The Young Lovers in A Midsummer Night's Dream To get a proper view of the fate of the young lovers in A Midsummer Night's Dream summer of Shakespeare, we should turn to other characters in the play. We are invited to sympathize with their situation, but to consider the posturing to which it leads as rather ridiculous. This is evident in their language which is often very formal in the use of rhetorical devices, and in Lysander and Hermia's generalization about "the course of true love" (the "reasons" they give why love does not “does not go smoothly” clearly does not refer to true love). to their own particular problems: they are not "different in blood", nor incompatible "in terms of years"). Pyramus and Thisbe is not only Shakespeare's parody of the work of other playwrights, but also a mock and tragic illustration of Lysander's famous remark. This is evident in a number of similarities to the scenes from the Dream in which the young lovers are present. Before the beginning and at the end of the play, as Demetrius loves Helen, we see two happy couples; but Demetrius' loss of love for Helena (resulting in or leading to his infatuation with Hermia) upsets the balance. That Demetrius actually rediscovers his love for Helen in the wood (rather than simply continuing in love juice-induced adoration in idleness) is clear from his waking speech. In contrast to his “goddess, nymph, divine” outburst, this defense of his love and repentance for his infatuation with Hermia (likened to an illness) is measured and convincing. We can respond thus to the critic who objects to the absence of any staging for having given Demetrius of Dian Diana's button, the antidote to Cupid's flower: in a performance, the audience does not risk detect the omission; one can imagine...... middle of paper ......membered but, in its multiple confusions (changes of desire, apparent betrayals, quarrels, voices coming from nowhere) thought like a dream. This view is anticipated by the pair of six-line stanzas spoken by Helena and Hermia at the end of Act 3. Each is a moving expression of despair and resignation (although "O weary night, O long and long night tedious" of Helena has an allusion from Pyramus "O night with dark eyes, O night with such black hues" If Puck is alluding to the way we are to see the lovers in the wood, Theseus is capable, in the act! final, to express our happiness at the comic resolution: "Joy, sweet friends, joy and fresh days of love / Accompany your hearts", while we inwardly approve the blessing of the fairies and Oberon's promise that the "problem" lovers "will always be... lucky", couples "always true in love" We are delighted to see Lysandre's pessimistic words contradicted...