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the duke

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http://shakespeare.mit.edu/midsummer/midsummer.1.1.html

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Hippolyta

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Helena

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Why can’t Lysander and Hermia get married?

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Why can’t Lysander and Hermia get married?

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Hermia’s father wants her to marry Demetrius.

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What does Helena decide to do at the end of Act I, Scene 1?

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What does Helena decide to do at the end of Act I, Scene 1?

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to tell Demetrius that Lysander and Hermia are running away

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When you aren’t used to it, Shakespeare’s language can seem impossible to be understand. However, with practice, you’ll find yourself understanding more than you expected.

In Act I, Scene 1, Egeus asks Theseus to command Hermia to marry Demetrius. Theseus speaks directly to Hermia. Select the text to explore the language in the passage.

What say you, Hermia? Be advised, fair maid.
To you, your father should be as a god,
One that composed your beauties, yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax
By him imprinted, and within his power
To leave the figure or disfigure it…

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Read this passage again. Think about the tone of what Theseus is saying.

What say you, Hermia? Be advised, fair maid.
To you, your father should be as a god,
One that composed your beauties, yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax
By him imprinted, and within his power
To leave the figure or disfigure it…

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The tone is serious. Theseus is warning Hermia.

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Theseus compares Hermia’s father to a god, and Shakespeare’s audience would believe that people who disobey God will face harsh punishment. Also, Theseus says her father has the power to “disfigure” or destroy her.

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Helena and Hermia are two of the main female characters in this play. They are friends, but they are both having problems with their romantic relationships. Hermia is not allowed to marry the man she loves. Helena’s problem is different, as she explains in this passage.

As you read, think about the tone of this passage. How does it compare to the tone Theseus used in the earlier passage? Select the text to explore the tone of the passage.

HERMIA
Godspeed, fair Helena. Whither away?

HELENA
Call you me “fair”? That “fair” again unsay.
Demetrius loves your fair. O happy fair!
Your eyes are lodestars and your tongue’s sweet air
More tunable than lark to shepherd’s ear
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
Sickness is catching. O, were favor so!
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go…

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Read Helena’s lines again. Think about the imagery she uses.

Call you me “fair”? That “fair” again unsay.
Demetrius loves your fair. O happy fair!
Your eyes are lodestars and your tongue’s sweet air
More tunable than lark to shepherd’s ear
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
Sickness is catching. O, were favor so!
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go…

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What does Helena describe using imagery?

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What does Helena describe using imagery?

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Helena uses imagery to describe Hermia’s beauty.

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She says Hermia’s eyes are lodestars. A lodestar is a guiding star, which ships used to steer. Sailors often keep their eyes on the lodestar, in the same way Demetrius often likes to look in Hermia’s eyes.

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What does Helena say about Hermia’s voice?

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What does Helena say about Hermia’s voice?

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Helena compares Hermia’s voice to a bird singing in springtime.

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How do these images affect the tone of this passage?

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How do these images affect the tone of this passage?

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The imagery is strong and vivid. Even though Helena is upset, her exaggeration when describing Hermia’s beauty creates a comedic tone.

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Read the passage from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

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Read the passage from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

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HELENA: For, ere Demetrius looked on Hermia’s eyne,
He hailed down oaths that he was only mine;
And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
So he dissolved, and show’rs of oaths did melt

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What are the meanings of hailed and hail in the passage?

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What are the meanings of hailed and hail in the passage?

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Hailed means exclaimed; hail means frozen rain.

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How do the multiple meanings of hail affect the tone of this passage?

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How do the multiple meanings of hail affect the tone of this passage?

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By showing how betrayed Helena feels, they create a tone of disappointment.

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Read the passage from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

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Read the passage from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

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LYSANDER: How now, my love? Why is your cheek so pale?
How chance the roses there do fade so fast?

HERMIA: Belike for want of rain, which I could well
Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.

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Lysander comments that the “roses” in Hermia’s cheeks have faded.What does Hermia say in response?

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Lysander comments that the “roses” in Hermia’s cheeks have faded.What does Hermia say in response?

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I can water the roses with the tears in my eyes.

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Read the passage from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

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Read the passage from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

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HELENA: Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind;
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
Nor hath Love’s mind of any judgment taste.
Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste.
And therefore is Love said to be a child
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.

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Helena describes love in many ways. How do these images express Helena’s experience of love?

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Helena describes love in many ways. How do these images express Helena’s experience of love?

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Sometimes people fall in love with the wrong person, as Helena did with Demetrius.