and Demetrius. Helena observes that she is as worthy of Hermia, as beautiful and virtuous, and concludes, “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; / And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.”

The magical element arises when a spell is introduced. Oberon and Puck infect Titania, Lysander, and Demetrius with a love potion. Titania falls for Bottom, whose head has been transformed into a donkey’s. This makes no difference to her, demonstrating that love, whether enchanted or not, is like a sudden spell. Lysander abandons Hermia for Helena, even rationalizing his preference, and Demetrius attempts to fight Lysander for Helena.

Almost every couple in the play experiences the difficult aspects of romance. As Lysander says, “The course of true love never did run smooth.” Theseus and Hippolyta warred before marrying, Oberon and Titania quarrel over the adoption of a child, and Egeus, Hermia’s father, opposes her marriage to Lysander. Both Demetrius and Helena are unrequited in their love, and even the ridiculous Pyramus and Thisby features lovers who are cruelly parted by a wall. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, love is wild and ridiculous, but, in the end, it all works out.

In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, love makes people do foolish and silly things. Love makes people angry, but love allows people to forgive. Adults act like children when they are in love, and still others can find it hard to give love or accept love.

In terms of the silly and foolish, Oberon (the King of the Fairies) fights with Titania (the Queen of the Fairies). They love each other, but Oberon decides to punish and embarrass his mate; he sends Puck to where Titania sleeps to put a spell on her—so when she wakes, she will fall in love with the first thing she sees: a human with a donkey's head (more of Puck's magic). Oberon is greatly pleased:

I know a bank...

There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,

Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;

And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,

Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in;

And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,

And make her full of hateful fantasies. (II.i.254, 258-263)

With potion on her eyes, Titania falls in love with Bottom the weaver, who's natural shape has been changed. Titania sees him only as lovely.

TITANIA:

I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again.

Mine ear is much enamored of thy note;

So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;

And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me,

On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee. (III.i.129-133)

Titania is a strong woman, and one might expect her to be angry with Oberon's behavior, but she gently questions her husband how these things came to be, and peace is restored.

Puck mistakenly turns two men who loved Hermia into two men who love only Helena. Helena  believes they are making fun of her—and she chides them both—unable to believe that either one of them could love her:

HELENA:

O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent

To set against me for your merriment.

If you were civil and knew courtesy,

You would not do me thus much injury.

Can you not hate me, as I know you do,

But you must join in souls to mock me too? (III.ii.147-152)

At the same time, losing Lysander's love and watching both young men chase Helena hurts Hermia, while Lysander is uncaring.

HERMIA:

Why are you grown so rude? What change is this,

Sweet love?

LYSANDER:

Thy love! Out, tawny Tartar, out!

Out, loathed medicine! O hated potion, hence! (268-271)

Hippolyta, engaged to marry Theseus (being won by him in war), struggles with love. However, even she becomes a "victim" of love. In speaking about the amazing transformation that has come over the young lovers, she is certainly also speaking about herself.

HIPPOLYTA:

But all the story of the night told over,

And all their minds transfigured so together,

More witnesseth than fancy's images,

And grows to something of great constancy,

But howsoever strange and admirable. (V.i.24-28)

Love, Shakespeare seems to say, is not something that comes easily or as we expect it. As Lysander notes:

The course of true love never did run smooth... (I.i.134)

Through Helena's eyes, we learn that love changes how people see things:

Things base and vile, holding no quantity,

Love can transpose to form and dignity.

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;

And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind. (237-240)

Shakespeare cautions the audience that love is anything but predictable, but good things can come from love in its craziest forms. Shakespeare is able to write comedy about love; I believe we can infer that he finds it surprising, entertaining and worthwhile.

