Dita Lamdjani

Prompt #8
Honors
Period:6

A Midsummer Nights Dream Literary Analysis:

Desperate, self-doubting, and undependable. Although, she may be one of
Athens prettiest woman shes very insecure and enough to have bipolar feelings.
Helena is her name and shes in love. With whom? Demetrius, Hermias lover. When it
comes to Helena she has many character traits that shows who she really is, and thats
desperate, self-doubting, and undependable. Shes an exciting character, but that
doesnt mean that she doesnt have interesting character traits. Helena is eager for love,
but she doesnt give up. She goes for what she wants, even if it might annoy Demetrius.
But most important of all, Helena is strong, she got rejected and shut down by
Demetrius many times but she kept on going knowing that she will get him in the end.
Thus, Helena may be strong and has determination, but she also has many flaws.
Helena wants love and not just any love from an Athenian man. She wants her
love from her original lover, Demetrius. We call this eagerly for love desperate.
Although desperate can be somewhat good, Helenas form of desperate is dreadful.
She wants the love that Demetrius gave Hermia! Shes dangerously wants his attention
and she would do just about ANYTHING to get Demetrius to love her again and to stop
him from being in love with Hermia. For example, A Midsummer Nights Dream by
William Shakespeare, Helena stated, If I have thanks it is a dear expense; but herein
mean I to enrich my pain, to have his sight thither and back again. (Act 1, Scene 1)
This quote reveals how much Helena loves Demetrius. She would sacrifice her
friendship with Hermia, just so Demetrius would notice her and spend more time with
her. Ruining a friendship for a guy is not just desperate but incredibly selfish. In addition,
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged cupid painted
blind. (Act 1, Scene 1) This quote indicates that love is blind. It clearly showed that love
is blind and Helena knows that she is blinded by her love by Demetrius. All in all, with
many rejections and turn down from her lover, Helena sees herself in another point of
view.
Insecurities can cause many people to change the way they think about
themselves. It can bring them down and not think positively about themselves anymore,
especially Helena. Helena is one of the prettiest woman in Athens. But with beauty
comes a flaw, and her flaw is self -doubting. She hates comparing herself to Hermia but
her doubts have taken over her mind. And with that she compare herself with Hermia,
because Demetrius always compliments her even when Hermia told him to go away.
For instance, " Ay, do, persevere, counterfeit sad looks, make mouths upon me when I
turn my back; wink at each other; hold this sweet jest up." This quote clearly reveals that

Helena's insecurities is thinking everything in a wrong way. When Robin/Puck put the
magic potion in Lysander and Demetrius eyes and instantly fall in love with Helena, she
thought she was being mocked. Hence, people such as, Hermia, tell each other
everything
Secrets, secrets, and more secrets. Helena was one of the people that Hermia told
she was going to the woods with her lover, Lysander. But with her big mouth she told
Demetrius, thinking that Demetrius won't go after his lover, Hermia. Hermia wanted her
getaway to be a secret so her father won't come and look for her. This clearly shows
that Helena is undependable. She can't keep her mouth shut even for her friend. This
also shows that she will do anything for Demetrius if it means getting more of his
attention. For instance, " You do advance your cunning more and more.
When truth kills truth, O devilish-holy fray!" This shows that Hermia and Lysander
told Helena because they trust her and they have been friends for a pretty good amount
of time. But time doesn't mean a thing when there is no trust . With trust comes true
friendship and with that you tell each other everything. That's what Lysander and
Hermia did, they told Helena. Even though Helena did broke her promise to Hermia, all
she wanted to do was gain Demetriuss love again. She also wanted Demetrius to be
grateful with her, and once he does that they would fall in love and get married together.
This would be rather selfish but it's love and you can't control it. She is not trustable at
times, but she did it for the love of her life and love. To conclude, Helena loves Hermia
and Lysander but she also really loves Demetrius just a little bit more. She is
undependable at times, but who wouldn't do crazy stuff for love?
People have flaws, and without them we are boring. Helena may be desperate,
self-doubt, and undependable, but she's all this because of love. Love cause good and
bad things. But although, maybe she could change, she didn't, because William
Shakespeare wants her to be different from all the characters and have her own set of
traits. To end with, Helena is a very bipolar character, but she does love love and she
desperately wants it, whether she's insecure or undependable she still wants to be in
love and how it feels to be in love.

Shes desperate because she really want love from Demetrius,

self-doubting because she thinks Hermia is better than her (because she
got Demetrius to love her), and
undependable because when Hermia told her she was going to run to the
forest with Lysander, she told Demetrius.