As Egeus is accusing Lysander, Hermia tries to grasp his legs to keep him away whilst making weeping sounds and sighs to show her desperation. He then walks forward, breaking the grip of her arms around his legs, towards the Duke and smiles. He clears his throat, takes a deep breath and brushes his Elizabethan coat to make it look respectable as he almost transforms into a formal gentleman again, he even calls the Duke his ‘gracious lord’ and says ‘Be it so she will not here, before your grace’ showing complete reverence. He then shouts and almost commands when he says ‘consent to marry with Demetrius’ to the Duke and he sharply points towards the suitor. Hermia screws her face up to show the bitterness and distaste towards her father and the words he has just spoken, whilst Lysander stands there helpless to show that he is weak in this situation.
Hermia’s father is determined when he says ‘I beg the Ancient privilege of Athens’ and places his hands together so that his palms are touching and his fingers are resting on the opposite hand to show that he is begging, and he even gets on his knees to show that he is pleading to the Duke. Hermia refuses to look and remains on the ground covering her face and weeping into her hands so that all the audience can hear is whimpering and snivelling, to add to the comic situation she eventually wipes her nose on her lace sleeve and sniffs to show that she still has the characteristics of a young girl. This makes it comical because she believes that she is mature and is in love, as she speaks with such passion but the audience still sees her to be quite juvenile in the way that she acts. Egeus gets back onto his legs to regain his power and pays no attention to his distraught daughter who is bawling like a baby, he shouts ‘As she is mine, I may dispose of her,’ he shows tremendous possessiveness and emphasises the word ‘mine’ whilst holding his arm out towards her. He gets even more furious at the end of his speech as he becomes agitated that he is not getting a response from the Duke. His blood is at boiling point and he is all ‘fired up’ this is shown by his clenched teeth and his raised arms with tightly clenched fists shaking them back and forth in the air when he says ‘or to her death, according to our law’ which he shouts at the top of his voice.
Egeus is very forceful and is even threatening for his daughter to be killed if she continues to refuse to marry Demetrius. Hermia is a little shocked by this and tries to gasp for air as she has worked herself up in to a frenzy. She gulps and tries to gain her energy back to cry, scream and try to persuade the Duke as she still remains determined to marry Lysander despite the consequences. When the Duke makes his statement about how she should respect her fathers’ wishes and how Demetrius is a ‘worthy gentleman’ Hermia retorts that Lysander is too as she is not prepared to give in. The Duke tries his best to persuade intrepid Hermia to obey her Father but she replies hastily ‘ I would my father looked but with my eyes’ and she tries to show respect by softening her tone and apologising for her bold behaviour but she’s still going to continue to ‘plead her thoughts.’ Her forceful yet dignified answers to the duke are here replaced by a less restrained manner. She also wants to know about the punishment that may befall her, which she is told is to either become a nun or to be sentenced to death. Theseus describes how living the life as a nun involves ‘chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon’ he exaggerates how miserable and gloomy her life would be. His voice should be quite deep with a harsh, gruesome tone as he uses brutal words such as ‘blood,’ ‘withering’ and ‘thorn’ which are all associated with blood, dying and pain. He uses the metaphor ‘rose distilled’, which he uses to show how marriage releases the essence of the maiden’s swiftly passing beauty and she would not have that if she lives a life of celibacy. He points out that she will remain a virgin and will live a very forlorn life ‘ Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness’ and he hopes that this powerful line will change her mind but being the defiant, stubborn, wilful woman that she hold her head up high and accepts the punishment. She surprisingly wants to keep her virginity as she does not want her soul to give ‘sovereignty.’ She does not want her father to dominate her and take control of her and doesn’t want to die because of him. This shows that audience that she is maybe sceptical towards men and has the ability to live on her own until the day she dies. She is still kneeling to show that she is weak and lower status even though she is a strong character. Egeus refuses to listen to Lysander and still loves Demetrius so he leaves with Demetrius, Theseus and Hippolyta to discuss the situation and better prepare for Theseus's wedding. With the two of them gone, Hermia and Lysander lament their situation. There is a decisive mood change here, as Hermia is not left alone with her would-be lover.
