Different Types of Love in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare

In the play A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare represents four types of love: forced love, parental love, romantic love and complicated love.

At the beginning of the play, we see a forced love between Theseus and Hippolytus, queens of the Amazons. Theseus mentions in act 1 "I have courted you with my sword, to show that he has won it with his sword as in the battle to win his love." In Scene 1 of Act 5, Hippolyte says " My Theseus "shows that she is ready to marry her. We, readers, are not sure if these two characters are really in love or are getting married because Theseus won a battle. Throughout the story, it seems that her love for Hippolyta had probably developed for her and had both married them, since he had understood the love of the four lovers between Hermia, Helena, Demetrius and Lysander. This probability made him vulnerable to the effects of love that people have for each other.

Another type of love that Shakespeare shows is parental love, Egeus and Hermia. Egeus seems to be very commanding and strict. His character represents that the father has the right of passage and the boss. The reason is that even though Hermia is madly in love with Lysander, he refuses to marry them. Egeus prefers Demetrius to marry him, because he thinks that it suits him best.

In my opinion, I believe that the reason why Egues might not want to marry Lysander. He probably knows better Demetrius as a character, since he knows him very well. Perhaps in the spirit of Egeus, he seems to be best suited for her. In addition, everyone wants the best for their daughter and wants them to be happy. He might think that Demetrius will bring happiness to his Lysander because of Lysander in his eyes. Even if everyone wants to be happy, they should be happy to make their own decisions.

True love is also expressed in this game between Hermia and Lysander. Even if Egeus asks his daughter to marry Demetrius but she refuses and runs away with Lysander. Regardless of the problems the couple faced, Hermia's father refuses Lysander to marry her and Lysander and Demetrius argue over her because they both have feeling for her. The true love of Hermia and Lysander is in this end.

The additional love that is classified in the play "A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare" is complicated love. In this play four young adults are madly in love with each other but there is an imbalance of the love each one has for each other. Hermia loves Lysander, Lysander loves Hermia, Helena loves Demetrius, and Demetrius loves Hermia instead of Helena. Lysander and Hermia but Helena is completely passionate about Demetrius but does not have eyes for her.

These affectionate relationships between them transform more than one young person because of the punk accidentally applies Lysander's eyelid love potion, Helena and falls in love with her the identical love potion was applied to Demetrius’s eyelids who also falls in love with Helena once he awakes. Both being in love with Hermia confuses Helena and Hermia. Yet near the end all four young adults get what they wish for. Hermia is with Lysander and Helena with Demetrius. It looks that Shakespear is trying to expression to the reader that love could go around in circles and become complex yet if one tries you can succeed in love.

Shakespeare presents diverse types of love in "A Midsummer Night's Dream". His well-known quote "The race of true love never works smoothly", expressions that love recognizes its ups and downs. The way I see what he shows us is that love is kind of tied to life because it's very unpredictable. Just like in the room that knew if Hermia and Lysander would end up with Helena and Demetrius, but they did.