Midsummer Night's Dream Analysis

The passage I chose was from A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. In this passage, Lysander falls in love with Helena after being accidentally struck with the love juice by Puck. However, Helena does not interpret it the same way and thinks that Lysander is mocking her and leaves. Then, Lysander says that he never wants to see Hermia again and leaves her alone while she is sleeping. Hermia awakes from a nightmare where her heart was being eaten out by a serpent and Lysander stood, smiled, and watched it happen. Hermia thought that Lysander was there when she was telling him about her horrendous dream, but when she realizes he is not there, she panics and runs away looking for him. After annotating and analyzing this passage from
Elisions, caesuras, and enjambment were also included throughout the passage. Each character's lines were written in iambic pentameter with only two long lines, or lines with ten or more syllables. When Lysander says “ And, all my powers, address your love and might/ To honour Helen and to be her knight!”() This quote showed that Lysander is now more interested in Helena, but disinterested in Hermia. When he leaves stage to go after Helena it reveals his abandonment and rejection towards her. However, when Hermia says “ Either death or you I’ll find immediately”() What she was saying was that she would find Lysander or she would kill herself, so she is head over heels for him. This situation between Hermia and Lysander connects back to our theme of duality. Hermia is in love with Lysander, but he is not in love with her. Also, Hermia says that in her nightmare a serpent was eating her heart out. Usually serpents are meant to represent evil, like in the bible when the serpent convinces Eve to eat the apple from the tree which she was told not to eat. The serpent in the nightmare is eating Hermia’s heart out and Lysander is smiling and watching. This can symbolize Lysander and how he abandons her, causing her heart to