Another key moment in Act 1 Scene 1 that Helena appears in is the same part as the previous quote. In this part, Helena is saying exactly why Demetrius loves Hermia, and not her and she says how she wants more than anything to be Hermia so that Demetrius would love her. For this part:
“Your eyes are lode-stars, and your tongue’s sweet air more tuneable
than lark to shepherd’s ear, when wheat is green,
when hawthorn buds appear.”
At this point, I would like Helena to calm down a little, lower the pitch of her voice a little, and quieten down a bit. She should still be a bit angry and flared up, so to speak, but be calming down gradually. I would like her to do this because when she is talking that fast, and with that tone of voice for too long, the audience may start to get lost and will become confused. With this play, you need to take it all in, otherwise you may lose the plot.
For the next quote, she should calm down even more. It is still in the same paragraph, so it should fit in with the previous two:
“Were all the world mine, Demetrius being bated, the rest
I’ll give to be you translated. O teach me how you look and with what
Art you sway the motion of Demetrius’ heart!”
Here, to really capture the audience, Helena should calm down completely, sigh and begin her piece. She should pause before she begins, take a deep breath, and then sigh, and maybe clap her hands on her legs, as if she is still a little exasperated. She could then sit down. She should say this last piece calmly, and maybe be on the verge of crying, so the audience feels for her, and everyone knows she is sincere for her feelings for Demetrius.
In this paragraph, Helena must speak fairly clearly, as the piece is in a rhyming format and the audience may not realise this, and this would not be what Shakespeare would have wanted. So for this line, Helena must speak loudly and angrily with hand movements in the appropriate places:
“The more I love, the more he hateth me.”
She could clench her teeth and fists, and pace up and down, whilst he says it, as if she is thinking. For the moment, she should be totally oblivious to the fact that the other characters are there, so effectively, she is talking to herself, then, she should remember they are there, and carry on talking to them, as if they should understand.
For the next quote, Helena will require a chair, as she goes into despair, as she says some people are happier than others, why Demetrius doesn’t love her but Hermia and to make her plan to get Demetrius’ love. This part of the scene will be set outside, and the chair, or seat could be the side of a fountain and pool. Here, she is speaking alone:
“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.”
For this part, I would like Helena to walk slowly to her seat and sit down, as if to think. If she hits a part where she has made a “breakthrough” she could start to stand up, but then sit down again, and carry on.
At the end of the scene, Helena decides she is going to tell Demetrius of Hermia and Lysander’s plan to run away.
“ I will go tell him of fair Hermia’s flight, then to the woods will he tomorrow 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.”
This is a long quote, but it is all relevant to my point. Helena is talking to herself- she is saying her thoughts out loud. For this, when she begins she should look impressed with herself, then quickly get up. She should pace around as she says it, speaking slowly as if saying a problem out loud. When she says “and back again” she should say it loudly, and run excitedly out of the room. This is where act 1 scene 1 ends. This way, Helena has made a dramatic end to an excellent first scene.
I am now going to focus on Act 3 Scene 2. The main story to this scene involves Helena, as due to the fairies, both Lysander and Demetrius love her, instead of Hermia. Helena believes they are mocking her, and she is upset that they are doing so.
This brings me to my first quote, which is:
“O spite! O hell! I see you are all bent to set against me for your merriment:
If you were civil and knew courtesy, You would not do me thus much
Injury.”
Here, Helena is telling the men that they have set against her, for their own amusement, and she gets angry with them. She should be on the verge of tears here and should be very angry. She should keep putting her hand to her head, as if she can’t believe that the men are doing this to her. She could seem embarrassed too. The rhyme makes you go back and think about what she has just said, as, I know when I first read it, I could not work out whether it was rhyme or not. It made me really think, and understand what she was saying.
There is then another passage where Helena plays a vital part. This is where she asks Hermia if she is in on the act to mock her with the men, and why is she doing that to her when they are such good friends? She then goes on to say that Hermia is not acting very friendly towards Helena, even if they are friends.
For this part, Helena should be very confronting, and in a way, a bit overwhelmed by what is happening to her. She should be talking quickly, but taking a breath in every few sentences, so she can think about what she will say next. She should move around Hermia, causing her to get a little confused, and to get the audience wondering what she will do next, whether she will still be friends with Hermia or not. The passage is quite long, so Helena will need to keep the audience entertained, and not confused to a certain extent. This passage is not in a rhyming format, so Helena needs to speak clearly, but not define each line. At the end, to get a little humour into the piece, as it is a long passage, Helena could get a bit carried away, and maybe stumble and fall, and on the last word, “injury”. She could make the word last a long time, as you sometimes see when people fall over in a comedy. Then, Hermia can be looking down on Helena when she says her next line, about how she is not scorning Helena, but Helena is scorning her. It would certainly get a few laughs, as Helena is already known to be a little clumsy!
Just after this passage, Helena asks Hermia why Lysander is therefore following her saying she is beautiful, and why Demetrius is also doing the same thing?
“Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn, to follow me, and praise my eyes and face?
She should ask this as if she is more than willing to hear the answer, and is very pressing to Hermia, to make her tell the truth, and not lie to her. Helena should be in Hermia’s face, so the audience can see just how pressurizing Helena can be, and how determined she is to prove her point. She should be speaking very quietly, so as not to let anyone hear their conversation. She should look around a lot, to keep checking no one is listening who should not be.
The last quote I am going to use for this scene is going to be from the end of the scene. This is where Helena summarises her night, and vows to return to Athens at daybreak, to get away from the others, who at this time, she still believes are making fun of her:
“O weary night, O long and tedious night, abate thy hours, shine comforts
from the east, that I may back to Athens by daylight.”
Here, Helena should yawn before she begins, and then lie down on a carpet of green to go to sleep, and then carry on, as if speaking to the stars. She should speak quietly, and sigh a few times, and then roll over and sleep when she has finished the passage.
At the end of the play, the audience should have grown to like Helena, as she always means well for everyone. By acting the way I have advised her to, I believe the audience will enjoy the play, as it will not be too confusing for them. They will get to know Helena and who she loves, and the point of her character. I think the audience will enjoy watching her in the play. The audience will hopefully have seen just how clumsy Helena can be and why her character was constructed the way it was. It is to make her and the play easier to understand- I hope! Above all, I hope I have showed just how important Helena is to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and that is why her character really does need to be played well.
