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García Landa Mariana

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4 June 2015

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind”: The development of Helena in Shakespeare’s

A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

One of the main themes in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is love.

Throughout the play along with characteristics of comedy exemplifies the definition of love and

its difficulties. By far, the character of Helena is the one that portrays an almost ridicule, yet real

portrait of the e. In this essay I will discuss how the character of Helena is defined through

descriptions in the words of other characters, of her own words, actions and discourse.

In the play, “In a play about metamorphosis, therefore, and transformative forces

of dream, love, imagination, and magic, it is inevitable that women should have prominence.”

(Hackett, 353) The author also explains that the use of images of nature and themes. In terms of

prominence, Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, and Titania, Queen of the Fairies. Nevertheless,

the characters that belong to the “Mortal world”, Hermia and Helena….. Furthermore, Helena can

represent an idealized version

One important aspect of the play is its structure

An example of Helena’s description by other characters is when she is first introduced by

Lysander, there he exhibits Demetrius past relationship with her in order to praise himself and to

differentiate his “love” towards Hermia from Demetrius’s.

“Lys. […]: Why should not I then prosecute my right?

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Demetrius, I’ll avouch it to his head,

Made love to Nedar’s daughter, Helena,
And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,
Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,
Upon this spotted and inconstant man.”
(I.i. 166)
This statement also makes a contrast between Hermia and Helena that will be discussed further

on in this essay.

In the first introduction, Helena starts her characteristical self-deprecating description of herself,

which is emphasized because of the contrast between her and Hermia. An example of her

belittling act can be analyzed in the lines “[…]: O happy fair!/Your eyes are lode-starts; and your

toungue’s sweet air/More tuneable than lark t shepherd’s ear,/When wheat is green, when

hawthorn buds appear.” (I.i. 168)

Furthermore, Helena’s own perception of herself and love is explained in her monologue at the

end of Act I, Scene I; She states that she is just as beautiful as Hermia, which contrasts with her

previous statements about herself: “Through Athens I am thought as fair as she./But what of that?

Demetrius thinks so not (I.i. 170)…. Most importantly, she states the main argument that regards

love as : “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;” (I.i. 170)

Another scene where Helena uses self-deprecation in order to convince his addressee about

her arguments is in Act II, Scene I. Not only does she beg for Demetrius’s love, but she

dehumanizes herself in order to express her devotion towards him: “[…] I am your spaniel
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Demetrius… This quote support the hypothesis were it is stated that the character of Helena

defies the social conventions of women during elizabethan times.

Nonetheless, when Helena enters the forest, she starts questioning Demetrius’s and Lysander’s

devotion towards her, so “ugly as a bear…

Apolo quote

Resolution; women together shall riseeeee

Structure -rectangle

In the most superfluous reading, Helena portrays

Bibliography

 Hackett, Helen. The Femaleness of the Themes of the Dream in

 Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

 Mebane, John. S. Structure, source and Meaning in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.