A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Posted February 23, 2010 
Comments(9)
Comments(9) 
This is a picture I found depicting some of the characters of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
The question I pose is this: Is it love or lust that the men feel towards the women? Demtrius was engaged to Helena, why did he change his mind when he met Hermia? Is Shakespeare trying to convey a message that no matter how much one might vow to love someone else, that the feeling of “Love” can and might change if it is not based on something deeper than just looks?
If people are interested—and this could be especially helpful for those of you who are doing theater casebooks on *A Midsummer Night’s Dream*—the Brooklyn Academy of Music is staging a production of Henry Purcell’s *The Fairy Queen.* Purcell’s FQ is an operatic revision of Shakespeare’s play written in the late seventeenth century. It has a very short run this March:
http://www.bam.org/view.aspx?pid=1676
I absolutly think the feelings can change if they are soley based on looks. Just as attraction towards a certain style of clothing or cars can change, I believe a physical attraction to anything can always change as your preferences chage. Deeper emotional feelings are much harder to change for obvious reasons. Physical attraction, I believe, is most closely associated with lust, which also fades over time.
Demtrius feelings towards Helen were of love, but his desire to be w/ Hermia was that of lust. Lust can drive a person sexual desires based on instantaneous observations of the opposite or same sex in some cases, but compared to love, it is an instant emotion but goes deeper and must be further expereinced and understood unlike lust.
Yes, I believe Shakespeare is telling his audience the effects of love and lust and the affect it places on the characters in his play A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
I have noticed that in a lot of Shakespeare’s plays love is based on looks solely and sometimes appears at first sight. (For example in the Twelfth Night Olivia falls in love with Cesario/Viola after their first meeting). In The Midsummer Night’s Dream Shakespeare is putting his characters under the spell for a reason: I think, he is trying to show how those feelings of passion, lust or love that is not based on something deeper than appearance can be destructive.
I don’t remember Demtrius being “engaged” but I do recall Helena and him being together. Didn’t he change his mind through the arrangement with her father? (not to mention Hermia is portrayed as a more “attractive” character than Helena) But, moving forward, not sure how the original poster (and repliers) is defining “love” because if you truly “love” someone (in my perspective) it will overcome lust any day. So with that said, Demtrius couldn’t have “loved” Helena, because if that was the case they’d be together and there would be no need for fairies and potions. But in your context of the question, “vowing” to love someone is also completely different from actually “loving” them, its almost the same as “sorrys” saying your “sorry” means nothing if you’re truly aren’t “sorry..” So in this case, it appears Demtrius was just doing what most* men do, and its to sucker women in, momentarily until its on to the next one.
PS. If that redhead illustrated in the photo above is Helena, then Demtrius & Lysander were doing the right thing by fighting over her…
Helena > Hermia in that picture <3
I can see few stories in this picture. First time I saw it, I even cannot locate where is focus point.
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