Comparison Of Love And Sex In A Midsummer Night's Dream

Love and sex is a natural phenomenon with sex primarily being for reproduction and secondly for pleasure. Coming of age means exploring one’s sexuality through experimentation and practice to find preferences and what is pleasurable. However, when it is time to have children, that means settling down monogamously and usually heterosexually. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, two young couples are now at the marrying age, but they resist the traditions implemented on them by their society’s laws, and for Hermia and Lysander, the rules placed by Hermia’s father Egeus and the Duke of Athens Theseus. Up until this point their relationships have been open with strong allusions to Helena and Hermia having more than a friendship. One of the reasons Helena
Initially, she complains how she is left out since both Lysander and Demetrius are vying for Hermia’s affection. It comes off as jealousy for the attention, but it also has a homoerotic undertone to it as well as Hermia professes Helena’s beauty. Through an actor’s interpretation, it could be whiny, but the choice in words leaves a romantic connotation to it as Helena claims to Hermia, “Your eyes are lodestars, and your tongue’s sweet air/ More tunable than a lark to a shepherd’s ear” (I, i, 183-184). She then goes on to wish for Hermia’s beauty not just to “sway the motion of Demetrius’ heart” but also to woo Hermia as well (I, i, 193). In an almost serenading like fashion, Helena tells Hermia, “My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye, / My tongue should catch your tongue’s sweet melody” (I, i, 188-189). Some might interpret that for singing except that she already mentioned Hermia’s voice, so that would be redundant. Therefore, the latter part is essentially the taste of a kiss between the two girls.
Just as Hermia is unimpressed with Demetrius’ attempt at wooing and later Lysander’s own hopeful seduction in the woods, Hermia does not accept the compliment but deflects it by claiming she is not actively encouraging Demetrius’ affections. Helena continues to compliment Hermia in an envious manner for the rest of the scene,
In some households, it was even to be expected and “was considered a harmless preparation for adult marital roles” (52). For Hermia, she feels she is ready for such marital roles, but Helena is still clinging to it, most likely out of latent feelings. For the betrayal that she feels, Helena decides to tell Demetrius about where the young lovers are meeting. Normally, this is interpreted so that she shows Demetrius that she is available while Hermia is not, but it could be another ploy of jealousy where she is attempting to make Hermia feel what she