Read again act 3 scene 2, write a detailed study of this scene drawing out its significance within the play as a whole, and giving particular attention to the ways in which Shakespeare makes use of the different verse forms employed in it.

  “With sighs of love, that cost the fresh blood dear (3.2.97)”

                         Quote above is recited by Oberon, he has spoken his speech about Helena, emphasizing on her vulnerability and her blindness with love. The connotations of death and youth also come in; death is a connotation of this quote because Helena’s love is not reciprocated by Demetrius at this point in the play. It is also a personification of love and the pain of it being unrequited. Therefore Oberon gives the impression Helena is in danger of killing herself because of her immense love toward Demetrius. As Helena mentions below;

“I’ll follow thee, and make heaven of hell,

To die upon the hand I love so well. (Act 2 scene 1 verses 243-4)”

                                                            Youth is also a theme as Helena is young and may not know what’s best. In the Elizabethan times, girls didn’t have the privilege to make rational decisions themselves, even their husbands were arranged for them by the old and wise (the father) who always knew what was best.

As Demetrius mentions,

“You do impeach your modesty too much (Act 3 scene1 verse 215)”

                                      This quote is outlining the facts of Hermia and her masochistic approach towards her love. This quote also presents the desperation Helena is experiencing and the confusion Demetrius is going through.

He is emphasizing the desperation is becoming too much and she should have some pride in herself and not put herself down as much. The uses of verse forms also compliment his feelings towards Helena at the beginning of the play; he spoke in blank verse, when Helena was imposing her love towards Demetrius and he was rejecting it, he did this to outline the significance of their conversation; even Helena who usually spoke in rhyme had replied in blank verse which implied the genuineness of their conversation and their feelings.

                                            However this approach rapidly changes into an unbelievable love during the course of the scene. Demetrius, with the help of the spell put upon his eyes, changes his opinion of Helena from being the unworthy “spaniel (Act 2 scene 1 verse 205)” to being compared to God’s “...Venus of the sky... (Act 3 scene 2 verse 107),” which is a transformation of being compared to a dog which was seen as the bottom of the Hierarchy within the Elizabethan society to being compared to the Gods which seemed at the top of the hierarchy.                  

                                                              However nice and resolved this concept seems, yet there is more confusion. Lysander is also under a spell which leaves both the men madly in love with Helena. Nonetheless in the woods he starts talking in Iambic Pentameter which has connotations of immaturity and sexual desire.

 He seems like a spontaneous man, who is following his feelings. This gives both Hermia and Helena a chance to be wooed and loved by both of the men: Hermia, before the spell where both Lysander and Demetrius wanted to marry her as Egeus (Hermia's father) arranged for her to marry a suitor, and Helena afterwards, when Puck accidentally put a spell on both the men’s eyes. This idea conjures up a lot of similarities and differences between the two girls, within the play some of which are; how they both at one point of the play, don’t trust each other as the following quote from Hermia shows.

“  ..Have you stolen my loves heart from him...? (Act 3 scene 2 verse 283)”

                             However their differences are also revealed as Hermia is quick to blame Helena for Lysander’s fickleness. Whereas Helena was jealous of Demetrius’ love towards Hermia but never blamed her. Shakespeare uses Iambic Pentameter with rhyming couplets when Helena is mentioning her jealousy of Demetrius’ love towards her friend Hermia which manages to create a laid back, friendly and more comic effect whereas when Hermia uses blank verse when she is accusing Helena of Lysander’s fickleness which entails Hermia’s anger and frustration.

                                                            Act 3 scene 2‘s impact on the play is extremely significant. It is the dream which took place in Act 3 Scene 2, which creates the title ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream.’ This act is where most of the characters true personalities and intentions becomes apparent and where the audience is put through a disorder, and disruption by all the ambiguous ‘translations’ taking place in the play.

 “The Athenian lovers are forced to confront the bewildering changes as they transverse the wild, frightening territory of the moonlit forest.”

