Midsummer Night's Dream: Fate vs. Free Will Essay

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Midsummer Night's Dream essay

Throughout the play A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare uses both fate and free will to present his philosophy towards the nature of love. The characters struggle through confusion and conflicts to be with the one they love. Although the course of their love did not go well, love ultimately triumphs over all at the end of the play. The chaos reaches a climax causing great disruption among the lovers. However, the turmoil is eventually resolved by Puck, who fixes his mistake. The confusion then ends and the lovers are with their true love. Throughout the play Shakespeare's philosophy was displayed in various scenes, and his concept still holds true in modern society. Fate plays an
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Moreover, the love potion on Demetrius caused all the conflicts and troubles to end. Lysander goes back to loving Hermia and Helena and Demetrius are now together. In the midst of all this chaos, peace is finally restored and everyone is in love with the right person. Free will also plays a big role in the play. For example Hermia and Lysander choose to run away so that they could be married. Hermia's father Egeus did not allow Hemia to be with Lysander. Instead, Egeus favors Demetrius and wants Hermia to marry Demetrius. Hermia is completely disturbed and does not want to comply with her father. Therefore, Hermia and Lysander come up with a plan to run away into the forest where they can be with each other. This displays free will because they both want to and are willing to run away. Although they both know that this would not be an easy journey, they both were willing to take this path to true love. Lysander had said, " “For aught that I could ever read/ Could ever hear by tale or history,/ The course of true love never did run smooth” (1.1.134-6). They knew that the path they had to take would be challenging, but they both had a choice, and they chose to be with one another. Also, another example of free will was when Hermia decided not to sleep with Lysander. Although she truly loved Lysander, she believed that they shouldn't be sleeping together before they were actually married. Hermia says