A Midsummer Night's Dream Lysander Quotes

Hmm. This is interesting. Here, we learn that Demetrius was once engaged ("made love to") to another girl, Helena, before dropping her to be with Hermia. Long before the fairies' love juice causes Demetrius to fall back in love with Helena (2.2; 3.2), we learn that lovers can be fickle and erratic, even without the help of some magic potion.

This is one of the most famous lines of the play, and for good reason.  Lysander's declaration pretty much sums up the play's notion that lovers always face difficult hurdles on the path to happiness—whether it's a disapproving parent, rival lover, or something else. In the play, Shakespeare makes this "love is an obstacle course" metaphor very literal when the young Athenians go chasing each other around the wood in pursuit of love. We're also interested in the way Lysander locates his love for Hermia in a long, rich "tradition."  For Lysander, love is epic and the stuff of great literature and history. 

Here, Lysander lists the obstacles that can separate lovers: "war, death, or sickness." Lysander also knows that, even though love can be explosive like "lightening," it's usually short-lived: "So quick bright things come to confusion."  

P.S. The idea that love is transient, by the way, is a major theme in Romeo and Juliet, where Friar Laurence  says the following about Romeo's passion: "These violent delights have violent ends" (2.6.1). 

After Lysander has been drugged by Oberon's love juice, he falls instantly in love with Helena and violently out of love with Hermia.  What's interesting is that, when characters fall out of love in this play, their love turns into hate rather than indifference. What's up with that?

Lysander makes a pretty good point here—Egeus and Demetrius get along far better than Demetrius and Hermia.  In fact, Hermia has been left out of the marriage negotiations altogether.  The contract has been put together by two men.