Blog Post 2

Blog Post 2: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

            The overall point of Shakerspeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is that to achieve happiness, true love is not the only thing needed. As Lysander said at the beginning of the play “the course of true love never did run smooth.” Expected (like Hermia’s father bidding her death if she not marry Demetrius) and unexpected (like Puck rubbing the love spell over Lysander’s eyes instead of Demetrius’s eyes) events occur, and the strongest of love and faith in the significant other is needed for happiness to result. The values and attitudes that Shakespeare expresses in the play mainly deal with true love, magic, and dreams. In the play, Shakespeare expresses magic as a question of the unconscious mind and embrace the magic-like power of love. Dreams are also expressed as a question of the unconscious mind and how things in life can happen void of explanation or reason. In all, Shakespeare believes in the power of true love while understanding the difficulties that arise in love.

            Helena’s character is one with a lack of sureness in herself and a lack of self confidence and self esteem, typical of many women in the present day. She understands the true meaning of love and that beauty is on the inside, that being in love with someone based on their appearance is simply lust and not true love. Her actions prove this. When Demetrius is in love with Hermia, Helena believes that he only loves her because of her outer beauty and fails to love Helena because he is too distracted by Hermia’s appearance to see Helena’s inner beauty. Also, when Lysander is under the love spell and in love with Helena, Helena finds it impossible and regards it as evil mockery. She feels that she is incapable of being loved by men because she is simply not beautiful enough.

            Both Helena and Shakespeare believe and understand the true meaning of loving another person. However, whereas Shakespeare sees love as powerful and magical, due to Helena’s lack of love for herself, Helena finds love to be powerfully mean. Demetrius’s hate towards her makes her love him stronger and Lysander’s love to her is seen as mockery. Shakespeare’s power of love brings lovers together and gives them the strength to stay together under the worst of circumstances. Furthermore, both Shakespeare and Helena question how things in life happen with no apparent reason. Helena questions why she is not as beautiful as Hermia and why the man she so strongly loves, loathes her. A lot of Shakespeare’s attitudes and values evident in the play are shown through Helena’s character.

            The passage below is one in which Helena first appears in the play and instantly expresses her lack of love for herself and her desirable want for Demetrius.

Line 192 Helena: O, teach me how you look, and with what art

You sway the motion of Demetrius’ heart.

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 of your beauty; would fault were mine!

Shakespeare makes it clear that the values and attitudes for true love are more subtly expressed through the play as this passage expresses the meanness love can cause as Helena wishes so strongly to be someone with characteristics of someone she is not.