When they leave, Hermia is still kneeling on the floor, helpless and hurt, but she still maintains her love for Lysander, she then gets up and runs across the stage elegantly on the balls of her feet, taking little steps to her lover whose arms are open. Formality gives way to intimacy. They hold each other very tightly as her head is leaning against his chest and he gently starts caressing her hair. She detaches herself from him and looks up with tearful eyes. The look of concern spread across his face, shown in his eyes which look intense and his mouth is slightly open, he cups her face with his hand and says ‘how now, my love? Why is your cheek so pale?’as she is sad and frightened. She peels his hand away and holds on to them and says ‘Belike for want of rain, which I could well Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes,’ which emphasises how devastated and angry she is at her father. She could cry so much. Obstacles can get in the way of true love and when Lysander lists them such as social standings or age she gets frustrated and curses when she says ‘O cross!’ or ‘o spite!’’ or ‘Oh hell.,’ and she hates the way her father can choose whom she loves. To show her anger she stamps her foot against the ground and throws her clenched fist in the air. Lysander is very comforting and remains positive, he embraces Hermia and tries to hold her, he says that even if the lovers are a good match, their love might be ruined by war, death, or sickness, so that the affair only lasts an instant. Their time together might be as fleeting as a shadow or as short as a dream, lasting only as long as it takes a lightning bolt to flash across the sky, intense things like love are quickly destroyed. Hermia looks up to him in adoration and runs her fingers through his hair like a child stroking a puppy, which is comical. There is a lot of intimate physical contact and level of emotions when they are left on their own. They speak in an over-wrought manner, and in rhyming couplets, which are over exaggerated to add comedy. Lysander suggests to Hermia that they marry outside of Athens, where the Athenian law would spare Hermia from death or chastity. He wants them to run off to his aunt and Hermia swears that she will meet him the next day, she’s extremely elated and this must be shown in her vocal nuance. The pace could gradually build to a crescendo and the pitch could be high and squeaky for comedy.
Helena enters the scene, lovesick over Demetrius. The couple are standing in the centre holding each other watching as Helena skips on the stage to show her youth and naivety. It looks comical as she is tall and pale, the opposite to Hermia and yet she is so envious. She then starts to feel sorry for herself as she watches the lovers. She slouches her shoulders and screws her face up as she feels so ugly compared to Hermia. She is jealous of Hermia's beauty because Demetrius does not pay any attention to her ‘Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!’she shouts in a sarcastic way and when she says ‘your eyes are lodestars, and your tongue’s sweet air’ she shows infatuation and obsession. She circles around them and when she says ‘o, teach me how you look, and with what art..’ she tugs Hermias’ arm and touches her hair. She is envious of Hermias’ looks and Demetrius’ affections for her. She almost acts quite neurotic. Hermia stands there quite conceited with a smug expression on her face as she is tormenting Helena when she says ‘I frown upon him; yet he loves me still’ but it looks quite comical because she is smaller. Hermia makes out that Lysander loves her and is obsessed with everything she does even though she makes no effort and is not very affectionate, this makes Helena even more upset because she tries so hard. She sighs and follows Hermia around, trying to imitate her, as she is so desperate to become her, she takes large heavy steps instead of taking little elegant ones like Hermia. Hermia tells Helena of the plan to marry outside of Athens, this shows their long intimate friendship and how Hermia trusts Helena. Hermia and Lysander recite their plan and they will ‘seek new friends and stranger companies,’ they don’t have a choice unless they want to be separated. Hermia leaves by telling Lysander that he can’t see her till tomorrow night and kisses Helena on both of her cheeks to accentuate their friendship. Helena manages to smile at Hermia but as Hermia turns away, she pulls a look of complete distaste and resentment particularly when Hermia blows numerous amounts of kisses. She stands there repulsed and distraught.
As the director of this play I try to portray the differences between Hermia and Helena in the opening scene. Hermia is the liveliest, the boldest and the most intelligent. She has clear-cut views on life, love, and marriage. She is brave enough to oppose her father's choice of her husband and refuses to marry Demetrius, even though Egeus threatens to have her punished if she does not obey. Hermia knows what she wants in marriage and has chosen to make Lysander her husband. In the court of Theseus, she boldly argues with the Duke and defends her love for Lysander, stating that he is a most worthy man. When she finds that her pleas are falling on deaf ears, she wants to know "the worst that may befall me in this case If I refuse to wed Demetrius." When the Duke pronounces that Athenian law calls for the death sentence, Hermia bravely decides to die rather than yield to man whom she does not love. When Lysander suggests that the two of them run away and get married, she does not hesitate to accept his offer.
