Preview

‘a Midsummer Night's Dream’

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
670 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
‘a Midsummer Night's Dream’
HELENA SPEECH ('A Midsummer Night's Dream')

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind." This quote is said by Helena during Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 234 - 235. What Helena means is that, Love is an affection which occurs with the mind and not with eyes. Looks aren't everything, Love happens when 2 souls attract to each other. Therefore Love is said to be blind.

Helena is a tall, fair, sweet-hearted person. Despite her lovely characteristics she is still left unloved. Demetrius, who previously was in love with Helena, abandoned her after meeting Hermia - Helena's childhood friend. Hermia is small, has dark hair with a dark complexion. Helena is presented as a more beautiful & gentle person than Hermia, yet Hermia is loved by both Lysander & Demetrius.

Helena displays a strong determination for Demetrius' love. She informs Demetrius of Lysander & Hermia's plan to elope into the woods, after Hermia's father did not approve of their marriage. Helena may be considered as a fool but a passionate lover as she still persists, although Demetrius doesn't love her. In Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 227 - 228, Demetrius says: “I’ll run from thee, and hide me in the brakes, And leave thee to mercy of wildbeasts." He also says in Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 199 - 201, "Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair? Or rather do I in plainest truth tell you I do not, nor cannot love you?" Demetrius clearly illustrates to Helena that he has no interest in her, But Helena persists. In Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 202 - 204, Helena says: "And even for that do I love you the more. I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius, The more you beat me, I will fawn on you." Helena's persistence is the key aspect that causes the problems between the lovers. Oberon, the King of the fairies, shows some benevolence in wanting to make Demetrius love the suffering Helena. So he uses the power of the magic juice and asks Puck to anoint the juice, from the flower, onto the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    AMSND Study Guide

    • 1616 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In the forest, the fairy Puck accidently puts the love potion on Lysnader’s eyes instead of Demetrius’s resulting in Lysander falling in love with Helena. As the night goes on, Lysander and Demetrius both fall in love with Helena, who thinks that they are mocking her, and Hermia challenging Helena to a fight. In the end Puck fixes his mistake, Lysander once again loves Hermia and Demetrius falls for Helena. The two couples marry and go to watch the play.…

    • 1616 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Helena is in love with Demetrius throughout the whole entire play where she constantly makes a fool out of herself by trying to be near Demetrius whenever she can. Helena wants to see Demetrius, even if it is only to have him scorn her and about he truly does not love her the way that she does. “But herein mean I to enrich my pain, To have his sight thither and back again”.(1.1.6).In this quote, said by Helena, she talks about how she can make herself feel better about the pain, she has been given from Demetrius, if only she could see him. In love, Helena shows complete foolishness and lack of judgment regarding to whom she should give her affection to such as Demetrius.…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The next morning I wake up and Lysander loves me again and Demetrius loves Helena. Lysander and I admit to our plan to elope and Demetrius tells my father that he is now in love with Helena and not me. I know my father is angry after hearing all this and demands that the death sentence to be carried out, but thankfully Theseus declares that me and Lysander and Demetrius and Helena can get married alongside with him and…

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lysander and Hermia, both young and well-off, are unpermitted, according to the Ancient Privilege, to wed each other without the approval of Hermia’s father, Egeus. However, not quite prepared to end their relationship, the lovers very ambitiously and suddenly run into a nearby forest. They have done so without considering the consequences, and as a result, find themselves lost. Lysander suggests this, when he says, “Fair love, you faint wandering in the wood, and in truth, I have forgot our way,” (II. ii. 41-42). Later in the play, the duke of Athens, Theseus, overbears Egeus’ will, and insists Lysander and Hermia wed each other on his marriage day. Hermia, in quickness and happiness, agrees, without considering her father’s reaction. By doing so, she may be sacrificing her relationship with him. In both situations, the young Athenians pay no attention to the consequences of their relationship, which supports the idea that love ignores all…

    • 491 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Demetrius is more of a cold soul, but that is transfigured in the final bits of the play, and Lysander is the hopeless romantic of the play. He spoils Hermia with little knacks and treats and even sings to her at her window sill in the night “Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung/ With faining voice verses of feigning love[...]” (1,1:31,32). Though it is quite obvious that the two men are tremendously different, there also are some similarities, more so near the end of the play as opposed to the beginning/middle. Both men find a partner in which they marry. In the final act, Lysander and Demetrius lock away their differences, and resolve the conflict between the…

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Shakespeare was pointing out that love is maddening and that people do very eccentric things for love. In the play A Midsummer night’s dream written by Shakespeare, the characters portray the quote written by John Lennon, ‘All you need is love’ in multiple ways. To some extent the quote is relatable and to some extent it is not. In the play, there is tension between love and law, thus, four lovers escape into the magic forest, while problems arise in the forest between Oberon, the king of fairies, and Titania, the queen of fairies. Oberon’s most trusted servant, Puck (Robin Goodfellow) uses magic juice to play tricks, to entertain his master, by mocking the power of love.…

    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy by William Shakespeare that takes place in Athens, Greece and in the forest where chaos unfolds on four lovers: Hermia, Lysander, Helena, and Demetrius. In these relationships the men are in power, belittling the women. Also, in the forest chaos happens between the fairies, King Oberon and Queen Titania, because he puts a potion on her and other in which the men are in control of the society they are in. An example of patriarchy is in the relationships between Theseus and Hippolyta, Lysander and Hermia, and Demetrius and Helena when the men take control. Throughout the play the men have power over the women, as…

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hermia and Lysander speak about the pain of their love and how they wish they had obstacles such as social standings or an age barrier, showing that they see them being together as almost impossible, yet they are still fixed on being with each other. Lysander also suggests that Hermia and himself run away to his Aunt’s house where they can be together and married – the fact that he is prepared to marry Hermia even though it is forbidden makes it clear that he loves her more than he fears death, which also relates to ‘Romeo and…

    • 432 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Midsummer Nights Dream

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Meanwhile, Helena is desperately in love with Demetrius at the start of the play. An example of this is: “what worser place can I beg for your love; than to be used as you use your dog”. This shows that Helena is in love with Demetrius because she would rather be near him and be treated like a dog than having to keep begging him to love her. In addition, when she said that, she didn’t have any dignity. Besides that, Helena is best friends with Hermia at the start of the play. An example of this is: Hermia: “I frown upon him; yet he loves me still”. Helena: O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skills”. This…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Helena foreshadows that “love is blind” through her and Demetrius’s contrasting views of each other. An example of that would be when they’re in the forest, Demetrius cannot see how kind Helena is to him. Even when he responds to her with hateful words, yet she replies by saying, “I am your spaniel. And, Demetrius,/ The more you beat me, I will fawn on you” (2.1.203-204). First of all, this quote shows how Demetrius is so “blind” that he is unable to see how good, affectionate and kind at heart Helena is, even when he is very impolite and insulting towards her. Even so, Demetrius is about to leave Helena in the woods alone, she does not realize how repelled he is by her even when he declares, “ Or if…

    • 216 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Blind love is common in todays society and culture. Shakespeare, a fifteenth century playwright, wrote “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” where four characters compete for with each other for love. One of the characters, Helena, is like the “fourth point in a triangle”, a love struck friend whose love interest is in love with her friend. Helena desperately loves Demetrius who constantly rejects her. She is the love-struck friend, desperately in love and is insecure about herself, this makes her persistent and foolish.…

    • 1134 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The strong friendship between Helena and Hermia quickly disintegrated when they became involved with the two men. The love potion was meant to help, but Puck's…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    her own benefit thinking she can inspire Demetrius to love her again. Another example of one of the character…

    • 284 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I grew interested in the play’s conflict, since it seems modern day typical. I, for one, enjoy watching love stories and dramas. This play, served just that purpose. Reading of the avenged lover’s, Hermia and Lysander, plan to run into the forest to marry seemed likely to be seen on a Wednesday night, 9:00PM, drama series. Which, I absolutely love! Then, the play takes a twist from reality. Helena acquires information related to Hermia and Lysander’s plan to marry, which provides her initiative to tell Demetrius. She intends on winning back the love of Demetrius. The two of them go out in search of the Lysander and Hermia, and find that they’ve all landed themselves in a forest filled with “fairies.”…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In her article “The Complexities of Love” Shakespearian Critic Catherine Belsey concurs that the love between Demetrius and Helena is contrived, “It is also delightfully absurd, when we bear in mind that it is the instant effect of Robin Goodfellow’s love-juice, and represents a vision of Helena that Demetrius was quite unable to see his sight was bewitched” (Belsey 118). What Besley is saying is, looking at it from an outside view, it is quite ironic and absurd that Demetrius would be completely in love with Helena, but for all the wrong reasons. Belsey says that their love is not real love, and that in itself is an example of love not taking a smooth course. Helena being in love with a man who does not love her, facing Demetrius’ cruelty, and finally the ersatz love Demetrius has for Helena demonstrates complications in…

    • 1869 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics