A Desperate Wanna-Be Wife

In A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, four lovers find their way into quite the story. One of those lovers, named Helena, is characterized as desperate, jealous, disloyal, and self-depricating. She begs Demetrius, her love, to allow her to follow him even when he blatantly refuses and insults her . This shows how desperate she is for his affection. For example, she states, "The more you beat me I will fawn on you" displaying her longing for him (1.2.209-217). Also, she is constantly wishing she was as beautiful and loved as Hermia. For example, she says, "Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies for she hath blessèd and attractive eyes"(2.2.96-97). Additionally, Helena doesn't keep her promises even to Hermia, her best friend. For example, she tells Demetrius about Lysander and Hermia's plan to elope since she thinks in this way, she will gain Demetrius's love. Lastly, since Demetrius never accepts her, she constantly puts herself down. For example, she says, "I'm ugly as a bear for beasts that meet me run away for fear"(2.2.100-101). Helena's main objective is to receive Demetrius's love. She is so desperate for this that she follows him and does crazy things at all costs. Helena speaks in iambic pentameter, which means she is a part of the higher class. She often repeats the words, "Demetrius"and "love". For example, the sentence, "Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind" she uses the word love and speaks in iambic pentameter. Overall, although Helena seems like a shallow girl, she is just a poor, lovestruck maiden who doesn't know how to deal with her situation.

Hermia- A Multifaceted Character

     Throughout A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hermia expresses her character and strong personality. In the beginning of the play, Hermia demonstrates her independence towards her father when she disobeys him. Hermia consistently refuses Egeus in an effort to wed Lysander, her chosen love. In addition to Hermia's independence, she also shows a stubborn, dogged side. When Lysander is under the spell of the flower and is madly in love with Helena, Hermia denies his change of heart. As stated, "You speak not as you think. It cannot be" (Hermia, 3.2. 196). After Hermia argues with Lysander, her anger soon directed to Helena and thus reveals her feisty side. Hermia uses an attitude with Helena, and points a number of insults towards her as well as physical threats. While arguing with Helena, the reader sees Hermia's confidence. When Helena serves some insults, Hermia confidently responds saying, "Lower? Hark again?" (3.2. 321). Throughout the play, Hermia demonstrates her unique personality Shakespeare gave her through an array of sassy lines, independence to her father, her dogged nature, and a confident stature.
     In addition to an apparent personality, the way Hermia speaks shines a light on Hermia's upbringings. Hermia speaks in Iambic Pentameter, which entails that Hermia is of a well educated class. Hermia also changes the way she talks to cater toward the person to whom she is speaking. Hermia sweet talks Lysander but shows great sass and confidence when talking to Helena. This allows the audience to see the complex character of Hermia.

Making New Insults

In the scene we read today, the ladies use words like "juggler" and "cankerblossom" and "puppet" to insult one another.  See if you can be like Shakespeare and invent new insults.  I want you to write five sentences that include an "invented" insult.  Three of the sentences must also include vocabulary words from Ch. 2.

Setting Shakespeare

Adapt the scene we blocked in class today (where Lysander hits on Helena and then Demetrius steps in to hit on her too and then Hermia shows up, confused), by creating a new setting for the scene that would add to its humor.  For example, today I had the scene set in modern times in the Kinkaid library with teenagers as the lovers.  Where would you set Act 3, Scene 2?  Who would be the lovers? Why?

Dream World

Midsummer has several references to dreams; the word itself appears in the play 16 times.  Titania and Hermia both have crazy dreams.  Strange dreams can be the most profound, predictive, or helpful when they seem most bizarre.  Describe a weird dream you've had.  Did this dream become useful or predictive in your life?  Could you relate the dream to anything that happened in your actual life?  In your response, please use at least 3 words from Ch. 1 in Vocabulary Energizers II.

How to....(with Vocab)

Please enter your paragraph in a comment.  You must use 10 vocabulary words from Ch. 9 and 10 correctly to tell someone how to:

1. build the best peanut butter sandwich ever
2. drive very badly
3. get out of trouble with your parents
4. embarrass your English teacher
5. steal your friend's significant other

The Landscape of Suffering

God points to the great mysteries of nature in his response to Job in the Bible.  In Tree of Life, we often see shots of Sean Penn's character, who is suffering still from the loss of his brother, standing in the middle of strange or vast landscapes in which he feels and looks small.  If you had to paint or picture a landscape that works as a metaphor for your own personal suffering, what would you choose--ocean, desert, glacial plain, etc.--and why?