An Analysis of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream: Does True Love Exist?

In William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, love is an acting force, a character in itself which drives the couples and would-be couples into action and moves along the plot of the play with mischief and comedy as its assistants; however, the love within the play is in no way true or faithful to what is realistic once the characters enter the world of magic. The involvement of fairies and the use of dreams throughout A Midsummer Night's Dream establishes the sense that the setting is false and fanciful. To the audience, the emotions and actions of the characters within the play which relate to love, especially during their time within the fairy forest, are equally fictitious. Within the realm of the play, love that is true does not exist but in words, thus the feelings of selfishness and obsession that are present are commonly mistaken for what is called love. In order to argue that the concept of true love, as presented in A Midsummer Night's Dream, is an illusion, one must examine the changing relationships within the play, as well as the signs of love that are evident both before and after Titania, Lysander, and Demetrius are magically persuaded to feel false love.

Theseus and Hippolyta

Before the introduction of the magical aspects of the play, there are several relationships that question the existence and persistence of true love and shed light on what some of the individual characters view as love. The play begins with dialogue from a minor, yet somewhat important, couple, Theseus and Hippolyta. Theseus and Hippolyta help to reflect the leadership role of the fairy king and queen found in the world of humans, so it is not unusual that Theseus's view on love is similar, abet more realistic and conclusive, to Oberon's own opinion of his relationship with his wife, Titania. While Theseus, unlike Oberon, often uses the word "love" to address Hippolyta, there is no evidence that love, much less true love, is what he feels for the Amazon:

THESEUS. Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword,

And won thy love doing thee injuries;

But I will wed thee in another key,

With pomp, with triumph, and with reveling. (1.1.16-19)

Using the words "with triumph" (1.1.19) does not show the existence of love in any way. Though Theseus says to Hippolyta that he "won thy love doing thee injuries" (1.1.17), he is not discussing a concept of actual true love but of the right to marry the defeated Amazon, the now submissive party.

Lysander and Hermia
The same relation of love to a marriage and a husband to a victor is used throughout Act One's first scene as Lysander and Hermia try to persuade Theseus and Hermia's father, Egeus, that they should be married and that Lysander is fit to be as good a choice of husband as Egeus's chosen son-in-law, Demetrius. Theseus and Egeus disregard love where Hermia and Lysander are concerned, and, likewise, Hermia does not mention feelings of true love to either of the men questioning her relationship with Lysander, as if she is aware that the concept of love is irrelevant when it comes to her marriage. Demetrius cements this idea by not explaining that his love is greater for her than Lysander's, as Lysander later does in regards to Demetrius's feelings, but by simply telling Lysander to give up his battle for Hermia because Egeus has already told him he could have Hermia's hand: "Relent, sweet Hermia, and Lysander, yield/Thy crazed title to my certain right (1.1.91-92)." In this circumstance, it is obvious that Demetrius does not feel true love for Hermia but wishes to have her hand in marriage because it has been established that it is his right, much like one might not want to retreat when losing the benefits of a business arrangement.

While one might, from the disregard for love seen early on, conclude that the play gives no example of characters experiencing true love, it is also in the first scene of the play, when Lysander and Hermia are finally alone, that the only semblance of true love is heard with Lysander's statement that "The course of true love never did run smooth" (1.1.134). Another element of true love quickly appears as the couple decides to run away together and give up their previous life in order to begin anew, but this lone example of true love does not persist through the circumstance of magic, therefore questioning whether or not the feelings the couple expressed was true love or simply infatuation since it was easily faltered by an outside source, the accidental interference of Puck and Oberon. Though the couple is eventually allowed to wed and live in peace, the true love supposedly expressed between them may not logically exist again since doubt, inevitably, remains in the minds of either Hermia or Lysander. Their innocence is no more because Lysander was led to love another woman and Hermia forced to bare witness, and, without innocence, even a temporary, melodramatic version of true love does not flourish in the world of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Demetrius and Helena
Before the influence of magic, the last view given on the meaning of true love is presented by the obsessive Helena whose maddening feelings for Demetrius give further evidence that love is mostly an illusion within the play. Helena mistakes her own crazed obsession for love, and her need to have Demetrius pay attention to her is so strong that she is willing to be mentally and physically harmed by him:

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. (2.1.204-207)

Helena's willingness to sacrifice her mental health and her decency, "Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,/ You do me mischief" (2.1.238-239), and her one-sided feelings for Demetrius may appear related to true love only because of the pure intensity she uses to express herself. Helena's confusion over her emotions only escalates as Lysander and Demetrius pursue her under the influence of the spell, and one may assume that the sense of confusion she feels remains present even by the end of the "dream" within the forest when she wakes up to find Demetrius still in love with her. By play's end, Helena does not express any conclusive happiness with her situation, and neither she nor Demetrius's feelings are to be considered an expression of true love due to the spell that is still effecting Demetrius and Helena's still mixed emotions about her desire's change in behavior.

Oberon and Titania
Though it would be expected that the confusion of other vices and emotions with love would be a mostly human offense, the world of the irrational and unreal, the world of fairies, also provides an environment where true love is mostly absent. The relationship between Oberon and Titania provides a prime example of a more turbulent version of the marriage of two leader figures where the male feels he is in authority, as is the assumed case between Theseus and Hippolyta. Titania and Oberon share a common mistrust with one another, which appears in the form of jealousy:

OBERON. How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,

Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,

Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?

Didst not thou lead him through the glimmering night

From Perigenia, whom he ravished? (2.1.74-78)

The lack of trust displayed by both characters clearly erases any argument of existing true love between them, but it is Oberon's actions in playing a cruel trick on his wife and his selfish need to rule over Titania as her lord which destroys any hope of true love appearing in their future together, even if the couple appears to be coexisting peacefully. Not only Oberon's use of the flower to make Titania "madly dote" (2.1.171) on another person but the degrading manner in which he decides that she must embarrass herself so that he may receive what he wants from her, is evidence that Oberon's feelings toward Titania are not related to actual love but instead jealously over the power she holds. If Oberon felt true love towards Titania, he would not have used such means to get his way, and were Oberon in any way in love with Titania and in need of her, as Helena is in need of Demetrius, he may have used the flower so that she would pursue him "with the soul of love" (2.1.182) instead of some strange person or beast.

Does True Love Exist?
Throughout A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare does not reach one solid conclusion concerning the existence of true love, but the play itself presents the notion that what is considered true love is often not love at all but selfishness or infatuation. It is suggested by the array of obstacles true love faces within the characters' relationships that such an emotional state may exist but that reaching it and remaining persistent in love is the true test that these characters face and fail in minor ways by the story's end. While true love appears as a guest within the play, it is fleeting, as a dream might be, and the passing love is never as it once was, even at the happy ending where all appears to be in order and every couple arranged to fit their previous needs and wants.