HELENAHow happy some o'er other some can be!Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;He will not know what all but he do know:And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,So I, admiring of his qualities:Things base and vile, folding no quantity,Love can transpose to form and dignity:Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:And therefore is Love said to be a child,Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,So the boy Love is perjured every where:For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:Then to the wood will he to-morrow nightPursue her; and for this intelligenceIf I have thanks, it is a dear expense:But herein mean I to enrich my pain,To have his sight thither and back again.
Helena is comparing herself to Hermia which is normal for a young woman and she just can't understand why if she is as beautiful as Hermia why doesn't Demetrius love her, seeing as how Hermia loves lysander. This is because love is blind, and he has obligations, meaning an arrangement with Hermia's gather. Despite Demetrius' love for Hermia Helena is pretty sure she will win him over.
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Indeed, Helena's unwavering confidence with Demetrius is peculiar (as are most any other of her expressed intuitions). In most soiliquoy lines that I have read from Helena it always sounds as though her feelings of love are rivaled only be her thoughts of obsession.
ReplyDeleteI did feel Helena was on the verge of obession of Demetrius. Throughout the story I felt that Helena just liked to chase Demetrius but did not really want to be loved by him.
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