Blog #5- A Midsummer Night's Dream, Act IV
Act IV
- Choose a person from the play. (Do not choose Bottom.)
- Analyze the person’s words and actions; what do these words and actions reveal about this person’s character?
- Explain if and how the person changed in any way because of the experience in the woods.
- Describe the person and include evidence for your ideas.
Remember to
sign your post with your first initial, last name, and class period.
In Act 1, Helena is jealous of Hermia because both Lysander and Demetrius love her. When she discovers Hermia and Lysander are running away together, she tells Demetrius in hopes that he will like her a little bit for telling him. By Act 4, Helena is mad because Demetrius (and Lysander) tell her they love her and not Hermia. She thinks they are making fun of her, when in reality they have had the flower juice sprinkled on their eyes as well. Helena changed from being desperately in love to wanting nothing to do with the man she loved because she thought he was cruel. (1M. Reyome)
ReplyDeleteTitania
ReplyDeleteIn act four I think Titania had a the most change in the woods. She was put under a spell to fall madly in love with the next person she saw when she woke and that person happened to be bottom. Her and her new boyfriend fell asleep in the woods and when Oberon touched her eyes to wake her the spell wore off. When she woke she thought her dating him was a dream. "My Oberon! What visions have I seen! Methought I was enamour's of an ass". When she found out she was dating him she was disgusted and she said " O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!" meaning he was not a pretty sight to her now. She was shocked that she would ever like him so i feel like her whole demeanor towards bottom changed because of that. (7J. Shillow)
-Helena
ReplyDelete-Helena seems very desperate for Demetrius' love. She seems to be willing to die die for Demetrius. However, the really strange thing about Helena is the fact that she wears her heart on her sleeve. She gets rejected repeatedly but still continues to express her love and tell everyone how head over heels she is. "Do I entice you? do I speak you fair? Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you?" Demetrius tells Helena he does not and will not ever love her and she replies by saying that she loves him even more because of that. This makes her very unappealing as a character.
-Helena did not change because of her experience in the woods. She is still hopelessly in love with Demetrius and shameless about it.
-Helena is a very bad friend to Hermia as seen when Hermia told Helena about her plans to leave with Lysander, she betrayed Hermia by telling Demetrius so he could follow them. She is also a person who shies away from violence as when Hermia wants to fight her she runs: " Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray, My legs are longer though, to run away." K.Stanley 5th
While the fact that Helena didn't change her love for Demetrius after the experience in the woods, she did change. Because Demetrius now loved Helena too, she became a happier, brighter, more friendly character after the woods. She showed love towards Hermia, instead of hating envying her, as she did before. She got her happily ever after, too, and that is a very big change. (T. Johnson 7th).
Delete-Helena
ReplyDelete-Helena seems very desperate for Demetrius' love. She seems to be willing to die die for Demetrius. However, the really strange thing about Helena is the fact that she wears her heart on her sleeve. She gets rejected repeatedly but still continues to express her love and tell everyone how head over heels she is. "Do I entice you? do I speak you fair? Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you?" Demetrius tells Helena he does not and will not ever love her and she replies by saying that she loves him even more because of that. This makes her very unappealing as a character.
-Helena did not change because of her experience in the woods. She is still hopelessly in love with Demetrius and shameless about it.
-Helena is a very bad friend to Hermia as seen when Hermia told Helena about her plans to leave with Lysander, she betrayed Hermia by telling Demetrius so he could follow them. She is also a person who shies away from violence as when Hermia wants to fight her she runs: " Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray, My legs are longer though, to run away." K.Stanley 5th
I agree that Helena does not stand down to love. Even though she is brought down so much by Demetrius, she still loves him. I feel like Helena is not that bad of a friend, but she just lets love get in her way and she does tell Hermia's secret. (E.Adkins 6th)
DeleteDemetrius was probably the character most affected by the events in the woods. From the beginning, Demetrius was in love with Hermia. He showed no liking towards Lysander, and would do anything, including stabbing others in the back, for a chance to win over Hermia and gain her father's blessing. We know this as soon as Act I, when Egesus, Hermia's father, says "Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord, this man hath my consent to marry her (Hermia)." (I. i. p.2). Demetrius stabs Helena, Hermia's best friend and the woman with an eye for Demetrius, in the back when she tells him of Hermia's secret plan to run away, and Demetrius chases down Hermia (which happened in Act II, scene i). Demetrius only looks out for himself and his interest in Hermia before the woods. After the experience with the love potion mix up, Demetrius is never returned to his formal self, and therefore still loves Helena (which was not the original case). This allows for both couples (Lysander-Hermia and Demetrius-Helena) to live happily ever after and end up with someone they love. Along with this drastic change comes the new friendship between Lysander in Demetrius, as shown when they were talking and joking at the wedding (which doesn't happen until Act V). Overall, Demetrius started as a jealous, manipulative, and almost selfish man and ended with new friendships, a new love, and a happy ending. (T. Johnson 7th)
ReplyDeleteI never really considered Demetrius when writing my post; however, your post made some great points. When people begin writing their posts they think first about the main characters, but your post was very interesting and made a lot of sense.
