Love In A Midsummer Night's Dream
They say that it only takes thirty seconds to make a first impression. One of the four young lovers in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream who gets caught up in fairy magic, Demetrius, is an Athenian man who is engaged to Hermia. However, she does not want anything to do with him. In the play, Oberon, the fairy king, instructs his helper Puck to apply magic love juice to Demetrius' eyes. This causes him to fall madly in love with Helena, whom he eventually marries. The love potion brings out the best in Demetrius, but what kind of a man was he before the events in the forest took place?
Demetrius is not exactly a well-developed or complex character, but we can learn much about the play's attitude toward love by thinking about his actions …show more content…
First, he tells her flatly that he does not love her and never will be able to love her. "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?" (Act Two, Scene One, Line 199) He also insists that she is acting promiscuously by pursuing him in the forest. "You do impeach your modesty too much, to leave the city and commit yourself into the hands of one that loves you not; To trust the opportunity of night and the ill counsel of a desert place with the rich worth of your virginity." (Act Two, Scene One, Line 214) Demetrius also implies that he hopes she gets eaten by wild beasts. "I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes, and leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts." (Act Two, Scene One, Line 227) Then he dashes off and leaves Helena all alone in the woods, presumably to be eaten by said wild beasts. This shows that Demetrius is cold and heartless because he is willing to leave a lady alone in the forest and hopes she is eaten by wild animals. To be fair, we could argue that Helena is acting like a stalker. Even though Demetrius has made it clear that he wants nothing to do with her, she still follows him around with the desperate hope that he will love her. If this was the real world, Demetrius would be encouraged to take out a restraining order. In the play, though, Demetrius' behavior is bad enough to enrage Oberon, who
Demetrius is not exactly a well-developed or complex character, but we can learn much about the play's attitude toward love by thinking about his actions …show more content…
First, he tells her flatly that he does not love her and never will be able to love her. "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?" (Act Two, Scene One, Line 199) He also insists that she is acting promiscuously by pursuing him in the forest. "You do impeach your modesty too much, to leave the city and commit yourself into the hands of one that loves you not; To trust the opportunity of night and the ill counsel of a desert place with the rich worth of your virginity." (Act Two, Scene One, Line 214) Demetrius also implies that he hopes she gets eaten by wild beasts. "I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes, and leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts." (Act Two, Scene One, Line 227) Then he dashes off and leaves Helena all alone in the woods, presumably to be eaten by said wild beasts. This shows that Demetrius is cold and heartless because he is willing to leave a lady alone in the forest and hopes she is eaten by wild animals. To be fair, we could argue that Helena is acting like a stalker. Even though Demetrius has made it clear that he wants nothing to do with her, she still follows him around with the desperate hope that he will love her. If this was the real world, Demetrius would be encouraged to take out a restraining order. In the play, though, Demetrius' behavior is bad enough to enrage Oberon, who