There are certain lines which have a strange, weird rhythm to other lines such as `And stolen the impression of her fantasy`. Usually Shakespeare writes in iambic pentameters which are lines of ten syllables. This line breaks the rhythmetic rules of the other lines such as `And stolen the impression of her fantasy`. This breaks the rythmetic rules of the other lines and tells us that these are the places where Egeus `s anger is overtaking and getting out of control. There is also another example `immediately provided in that case`. This line contains an extra syllable and Egeus is getting jagged and over spilling his frustration and getting carried away. This speech tells us that the expectations of women in Shakespeare’s days was that they should obey and do just what men would say and they had a much lower status than men. `Stand forth Demetrius`. Demetrius was the man that Egeus wanted Hermia to marry. This also tells us that women had to obey their fathers and had no other choice. Women were not meant to go against men.
The first kind of relationship we meet in the play is that of a betrothed couple Duke Theseus and the queen of the amazons Hippolyta. The play also opens with them. In these scenes Hippolyta and Theseus are going to get married. At the beginning of the play Hippolyta and Theseus are seen as a happy couple who are in love and this is how it remains until the end of the play. Theseus begins the scene by saying `Now fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour`. The word `fair` in Shakespeare’s time also meant the skin colour as being quite pale which was regarded as being beautiful in his time. The words `nuptial hour` meant the marriage of Hippolyta and Theseus. At the opening Theseus can’t wait for his wedding day and Hippolyta reassures him that everything will be alright. Hippolyta says `four night’s will quickly dream away the time`. She means that time will pass by quickly because there is only four nights left and night passes by quickly since you dream in the night.
Theseus` s first speech in Act 1 Scene 1 lines 1 to 6 there are many words with the sound `o`. This is an invocation of this vowel. In the speech this effect creates a long drawn `o` sound. This shows Theseus `s devastating his feelings of frustration. An example of this is line 3 `Another moon; but O, methinks, how slow`. This has a lot of the sound `o` in it and makes the text sound as if time is passing by very slowly for Theseus. Both Theseus and Hippolyta use the moon to describe their feelings. Theseus describes the moon as being too long to wait for and in the way of what he wants he describes this as ` just like an old widow makes her stepson wait to get his inheritance`. Which means he’s describing himself as an step son who is waiting for his widowed parent to pass away so he can get his inheritance. Hippolyta uses the moon to say ` Finally the new moon, curved like a silver bow in the sky, will look down on our wedding celebration. ` This is a simile describing the moon as a silver bow in the sky which will mark the night of her wedding. The moon in both Theseus and Hippolyta` s speech symbolises change. As the new moon arrives they will get married. This is the change in Hippolyta and Theseus `s lives.
Theseus is very lively and tells his servant to go `Go, philostrate`. In lines 16-20 Theseus describes his way of getting Hippolyta `s love to Hippolyta. He says `Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword` and ` But I will wed thee in another key, With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling. `This tells us that Theseus has hurt Hippolyta in the past but now that they are getting married it will be very grand and different. From Theseus `s speech it seems as if he got Hippolyta by winning her in a battle from the references of a battle in the text. Such as `forth to funerals`, `my sword`, `won` and `thee injuries`. This tells us the complications that Hippolyta and Theseus had in their relationships in the past. The relationship of Hippolyta and Theseus represents stability and structure of Athens.
We also meet another complicated relationship in the play that is of two friends who are Hermia and Helena. When Hermia greets Helena by saying `God speed, fair Helena ` Helena doesn’t approve of it that Hermia is calling her pretty she replies `Call you me fair? That fair unsay` she says who you calling pretty no you can take that back. Helena thinks that Hermia is prettier than her when in Athens they are both regarded as being as equally as beautiful as each other. This also tells us that Helena is in a bad mood and not feeling so well over Demetrius. Helena starts giving Hermia compliments in the form of metaphors. She describes Hermia `s eyes as being magnetic `your eyes are lode-stars`. The deep meaning of this is that she’s describing Hermia `s eyes as being so magnetic that even Demetrius who used to love her has fallen in love with her eyes. Helena is talking in a rhythm of ten syllables per line so that we can understand what she is saying easily the lines that break this rule are `Demetrius loves you fair; O happy fair!`, `Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,` and `You sway the emotion of Demetrius` heart.` Helena breaks her rhythm every time a line has Demetrius `s name in. Which tells us that she does not feel good every time Demetrius `s name is mentioned. The closeness of their friendship is also reflected in the rhyming couplets.
