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Examples Of Helena In A Midsummer Night's Dream

Decent Essays

As Helena learns of Lysander and Hermia's plan to run off and be happy, she instantly gets jealous and agonizes over her heartbreaking situation with Demetrius, the man who loves an already happy Hermia and not her. While by herself, Helena realizes love is flawed and has a mind of its own.

Citation:

Helena: Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind; / and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind. / Nor hath Love’s mind of any judgment taste. / Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste” (1.1.240-243).

Explanation:

In William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Helena indicates how frustrated she is with the blindness and unpredictability of love, believing that Cupid’s impulsivity caused the failure of her love life. The use of the clause “Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind” signifies that Helena believes appearances and beauty shouldn’t be the qualities that …show more content…

She says this because, in Athens as a whole, Helena is seen as someone just as beautiful as Hermia; however, not to Demetrius because his eyes have been “blinded” by love. The clause “ and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” refers to the reason why artists portray the god of love with no sight. Helena suspects that Cupid’s inability to see while he flies around with his arrows caused her misfortune because without sight he is unable to see who he shooting. The words “Nor hath Love’s mind of any judgment taste” show that the mind of a person in love can lack judgment and often act irrationally. Helena is referring to Demetrius and how his mind is so in love with the idea of Hermia that he doesn’t realize how much better having Helena, someone who loves him back, would be. The last words of this citation “Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste” imply that Cupid’s

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