This passage from A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare is situated at the beginning of the play and forms part of the exposition. In it, Lysander and Hermia are together alone for the first time on stage. They are both upset because Hermia is forced, by her family, to marry Demetrius or to become a nun when she is completely against it. However, Hermia is passionately in love and physically attached to Lysander, we can see this from the use of imagery as well as metaphors that one gives to another. This passage is significant to the play as love is seen between two characters, Lysander and Hermia. We can also determine that the morals of the play are based on this passage, this is due to the confusion that love creates and implies between the different characters. This passage is a reminder, implying that love is only there for a short period of time and is certainly not perfect, thus confusing.
The passage starts off with a literal description that Lysander gives to Hermia. The phrase “How now, my love! Why is your cheek so pale?” directly tells us that Lysander is attached (in love) to Hermia. This is seen by the compliment, “cheek so pale”, that Lysander gives to Hermia. Pale cheeks are usually light pink colored and pink is often associated with sweetness, playfulness, romanticism, and tenderness. Therefore, Lysander describes Hermia to be someone that is light and charming in emotions as well as beauty. The first phase of the passage is then supported by “How chance the roses there do fade so fast?”. We can directly see that the word “roses” is linked to “pale” colors. The word “roses” is linked to virginity, innocent, and love in which they are all used to create different images in the passage. Lysander is also asking why her beautiful pale-rosed cheeks turned pale so fast, therefore, he knows and interprets that there is a problem running in their relationship. Directly after Lysander mentioned to Hermia why the pale roses on her cheeks have left, the phrase “Belike for want of rain, which I could tell /Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.” implies that she wants to cry and to shower (between) her cheeks with her tears. The word 'the tempest' is relatively significant as it reveals that although Hermia is dry-eyed, she still has some emotions and still is extremely in love with Lysander. This all started when she has been told she was forced to marry Demetrius or become a nun.
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From lines 5 to 8, “Ay me!…different in blood”, Lysander implies that love always meets certain types of obstacles, this is mostly seen in the phrase “The course of true love never did run smooth”. This phrase suggests that the longevity of love between a couple never always runs positively and that love meets some defects. Lysander then gives an example, “But, either it was different in blood”, inferring that the problem happening between them might be that each of the lovers has different social standings from one another. The word “blood” is linked to the social class of each family and is not to be confused with the race of the characters. The next series of phrases is a moment in the passage where the two lovers show to us, readers that they really have an extremely strong connection with each other. This is seen by the use of punctuation and repeatedly answering and agreeing with/to each other with a significant amount of enthusiasm and humor. The phrase “O cross! too high to be enthralled to low” spoken by Hermia, is a continuation of Lysander’s reference and another example that she uses to describe a “complicated” relationship. The word “cross” is a biblical allusion that Hermia uses to represent humiliation. Humiliation is represented in this phrase as Hermia makes reference to how “awful” (ironic) it would be if one was too high on the social ladder and fell in love with someone beneath you. Lysander replies to Hermia’s statement by answering “Or else misgraffèd in respect of years” which connotes that if the lovers would be different in age, then it would also be humiliating. The sequence of phrases and the interaction between the two lovers is then concluded by Hermia saying “O hell, to choose love by another’s eyes!”. Hermia is making ironically making a reference to the current situation they are in by saying, “How bad must it really be and what hell, to have your love life determined by someone else!”.
The 3rd and final part of the passage given by Lysander, “Or, if there were sympathy in choice… So quick bright things come to confusion” implies that even though lovers can be in the best match, their love will eventually be ruined by consequences such as death, war or even sickness. So, therefore, their love affair would only last for a small instant and amount of time, thus the phrase “making it momentary as a sound”. Love and the time that lovers spend with each other might be as fast and sudden as a lighting or even a dream, “swift as a shadow, short as any dream, brief as the lightning in the collied night”. The last phrase of the passage, “So quick bright things come to confusion.” shows and demonstrates to us readers that even though love can be the greatest thing for a small instant of time, intense things like love are quickly destroyed without us even realizing. There is soo much happening that important and meaningful things such as love can disappear in instants.
In conclusion, Shakespeare’s uses of literary techniques such as imagery, allusions, and metaphors are all assembled to describe how love really is and how quickly it can be destroyed. This passage also gives us, readers, a message that love is something that we need to enjoy at every instant as it disappears as “brief as the lighting”.
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