Love and Overpowering in A Midsummer Night's Dream

This essay explores the theme of love and overpowering in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, focusing on the relationships between the characters and the supernatural intervention that affects their love.

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English Critical Essay
“The course of true love never did run smooth” (Shakespeare 94).
This proclamation of Lysander covers the entirety of the play A Midsummer Night’s
Dream’s concern and theme. The play revolves around three sets of lovers and two different
worlds. Lysander/ Hermia and Demetrius/ Helena of the mortal world and Oberon/ Titania of
the supernatural world. The established order of both the world are upended when Hermia
and Lysander decide to run away to get married and Demetrius follows them and who in turn
is followed by Helena. Oberon and Titania’s quarrel brings disruption in the fairy world. All
these couples try to overpower their love onto the other and their love is overpowered by
supernatural intervention where they are helpless who they fall in love with. This essay will
trace and evaluate the course of love, how it overpowers the characters of the play and how
love too is overpowered throughout the course of the play.
The theme of love and how it overpowers the characters of the play is strewn about
throughout the play. The very first scene Theseus and Hippolyta are introduced. They are
betrothed to each other. Hippolyta is martial in nature and Theseus has conquered her with
his sword. In the course of their courting, Theseus inflicted injuries to her. He promises
Hippolyta that their wedding is going to be pompous and flashy.
Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword,
And won thy love, doing thee injuries;

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But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph and with reveling. (Shakespeare 87).
This proclamation of Theseus shows that he is eager to marry her and though begrudgingly,
Hippolyta has accepted the marriage. Here, Hippolyta has been subdued by Theseus’s love
and authority over her. Their union, though is celebrated in the play, has questionable base.
The relationship between them is nowhere equal and her position in Theseus is dubious. It is
not clear whether he intends to marry her out of love or out of dominance (Reiger). It is also
not completely transparent whether Hippolyta is going to be his wife and the queen of the
kingdom or just a virgin who is to remain a prisoner after Theseus is satisfied with his
dominance over her. This theme of overpower of love is further strengthened later in the play.
The play introduces two more pairs of lovers who are mortals and one pair that belong
to the supernatural world. Through these couples, Shakespeare shows how love truly is blind.
Helena is in love with Demetrius and follows him into the forest. Even after much rejection
she is adamant with her decision. She is compulsive in her want of Demetrius and announces
her to be a “spaniel” to him. She claims that that the more he “beats her” the more she will be
fawning over him. She begs her love to Demetrius. This idea is disturbing as it is Helena here
who is overpowered by love by herself and offers herself up to a man who rejected her most
viciously.
And even for that do I love you the more.
I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you. (Shakespeare 130)

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Her love for Demetrius is not there in spite of his cruelty, rather, it is there because of it. She
celebrates the cruelty that he shows and is enticed by it. Their relationship is bordering on
abusive and degrading. In the later part of the play, when Demetrius falls in love with Helena
with the intervention of the love juice, the idea of love overpowering rationalization becomes
completely clear (Weller). Through Puck’s mistake, both Demetrius and Lysander fall in love
with Helena whereas until recently both were in pursuit of Hermia. Demetrius too, cannot go
beyond the effects that eroticism play in the course if the drama. He, in his speech almost
threatens Helena of forcing her into sexual union. He warns her not to tempt too much. He
rebukes her saying that by leaving the castle at night and trusting a man who does not care for
her, she has placed herself in too much risk and it is possible that he might be tempted to
utilize the opportunity.
You do impeach your modesty too much,
To leave the city and commit yourself
Into the hands of one that loves you not;
To trust the opportunity of night
And the ill counsel of a desert place
With the rich worth of your virginity. (Shakespeare 130)
Helena is not at all frightened by the threat as she clearly eroticizes brutality (Reiger). The
way Demetrius pose himself in the scene, it seems he is unwilling and the act will be just an
act of violence. The intervention of the fairies resolves the tension between them in the
climax scenes. The difficulty of attaining love and the beloved is extremely prominent in the
relationship equation of Demetrius and Helena. The final union of them occurs with the
influence of a love juice that makes the recipient fall in love with the person they first see
after opening their eyes. The whole idea of love is questionable here as falling in love with
somebody just by first sight is more likely to be infatuation rather than true love. It is also

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probably predestined because Helena’s feelings towards Demetrius is more an obsession and
sadistic attraction rather than true affection and devotion.
The union of Titania and Oberon, the fairy king and queen also revolves around the
very same idea. Oberon in his quest to overpower Titania and establish his domination over
the fairy world, plans to humiliate his wife by making her fall in love with an unworthy
clown. She falls in love with ass-headed Bottom. Here, bottom represents degradation and
humiliation. Here he himself is making his position weaker and jeopardizing his role as a
husband. He finally succeeds in doing so and establishes control over both Titania and the
fairy world. (Reiger). In the final scenes when the chaos is being resolved Oberon again
establishes her domination over her by calling him “sweet queen”. Oberon’s intention is clear
as he applies the love juice on Titania’s eyes. He desires to control her erotic desires is just a
means to enforce her to be obedient towards him.
Sound, music! Come, my queen, take hands with me,
And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.
Now thou and I are new in amity, (Shakespeare 178).
Helena and Lysander, from the very beginning have been projected as the perfect
couple. They are in love with each other and have a good bonding. The problem arises with
Puck’s misappropriation of the love juice (Weller). Lysander falls in love with Helena and
tries to woo her. The love shared between Hermia and Lysander becomes questionable when
he gets affected by a love potion. It overpowers him and forgets Hermia promptly. The
helplessness of the lovers is evident in the play as they are unable to control whom they fall
in love with.
From the above discussion it is evident that the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream
primarily focuses on love and the hardships of love. The lovers finally unites but not before

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they struggle to find their partners properly and have to overcome many hurdles in their
journey. Thus, it can be concluded that Shakespeare has portrayed the idea of love and how it
overpowers men through the characters of the play.

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Works Cited
Rieger, Gabriel. "" I woo'd thee with my sword,/and won thy love doing thee injuries": the
erotic economies of A Midsummer Night's Dream." The Upstart Crow 28. 2009: 70.
Print.
Shakespeare, William. "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Google Books, 2005,
https://books.google.co.in/books?
id=0oLyAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=midsummer+night
%27s+dream&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiI44Sf_t3hAhVz7HMBHdpUA78Q6AE
INTAC#v=onepage&q=midsummer%20night's%20dream&f=false. Web. Accessed
20 Apr 2019.
Weller, Barry. "Identity Dis-Figured:" A Midsummer Night's Dream"." The Kenyon
Review 7.3. 1985: 66-78. Print.