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Roles of women in greek mythology
Roles of women in greek mythology
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The exposition of this story consists of mostly explanation and background. The narrator introduces the circumstances that trap Hermia. The narrator tells the audience of a law that allows fathers to demand execution of their daughters if their daughters will not marry who they choose for them. Hermia is then aligned with this situation. Her father is threatening execution if she does not marry a man named Demetrius instead of her true love Lysander. Another character is also introduced into this complicated love triangle, Helena Hermia’s best friend, who is in love with Demetrius. The audience learns of Hermia and Lysander’s plan to run away to his Aunt’s home where the law would no longer be in affect. Hermia tells Helena of her plans to run away, and in an …show more content…
The narrator informs the audience that the two are currently in a quarrel over a young boy, and that Oberon plans to manipulate Titania by cursing her with a love spell that would make her fall in love with whoever she saw first after taking it. The king’s favorite minion, Puck was to find the flower that contained the juice that would put the queen under the love spell. On the night that Lysander and Hermia were to run away Demetrius and Helena were also in the forest trying to stop them . The narrator then returns to the queen of the fairies, Titania. The narrator explains that she has just been sung to sleep by her matrons, and that now Oberon would place the love juice on her eyes.The audience then learns that the king saw Demetrius and Helena, and wanted Demetrius to love her as she did him. receiving orders from the king to also give the love spell to Demetrius so that he would fall in love with Helena. So, Oberon assigned Puck the task of giving the love juice to Demetrius. However, Puck accidentally gives the love juice to Lysander who then falls in love with
The mood immediately changes and we discover that Hermia rather than being filled with filial love is determined to marry Lysander rather than her father’s choice for her. And so the love theme is made more complex as we have the wrathful love of her father confronted by the love of her daughter for the man who is not her fathers’ choice. The love theme is further complicated by the arrival of Helena. Here we see the platonic love of two friends.
In the first part of the play Egeus has asked the Duke of Athens, Theseus, to rule in favor of his parental rights to have his daughter Hermia marry the suitor he has chosen, Demetrius, or for her to be punished. Lysander, who is desperately in love with Hermia, pleads with Egeus and Theseus for the maiden’s hand, but Theseus’, who obviously believes that women do not have a choice in the matter of their own marriage, sides with Egeus, and tells Hermia she must either consent to marrying Demetrius, be killed, or enter a nunnery. In order to escape from the tragic dilemma facing Hermia, Lysander devises a plan for him and his love to meet the next evening and run-off to Lysander’s aunt’s home and be wed, and Hermia agrees to the plan. It is at this point in the story that the plot becomes intriguing, as the reader becomes somewhat emotionally “attached’’ to the young lovers and sympathetic of their plight. However, when the couple enters the forest, en route to Lysander’s aunt’s, it is other mischievous characters that take the story into a whole new realm of humorous entertainment...
The play moves into the woods which is haunted by fairies who are there to bless the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. The quarreling between Oberon and Titania over the changeling boy leads to the king wanting to embarrass Titania with the love juice by making her fall in love with a monster. The first person she sees is Bottom and she falls violently in love with him.
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream control is unpredictable. In act two scene two Oberon tells Puck to put the flower nectar in Demetrius’s eyes and he messes up and puts it in Lysander's eyes. In the stage directions it says “ He anoints Lysander’s eyes with nectar.” (2.2.85). This shows that Puck messes up Oberon’s directions and this leads to a love triangle between Lysander, Helena , and Demetrius.
Infatuation causes Helena to lose all sense of dignity, as can be seen when in the woods, she desperately pleads with Demetrius to ?but treat me as your spaniel?. Here, Helena also becomes irrational, obsessed with pursuing Demetrius, though it is obvious that Demetrius is fixated on winning Hermia?s hand in marriage. Helena?s infatuation also causes her to see things from a skewed perspective, for she falsely believes that when she divulges Hermia?s plans for eloping with Lysander, Demetrius? love for Helena will rekindle. As the audience, we know that the most probable course of action for Demetrius upon hearing such news is to pursue Lysander and Hermia, or to report them to Theseus or Egeus. Clearly, infatuation has clouded Helena?s ability to think clearly, and she sees things in her own idealistic way.
From the beginning, Hermia defiantly denies her father’s attempts at an arranged marriage, in favor of her whirlwind romance with and marriage to Lysander. In her defense, she uses words of chastity and moral purity to claim her fidelity and love towards Lysander and inability to wed Demetrius “I know not by what power I am made bold / nor how it may concern my modesty” (pp). The concern, or befitting, of Hermia’s modesty, by not wedding Demetrius, is protecting the very essence of her womanhood from someone whom she feels isn’t worth of the ultimate consummation of love – marriage (and the subsequent sex). This is continued in her next dialogue, where Hermia states that she would rather die “quote” (pp) or become a nun than give up her virgin “privilege” “quote” (pp). Hermia’s claims of “privilege” and “sovereignty” validate her chastity and moral purity as something that should only be shared with Lysander, not Demetrius. However, the sovereignty of Hermia’s claims also fits in with Demetrius’ arguments regarding his rights to Hermia’s hand in marriage: “quote” (pp). Demetrius’ use of “sovereignty” and “right” turns the supposed “love” of Hermia and Demetrius’ arranged marriage into a legal contract, where Hermia is property and social placeholder instead of a loving companion.
There is drama caused between the young lovers initially, when Hermia loves Lysander, Lysander loves Hermia, Demetrius loves Hermia, Helena loves Demetrius, but no one loves Helena. Through this short, complicated ‘love story’, arguments and fights occur. The fairy world then comes into contact with the world of the young lovers. Mischievous Puck causes further complications when he uses magic to anoint a young Athenian male’s eyes, who is in fact the wrong Athenian that Oberon assigned Puck. Puck misuses magic when he plays a silly prank on Bottom, who is one of the Mechanicals, by giving Bottom a head of an ass.
