Helena In A Midsummer Night's Dream

Another play where the most favorite characters seem to be male is A Midsummer Nights Dream. While characters like Puck and Bottom stand out as the most personable, they themselves are not as involved in the more prominent dramatic events. Helena, who is the lovesick young woman desperately in love with Demetrius, might be the most fully drawn. Shakespeare first introduces the reader to Helena to as the character that nobody loves. She is a self-pitying character that might be ignored purely out of annoyance, but her character is important nonetheless. Of the four Athenian lovers, Helena is the one who philosophizes most about the nature of love, maybe because she’s not too busy being loved by anyone. At the beginning of the play, she is left out of the love triangle involving Hermia, Demetrius, and Lysander, which further adds to her self-loathing and allows the audience to feel for her. Through the use of Helena as a character, Shakespeare comments on the ideas and nature of love.
/ Things base and vile, holding no quantity” (1.1.237-238). Despite this, she remains utterly faithful to him, and she sets out to win his love by telling him about Lysander and Hermia’s plan to run away and get married. Once Helena arrives at the forest, many of her characteristics are enhanced by the puzzlement that the love potion creates. In comparison to the other Athenian lovers, she is extremely unsure of herself. She worries about her appearance and is certain that Lysander mocks her when he declares his love for her. It seems that Helena has spent so much time rationalizing why she isn't loved that when it finally does comes along, she cannot properly enjoy it. Even at the end of the play, when Demetrius still loves her, Helena is