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All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 1Scene 1
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Cupid
Mythological Reference
Act 1,
Scene 1
Lines 232-239

An explanation of the reference to Cupid in Act 1, Scene 1 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

Helena

Things base and vile, holding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste.
And therefore is Love said to be a child
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.

Cupid, the boy god who makes people fall in love by shooting them with his golden arrows, is often portrayed as being either blind or blindfolded because the targets of his arrows seem selected at random. This notion gave rise to our expression "love is blind."

Cupid Blindfolded, Piero della Francesca, c. 1466