The theme of love is very central to A Midsummer Night's Dream. In fact, the only time when love is not a dominant part of the plot line is with respect to the mechanicals as they rehearse the play they wish to perform before Duke Theseus in honor of his wedding day. However, love even returns to that plot line when Titania falls in love with Bottom who has been transformed into a donkey. Therefore, the central theme of love weaves out of the plot line with respect to the mechanicals but then weaves back in when Titania falls in love with Bottom as a donkey.While love is not a central theme with respect to the mechanicals, passion is a central theme, which is very similar to love. It is very evident that at least a couple of the mechanicals have a passion for the arts, especially writing and performing. We can see their passion for the arts in the very fact that they, a group of uneducated laborers, wish to perform a play. We especially see Quince's passion for the arts when he undertakes writing the prologues he thinks will be necessary for introducing the play and the actors' intentions. In addition, we especially Bottom's passion for the arts when he visualizes himself as a grand performer, capable of stirring an audience with his lead role, as we see in his lines, "If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes; I will move storms" (I.ii.21-22). While passion is similar to love, it is not exactly romantic love like we see in the rest of play; therefore, the mechanicals' production of the play is one instance in which the theme of love weaves out of the plot line.However, the theme of romantic love returns when Oberon and Puck trick Titania into falling in love with Bottom as a donkey. Oberon decides to trick his wife with a love potion because he is jealous of her love for the beautiful Indian changeling boy, which he sees as erotic love for the boy. We know Titania's affection for the boy is erotic because, as Puck describes, she "[c]rowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy," which happens to be the exact same way she treats Bottom when she falls in love with him (II.i.27). Since her love for the boy is erotic, Oberon decides to enchant her into falling in love with the first foul creature she lays eyes on in order to distract her from the boy. Once he has distracted her from the boy, Oberon can then release the spell, making her fall in love with himself once again. Therefore, since Bottom from the mechanicals is used to ultimately patch Oberon and Titania's marriage, we see that the theme of love weaves back into the plot with respect to the mechanicals.

LYSANDER. The course of true love never did run smooth... (A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1.1.136)

With this line, Shakespeare succinctly summarizes the course of true love for nearly all the lovers and would-be lovers in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The only lovers whose course of love runs smoothly in A Midsummer Night's Dream are Theseus and Hippolyta. In the Greek myth of Theseus and Hippolyta, Theseus, the Duke of Athens, travels to the land of the Amazons and kidnaps their queen, Hippolyta, and takes her back to Athens to force her to marry him.

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Theseus makes only passing reference to how he "woo'd thee with my sword, / And won thy love doing thee injuries" (1.1.17-18), but all seems to be forgiven now, and Hippolyta is looking forward to the marriage.

HIPPOLYTA. Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;Four nights will quickly dream away the time;And then the moon, like to a silver bowNew-bent in heaven, shall behold the nightOf our solemnities. (1.1.7-11)

The course of their love might not have run all that smoothly up to that point, but nothing other than smooth running is represented in the play for Theseus and Hippolyta's love.

Hermia is in love with Lysander, but Hermia's father, Egeus, has other ideas and wants Hermia to marry Demetrius, who used to be in love with Helena, who's still in love with Demetrius; but Demetrius is now infatuated with Hermia, who has no interest whatsoever in marrying Demetrius, which is exactly what Hermia told her father.

Egeus appeals to Theseus to force Hermia to marry Demetrius. Theseus agrees with Egeus and decrees that Hermia (1) marry Demetrius, (2) be executed, or (3) spend the rest of her life in a convent—her choice.

Clearly, nothing is running smoothly for Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, or Helena, whose feelings in the matter nobody seems to care much about.

In the meantime, somewhere in the forest outside Athens, Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of the fairies, are claiming that the other is unfaithful. They're also having a custody squabble over an Indian prince. Titania wants the boy to stay with her and be her attendant, and Oberon wants the boy to come with him so he can make him a knight.

In time, and after with some merry mix-ups with love potions and a local weaver whose head is turned into the head of an ass, all the courses of true love are smoothed out.

Lysander's famous line about the course of love never running smooth applies equally well to any and all of Shakespeare's plays that involve a course of true love.

This applies to comedies, tragedies, and histories alike. Even Henry V and Richard III must overcome obstacles to their true loves or, in Richard's case, to what passes for true love for Anne (whom he likely poisoned after she married him), then for young Elizabeth, whom he hoped to marry to secure his claim to the throne, but who marries the future Henry VII instead. Then Richard was killed at Bosworth Field, which turned out to be a good thing for everybody involved with him.

Lysander's observation about the course of true love also raises questions about what Shakespeare's marriage to Anne Hathaway must have been like.