What is the true definition of love? Many people have different interpretations of this small but powerful word. However, in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream the definition becomes rather convoluted. Pure, real love exists in the characters, but is all the love at the end of this play authentic? Love exists in A Midsummer Night's Dream before Oberon and Puck cast magic on others, which then causes some of the true love to instantly disappear. The feeling of love in the poem is both real and false. At the beginning of Shakespeare's play a man named Egeus wishes for his daughter Hermia to marry Demetrius. However, Hermia and another man, Lysander, are completely and hopelessly in love. Despite what his daughter wants, he wants her to marry Demetrius. If she does not marry Demetrius, her father offers her two alternative options. These choices include never marrying any other man and being a nun or facing death. At this point in the play, the love between Hermia and Lysander is quite real, however if she were to marry Demetrius her love for him would ultimately be non-existent. Later in the play, the character of Elena was introduced. She was a young woman from Athens in love with Demetrius. Demetrius and Helena were once in love, however when Demetrius met his dear friend Hermia, he fell in love with her and left Helena. People who fall in love tend to love the person unconditionally, which leads one to assume that the love between Demetrius and Helena has always been one-sided. Since Helena is in love with Demetrius and her feelings were most likely lust rather than love. Where lust finally fades into darkness. True love exists for Helena Towa... middle of paper... who literally marries a man who actually didn't love her at all and perhaps never loved her. Equally arbitrary, Demetrius has forever been under a love spell that traps him with one woman for the rest of his life. The love between the two is extremely illusory. With a closer look you immediately understand that the happy ending isn't that happy after all. In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, true love as well as false love are boldly defined. The love of Lysander and Hermia, as well as Oberon and Titania, for each other is legitimate and honest. However, the fictional love in the play focuses on a single character. Demetrius is the only character whose love is a lie that only exists thanks to magic potions. Demetrius' love for Helen will forever be just a fraudulent feeling leading to the conclusion that forged love exists in Shakespeare's work.