Opposite Of True Love And Eternal Happiness example essay topic

A Midsummer's Night Dre A Midsummer's Night Dre Essay, Research Paper New Criticism and Deconstruction as Applied to: A Midsummer Night's Dream In the play A Midsummer Night's Dream there are many ambiguities used to voice themes of the play. One of those ambiguous themes is presented by Robin Goodfellow, a character who is often associated with puns throughout the course of the play. He states, That every man should take his own, / In your walking shale be shown. / Jack shale have Jill; / Naught shall go ill; / The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well (3.2. 488-491). There are two main ways to interpret the theme in this passage.

First through the style of a New Critic, that is to see all aspects as contributing to a whole unit. To do this the passage must not be interpreted literally; puns, hidden meanings, and implied ideas must all be taken into consideration in order to produce a whole poem, which is many times much deeper than what first appears. In this way the theme of the passage would be that once your true love is found than you will live in happiness for the rest of your life. The second way of reading this passage is through the eyes of deconstruction.

The deconstructionist uses the puns, hidden meanings, and implied ideas against the work in order to emphasize the un decidedness of the poem, breaking down the structure of the text. Deconstruction can be used to disprove the theme of this passage. New Criticism and Deconstruction can both be applied to Robin's passage in order to gain a better understanding of the theme. Metzler 2 First, the theme can be supported by using text throughout the play as viewed by that of a New Critic. As stated earlier the theme of this passage is, once you find your true love than you will live in happiness for the rest of your life. There are many passages in the text that help to support this interpretation, in fact in most of the play the four lovers spend a majority of their time longing for one another but none are truly happy and content until the end of the play when Hermia marries Lysander and Helena marries Demetrius.

Helena voices this unhappiness when talking to Lysander who at this point in the play is still infatuated with her. She says, Yet Hermia still loves you. Then be content (2.2. 117). By stating this Helena reinforces the theme by implying that Hermia is Lysander's true love and with her he will be content or in other words once you find your true love you will live in happiness for the rest of your life. In the end Demetrius falls in love with Helena and marries her.

Even though it is due to the love potion that Robin has applied to him earlier he cannot be more happy and content with her. He expresses this true and deep love for her when he awakes by saying the fowling: O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine! To what, my love, shall I compare thine eye? Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow! That pure congealed white, high Taurus snow, Fanned with the eastern wind, turns to a crow When thou hold st up thy hand.

O, let me kiss Metzler 3 This prince of pure white, this seal of bliss (3.2. 140-147)! This passage more than anything else proves the theme. It does so because until Robin opens Demetrius eyes to his true love he can do nothing but fight with Lysander over Hermia but once his eyes are opened than he finds his true love than the fighting stops and they all begin to live in happiness. Although the previous passages have dealt with one of the four lovers finding their true love, the theme of finding true love and living in happiness is also expressed by what the lovers say that they will feel if they do not connect with that one other person that they are meant to be with. Simply stated, the lovers will feel the opposite of true love and eternal happiness if they do not connect with that one other person.

Hermia best exemplifies this when she suspects that Lysander has fallen in love with Helena. She states the following: What, can you do me greater harm than hate? Hate me? Wherefore? O me, what news my love? Am I not Hermia?

Are you not Lysander? I am as fair now as I was erewhile. Since night you loved me; yet since night you left Me. Why, then, you left me O, the gods forbid! In earnest, shall I say (3.2. 283-290)?

In this passage Hermia expresses the utter despair that she feels when she has lost Lysander's love. This is the opposite of eternal happiness, she seems as if she can never Metzler 4 be happy again without Lysander. This once again helps to support the theme, once you connect with your true love you will live in happiness for the rest of your life, or in this case if you are deprived of that love than happiness is impossible. In the end Hermia, Lysander, Helena and Demetrius exemplify the theme; true eternal happiness comes only with true love. The lovers find there significant others and in turn marry them and begin their life of happiness. The same passage once Deconstructed has a completely different theme, happiness is a state of mind and eternal happiness can be found in any partner, regardless of true love so long as there is some love there.

Deconstruction can be applied to any of the passages used earlier to prove this theme. The first passage used by the New Critic is Yet Hermia still loves you. Than be content (2.2. 117).

This is spoken by Helena to Lysander and it means exactly what it states, Lysander should be happy with Hermia even if her love is unrequited by him and by marring her Lysander will eventually find eternal happiness whether true love is there or not. The second passage that the New Critic uses is one where Demetrius professes his new found true love for Helena. Demetrius in this scene is just awakening from a sleep and unknown to him Robin the Puck has applied a love potion to his eyes, the love that he now feels for Helena who he describes as a goddess, [a] nymph, perfect, [and] divine (3.2. 140), is false. It is just a spell, some sort of magic preformed on him by Robin.

This once again proves that between Helena and Demetrius there is no true love but instead a trick to make him feel as if he was truly in love. They marry at the end and live in eternal Metzler 5 happiness for the rest of their lives despite the fact that there is no true love involved. This supports the theme that true love is not necessary for eternal happiness. Lastly is the passage spoken by Helena although it serves to prove the Deconstructionist theme well, more convincing is Lysander's response to it. He states: Ay, by my life, And never did desire to see thee more.

Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt. Be certain, nothing truer, tis no jest That I do hate thee and love Helena (3.2. 291-295) No person could make such a cruel statement and then just a matter of hours later claim to be so madly, deeply, and truly in love with that same person that they would want to marry them. Once again Robin plays games with his love potion in order to connect the people who in this scene seem to be the least likely to have any love left between them. This is not true love but in it the lovers seem to find true and eternal happiness with each other. Throughout the entire play the lovers seem to trade off with each other, not able to decide whom they felt true love for only after robins spells did they decide on a lover and that in no way can be considered true love but, in this false love they did find true happiness.

This fully supports the theme, happiness is a state of mind and eternal happiness can be found in any partner, regardless of true love so long as there is some love there.

Bibliography

Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream. New York: Washington Square Press, 1993..