A Midsummer Night's Dream is a famous Shakespearean play in which two couples have engaged themselves in complex love relationships.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a famous Shakespearean play in which two couples have engaged themselves in complex love relationships. Lysander / Hermia and Helena / Demetrius are the central young lovers whose goal in the play is to overcome love obstacles through help from Puck’s magic, fate and the acts of friendship. These two couples dealing with their complex love relationships show many similarities in their actions, dialogues and feelings towards their lovers.
Hermia and Helena act similarly in order to be with their lovers. Lysander and Hermia cannot be together due to Hermia’s father’s objection where as Helena loves Demetrius but he does not return her love. In the beginning, Hermia is forced to marry someone whom she does not love. Her father tells her if she does not obey him then she has to act according to the Athenian law, which is to either marry Demetrius or become a nun, or either die. Hermia, however, does not want to obey the law so she decides to leave the city with Lysander and find a place where they will be accepted as lovers. For love, she is willing to give up her high place in society and sacrifice her loving relationship with her father. On the other hand, Helena, she has to force Demetrius to love her. When he tells her that he is going after Hermia, she says, clinging onto him desperately, that “the more [he] beats [her], [she] will fawn on [him]” (2.1.204) She also gives up her status in her society and instead to “Beg in your love, -- And yet a place of high respect with me, -- Than to be used as you use your dog?” (2.1.208-210). Both female protagonists betray their loved ones by running away. Hermia, in a way, betrays her father because she is leaving him behind and not fulfilling her duty as a daughter. Helena betrays her best friend, Hermia, to fulfill her dream to be with Demetrius. She tells him about Hermia and Lysander’s plan to steal away into the forest. Due to their love for their lovers, Hermia and Helena act similarly.