Even when he did put the love juice into the right people's eyes, they still fell in love with the wrong people sometimes. The first example of this mistake of Puck's is where he puts the love juice in Lysander's eyes, mistaking him for Demetrius. Oberon tells Puck to put the love juice in the eyes of an Athenian man, Demetrius, and to make sure that the first thing he sees after this is the woman whom he hates, but who loves him so much, Helena. Puck ends up finding Lysander and Hermia, lovers, sleeping on the forest floor. He puts the love juice in Lysander's eyes and leaves.
Helena was the younger sister of Hermia. It often bothered her that her sister got all the attention, and she even want it. Helena was madly in love with Demetrius, However Demetrius was arranged to marry Hermia. Helena truly believe she was not good enough, and could not understand why Demetrius did now want
The four lovers run away to the woods outside of Athens. In the woods, a world of fairies dwell. The fairy king, Oberon, stumbles across Demetrius and Helena while Helena is begging Demetrius to love her. Since Oberon is having some problems with love on his own, he tries to help Helena with her unfortunate situation. He sends his jester, Puck, to use a flower that, if its juice is dropped onto someone who’s sleeping’s eyes, will make the person fall madly in love with the first person they lie their eyes on. “Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove; A sweet Athenian lady is in love with a disdainful youth; anoint his eyes; but do it when the next thing he espies may be the lady. Thou shalt know the man by the Athenian garments he hath on.”(64) Puck, following Oberon’s orders, finds Lysander and Hermia instead of Demetrius and Helena. Anointing Lysander’s eyes, he leaves, thinking he did his bidding. Helena finds Lysander sleeping, and, wi...
Oberon is one of the most important characters in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare and is the answer to the question of why there are so many problems in the play. Not only is Oberon the King of the Fairies but he is the husband of Titania and the master of Puck. Oberon’s character is multifaceted although it is evident that he will do anything for a good laugh. At times, Oberon is extraordinarily nice, generous, and compassionate. He felt sorry for Helena and tried to get Demetrius to fall in love with her. However, On the other hand, Oberon is cruel, jealous, and tyrannical. Resembling his mischievous servant Puck, Oberon finds no problem with playing with other people’s love. He swindled his own wife and laughed at the misfortunes of the four Athenians Helena, Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius. Despite one’s view of Oberon, it is clear that he is the root of all the problems in the play because he starts a sequence of problems by making the love juice, orders the love juice to be used on Demetrius which in turn causes disarray for all four of the young lovers, and causes disgrace for Titania and creates obstacles for Bottom and the Rude Mechanicals when he uses the love juice on Titania in order to fulfill his own selfish desires.
In the beginning Lysander and Hermia run off to the forest to try to escape the king’s commandments, so they can be together. They believe if they can escape their problems and go somewhere where there is no rules they can finally be happy together. In an essay Bouloussa states how the Athenian lovers (Hermia & Lysander) attempt to escape their problems because they believe this is where there happiness lies. But Helena tells Demetrius and he goes after them, which leads Helena to follow. One day while out Puck and Oberon see Helena and Demetrius fighting and Oberon decides to use the love potion on Demetrius to attempt to fix the love mess. Initially, Puck is only supposed to use the love potion on Demetrius not Lysander. But of course Puck messes up, and ends up using the love potion on both of them, which causes them both to chase after Helena for her love and affection. Furthermore, when she sees them acting this way she believes they are mocking her, so she rejects their
The relationship between Demetrius and Hermia is problematic, in that Demetrius is seeking the affections of Hermia, while she is in love with Lysander. However, Hermia’s father approves of Demetrius and tries to force her to marry him, but Hermia refuses because of her love for Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1.1.22-82). Lysander points out the flaw in the situation through this comment, “You have her father 's love, Demetrius –/Let me have Hermia 's. Do you marry him,” (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1.1.93-94). The second flawed relationship is between Lysander and Helena, as a result of an enchantment put on Lysander that made him fall in love with Helena. Helena does not want the affections of Lysander, but rather the love of Demetrius, and believes that Lysander is taunting her. In addition, this relationship creates tensions because Hermia is in love with Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream 2.2.109-140). Both relationships are not desirable due to a lack of mutual admiration and the creation of non-peaceful and unsatisfying
Presented with many obstacles and complications to overcome, we know that Hermia is the protagonist in the play. She has relations with almost all the characters in the play. The first and most important relationship is her love, Lysander. From the very beginning we see that Hermia loves Lysander with all her heart and soul and he loved her the same. The only tragic flaw in their relationship was when Puck put the magic juice in Lysander's eyes and he fell in love with Helena. Hermia felt sad and rejected when that happened. But when Puck finally realized that he had made a mistake and corrected it, Hermia and Lysander were in their heavenly bliss of love once again.
Demetrius, Helena, Lysander, and Hermia are the for young teens of the story. At the beginning of the play it is Lysander and Helena who are madly in love, and are planning to to escape from Athens to elope. Helena is in love with Demetrius, and Demetrius cared for Helena and liked her a lot but was not in love with her. As soon as Demetrius sees Hermia he immediately stops having any feelings for Helena whatsoever and is deeply in love with Hermia. Demetrius thought that he had fallen in love at first sight, but Helena was determined to show him differently. Demetrius: ³ Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit,/ For I am sick when I do look on thee.² Helena: ³And I am sick when I look not on you.² (Act II, sc. i, lines 218-220) This piece of dialogue shows how much Demetrius is now in love with Hermia from just seeing her, and how disgusted he feels when he looks upon Helena who he used to care about. Helena is simply just expressing how much she is love with Demetrius and how bad she feels that he is treating her in such a manner of hatred.