Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedic play written by William Shakespeare. Although there are different points of views within the story, the play centers around the ideas of romance--one of which happens to be a “love rhombus” between four athenian youths. Demetrius, one of the young men amongst the four youths, is in love with Hermia (one of the young ladies), yet she despises Demetrius and is in a relationship with Lysander (the young man who is a rival to Demetrius). While Demetrius pines after Hermia, Hermia’s best friend Helena is in love with Demetrius, but he hates her. Eventually, after much confusion, some magic, and a bit of chaos, Demetrius falls in love with Helena as she wanted from the beginning, but it is the result of

He often told her to stay away from him because he does not lover her: “I love thee not, therefore pursue me not” (2.5.173). During this scene, he’s searching for Hermia in the woods because Helena had told him that her and Lysander would be there; however, this was just a ploy for Helena to pursue Demetrius. It is ineffective for Demetrius is refusing her advances, and the only things that he desires of her is to stop chasing him. After attempting to outrun her, he told her, “I’ll run from thee and hide me in the brakes, and leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts” (2.6.212-113) which in essence means he wants her to get mauled by animals while he escapes. It is evident that he does not show affection towards her or even cares about her at all. In fact, he wants one of the worst things that could happen to an individual to befall on Helena. Throughout the beginning of the play, Demetrius shows nothing but disdain for Helena and does not care about what could happen to

The magic spell was first introduced when Oberon, the King of the Fairies, explained to Puck, his impish servant, how the love potion works--that, when placed upon the eye, the first living thing that he sees he will fall in love with: “Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell./It fell upon a little western flower,/Before milk-white, now purple with love’s wound./And maidens call it “love-in-idleness.”/Fetch me that flower. The herb I showed thee once./The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid/Will make man or woman madly dote/Upon the next live creature that it sees./Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again/Ere the leviathan can swim a league” (2.5.150-159). This had originally been the plan that Oberon devised for Titania, the Queen of the Fairies, so that he could have his way in their part of the story. However, Oberon, taking note of Helena and Demetrius, decided to “help them out” using the flower. The king then orders Puck to put it on the eyes of the Athenian young man, and the potion eventually gets to the eyes of Demetrius: “Flower of this purple dye,/Hit with Cupid’s archery,/Sink in apple of his eye./When his love he doth espy,/Let her shine as gloriously/As the Venus of the sky./When thou wakest, if she be by,/Beg of her for remedy” (3.11.131-138). After a huge mix-up with Lysander, Oberon puts the love potion on Demetrius’ eyes