The word Demetrius is also the main cause for Helena `s loss in self confidence seeing as Demetrius hates Helena even though she loves him but he loves Hermia who hates him. Hermia says` I give him curses, yet he gives me love` and Helena says the more I love, the more he hateth me. ` Helena is lacking self confidence in her self and so she tells Hermia that she wants to look and speak like her. `My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye. ` This shows that Helena not only lacks in self confidence but also in her looks. She also tells Hermia that she would give her the world just to get Demetrius ` Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated, The rest I'd give to be to you translated.` This tells us that Helena loves Demetrius quite a lot. Helena feels quite inadequate to Hermia. She asks Hermia to teach her some clever tricks in order to get Demetrius. ` O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!`. This line and `O that my prayers could such affection move!` have an invocation of the letter `O` which is stretched as Helena speaks. This also tells us that Helena is feeling sad and useless since she hasn’t got Demetrius `s love. This also reflects her anguish in these lines.
Another relationship we meet in the play is that of two lovers who are Lysander and Hermia. In the play Hermia and Lysander talk about their love to each other. This is also an example of true young love but they can’t be together because of Hermia `s father, Egeus. Hermia uses a metaphor to describe the way she is felling to Lysander. She says `Belike for want of rain, which I could well` this means that she could cry so much that it would create a well. This tells us that although Hermia and Lysander are in love with each other they can’t get together and marry. Which shows us that Hermia is feeling quite upset. Lysander explains to Hermia that the course of true love never runs smoothly. He says `The course of true love never did run smooth`. He means to say that two lovers have always encountered problems in their love because of different issues. He then tells us about the different issues. He first says `But either it was different in blood` meaning that people were born into different families with different classes such as status some are too high and some are low as he says `O cross! – too high to be enthralled to low` meaning someone is too high in status to marry a person that is from a lower status.
Lysander starts using images to compare love to being so quick. First of all he says ‘War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,’ meaning that in true love usually people separate because of war, death and illness this tells us that Lysander thinks that true lovers always have problems . Lysander uses similes such as ‘Making it momentary as a sound,’ and ‘Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,’ which shows that Lysander thinks that love only lasts a moment even if they were allowed to love freely. These show the powerful images in Lysanders mind that love is linked to last for just a short moment. Lysander then says ‘So quick bright things come to confusion.’ Meaning that the things that we truly love always end quickly this is also like a message Lysander is giving. This shows one of the complications in relations that Lysander has.
Lysander plans to elope with Hermia. As Hermia says ‘Lysander and myself will fly this place.’ Meaning that Lysander and Hermia will leave Athens. This shows how desperate Hermia and Lysander are for each other and shows the complications that they have in their relationship. Hermia has agreed to elope with Lysander and marry him and she promises Lysander that she will by swearing on things. All of the things that she swears upon are very powerful such as ‘I swear to thee by Cupid’s strongest bow, By his best arrow with the golden head, By the simplicity of Venus' doves,’ This is very powerful the Venus doves represents their love and ‘Cupid’s strongest bow’ represents the God of love. Shakespeare has made this speech very powerful by writing in rhyming couplets.
Another relationship with complications that we meet is that of father and daughter, Hermia and Egeus. Egeus wants Hermia to marry only whom he chooses for her which is Demetrius. After Egeus makes a complaint about Lysander and Hermia to the duke Theseus, Theseus says to Hermia ‘To you your father should be as a god’ He uses a simile to describe Hermias father. This tells us that in the Elizabethan times daughters were made to respect their father just as if there father was God. Theseus then goes on to say ‘One that composed your beauties, yea, and one, to whom you are but as a form in wax,’ This shows us that Theseus doesn’t think of Hermia as having any feeling but someone who is like a statue and made to do things as its told. Theseus is also telling Hermia that she should look up to her father. It’s also reminding Hermia of her position as a Woman in patriarchal society. It’s telling Hermia that she’s like a wax image of her father and if it wasn’t for her father she wouldn’t be here. Theseus also says to Hermia ‘To leave the figure or disfigure it. Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.’ By this he is meaning to say that Demetrius is a worthy gentleman and that if Hermias father can make her then he can also destroy her.
