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"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind"

 

        This is undoubtedly the most quoted line from Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s dream, found in movies, series and books. It is spoken by Helena in the first act of the play, in a moment of jealousy: Demetrius loves Hernia, not her.

But what is the true meaning of this quote and why is it so famous?

Shakespeare seems to believe that love is a matter of the heart. It seems that Shakespeare rejects love at first sight, which is dependent on physical attraction (closer to the Greek eros) and substitutes it with love that requires an emotional and spiritual bond (closer to the Greek agape, a more elevated kind of love). This notion is explored in other Shakespearean works as well. In his Sonnets, there are ample examples of references to love despite the absence of physical attraction. For instance, in Sonnet 130, Shakespeare says that he loves his mistress deeply, despite the fact that she is not beautiful in the typical Petrarchan sense:

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;

Coral is far more red than her lips' red;

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

…

And in some perfumes is there more delight

…

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare

In the sonnet tradition, expectations for women are high. Women are like deities; the standards are unreachable. Aethereal beings of unique beauty are typical in the Petrarchan tradition. Shakespeare goes against this here. His mistress' eyes do not shine like the sun. Her lips are not red. Her skin is not white; it is dun, meaning she has been exposed to the sun. She is working class. Shakespeare paints a picture of an ordinary woman, with nothing special in her appearance. But she is rare. And yes, he loves her.

Sonnet 141 is another instance. He doesn’t love with his eyes, for eyes find wrongs, imperfections. That’s why he loves with his heart, because the heart can love these imperfections or maybe even love because of these imperfections.

In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes,
For they in thee a thousand errors note; 
But 'tis my heart that loves what they despise

These instances set a motif that Shakespeare explores throughout his work, namely that "love is blind." It does not matter what a person looks like, because, in the end, one falls in love with personality and what’s inside. Afterall, physical beauty is ephemeral…

 


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