Love Stories Never Change: Themes of Shakespeare

...

As many stories unfold with romantic comedies there is always the turning point where everything is going to work out. This is the catharsis moment in our tale, Oberon and Puck find a remedy solution to revert people back to who they are, apart from Demetrius, so that all may be happy. As we see that is unfurls as a happy story the crowning moment is when Theseus and his hunting party finds the 4 lovers still asleep and uses his noble powers to sanctify the relationships as they are and has them all join in on his wedding, much against Egeus’s displeasure:

Fair lovers, you are fortunately met

Of this discourse we more will hear anon.

Egeus, I will overbear your will;

For in the temple, by and by, with us

These couples shall eternally be knit.

(4.1.168-172)

Does love always work out ass such? No. But the common theme with feel good stories and more pointedly romantic comedies is that it works out in the end for the lovers. We see this as not the only theme of this story but it is a major one, and for good reason. We remember the feeling and experiences that we have had growing up and the fact that a tale as old as this still harkens upon our past or present feelings of love just shows why it works. Love is immortal and universal.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Works Cited

Shakespeare, W. (2016). A Midsummer Night's Dream. In X. Kennedy, & D. Gioia, Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama and Writing (13 ed., pp. 1470-1534). Pearson Education.