Hermia is in love with Lysander so much that she is willing to disobey her father. Hermia says ‘I would my father looked but with my eyes. Hermia wishes that she wishes that her father looked at Lysander just as she did. Hermia also shows respect for the Duke Theseus this is shown when she says ‘I do entreat your grace to pardon me. I know not by what power I am made bold’. This shows that she is asking The Duke Theseus to forgive her at the same time acknowledging that he is quite a noble person. These words reflect her respect for the Duke Theseus. Hermia loves Lysander so much she is willing to do anything for him. This is shown when Hermia says ‘But I beseech your grace that I may know the worst that may befall me in this case, if I refuse to wed Demetrius.’ Hermia stands firm and makes it clear that no matter what she cannot and will not marry Demetrius. Theseus uses a metaphor of a rose to reply to Hermia he says ‘But earthlier happy is the rose distilled than that which, withering on the virgin thorn, Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness.’ The rose is described as being picked and made into a beautiful smelling perfume and on the other hand if not picked left there to rot away. The rose symbolises Hermia and The duke Theseus is trying to tell Hermia that if she doesn’t marry Demetrius she too will decay without being loved.
Hermia then goes on to reply ‘So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord, Ere I will my virgin patent up Unto his lordship, whose unwishèd yoke My soul consents not to give sovereignty.’ These words of Hermia reflect her strong character and her will to do what she feels right. She says that she would rather die than to give her virginity to someone that she doesn’t love. This tells us that Hermia is willing to give up her life without Lysander. This shows a lot of the complications in relationships with Hermia. In Shakespeare’s time his audience would regard Hermia as being a selfish woman who doesn’t obey her father at all. In Shakespeare’s time no one would have tolerated Hermia to be as she is shown to be, by disobeying her father.
Lysander is shown to be quite a serious lover who loves Hermia quite a lot he says ‘You have her father’s love, Demetrius. Let me have Hermia’s. Do you marry him.’ He is disrespecting Hermias father too by saying if you love Demetrius so much then why don’t you two marry and let me have Hermia. It seems as if Lysander is very angry and being rude to Hermias Father. Lysander compares himself to Demetrius by saying ‘Demetrius—and I’ll say this to his face—courted Nedar’s daughter, Helena, and made her fall in love with him. That sweet lady, Helena, loves devoutly. She adores this horrible and unfaithful man.’ Lysander flaws Demetrius noble character that Hermias father created for him. He also says that Demetrius has broken Helena’s heart and that he is not worthy of such love.
In Helena’s soliloquy she is speaking her thoughts out aloud. She uses a rhythm of ten syllables per line so that we can understand her easily. She is giving the audience access to her thoughts and feelings in a rhyming couplet because it helps keep her thoughts together and gives them a smooth rhythm. She starts comparing her beauty with Hermia as she says ‘Through Athens I am thought as fair as she. But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so.’ Helena is saying that although she is considered to be just as pretty as Hermia in Athens Demetrius does not think so. It’s as is Helena is jealous of Hermia. Helena then goes on to say ‘Things base and vile, holding no quantity,’ Which means that love can turn things which are ordinary into beautiful, this is what Helena thinks has happened to Hermia. She thinks she has Demetrius’s love to turn her even more beautiful.
Helena then says that real love is personality not looks she says ‘love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind’. Helena thinks that love is sometimes unfair since its obsesses with what’s on the outside of a person but what really counts is what’s on the inside. Helena uses personification to describe love she says ‘Love said to be a child, Because in choice he is oft beguiled’. Helena describes love as being a child since it doesn’t make good choice. Towards the end of her soliloquy she says ‘I will go tell him of fair Hermia’s flight’. This shows that Helena will go tell Demetrius that Hermia is going to leave Athens with Lysander. This shows that Helena is betraying her friendship with Hermia. This shows the complications in Helenas relationship with Hermia and Demetrius since she’s going to betray Hermia and Demetrius doesn’t love her he loves Hermia.
In conclusion Shakespeare portrays love and relationships as having complications. This is shown in play as Demetrius being with Helena at first then him loving Hermia and ignoring Helena. This also shows a complication in Helena and Hermias Friendship. Another complication in the play that we meet is that of father and daughters relationship with Egeus and Hermia. Egeus wants Hermia to marry someone of his choice but Hermia stands firm and says she will marry only her love or not marry at all. The play also shows complication when two people are in love but cant get married like Hermia and Lysander.