From Conflict to Harmony

The television show, The Bachelor, is known for its drama. There is conflict between the

contestants and between the contestants and the Bbachelor. However, each week the drama and

conflict between the stars is unique. Like The Bachelor, A Midsummer Night’s Dream has While

The Bachelor is a television program and A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play, both have

unique relationships between the characters. While the discord between the lovers conveys

conflict’s negative effect on people and the environment around them, Shakespeare ultimately

ends the relationships in harmony to show that confrontation is needed for a relationship to be

successful

In A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Theseus’s attempts in asserting his dominance over

Hippolyta characterizes the two lovers’ conflict. men fight with their female counterparts to keep

themselves in power. At first, Theseus and Hippolyta banter back and forth with each other about

how time is passing before their wedding. Theseus says, "how slow / this old moon wanes!" to

indicate how time is passing slowly and that he is excited for their matrimony (I.i.3-4). Hippolyta

says the opposite, counterings saying that "four nights will quickly steep themselves in night,"

which subtly indicatesing that the thought of marrying Theseus does not delight her (I.i.7).

Hippolyta’s apathy not caring for her nuptial ceremony might be a derivative of the fact that

Theseus "wooed [Hippolyta] with [his] sword" (I.i.16). Theseus’s proclamation is a double

entendre as he does not only say that he won Hippolyta through combat, but also implies that he

won her in the bedroom. Despite this conflict, in the end, Theseus and Hippolyta get married and

the realms of the Grecians and the Amazon warriors are bound together.Throughout the play,

Theseus and Hippolyta have little fights or disagreements. At the time of the play, men

dominated society and this dynamic rubs off on Shakespeare’s playwriting.

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 The fight between Titania and Oberon over a changeling boy is not only unique in its

own sense, but also has negative effects on the environment around them. Yet, the fairy king and

queen bind their two realms together in harmony in the end, similar to Theseus and Hippolyta.

Titania and Oberon fight over a changeling boy. This fight causes the winds"[to suck] up from

the sea / Contagious fogs; which" fall on the land (II.i.89-90). The conflict provokes "The

seasons [to alter]" and "hoary-headed frosts / [to] Fall in the fresh lap of the Crimson rose"

(II.i.107-108). When Titania tries to resolve the problem, Oberon responds saying, "Give me that

boy, and I will go with thee." However, Titania is stubborn and will not give up what she

believes is rightfully hers, even responds "Not for [Oberon’s] thy fairy kingdom!" (II.i.142,143).

After Oberon punishes Titania by having Puck place the magical flower juice on her eyes, the

two regals are once again a couple at the end of the play. However, this harmony requires Titania

to give Oberon the changeling boy.Titania and Oberon's conflict is unique because it is between

the two most powerful figures in the fairy kingdom. The regals are married, yet they separate

over a trivial fight. Their conflict has negative repercussions on nature and causes the mortal

world to suffer.

Although Hermia and Lysander truly love each other, their relationship has conflict with

the influence of superior forces. With the flower juice, Lysander falls in love with Helena.

Hermia is distraught saying that Lysander wouldn't leave her before because she knows that

“The whole earth may be bored, and that the moon / May through the center creep" before

Lysander would leave her (III.ii.53-54). However, when they meet, Lysander tells Hermia that

she is a "minimus of hindering knot-grass made" and that she is a "bead" and an "acorn," making

fun of her height (III.ii.328,329). Lysander calls Hermia these names to reiterate how short she

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is. Puck’s flower juice sways Lysander’s devotions drastically, as he now is in love with Helena

and despises Hermia.

However, even without the flower juice, Hermia and Lysander have conflicts too. When

Puck puts the flower juice on Lysander's eyes, Lysander and Hermia are sleeping apart. Hermia

asks for Lysander to "Lie further off, in human modesty” because this separation “Becomes a

virtuous bachelor and a maid" (II.ii.63,64). This separation eventually leads Puck to believe that

Lysander was truly Demetrius. Egeus also causes natural conflict between Hermia and Lysander.

Hermia and her father fight over whether she should marry Demetrius or Lysander. Egeus wants

Hermia to marry Demetrius saying, "I beg the ancient privilege of Athens; / As she is mine, I

may dispose of her; / Which shall be either to [Demetrius] / or to her death, according to our

law" (I.i.41-44). However, Hermia is in love with Lysander and wants to marry him, but Egeus

denies the request and accuses Lysander of says to Theseus, "[Lysander] hath [bewitching]ed the

bosom of [Hermia]" (I.i.27). This patriarchal relationship between father and daughter causes

other conflict in the play, as Hermia and Lysander have to go to the woods to elope if they want

to be married. This eventually draws both Helena and Demetrius to the forest , where the couple

fights and also causes like when Puck to causes confusion when he mistakenly mistakenly

applyies the flower juice to Lysander’s eyes, and Demetrius and Helena’s squabble in the woods.

Although Demetrius truly despises Helena, Puck and Oberon’s magic artificially resolves

the couple’s conflict. At first, Helena is so desperate for Demetrius’s affection that she asks to be

his spaniel. Helena says that Demetrius can “spurn [her], strike [her], / neglect [her], lose [her]"

(II.i.205-206). This metaphor in which Helena compares her loyalty to Demetrius to one of a

faithful spaniel shows her devotion and never-ending pursuit of Demetrius’s love. However, after

Helena says this, Demetrius counters that she "[impeaches her] modesty too much” as she is

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“[trusting] the opportunity of night… With the rich worth of [her] virginity" (II.i.214,217,219).

Demetrius saysis saying that Helena is a virgin, even though he did sleep with her because he is

ashamed of his past relationship and only loves Hermia. Then, when Puck applies the flower

juice to Demetrius’s eyes and he wakes up, he pronounces that his old love for Hermia has

“melted as the snow” and that “the object and pleasure of [his] eye, / is only Helena”

(IV.i.163,167-168). Overall, Demetrius and Helena’s relationship is unique because it is the only

one that ends in an artificial state as Demetrius does not truly love Helena.

Although each pair of lovers haved their conflict, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a

Shakespearian comedy and each relationship ends is in harmony at the end of the play. However,

even this harmony is unique depending on the relationship. While at the end of the play each

couple is either betrothed or married, , as Demetrius’s love for Helena is artificial, coming from

the flower juice, still does not truly love Helena at the end of the playand Lysander and Hermia

fall back in love after Puck removes the flower juice. Similarly, in The Bachelor, the show ends

with a proposal and a happily ever after, the end, but still the ending each year is different. While

most seasons the show ends in a proposal, other seasons the Bachelor does not propose, but

instead he and the winner continue dating. While conflict can break couples apart, The Bachelor

and A Midsummer Night’s Dream exemplify that conflict can make a relationship stronger once a

resolution is reached.. Shakespeare uses the conflicts in the relationships to show that

confrontation is needed for a relationship to be successful and that one should not hide their true

feelings from their counterpart.