In Love with the Wrong Man In William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Helena is "In love with the wrong man."ÃÂ She is in love with Demetrius but he does not love her back. He loves Hermia whom is also in love with another man, Lysander. Helena helps create a lot of turmoil in the play being very promiscuous and contradictory. Helena produces a number of reactions from the other characters mostly negative reactions because of her actions, speech, and the reactions she gets from the other characters giving her motivation to be deceitful to them.
In the beginning of the play Helena is relentlessly chasing Demetrius, who has no feelings for her at that time. She does not seem to give up even when he says "I'll run from thee and hide in the brakes, and leave thee to the mercy of the wild beasts"ÃÂ (P.19). This shows she is very persistent and ruthless.
A midsummer-night's dream 1907
DÉMÉTRIUS. –
A midsummer-night's dream 1907This also shows how her actions affect the other characters making them want to run away from her. She does not have a lot of self-confidence to be so relentless, though. She mentions to Hermia at one time how when she starts to like Demetrius more he hates her more. She is also in a way deceitful. She goes behind Hermia's back and tells Demetrius of Hermia and Lysander's plan of escape. She knows what she wants throughout the whole play and will stop at nothing to get what she wants, showing how ruthless she is. Her actions affect the way the characters see her.
Helena's speech play a role in the way other characters react to her, also. "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind"æ"à(p.8) says Helena as she tries to show Lysander how blind she thinks love is.