Indeed, love often causes the afflicted to act out of character, or to do things one normally would not do. This is the madness of love that drives the action of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It is this type of love that causes Hermia to risk death by refusing to marry Demetrius. it is this type of love that causes Demetrius to demand Hermia's hand in marriage despite her utter lack of affection for him. It is this type of love that causes Helena to pursue Demetrius despite his unvarnished hatred for her. Characteristically, the mad lover cares neither for the consequences of his actions nor for how his actions may appear to others.
Helena is unabashedly in love with Demetrius, a man who not only despises her and once jilted her, but is also in love with her close friend, Hermia. The roles seem to reverse in this couple, for Helena is the person who pursues an unwieldy Demetrius, while he chases another. This is a game of cat and mouse. As the lovers turn love into a game of cat and mouse, madness is demonstrated. The motive behind this chase through the woods is because of Helena who is a fool in pursuing Lysander and Hermia's plan to Demetrius just for some affection as when she expresses in her soliloquy, " Pursue her and for this intelligence if I have thanks, it is a dear expense" . Helena woos Demetrius, unrelenting to his cruel treatment of her. She states that men are meant to woo women, not women to men.
Seeing the spectacle of the four Athenian lovers quarrel is humorous to the fairy Puck. He states in the most famous line from the play, "What fools these mortals be!" implying that their foolishness and madness arises because of love. Love makes the mortals act foolishly and madly and Puck notices it.
This memorable scene of the love quadrangle all entangled is hysterical and laughable. Each man keeps changing the woman he loves, and each woman cannot believe the reality of the love proclaimed. Demetrius dotes on Helena, the woman he scorns, and Lysander abandons his true love Hermia, to dote on Helena as well. The two even become foolish fighters and prepare to duel for love. Furthermore, Helena and Hermia became rivals in love as well, all because of love.
Only in the relationship between Thesus and Hippolyta, reason and love are combined in an orderly and sane manner. A further point is that Shakespeare floods the play with moonlight as if to suggest that the mad lovers are controlled by the moonlight. Again, only Theseus and Hippolyta break this pattern. There is only one daylight scene in the entire play where Theseus’s hunting party arrive at the coming of dawn. Here, the coming of the day and the sounding of the hunting horns announce the return of sanity, the dispersal of magic and illusion, the end of the dream. This shows that both Theseus and Hippolyta are daylight creatures and their cool reason and good sense throw into relief the lovers' absurdities.
The lawlessness of love is also another main point as it almost results in a tragedy in the play. It is because of Hermia and Lysander’s true love for each other that Hermia decides to elope with Lysander without any hesitation. It is the elope that moves the plot forward and also lead the lovers to the woods which all the chaos and disorder started. In the forest at the dark hours of time, Hermia acts foolishly in requesting Lysander to "lie further off yet, do not lie so near" when danger could be awaiting them in the woods. As a result chaos is caused when Lysander falls in love with Helena, and Hermia is left all alone with no comfort. Through the pouring of the love juice, two men fall in love with Helena. Consequently, an argument is sparked between the two men and the two women. While these pairs are fighting, Puck realizes that love has changed them into fools. They are so desperate for love that they will fight for it.
The laughableness of love is mainly resulted by the love potion as the characters go to large extends to prove their affection for people whom they do not really love. Love is also given a ridiculous name in the character of Bottom. He is desperately in love with himself, loves to hear himself speak, and wants to take every role in the play, and plans to write a prologue about his "dream." Having Bottom dote upon himself is the illustration of a foolish and comic character mocking a different type of love. Oberon places the magic juice on Titania's eyes hoping that she will fall in love with "something vile" Enabling this fairy queen to fall in love with a vile creature mocks the validity of love. Also, The image of Titania waking up to fall in love with the donkey-faced Bottom is pure mockery of the ideal of love. A beautiful fairy doting on and seducing not only a common man, but an ass is foolish, funny, and fearful. This play seems to take the mockery of love to extreme illustrations, resulting in the comedy of love.
Helena cannot believe that these men love her. She believes that their love to her is a cruel joke, foolish treatment. She is upset with Lysander for doting over her, for she simply does not nor cannot believe it to be true. Furthermore, the love that Lysander at one point has for Hermia, suddenly transforms into adoration for Helena instantaneously from the magic juice. A simple drop of juice can change love quickly and foolishly. This shows the laughableness of love as love is portrayed to be very weak and fickled.
In conclusion, Shakespeare had an abundance of ideas about love, each idea twisted to suite his views of the connections with life and people. One of his main focuses is love, the different types of love, and the way in which love is expressed and in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", love is full of madness, lawlessness and laughableness.
