While Helena is thinking of telling Demetrius of the two lovers plans to flee Athens, as she reveals her thoughts and fellings to the audience in soliloquy. In it she backs up Lysander’s statement by saying: ‘Nor hath love’s mind of any judgement taste,’ meaning that she agrees love is foolish and is too easily tampered with, when it should not be. At the same time she is being very hypocritical; she is saying that love has ‘no eyes,’ and that it has blinded Demetrius, making him love Hermia passionately, even though Hermia continues to reject him. Yet Helena is doing exactly the same thing; ever since Helena and Demetrius split up it is clear that she has been hopelessly chasing Demetrius, even though he rejects her.
It is not only in this play that we see examples of true love going amiss and making people do things influenced by love, it has a contemporary relevance with today’s society. Many murders and assaults happen because of couples committing adultery, and so called crimes of passion. Shakespeare may have been leaving his own little message to the people who read his poetry and plays.
The scene of the lovers in the woods, is the main body of the play and in terms of this essay, one of the most important parts, as we can see the power of love and how easily it can be changed.
When Helena is running into the woods in pursuit of Demetrius, Demetrius stops to try to talk Helena out of following him: ‘I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.’ Demetrius is brutal to Helena, making it clear that he has no feelings for her. Demetrius cannot understand why she would continue to follow him, yet if he thought about her situation logically, he would realise that her feelings are similar to his; he pursues Hermia, even though it is obvious Hermia does not love him. Helena and Demetrius both have true love, which is unfortunately not running smooth and neither of them can have the loved ones they so dearly wish for.
Helena’s love for Demetrius is summed up by the metaphor used by Shakespeare: ‘I am your spaniel,’ meaning that the more Demetrius pushes her away the more she will continue to love him like an adoring dog. This just proves how powerful love can be and how if running smooth, it should be left alone. Helena is basically saying that Demetrius is everything to her and she would have a pitiful and meaningless existence without him. She would do anything for Demetrius except the one thing he wants, which is for her to go.
No matter what Demetrius says: ‘I am sick when I do look on thee,’ Helena comes out with a loving reply: ‘I am sick when I look not on thee.’ Demetrius even threatens that he may hurt Helena just to stop her following him: ‘I shall do thee mischief in the wood,’ Helena doesn’t care as she would rather be dead than not be with him: ‘I’ll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell.’ She also mentions, as she says Demetrius is metaphorically the light of her life and her world.
Oberon king of the fairies watches over their conversation, realising the ‘Athenian lady’ (Helena) is desperate for the love of the ‘disdainful youth’ (Demetrius) and thinks of the love-in-idleness potion. The pollen of this flower when put in some ones eyes will make them love the first person they set eyes on, so Oberon tells Puck (his servant) that he must use it to make Demetrius love Helena.
When Lysander awakes to Helena’s shouting he looks at her and immediately falls in love with her, after having the magical potion put on his eyes by accident, as Puck had made the mistake of putting the potion on Lysander’s eyes rather than Demetrius’s. He discards the ‘tedious minutes’ he spent with Hermia, and exaggerates his love for Helena in an effort to persuade Helena that it was always her that he loved. Helena becomes increasingly confused, as just days before her friends were talking of fleeing Athens and leaving their whole lives behind just so they could be together.
When Puck realises his mistake he takes the ‘love-in-idleness’ and puts the juice into Demetrius’s eyes to right his mistake and make him love Helena, Puck thankfully carries out this instruction correctly. Demetrius wakes in Helena’s sight and falls in love with her instantly and very passionately: ‘O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!’ As with Lysander the love is instant and not progressive, which confuses Helena even more which leads her to the conclusion that they must be playing a trick on her: ‘But you must join in souls to mock me too.’ This is what Helena says when complaining and questioning Demetrius as to why they would do such a thing to a ‘gentle lady’. So we can see than when love is not running smoothly, it can be a powerful and hazardous force
Although the men can’t see the predicament they leave the two women in, Helena and Hermia are in a very emotionally confused situation, both unable to understand what is going on. Hermia doesn’t know whether to be very upset that Lysander might be leaving her or to be happy that he is playing a trick to get rid of Demetrius and Helena.
It results in Helena blaming Hermia for the whole ordeal. She believes that they are definitely playing a trick on her and also that Hermia has devised it to get rid of her: ‘I scorn you not; it seems that you scorn me.’ This is what Hermia says as Helena blames her, yet Hermia understands the situation no better than Helena and is not willing to argue. We can see at this point that not only is the love not running smoothly but also is destroying what were previously good relationships.
