Passion In A Midsummer Night's Dream

Passion is what fuels an emotion to expand to greater feelings. It turns like into love, sad into depression, and dislike into hatred. Someone can be passionate about love or hate to the same extent. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Demetrius has multiple passions; determination (to have Hermia), hatred (for Helena), and love (for Helena). The emotions he shows all differ in reason and impact, but are fueled by the same thing; passion.

In the beginning of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Demetrius has won the acceptance of Hermia’s father and is now determined to make her his own. Demetrius is in love with Helena, but is more so infatuated by the fact that she doesn’t love him. He feels as if he has won the right to Hermia when he says, “Relent, sweet

Though not so long ago he loved her, Demetrius’ feelings have changed drastically. He went form loving Helena to loathing her. He constantly tells Helena that the sight of her makes him sick and even goes as far as to threaten her if she follows him in the night. Just as the more Hermia denies him the more Demetrius wants her, the more Helena wants Demetrius the more he hates her. Even when Helena tells Demetrius that Hermia and Lysander plan to run away together he gives her no sympathy or gratitude, just pure hatred. His passion of hatred is quite possibly the strongest passion throughout the entire play. His hatred is so strong that it can only be taken away by fairy magic and replaced by the opposite extreme;

Passion can transform a person. Demetrius’ passions transformed him from a man pining for love just to show his worth, to a man of great hatred for the woman who loves him most, and finally to a man head over heels for the same woman he loathed just a day before. Demetrius was passionate about all three of these situations and they all transformed him in some way. Demetrius experienced the extremes of emotion because he was passionate. His passions helped mold his character and made him endure hope, hatred, and