Tuesday, December 8, 2015

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, how will the Puck change the situaton of Hermia, Lysander, Helena and Demetrius?

You might find it helpful to focus on one particular scene
rather than the whole play to answer this question. Therefore to help you out I am going
to focus on Act III scene 2 and look at the changes that occur in the lovers here. Of
course, what you need to remember is that previous to this, Lysander has been made to
fall in love with Helena instead of Hermia.


The riotous
confusion of the Athenian lovers continues in this scene, as Oberon and Puck realise
that Puck has made a mistake and has annointed the wrong Athenian youth. We see that
Lysander is now desperately in love with Helena, having abandoned his betrothed, Hermia,
and we, like Hermia, are bewildered and suspicious of the change in the affections of
the apparently steadfast Lysander as he protests his love to
Hermia:



Why
should you think that I should woo in
scorn?



Of course, this
situation is further complicated when Demetrius wakes up, having been anointed by Puck,
and sees Hermia. Again, he, like Lysander, has a complete change of character in terms
of who he loves:


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O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect,
divine,


To what my love, shall I compare thine
eyne?



This situation seems to
escalate as Hermia enters, still trusting in the steadfastness of Lysander's affections,
and her resulting horror, rage and anger against Helena who she holds responsible for
taking Lysander away from her.


Of course, what is important
to note is how Shakespeare is using the events of this play. He is making a comment
about love and how fickle our emotions often are, but what is so masterful about what he
does is that by making us as the audience laugh at such events, we pronounce our own
judgement on ourselves for the irrational acts and words we utter when we are under the
spell of love. We are perhaps more fickle when under the spell of love than we give
ourselves credit for.

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