DeleteWhen Titania speaks, she comes across as a gracious, but sassy and stern, queen (which she is.) What I find really interesting about Titania is her marriage to Oberon. They both have multiple overnight guests they share the bed with, Oberon even tricks Titania into adoring another. You would think that as a queen, Titania would have a bit more self restraint and moral character when it comes to relations with others.
ReplyDelete(6M. Greeene)
I agree, but I also think maybe she had extra company as a way to get back at Oberon for ways he treated her wrong. I do agree that she should have more self restraint. (M. Reyome 1)
DeleteBefore entering the woods, Helena always spoke of her love for Demetrius and was constantly desperately chasing after him. Helena always used envious words and jealous tones when talking about Hermia, her best friend who was to wed Demetrius. After her experience in the woods, Helena still didn't change. Demetrius constantly told her he'd rather die than love her and how ugly and horrendous she was; however, Helena still chased after him. Foe example, when Demetrius is searching for Hermia in the woods, he says to Helena, "Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit; for I am sick when I do look on thee," to which Hermia replies, "And I am sick when I look not on you." He tells her that he wants to be sick whenever he sees her and she still is desperately devoted to him. After the woods, Hermia is still as desperate as ever to have Demetrius, no matter the harsh words that he said to her. Even when Demetrius suddenly fell in love with her, she just went with it. "And I have found Demetrius like a jewel, Mine own, and not mine own." She still so easily accepts him after he was such a jerk to her. (H. Bryant 6th)
ReplyDelete-Puck (also known as Robin Goodfellow)
ReplyDeletePuck is one of, if not the, most mischievous character in the play. It depends on his mood whether or not he plays practical jokes on everyone or helps them out with their problems. You can see this when he used magic to make bottom have the head of a donkey in order to help Oberon obtain the Indian child.
I'll follow you, I'll lead you about a round,
Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier:
Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound,
A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire;
And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,
Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn. (Act III Lines 96-101)
(M. McAlister)
Hermia is a love-struck young girl in love with a boy not of her father's wishes. She can be disobedient and does her own thing. She was going to go against the law to be with Lysander. They were going to be together by running away together. When they enter the woods, they were making a small place for the night to get through. After the potion was put in Lysander's eyes, Hermia became confused. She started questioning everything because of the unknown knowledge of the potion. She couldn't figure it out until the end when the potion was released from Lysander. (B. Holland 7th)
ReplyDeleteHelena
ReplyDeleteHelena had fallen hard in love with Demetrius. When she finds out Hermia is running away with Lysander, she tell Demetrius in hope that he will like her more. In Act 4, Helena is mad because Demetrius and Lysander both tell Helena they love her. She thinks that they are pranking her because their feelings could not change so quickly, but in reality they have the flowers juices in their eyes. Helena leaves the forest not loving Demetrius because she thinks he was being cruel. (E. Adkins 6th)
I think that Helena's main hardship throughout the play was watching the one she loved fall for another girl while it was very obvious Hermia only loved Demetrius because he gave her attention, not because she truly loved him. Hermia loved Lysander the entire time but was using Demetrius only for attention. I think it was hard for Helena to watch this because she knew Hermia's intentions and therefore she told Demetrius about Lysander and Hermia's relationship. While I do think she told Demetrius this for her own benefit, I think she was also looking out for him and trying to prevent him from getting hurt any further by Hermia. (M. McAlister 5th)
DeleteI completely agree with you Emily. Hermia was so desperate for Lysander's affection that she was willing to sell out her own friend. She wanted his love so bad that she failed to realize the was was making her friend's situation worse. (5j.shillow)
DeleteI agree with you Emily. I feel like Hermia liked Lysander so much that she was willing to snitch on her own friend just for his affection. She was so busy chasing after a guy that she failed to remember she was making her own friend's situation worse.
ReplyDelete