The men are mere bystanders as they watch this argument unfold, ignorant to the turmoil they are causing to their previous loves. As Lysander refers to Hermia as a ‘vile thing’ and a ‘serpent’, Shakespeare uses these powerful metaphors emphasise Lysander’s feelings and add comedy to the scene. This proves that true love is very powerful, for Lysander now truly loves Helena and discards Hermia with no care for her feelings, he loves Helena and no longer cares for anyone else.
The men’s ignorance of their past loves and their strong love for Helena causes them too fight for Helena, potentially even to the death. At this moment in time love is not running smoothly for any of the young lovers, and the characters are literally and metaphorically ‘in the dark’. Only the audience, Oberon and Puck are privy to the magic that is at work.
After this affair has ended and the men are unable to find each other in the forest and both go to sleep. At this point Puck puts right his errors and now Lysander will love Hermia when he awakes beside her and Demetrius will love Helena when he wakes beside her.
When the lovers are found together, Hermia with Lysander expectedly and confusingly Demetrius with Helena. Theseus asks; ‘How comes this gentle concord?’ This leaves the lovers in a perplexing position as they themselves cannot explain the weird goings on in the wood. ‘I cannot truly say how I came here,’ is what Lysander says in reply as the four lover’s wake in the midst of confusion trying to forget the previous and somewhat supernatural days. This reminds the audience of the way Shakespeare cleverly weaves the world of the spirtis and the mortals, creating a dream-like atmosphere.
Yet it all turns out to their advantage, as Demetrius now loves Helena, and Lysander and Hermia have no reason to flee Athens; even if Egeus still wanted Hermia to marry Demetrius he cannot change the fact that Demetrius now loves someone else. Theseus overrules Egeus: ‘Egeus I will overbear your will,’ and states that ‘these couples shall eternally be knit’ as they will all get married together. Thus the play is given a magical, happy ever after ending.
The whole scene in the wood has in one way or another supported Lysander’s claim that true love never does run smooth. Lysander and Hermia were partially split up. The two men had true love for Helena and were both willing to risk their lives to prove it. Also Helena doubted her love for Demetrius as she thought they were all mocking her and that she had no chance of really getting the love of Demetrius.
Meanwhile between these goings on we see that it is not only mortals who suffer from the course or true love not running smooth, as the King and Queen of the fairies, Oberon and Titania are very argumentative. This is because Titania was given a boy from a mortal woman before she passed away, and Oberon wants this boy to become one of his “henchmen”. Yet Titania has promised to look after this boy and will not hand him over to Oberon; we can see immediately that there is no compromise in their relationship and it seems quite immature that they cannot reach some form of agreement.
Titania claims ‘His mother has a votress of my order,’ as Oberon continued to ‘beg’ for the little boy; but Titania would not give in but remains faithful to the promise she made to look after the boy.
Not only does this escapade cause trouble for their relationship, which had previously ‘run smooth’, but was now in tatters, but because of their powers it is also affecting the mortal world. The wind had become ferocious, ‘contagious fogs’ have come and gone randomly without explanation, rivers have ‘overborne their continents’ and have flooded with no clarification, and the ‘green corn hath rotted’. ‘The seasons alter’ randomly causing turmoil for farmers. The fairies know they are causing all this trouble yet the persist to dispute: ‘evil comes from our debate.’ In the 16th Century a poor harvest would have been devastating; the trouble the fairies were causing to the mortals was enormous, this gives the play historical relevance which an audience at the time could relate to.
We can see why their relationship is no longer running smooth as Oberon believes that he should be all powerful over all fairies, even the Queen. He says ‘I will go with thee,’ if Titania will give him the boy. He says this as if Titania desperately wants to be with him but can’t in fear of losing the boy; in real life this would be very patronising to Titania and would only worsen the decaying situation.
Oberon is so enraged by Titania’s actions that he immaturely seeks revenge and he plots to make Titania fall in love with an ugly beast. While she is love struck he hopes to take the boy with her consent, as she would no longer care for him. Ironically, he choose to use the love-in-idleness potion to trick his wife, rather than fix there relationship which at the time was obviously in tatters and giving the mortal world difficulty as well.
When this task is carried out, Puck brings the news to Oberon and he is delighted by the way his plan has unfolded: ‘This is better than I can devise.’ The fact that she fell in love with a mortal with an animal’s head is fantastic, as he expected to fall in love with some wild creature; not only is it a wild creature, it is also a mortal too. This makes it even more confusing and humiliating for Titania.
Puck’s mischief ends up benefiting Oberon is two ways. Oberon not only gets the boy from Titania; he also realises that he still does love Titania after seeing her with Bottom; he wants her back for himself. He uses the ‘love-in-idleness’ potion to make her go back to normal and once again love Oberon: ‘Be of thou wast wont be,’ meaning that she should not have a new love for Oberon, but should just go back to normal.
