the forest. One would think that this could spell out disaster for our four young lovers. Well, not necessarily.
Luckily, it appears that true love is the answer to all these problems. After the Duke decides that, in the end, Hermia may marry Lysander and go against her father’s wishes on his ruling, and Demetrius realizes that he is truly in love with Helena, a wedding ensues. The day originally meant for the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta is now meant to be shared by Hermia and Lysander and with Helena and Demetrius. But what is it that makes this special? The idea of true love.
The theory that true love conquers all is something that has been spread across in popular films and television shows for as long as I can remember. Tracing its roots back apparently to the time of Shakespeare. Granted, we cannot use all of Shakespeare’s works to cite the truth behind this idea, but we can say that Midsummer truly does this. Why? It’s simple: love is the one thing that kept Hermia going. She knew that she loved Lysander and no matter what, she wanted to be with him. Even if that meant for her to go against her father’s wishes. She risked it all for the sake of her true love, and she won.
In Helena’s case, this seems to be similar as well. She truly loved Demetrius, despite the fact that he clearly stated he didn’t love her. But, in the end, they were together. He realized that he truly had feelings for her.
Does true love end up conquering all? I think so.
1 comment:
I think this question is really great in regards to the problems the characters have with loving one another. I think your points are valid however; I am not sure all the characters are truly in love with each other. In the end Demetrius’s love is manufactured, he is still under the spell; therefore, his love for Helena is not truly real but a fake affection. Is it Oberon’s love for Titania that he releases her? Or is it because he has a pang of regret for making her look like a fool? Hippolyta clearly is happy with Theseus but she is simply a war prize. Their “love” was founded upon winning a game; does this make their love, true love? I think the topic of love is complicated throughout the play and the motives of each character are very different and range greatly. I am not certain though that the end result of the play has as much to do with “true” love as it does with responsibility.
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