The play would no longer be a romantic comedy if Act 3 Scene 2 was removed. Act 3 scene 2 is the crucial scene to build tension and provide explanations for the disorder created, it is also the explanation as to how the rest of the play has evolved and developed in to a happy ending where lovers are happily married in contrast to the beginning of the  play where ideas of marriage and love for the lovers were seen as obeying the old and wise by  getting  married with the suitor your father has arranged was what was expected of girls at the Elizabethan times, love wasn’t considered in the upper class whereas conversely the lower class married for love.

                                          As a critic; Benedotto Croce has pointed out, “Love is sincere, yet deceives and is deceived; it imagines itself to be firm, and constant but turns out to be fragile and fleeting” this passage like the play itself juxtaposes many ideas , the play is a comedy yet it harbours serious ideas.

 The play begins with Hermia being forced to marry Demetrius, through Egeus; Hermia’s father they attend before Theseus to resolve the problem. Hermia makes it clear that she will marry none but Lysander. She is under threat of becoming a nun or her own death.

As Hermia quotes below;

“So I will grow, so live, so die… (Act 1 scene 1 verse 78)”

                                  This quote also focuses on her honesty and it focuses on her determination, by the use of an Iambic Pentameter. Hermia and Lysander waste no time and decide to runaway from home in order to be together.  

It is Lysander’s idea to run away to the woods to avoid Egeus’ tyranny and his justification of this action is;

“The course of true love never did run smooth… (Act 1 scene 1 verse 134)

                                        This quote is significant as it foreshadows the later events which take place in the woods and in Act 3 Scene 2.

Helena on the other hand loves Demetrius but is aware he wants to marry her best friend Hermia. She decides to tell Demetrius that the two lovers will be running away; only for a gratitude by Demetrius to herself.  Unavoidably this leads the four into the woods, where magic and disorder is an everyday element.

           The woods are where the ‘dream’ takes place. Most the play is developed in Act 3 Scene 2. It is also where the fairy kingdom becomes very familiar and interactive with the mortals.

 As Puck quotes below;

“Lord what fool these mortals be! (Act 3 scene 2 verse 115)”

                                 Puck makes this declaration at his amazement at the ludicrous behaviour of the Athenians. This quote also conveys the sly comic effect embedded within the play as well as having significance on the development of the play because it captures the exaggerated irrationality of the lovers’ behaviours.

 And indicating the contrast between human lovers, completely absorbed in their emotions and the magical fairies; impish and never too serious.

 Some of the language techniques Shakespeare has used are; Blank Verse which is Iambic Pentameter, it is a ‘verse form which Shakespeare tends use in his plays’; it’s a verse line of ten syllables with 5 stresses, and no rhyme.

Shakespeare uses blank verse to mark the significance of the conversations within the characters.

                 However Shakespeare also uses Iambic Pentameter with rhyming couplets to illustrate understanding and order in the renaissance audience’s to give it a light and comic effect.  

                    Shakespeare also presents similarities and differences between the male and female lovers within the play using imagery, emphasizing the points made within the act.

                                                                    ****           The play ends with all the problems resolved except one; Demetrius is still under a spell. However both girls get what they want and marry their lovers Hermia marries Lysander and Helena marries Demetrius.

                                  The fairy kingdom is also sorted and problems resolved it is where the lovers are united and where Titania and Oberon resolve their problems and reunite. The mechanicals also get to show their production to the upper class and are proud of themselves.

                “Even in this one plot Shakespeare has created different layers- Roman and Romantic; in the recipe to comedy” ii

 Act 3 scene 2 is central to the whole play and this matter makes it the most significant scene within the play. The lovers, the mechanicals and the fairy kingdom, play a part in this.

The significance of this scene and the impression it has on the whole of the play is achieved by Shakespeare’s use of verse forms and the dramatic impact these have on the act, which also have an effect on the play which results in having an effect on the whole of the play.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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