Oberon is annoyed at Puck when he mistakes Lysander for Demetrius and directs him to go and fix it. Once Puck has fixed his mistake their relationship seems to be restored and Oberon treats Puck with the same respect he did before. Demetrius follows Hermia after learning she has run away with Lysander. When Lysander disappears Hermia blames Demetrius for killing him and does not trust him. When Demetrius wakes and falls in love with Helena, Hermia is more concerned about Lysander than Demetrius and blames Helena for what is happening.
At the start of the play Helena is in love with Demetrius, who she was once engaged to, but he does not love her anymore. She tells him that Hermia is running away into the forest and he goes to follow her instead. She follows after him and Demetrius tells her to go home. She claims she will just love him more.
Demetrius is affected by the love potion that Puck has given him and he suddenly falls in love with Helena. They stay together in the forest but Hermia asks that they sleep apart and Lysander respects this. Lysander is affected by the love potion that Puck gives to him by mistake. It causes him to fall in love with Helena instead, because she is the first thing he sees. This hurts Hermia, who is confused and upset. Egeus has complete power over Hermia, and is able to decide who she will marry.
At the start of the play he chooses to use an ancient law to threaten her with death if she does not obey him in marrying Demetrius.
Lysander knows Helena as the best friend of Hermia, who he wants to marry. Helena is the only person who knows when Hermia and Lysander run away together. He respects her and seems to want things to work out between her and Demetrius. Helena is confused because she knows how much he loved Hermia, her best friend. Helena becomes more confused as Lysander makes great declarations of love, thinking the whole thing must be a joke.
At the start of the play, Egeus has come to Theseus to get his approval and support as he is trying to make Hermia marry Demetrius. As the Duke of Athens, Theseus has a lot of power in this situation. At the end of the play, Theseus uses his power over Egeus and overrules his decision, allowing Hermia and Lysander to marry.
On this page students can arrange the characters on the screen, showing the connections between the characters and their relationships. They can then print this using the button on the page and label them with their own quotes. Main Site Menu. Investigate Character Relationships See how their relationship changes during the play by moving the bar to the marked points.
Print View the information. Photo by Donald Cooper Browse and license our images. Photo by Angus McBean Browse and license our images. Photo by Reg Wilson Browse and license our images. Photo by Ellie Kurttz Browse and license our images. Oberon and Puck now decide to put the lovers back in order. So they wait until all lovers fell asleep and then remove the magical enchantment from Lysander, so that he loves Hermia again, but they do not remove the enchantment from Demetrius.
The next morning the four lovers are caught by Theseus and Hippolyta. Since Demetrius does not love Hermia any more, Theseus over-rules the demands of Egeus and arranges a group wedding. The lovers decide that the events at night must have been a dream and so does Bottom, who awakes as well. Back in Athens the wedding of the three couples takes place and the mechanicals perform their play, which is really bad but gives everyone pleasure regardless.
Then everyone retires to bed and the fairies bless the house, the couples and their future children. Finally, Puck delivers an epilogue to the audience. Love is a central topic in the play. Now Helena is really unhappy, desperate and also somehow jealous. And, much worse, he seems to love Hermia although she despises him all the time:. Helena: Call you me fair? Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair! My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye, My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.
Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,. Hermia: I give him curses, yet he gives me love. Helena: O that my prayers could such affection move! Hermia: The more I hate, the more he follows me.
Here one can really see how desperate Helena is and that she is jealous of Hermia and desires to be as beautiful as Hermia is. But Hermia also reminds Helena, that it is not her fault that Demetrius loves her instead of Helena. Later in the play Helena nearly makes a fool of herself when she follows Demetrius although he does not love her.
She wanted him to be thankful and love her again. So she follows him into the forest which annoys Demetrius. Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me, Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave, Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
What worser place can I beg in your love,-- And yet a place of high respect with me,-- Than to be used as you use your dog? Here we see what H. It is also obvious that. Helena could not bare being without her love Demetrius. Hermia is much more happier with her love although her relationship with Lysander is dissaproved of her father.
Egeus wants his daughter to be married to Demetrius and for this reason he asks Duke Theseus for help. So Hermia gets in conflict with the law of Athens which provides that she has to marry the man her father has chosen for her or die or live as a nun. Egeus : Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes, And interchanged love-tokens with my child:.
Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung, With feigning voice verses of feigning love, And stolen the impression of her fantasy. With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits, Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth:.
With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart, Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me, To stubborn harshness. It is a clumsy performance but it is still received with great amusement by the audience who laugh at its poor writing and the bad performances.
When the play is over, the performers and guests retire. The fairies then enter to bless all of the marriages and Puck wishes the audience a good night. Website Terms of Use Privacy Policy. Globe Education. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank. Scene by Scene. The Interrupted Rehearsal The mechanicals meet again to start rehearsing for their play. The Morning After the Night Before Titania continues to dote on Bottom, but now that Oberon has got the changeling boy he decides to break the charm.
Like Hermia who is forced to obey the will of her father, so Hippolyta is forced to obey her conqueror and future husband. In the fairy world, the outskirts of the city, we see the gender roles switch. We see Titania, a queen, exerting her own agency and not obeying the male figure in her life, her husband and king. This assertion of agency causes strife within the marriage and pushes Oberon to seek retribution.
I am curious to see whether or not Hippolyta, in the real world, will have a chance at asserting her own agency as Titania does. Shakespeare A Blogs Baruch site.
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