The Unruly Child That is Love Anonymous College

The Unruly Child That is Love

In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the concept of love and relationships are certainly at the forefront of the play. However, if one delves a bit further into the story, elements such as violence, death, and pain, which all strongly contrast with love, exist in the lives of the characters as well as love. Through the use of aggressive language and the persistent underlying theme of violence in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare suggests that experiences that should be happy, such as love, will always be intertwined with some pain as a result of the loss of control that love brings about. Shakespeare entertains this theme, along with the inclusion of violent metaphors, to highlight the unruly, uncontrollable nature of love, and the things people will do to in an attempt to gain a sense of control over it. It becomes increasingly apparent over time however, that love cannot ever be controlled; yet it is in the nature of humans to continuously try to do so.

The ideas of pain and suffering are present within the very first scene of the play during a conversation regarding love and marriage, immediately setting up the underlying connection between the two. Pain felt by the characters can...