A Midsummer Night’s Dream is not necessarily a love story, but the comedy unfolds through the complicated conflicts that arise from love. As Lysander suggests, true love “never did run smooth” (1.1.134). At the beginning of the play, love is a force of chaos. Hermia is willing to risk death to be with Lysander, Demetrius loves Hermia but also wants her punished, and Oberon and Titania are bickering with one another. The complex nature of these lovers’ quarrels is the foundation of the play, as the characters try to resolve their differences and achieve a simpler, more satisfying, and less acrimonious version of love. Along the way, the play mocks and satirizes the idea of simple, romantic love and shows the audience that reality—even a reality that involves fairies and magic—is far more complex.

The loving relationships the play portrays all involve some degree of conflict. Oberon and Titania bicker and play tricks on one another, Theseus marries Hippolyta after a war, and Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, and