How Can Love be Foolish or Blind?
To many people, love is believed to be beautiful, romantic, and passionate. However, often times, love is considered foolish and blind as well. In the famous play, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Shakespeare proves the foolishness and blindness of love through the conflicts between the characters.
When people are in love, they tend to act foolish. They begin to love everything about each other, even their flaws. As well, they become foolish enough to devote themselves to each other, even if they have to risk their lives. A particular scene in the play (2.1.205-207), where Helena is following Demetrius, who is chasing after Helena into the woods, clearly demonstrates this idea:
Use me but as your spaniel; spurn me, strike me,
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
From this scene, it is obvious that love has made Helena foolish. Although Demetrius is a capricious man, who betrayed her to marry Hermia, Helena does not realize this. She does not see his flaws; in fact, she believes him to be perfect and begs for his love, insisting that compared to him, she is as worthless as a spaniel. Like a fool, she gives up her pride and dignity. As well, Helena risks her life into the woods, just to gain Demetrius love back. Even when Demetrius tells her to go back, her foolishness causes her to stay.
Love is blinding as well since it functions through the heart, not the eyes. Because love is just like a wrapping paper, it covers the persons flaws with beautiful colors, deceiving people and making them blind to the disguise. In Titanias case, she was extremely blinded by the loves trick that she fell in love with Bottom, a grotesque ass-headed mortal. This quote demonstrates Titanias blindness towards Bottom (4.1.1-4):
Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed,
While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,
And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,
And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.
Because Titania is blinded with passion of love, she sees every part of Bottom beautiful. As the quote describes, she is even in love with his long, ugly ass ears and hairy ass cheeks.
In conclusion, William Shakespeare successfully portrayed the two important aspects of love, foolishness and blindness, in his play. Through the characters, he explained how love destroys pride, dignity, and the most important of all, radicality. Love takes away peoples ability to think in logic and make foolish mistakes. Shakespeare clearly and comprehensively depicted the power of love: how love can completely change peoples views.
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