In the comic romantic play A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, four plebeians fight for destiny in the city of Athens, in Greece. Hermia, a strong-willed young woman, defies her father's orders to marry Demetrius, a fellow Athenian, and then flees into the woods to marry Lysander. However, when the lovers, Hermia and Lysander, elope, their plans are disrupted when they are informed by Helena, Demetrius's obsessive lover. At this point, Lysander, after learning that the others had disrupted their escape plans, says that "the course of true love never ran smoothly" (28). Later, when the love potion is placed on the lovers by Puck, the well-known trickster. , and the other fairies like Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of the fairies, many confusions and falsely false love affections and emotions arise between the "square of love". “The course of true love never ran smoothly” (28) is very evident in the relationships of Hermia and Lysander, of Helena and Demetrius, and in the trials and disasters of the love potion. Hermia and Lysander's love is tested. when many events disrupt the course of their true love. Hermia's father, Egeus, is a very powerful figure in Hermia's life and has a huge impact on Hermia and Lysander's love. However, he greatly disapproves of Lysander and is so keen for his daughter to marry Demetrius that if Hermia does not marry Demetrius, she will, "either to die or to abjure for ever the society of men" (24). This quote, said by Theseus, the Duke of Athens acting as Aegeus' messenger, means that if Hermia does not marry Demetrius, "a worthy gentleman"(24) in the eyes of Aegeus, she will face death or before. ..... middle of paper ...... we must endure and adapt to obstacles in the path of "the course of [their] true love" (28). There were many problems during the course of true love for Hermia and Lysander and Helen and Demetrius that were caused by unavoidable outside sources such as the fairies, Aegeus, the love potion, and Athenian law. And even now, in the modern world, there are still problems and disappointments during true love. Although love potions and Athenian law do not cause problems on the path to true love, children, finances, accidents, approval, work and other factors come into play, leading to couples in the United States to divorce in 41% of cases. their first marriage. In the modern world, and in Shakespeare's time, it is very evident that "the course of true love never ran smoothly" (28). Works Cited A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare