Isabelle Nunan Mr. Loynes English B Block April 28th, 2015 A Midsummer Night’s Dream Essay When an intense amount of love is in the atmosphere, it causes people to make irrational decisions and separates them from their true self. This scary and thrilling rollercoaster of a ride is fully exhibited in Shakespeare’s comic yet heart touching play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s all about four lovers, two worlds and a whole lot of arguing. This play takes place in two main settings and explores the dramatic “love square” of the four lovers: Demetrius, Helena, Lysander and Hermia. Shakespeare’s twist on romance uncovers many things about what love can bring to the table. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare utilizes the motivations and actions …show more content…
Obsessed over Demetrius, Helena's character emphasizes the whimsicality of love. Even though Helena knows that she is making a fool of herself by chasing after Demetrius, she cannot stop the race. She reminds us that love is blind, declaring that she is as beautiful as Hermia, so there is no logical explanation for Demetrius' sudden shift in affection. In act one, after Helena has found out about Hermia and Lysanders plan, Helena has a monologue. In one of the lines she says “Love can transpose to form and dignity./Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;/And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.” In this part, Helena admits that she loves many of Demetrius's "base and vile" qualities. Shakespeare’s use of figurative language when he says “Cupid painted blind” makes it seems that love has the capacity to blind to the truth. Shakespeare also says that love looks with the mind, this exhibits irrational behavior. We cannot literally see with our minds, we physically see with our eyes, but Shakespeare says love does this. He is almost making it seem as if “love” in this part is another character, like it has taken over her; it’s not Helena seeing, its love. This point is further emphasized by the two men's love potion-induced attraction for her. Through these interactions, we learn that love is blind, illogical and …show more content…
Demetrius is jealous of Lysander as he has the one thing that Demetrius wants, Hermia. As mentioned before, Hermia and Demetrius are to be married, so when he finds out that Hermia and Lysander are planning to run away and elope, he makes a mindless decision: “Where is Lysander, and fair Hermia? The one I’ll slay, the other slayeth me”. Demetrius plans to kill Lysander and take Hermia for himself, not thinking about Hermia’s feelings at all. Whilst in the forest, Demetrius is anger-ridden and therefore makes a foolish decision once again and is rude to poor Helena, who is nothing but nice to him. He says, “Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair?/Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth/Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you?” Shakespeare uses cacophony, a repetition of consonants, to stress his anger and disrespect. He uses the words “entice” “speak” “plainest” “truth” etc. From this piece of text you can also infer his condescending tone as Shakespeare uses a repetition of questions, as if Demetrius is talking to Helena like she is stupid. Demetrius is so driven by his jealousy of Lysander and his love for Hermia that he is blinded and cannot see that he is being a self-absorbed