Is this good,

Im basing this off a question "Describe and discuss how shakespere presents the relationship between helena and hermia in a mid summers night dream"

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Here it is:

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We first meet Helena and Hermia at the start of the book, we learn Hermia is the daughter of Egeus, who wants her to marry Demetrius, but she loves Lysander. Her best friend Helena, who loves Demetrius, but he does not love her. As we progress throughout the book we see their friendship fluctuate as the plot progresses.

Shakespeare shows us how close and the great amount of trust between them, after Hermia’s harsh fight about who she is too marry with her father, Helena asks Hermia for advice on how to get Demetrius to love her stating “O teach me how you look and with what art you sway the motion of Demetrius’ heart!” Through this quote Shakespeare shows us how close their friendship is, and how much trust they have between each other as Helena is asking for advice from Hermia, this shows how close they are.

Shakespeare shows how much the friendship is valued through the quote “Farewell sweet playfellow”, This description of Helena as a ‘sweet playfellow’ and the wistful tone that Hermia uses shows how much she values their friendship. After Hermia confides in Helena and tells of her plans to run away with Lysander, Helena goes and tells Demetrius of their plans, “I will go tell him of fair Hermia’s flight” hoping that he might fall for her, Shakespeare shows that her love for Demetrius overrides her friendship with Hermia.

Shakespeare then shows an example of this again through the quote, “Happy is Hermia, whereso’er she lies, for she hath blessed and attractive eyes” the italics show how much Helena is jealous of her, again showing how their friendship has been overridden by jealousy and love.

Shakespeare through quotes shows how the strong friendship they once had, quickly disintegrated when they became involved with the two men. The love potion was meant to help, but Puck's mistake managed to completely reverse the relationship. When both Demetrius and Lysander were under the influence of the "love-in-idleness" flower, Helena believed that both men and Hermia are mocking her, their friendship had lasted all their lives up until this point in the play.

Helena tries to make Hermia feel guilty through the quotation “And will you rent our ancient love asunder, to join with men in scorning your poor friend?”, Shakespeare uses the verb ‘rent’ to show that the friendship has been ripped apart violently and shows her pain.

Helena feeling betrayed reminds Hermia of their past friendship “…..O is all forgot? All school days friendship, childhood innocence?”, Shakespeare uses questions and repetition of ‘all’ to convey how Helena feels betrayed by Hermia. Helena then using the quote “………So we grew together like to a double cherry……… So, with too seeming bodies but with one heart”, this quote uses a simile and a metaphor to describe how they can’t be separated.

They then start to insult each other, and it quickly turns personal, further destroying their relationship, Hermia uses insults against Helena to convey her frustration and anger, “O me! You Juggler, you canker-blossom You thief of love! What have you come by night and stol’n my love’s heart from him”, Shakespeare conveys the tone of anger and frustration using exclamation marks to show her outrage and a metaphor to insult Helena.

The quarrel becomes even more personal with Helena stating “Fie,fie, you counterfeit!-You puppet, you!”, Shakespeare conveys how angry she is and uses exclamation marks to show outrage, going on to use the metaphor “puppet” to describe that Hermia is being controlled by the men.

The argument escalates with the insults becoming more personal, with the friendship continuing to deteriorate, Hermia lashes out at Helena through the quotation “How low am I, thou painted maypole? Speak! How low am I? I am not yet so low but that my nails can reach into thine eyes.” Shakespeare uses a metaphor referring to Helena as a ‘painted maypole’ referencing her height, repetition is then used to convey her growing anger and this quote ends with a physical threat to scratch out Helena’s eyes.

Submitted May 27, 2019 at 03:25PM by Crazyzombie522 http://bit.ly/2EAd0aW