Lysander And Demetrius's Relationship Essay

Helena Obsessed over Demetrius emphasizes the impulse of love and its excesses. Even though she knows she is making a fool of herself by pursuing Demetrius, Helena cannot stop the chase. She reminds us that love is blind, even though she is as beautiful as Hermia, so there is no reason for Demetrius' sudden shift in affection. This point is further emphasized by the two men's love potion-persuasion attraction for her. Through these interactions, we find out that love is blind, illogical, seemingly produced by magic's sleight-of-hand, rather than reason's honesty. Like a child, lovers are often charmed by trivial trinkets rather than deep character traits. This message is further noticed by the blandness of Lysander and Demetrius. As Lysander makes it clear in his conversation with Egeus in Act I, no differences exist between the two men, so Helena could just as easily love one as the other. …show more content…
Unlike men who can woo whomever they please, women are not allowed to fight for love; instead, they must passively wait for the man of their dreams to notice them. In chasing Demetrius through the woods, Helena is breaking the rules of her sex, becoming the pursuer rather than the pursued. She likens herself to Apollo who chased the unwilling huntress Daphne through the woods. Helena's choice of examples is significant because it emphasizes the violence men (or gods in this case) have often perpetrated against women: Apollo wanted not only to capture Daphne, but to rape her. In chasing Demetrius, Helena claims to have appropriated Apollo's role, yet Demetrius is still the one who threatens violence when he vows to "do [her] mischief in the wood" if she doesn't stop following him. Not only must woman patiently wait for her chosen lover to call, but she is also constantly threatened by male sexual violence if she resists unwanted male