Hermia in Love

Helena is the epitome of frustrated love.

In Athens she is known to be just as beautiful as Hermia, but the man she loves only has eyes for the fair Hermia. Even though Demetrius loves Hermia and cares nothing for Helena, Helena does not hate Hermia, but rather is envious of her beauty. She muses “Were the world mine…teach me how you look and with what art you saw the motion of Demetrius’ heart” (190-193).

Helena and Hermia are good friends from childhood, and Hermia trys to explain to Helena that she does not know why Demetrius is in love with her:


HERMIA: I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.

HELENA: O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!

HERMIA: I give him curses, yet he gives me love.

HELENA: O that my prayers could such affection move!

HERMIA: The more I hate, the more he follows me.

HELENA: The more I love, the more he hateth me.

HERMIA: His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.

HELENA: None, but your beauty: would that fault were mine!

HERMIA: Take comfort: he no more shall see my face;
Lysander and myself will fly this place.



In this passage, both girls are frustrated with Demetrius, but Helena is more agonized than Hermia. Hermia tries to console Helena, but she is not too concerned with Helena’s situation. Lysander and Hermia are too caught up in their own love to take real action against Helena’s plight. When together, the explain the details of their elopement to Helena, but quickly desert her in the forest, too full of excitement. Before they depart, Lysander tells Helena “As you on him, Demetrius dote on you!” (225). This is just wishful thinking, and pleasantry and Helena knows it. Her solioquoy shows her epic frustration:


How happy some o'er other some can be!
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;
He will not know what all but he do know:
And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,
So I, admiring of his qualities:
Things base and vile, folding no quantity,
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:
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:
And therefore is Love said to be a child,
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
So the boy Love is perjured every where:
For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,
He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;
And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.
I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:
Then to the wood will he to-morrow night
Pursue her; and for this intelligence
If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:
But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
To have his sight thither and back again.


Helena laments that even though the city of Athens thinks that Helena and Hermia are of comparable beauty, Demetrius “thinks not so; He will not know what all but he do know.” Demetrius refuses to acknowledge that Hermia and Helena are equally attractive, which further frustrates poor Helena.

Helena also bitterly states that love is “wing’d Cupid painted blind…Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste: because in choice he is so oft beguiled.” She accuses Cupid of acting recklessly when misleading people into love, because love “looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.” In this passage, Helena thinks that Demetrius has created Hermia to be a fantastical woman, and that the Hermia he has fallen in love with actually does not exist.

Helena more plainly explains her frustration with Demetrius. Apparently he hailed oaths that his love only belonged to Helena, but once he met Hermia, his love was “dissolved.” I think that Demetrius is stubborn and worthless. What does Hermia have that Helena does not? They are both beautiful, and of the same status. What was so mesmerizing about Hermia to make Demetrius forget Helena? Shakespeare may be demonstrating the fickleness of love, and how quickly people change their minds. The human heart and mind are very dynamic.

Finally, Helena confesses in her soliloquy that grudging thanks from Demetrius will make her happy, because she will “have his sight thither and back again.” She decides to tell Demetrius of Hermia’s elopement, possibly sacrificing her friend’s happiness for a glance from Demetrius.

I would like to know what Demetrius is thinking throughout this act. Is he pushing Helena away because he is so stricken with love for Hermia, or is he pushing her away because her persistence scares him? Ironically, Demetrius is pushing Helena away like Hermia is pushing him away. It is possible that he is taking his frustration out on Helena.