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A Midsummer Night's Dream: War of Love

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A Midsummer Night's Dream: War of Love
War of Love

The story, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, is a humourous yet romantic play that many audiences love to read/watch, written in a different style of writing than the modern time writing we use. A complex theme in the A Midsummer Night’s Dream is love. With many different views on love, it makes the A Midsummer Night’s Dream story more interesting due to the many different points of view the story gives out with the theme, love. Through the course of the play the characters experience forced love, fake love, and true love.

Firstly, the character, Hippolyta whom has no choice on who to marry due a tragic loss in a battle against Theseus, the forcing soon-to-be husband. When Theseus strikes her with, "Hippolyta, I woo 'd thee with my sword, and won thy love, doing thee injuries," (1.1.17-18) he is referring how he had won Hippolyta 's "love" by defeating her in the battle and while keeping her captivated, Hippolyta has no excitement and pleasure to marry Theseus on the wedding day. Defeating her in a battle, then forcing her to marry him is unfair and unsatisfying to the heart of Hippolyta. Though she shows that she has a very horrible life, the daughter of Egeus, Hermia, is having it just as bad as her. Egeus is forcing Hermia to marry whomever Egeus thinks that has the satisfying appeal of Egeus himself, and not Hermia, whom owns her own heart. With dissatisfaction by Hermia 's response to his words, he goes to the Duke of Athens, Theseus. "As she is mine, I may dispose of her, which shall be, either this gentlemen or to her death, according to our law." (1.1.43-45) That 's Egeus ' reason why Hermia should have it his way, whether her heart likes it or not. Hermia has three life changing choices: agree with her father 's choice of marrying Demetrius, become a nun and never love a man again, or to be put down into death. With Hermia 's heart that has been stolen by Lysander, she disagrees to her father 's way of how to deal



Cited: Shakespeare, William, A Midsummer Night 's Dream, Canada: International Thomson Publishing, 1998

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