Shakespeare’s Love Juice in the Real Life Essay

William Shakespeare’s famous play entitled “Midsummer Night’s Dream” is a comedy narrating about the intervention of magic into the world of ordinary people and shows how human fates can be changed with love juice. Love juice is a potion that can be extracted from flowers growing in the woods; when applied to the person’s eyelids, it makes him or her fall in love with the first creature he/she sees. The kind of the fairy world, Oberon, discovers the juice and in an attempt to change his wife’s attitude towards him and prevent Hermia and Demetrius from conflict, he orders that the magic substance be used. After a series of mistakes and misunderstandings, all characters finally divide into stable couples and successfully celebrate their marriages. The present paper argues that the so-called love juice exists in the real-life: in particular, the effect of love, at first sight, the love madness created by celebrities wearing beautiful clothes, using make-up and fragrances as well as the influence of alcohol on human feelings can be compared to the action of the love potion.

Love at first glance is often referred to as crush, as it is sometimes difficult to understand falling in love with the person without knowing them at all. It might happen to anybody in any place or setting, but it normally happens to young, dreamy, and romantic people. In Shakespeare’s play, Lysander, who never loved Helene, falls in love with her at the first sight after opening his eyes: “And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake./ Transparent Helena! Nature shows art/That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart./ Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word/ Is that vile name to perish on my sword!” (Shakespeare, Act II, Scene II). Since Lysander has love juice on his eyelids, whereas Helena has not received such “gift” from Pucks, this feeling is not reciprocal: “Do not say so Lysander; say not so/ What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though?/Yet Hermia still loves you: then be content” (Shakespeare, Scene II, Act II).

However, love at first sight, similarly to the feelings, created by the love juice, are unconditional and thus cannot be rationally explained, as they might persist even after the lover is rejected by the object of love. In such cases, the person who has had a “crush”, instead of trying to find out more about the object of love, begins to plan feats and heroic actions in an attempt to win the positive disposition of the love lady or love gentleman, similarly to Lysander, who is searching for his sword to stab his lover Demetrius. Both love juice and love, at first sight, make the person “blind” and bring human consciousness to the level of myth, i.e. the loving person sees the object of love in a more positive light; for instance, Lysander reveals that Helena’s soul and heart are pieces of art, implying that she is a virtuous and kind person, whereas Helena betrayed her friend, Hermia, pursuing her interest in a romance with Demetrius. However, in the case of Demetrius falling in love with Helena, who has loved this man for years, love, at first sight, unites the two souls and helps both Helena and Demetrius purify themselves and discover new unique traits in one another.

Secondly, it needs to be admitted that love juice can be compared by its action with the unnatural beauty of celebrities wearing designer clothes, using plastic surgery, make-up, and perfumes. As a rule, celebrities become the idols of teenage girls, who fall in love not with the human being, but rather with the beautiful image provided by the TV screen and glossy magazines. As a rule, the direct causes of such feelings are the standard attributes of famous people, including unusual clothing from exclusive collections, which cannot be purchased in shops, the thick layer of make-up, making the singer or actor as perfect and beautiful as a Roman statue, and brand perfumes, positioned by marketers as “divine gifts”.

In Shakespeare’s play, Titania, affected by the love juice, falls in love with Bottom after hearing him singing and performing his theatrical role, i.e. the first attraction developed based on the external characteristics: “I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:/ Mine ear is much enamored of thy note;/ So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;/And thy fair virtue’s force perforce doth move me/On the first view to sat […]” (Shakespeare, Act III, Scene I). Similarly, the beauty of celebrities mesmerizes and fascinates teenagers, and similarly to Titania, they seek to listen to their songs and watch them playing their roles in motion pictures without taking a critical approach to the quality of their work. Furthermore, the social gap between Titania and Bottom is the same as the distance between ordinary teenagers and TV stars, so the love juice, as well as underlined perfectness of famous people, make their ‘victim’ fall in love with a person from a different social circle or class, so such feelings often have no future.

Finally, alcohol is often referred to as a powerful love potion, as it makes the person feel freer and more open in self-expression and behavior. In certain cases, it simply causes passion and sexual attraction, whereas softer drinks such as white wine drive the person into an inspired or poetic state of mind and might lead them to fall in love instead of developing a mere infatuation. In small portions alcohol, similarly to Shakespeare’s love juice, might cause a wife to look at her husband from a different angle and strengthen her feelings, like in the case of Titania and Oberon starting their family life anew after the woman receives love juice. In certain cases, however, alcohol causes true madness and its action can be also compared to the effect of the love juice on Lysander, who abandons his beau Hermia and tries to seduce Helena.

Thus, there are many examples of love juice in action in the real life. Both Shakespeare’s play and the life experience demonstrate that when used reasonably, the love juice, represented in the real life as love, at first sight, love for such unreachable and beautiful ideal as a pop idol and poetic inspiration and love that develop under the effect of alcohol, can unite two loving hearts and strengthen the flame of love between two spouses who have lived together for a long time. At the same time, the unwise use of the love juice might cause madness and mania, thus destroying the person’s happiness.

Works cited

Shakespeare, W. Midsummer Night’s Dream. In The Bedford Introduction to Literature, edited by D.Meyer.

Shakespeare, W. Midsummer Night’s Dream. 2009. Web.