It might seem strange that Shakespeare would choose a forest at night as the main setting for a comedy; the dark forest serves as the center of the play’s world, ousting Athens, a city that was regarded as the center of ancient Greek civilization. The darkness of the night is intensified in the forest; the dark is intense enough for the characters to fear being alone. Helena cries out to Demetrius not to abandon her “darkling”, or in the dark (Act II, Scene 2, 85). When Lysander abandons Hermia, she is convinced that being alone in the dark could lead her to death:

Speak, of all loves; I swoon almost with fear. No? Then I will perceive you are not nigh. Either death or you I’ll find immediately. (Act II, Scene 2, 153-155)

The night symbolizes darkness and a state of

William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream presents a romantic comedy with the sense love is most associated with -the sense of sight- taken away in a motif of night. The play would seem to require the light of day rather than a setting in the darkest of all places at the darkest of all hours, but Shakespeare brilliantly combines this motif with the related symbols of the play to demonstrate the power of night and its correlation with love and vision. The reliance on different kinds of perception other than the sense of sight, as well as the power of the magic in the night forest, makes possible a happy ending for all four lovers by the end of the play. What begins in night as magic solidifies into reality with daylight. The darkness of night bequeaths peace and love among the lovers and carries this harmony into the light of day.

Shakespeare uses imagery to emphasize the significance of the sense of sight and its relation to love; the language of love relies heavily on sight imagery. Helena claims that real love has little to do with the eyes and that the gaze of the mind gives love its true shape, but even in making this assertion Helena is forced to rely on sight imagery: “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,/ And therefore is winged Cupid blind” (Act I, Scene 1, 234-235). Helena uses sight imagery in her resolution to get Demetrius back.

“Dark night, that from the eye his function takes, The ear more quick of apprehension makes. Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense, It pays the hearing double recompense. Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found; Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound.” (Act III, Scene 2, 177-182)

Some topics in this essay:
III Scene, Act Scene, IV Scene, William Shakespeare, Night’s Dream, II Scene, Cupid Roman, Diana Roman, Demetrius Demetrius’, Lysander Demetrius, scene 1, scene 2, act iii scene, act iii, act scene, act scene 1, iii scene, iii scene 2, sight imagery, night forest, power night, act ii scene, ii scene 2, iv scene, ii scene,