"The course of Love did never run smooth".
I do believe that this statement by William Shakespeare is utterly true. After reading the play, it really does widen my view about the difficulties faced by each lover. From there we can detect different types of couples [warrior couple, immortal couple (fairies), mortal Athenian couples] with different kinds of characteristics that sometimes may make them look like a bunch of fools! (Excluding Theseus & Hippolyta). Since Midsummer Night's Dream is a light hearted romantic play, the ending ends happily with reconciliation and marriage.
THESUES & HIPPOLYTA.
In this play, I find that the significant of the statement, "The course true love never did run smooth" is not vivid enough if I were to apply it in Thesues and Hippolyta's situation. This is because Shakespeare does not really reveal much about the causes and consequences of the war that finally leads to marriage. The only statement Thesues make is,.
"I wooed thee by my sword,.
I won thy love doing the injuries".
This statement above may be a clue that shows Thesues's love for Hippolyta. Thus, the couple does not make much appearance in the whole play. They only appearance in the early Act I, and do not appear until Act IV. It is clever of Shakespeare to create these two characters by using the legendary figures" famous names in order to clarify the readers" doubts of Thesues and Hippolyta's love history. Names like the King of Athens and Queen of the Amazon; where the King captures the Queen after her loss in the battle and eventually they fall in love.
Anyhow, this shows that their love blooms after the war (conflict) is over. This seems to be an obstacle for them before they got married happily through the course of true love.
OBERON & TITANIA (Fairy King and Queen).
On the other hand, Oberon and Titania also reflect a couple with marital problems. It comes as a surprise to me that fairies do have the feelings that resembles human in Shakespeare's context.