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A Midsummer Night's Dream

by William Shakespeare

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Significant Quotes and Their Meanings in A Midsummer Night's Dream

Summary:

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, significant quotes highlight the theme of love's irrationality. Act 3, Scene 1, features Bottom's transformation and Titania's infatuation, emphasizing love's madness. Titania's declaration to Bottom and his reflection on love and reason illustrate this theme. Hermia's vow to Lysander in Act 1 humorously critiques men's faithlessness. Notable quotes include "The course of true love never did run smooth" and "Lord, what fools these mortals be," underscoring love's complexity and folly.

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What are the main quotes from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 3, Scene 1?

In act three, scene one, Bottom's head is transformed into that of an ass, and then Titania, influenced by the love potion, becomes infatuated with him. The most important quotations in this scene involve this comical event and how it relates to A Midsummer Night's Dream's central theme: the idea that romantic love is irrational.

And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me
On first view to say, to swear, I love thee (124–125).

This quotation is delivered by Titania to Bottom after she awakes to his obnoxious singing. This hammers home the idea that love can be an irrational force, one where the lover does not view the object of desire clearly. Titania believes Bottom to be a gorgeous, noble creature, even though to the audience, this is certainly not the case. But her infatuation makes her believe he is so.

This idea of love as madness is expanded upon by Bottom himself when he responds to the queen's declarations of love.

And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays—the more the pity that some honest neighbors will not make them friends (127–129).

Bottom is essentially calling romantic love a kind of madness, since it and "reason" "keep little company together." Throughout the play, love moves characters to do desperate, reckless things, even before the fairies complicate matters with magic. In the world of the Athenian court, romantic love is ruled by reason and social conventions: the Duke will marry Hippolyta because he has conquered her in battle. Even though they seem fond of one another, they are only together because Hippolyta lost the war. Likewise, Hermia is to marry Demetrius because he is her father's choice. However, love does not always adhere to reason: Hermia prefers Lysander, and Helena pines for Demetrius even though he is cold to her.

In the woods, this madness intensifies in comedic ways: Lysander and Demetrius go crazy for the love of Helena, and the noble, ethereal Titania longs to be the lover of Bottom, a crude, bumbling man with an ass's head. Shakespeare is suggesting through these actions, and through Bottom's lines above, that love rarely adheres to what reason believes it should.

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What does the quote from A Midsummer Night's Dream mean?

Hermia speaks these lines to Lysander in act 1, scene 1. The two of them have been left alone, and Lysander has suggested that they run away together. Their conversation comes at the scene’s end. When the play opens, Hermia’s father, Egeus, brings her before Theseus, Duke of Athens, with the two suitors, Demetrius and Lysander. Egeus is “full of vexation” because he wants her to marry Demetrius, but she prefers Lysander and is not inclined to accept Demetrius. She wants to know what will happen if she refuses. Theseus states simply that she must either die or give up men’s company forever—that is, become a nun. She says that she accepts those options, and Theseus gives her a month to change her mind. The rest of them leave the two alone, ostensibly to say goodbye.

The universal opposition they face has actually strengthened their resolve, and they try to figure out a course of action. Lysander suggests that they go his aunt’s house, seven leagues away, where Athenian law will not apply, so they can get married there. Hermia, overjoyed, agrees to meet him tomorrow. She swears elaborately by all manner of objects, such as Cupid’s bow and natural phenomena, comparing their escape to that of Paris and Helen of Troy but also alluding to Helen’s betrayal. Because Helen has been held responsible for the fall of Troy, Hermia then states the quoted lines. She means that women have falsely been given a bad reputation; while not denying that women make a lot of promises, she states that men have broken even more.

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What are 10 important quotations from A Midsummer Night's Dream?

You will find 6 of those quotations here at eNotes at the Selected Quotes page; click on the link in the Sources section below. You will also find a collection of more than 200 famous quotations from Shakespeare at eNotes, also linked below.

Some other quotations from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" are:

The course of true love never did run smooth. (I.1)

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. (I.1)

Lord, what fools these mortals be! (III.2)

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet
Are of imagination all compact. (V.1)

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumbered here
While these visions did appear. (V.1)

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