Once Titania and Oberon had overcome their problems they began to do their job efficiently and let the mortal world be ordinary once again. Now they want to help the love of Theseus and Hippolyta as Titania says they will ‘dance in Duke Theseus’ house triumphantly.’ Yet their relationship is not yet stable and we don’t get to find out whether they patch up their mistakes fully, as when they leave Titania says: ‘ Tell me how it came this night,’ meaning that Oberon would have to explain what happened. This means that the audience are left to wonder whether their relationship will ‘run smooth’ in the future. The workmen’s play devised for Theseus and Hippolyta’s marriage is a sub-plot of the play, which is emphasised by comedy; although it seems to be a minor part it has some important meanings. For one we see Bottom attempt to boss around the other workmen and the director, which in turn leads to Puck giving him an asses head, and this mischief plays a vital role in the story of Oberon and Titania.
Also the play itself has many meanings, not only for comedy and to entertain the lovers; but more subtle and important meanings. The play has a lot of relevance to the play, as Pyramus and Thisbe, the lovers in the workmen’s play, are in a similar position as the lovers in “A Mid Summer Nights Dream”. In the workmen’s play the two lovers both end up killing themselves for love. Hermia is in a similar position as she has been offered the ultimatum of death or becoming a nun or marry Demetrius. Also Helena claims she would do anything for Lysander, making it clear that she has no other encouragement to be alive if she cannot be with Lysander.
Also in the workmen’s play it tells us that the reason they cannot be together is because their families will not let them be together. This backs up Lysander’s claim that true love never runs smooth, as one of his reasons is: ‘Or else stood upon the choice of friends,’ meaning that social groups and family groups will decide who people marry. The exact same thing is happening to Hermia as she is being told to marry under the Athenian law that she must do as her father wishes.
We also notice that the workmen’s play gives an almost perfect outline to what “Romeo and Juliet” is about, which maybe trying to boost the popularity of “Romeo and Juliet” (one of Shakespeare’s earlier plays’).
Although Lysander makes the boldest comments about love in the play, other people in the play make different comments on love which, in a way, support Lysander’s claim. For example Bottom says: ‘Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that.’ This is what Bottom says to Titania as she declares her true love for him after having the ‘love-in-idleness’ potion put in her eyes. He goes on to over rule what he previously said by saying: ‘reason and love keep little company together,’ which from this play you could say is a very appropriate statement. Theseus also claims that ‘lovers and madmen are of imagination all compact.’ This claim, in terms of this play, is true as we can see from the young lovers in the wood fighting for the love of Helena, Oberon and Titania’s relationship would also back up this claim. All the people in love behave irrationally at one point during the play, proving even more so that Lysander’s claim was a perfectly valid one.
After the whole ordeal in the wood is over and all the young lovers are in harmony, Puck makes this comment about them: ‘lord what fools these mortals be.’ Referring not only do the workmen making their play and the exaggerated lovers are making fools of themselves, but mortals in general. Puck has been given a stereotypical view of mortals from the few he encountered in the wood and he comes to the conclusion that they do nothing but constantly argue and act foolishly.
In this play we notice there is a contrast between two different worlds, the fairies come at night and mortals rule they daylight, yet it seems the mortals are too quick to dismiss the existence of the fairies. Even though fairies are seemingly a harmless myth, mortals rarely venture into the wood during the night. Yet the young lovers were forced to by the will of Hermia’s father and it seems that even though the fairies saved the lovers, they still dismiss their nights in the wood as a ‘dream’ without consideration of any mythical forces. They do not thank the fairies for making their love run smooth as previously it was in havoc.
We have a story from the fairies and one from the mortals, when they meet it gives the play a mysterious twist but also ends with a traditional “happy ending”, as with all fairy stories.
From this play you gain many contrasting views on love, from most of the characters involved, but to say ‘the course of true love never did run smooth,’ is not true; to say that sometimes true love does not smooth is certainly true. In this play none of the love we are told about has always run smooth and at the end we are left wondering if of Oberon and Titania’s are now truly happy. The four young lovers didn’t have certain futures until they had their ‘dream’ like experience in the woods with the fairies. Theseus had to fight and be determined to killto win the love of Hippolyta. We never find out if Bottom had true love for Titania, even though she did for him; yet that was only short lived as Oberon changed her back to normal with the ‘love-in-idleness’.
I conclude that the statement made by Lysander: ‘the course of true love never did run smooth,’ is mostly true because in the pay all the lovers experience problems caused by love, and they are forced to work hard to make sure their love with ‘run smooth’. It seems all relationships are expected to have their ups and downs.