History Headscratchers / AMidsummerNightsDream

* The entire play revolves around the story of faeries casting magic spells on humans, and the love-potion is brewed from Cupid's arrow. It symbolizes the apparently random way humans fall in love with each other - so if you're looking for a tragic ending to the story, it would be that love is a completely random and arbitrary force that will get you in a lot of trouble, and you might just fall out of it just as easily.

* 99% of the time, if something bothers you in Shakespeare than it was supposed to. The resolution of love in MSND is something very difficult to decode, since it does rely heavily on taking away free will, but love in Shakespeare is often a matter of youth, a time of fiery conclusion, finding it's way to settle and compromise into adulthood, rather than finding things resolve in perfect and happy ways. There's a reason that Romeo and Juliet were too cute to live. Still, while this compromise often happens, we're not necessarily supposed to be entirely cool with it.

* This troper actually wrote an essay on the shifts in power play between the four lovers. Pre-love potion, Lysander and Hermia are with their true love, so Lysander treats both of them with kindness and affection, whereas Demetrius thinks only of himself and his emotions. During the love potion, it gets switched - 'Demetrius' treats both Helena and Hermia with kindness and respect, whereas Lysander doesn't give a damn about either of them, caring only for his emotions. The love potion basically grants stupidly strong desire, which was what Demetrius was feeling. When reapplied, it cancels itself out, and he acts as his true character is - someone in love with Helena who is essentially decent. So, to answer the question: Demetrius hasn't been forced to marry his stalker - you could argue he was in a self-made date rape drug that he got kicked out of thanks to the elixir.

Secondly, from his point of view it is a happy ending. Now, I'm of course not suggesting that you should drug people into loving you--all I'm saying is that from Demetrius's POV, all that's happened is that his affections changed and he now loves a woman who loves him back. There's no indication that it feels any different to him than if the feelings had arose naturally. (And like I said, the presence of Cupid in this play suggests that this is as natural as romantic feelings get in AMND.)
* Isn't Egeus ordering Demetrius to marry Hermia? By Athenian law, a father's word trumps everything except a monarch's (which is why Theseus allowing Lysander to marry her overrules him) - so Demetrius actually has very little choice in the matter. He was going to marry Helena, but Egeus wanted him to marry Hermia - so it's possible to read his 'wooing' as little more than obligation because a man that ranks higher than he wants him to marry his daughter. Helena is not his 'stalker' - she was his fiance in all but name until she randomly got jilted. You can read Helena's actions less as clingy stalking, but someone trying to work out why their partner has gone cold on them and doing whatever she can to rekindle the relationship. Demetrius did not love Hermia, Lysander did, so the happy ending is them getting to marry. With that in effect, Demetrius probably would return to Helena anyway.

* But then again, we can easily discount that theory - most especially as the 'true nature' doesn't take effect with Titania, who literally becomes blind to physical defection once she is put under.

** One AlternateCharacterInterpretation is that Oberon and Titania are becoming more human (thereby partially explaining why they're feuding now) and part of Oberon's plots is a combination of PetTheDog and trying to understand WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove. Whereas before, he and Titania slept about (as seen in their comments about Theseus and Hippolyta), now Oberon is starting to feel jealous of her attentions - the Indian boy can be seen as one of the first things they haven't shared - and he doesn't understand why he should feel this way. Helena and Demetrius come through and decides that he can at least make one couple happy. Of course, HilarityEnsues, but that's Shakespeare for you.

** When I was in a production of MSND, this is how it was interpreted. Oberon is impressed with the strength of Helena's love for Demetrius - who clearly wants nothing to do with her - and that she's being proactive by chasing after her man instead of waiting around for someone to chase her. Oberon has the means and the might to make a miserable person happy, so he does.

* Perhaps he also saw a bit of himself in her. He seemed to feel that Titania had displaced her affections for him onto the changeling boy and was feeling lonely - so he sympathised with this woman who got jilted by her former lover in favour of another woman who doesn't even want him.

** Hermia also immediately accuses Helena of stealing Lysander. It's said that the two of them grew up together and were close friends, so Helena is taking offence to such a statement - and assuming that Hermia has to be in on this cruel joke. Hermia pretty quickly jumps to accusing Helena of doing something, as opposed to assuming that the men are joking, so that gave Helena even more reason to think Hermia was part of the game.

** Faeries are just screwed up like that. *shrugs*

** Also for most versions of the Fae are constantly playing games with each and changelings are often the playing pieces. Oberon won this game, Titania can have another go later. Sucks to be the boy, but for the King and Queen this is business as usual.

* Worth noting is that, whatever Titania's fondness for his mother, at no point did she state she was asked to look to take him in. The kid is a changeling, which TheFairFolk take when they feel like it. Neither faerie monarch has any legal human right to the boy. Oberon's "right" comes from "I'm king of the faeries and I want this" and Titania's is the same with an emotional connection.

** This makes a little more sense if you know how the Ancient Greeks viewed romantic love. They saw it more as a madness or infatuation that struck suddenly like a sickness - and made people do foolish things. For example Helen of Troy was bewitched by Aphrodite into falling in love with Paris and eloping with him even when she knew it would start a war. Lysander and Hermia's love is said to be natural by Oberon, whereas his infatuation with Helena is unnatural and induced by magic - meaning he acts crazier and more irrational. Shakespeare was using the Greek attitude towards love as a counterpoint to the more mainstream attitude.