At the beginning of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Helena is in love with Demetrius, who is in love with Hermia. A key aspect of Helena and Demetrius’s relationship is, of course, unrequited love. A prime example of Helena’s unrequited love for Demetrius can be seen in the following speech from act 2, scene 1.
And even for that do I love you the more.
I am your spaniel. And, Demetrius,
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you.
Use me but as your spaniel—spurn me, strike me,
Neglect me, lose me. Only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
What worser place can I beg in your love—
And yet a place of high respect with me—
Than to be usèd as you use your dog?
Sonnet 147 is a clear parallel to Helena’s situation through much of the play. (Please read the original sonnet,...
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below.)
Sonnet 147
My love is as a fever, longing still
For that which longer nurseth the disease,
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
Th' uncertain sickly appetite to please.
My reason, the physician to my love,
Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
Hath left me, and I desp'rate now approve
Desire is death, which physic did except.
Past cure I am, now reason is past care,
And frantic mad with evermore unrest,
My thoughts and my discourse as madmen’s are,
At random from the truth vainly expressed;
For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night.
The themes in sonnet 147 are so similar to Helena and Demetrius’s relationship that one could almost imagine that Shakespeare could have placed sonnet 147 into the play. As you read my modern (translated) version of the above sonnet, imagine that Helena is saying the lines.
Sonnet 147 (Translation)
My love is a fever longing
For the thing that prolongs my disease,
My love feeds on that which keeps me ill,
In order to keep me loving the person I desire.
Reason (or common sense), which could heal my sick love,
Angry that I’m not following his prescriptions,
Has left me, and now I’m desperate enough
That this desire (love) is killing me, which reason expected.
I’m beyond a cure, and beyond reason,
I’ve grown frantically mad and restless.
My thoughts and behavior are like a madman’s
Fitfully moving away from the truth
Because I thought you were fair and beautiful
When really you are as black as hell and as dark as night.
Just as Helena accuses Demetrius of treating her no better than he’d treat his dog, the speaker in sonnet 147 realizes that he (or she) is possessed by a love that is unrequited, and that the one he or she loves is not really such a wonderful person.
One point to remember is that In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, before Demetrius was engaged to Hermia, he was engaged to Helena. So, in the play, Helena is a spurned woman. That fact alone paints Demetrius in a “black as hell” and “dark as night” light. In fact, the only reason that Helena and Demetrius end up together at the play’s end is because Demetrius is permanently drugged by Oberon’s magic flower. This is a bit of a plot problem and likely one of the reasons that Shakespeare ended his play with the lines, “If we shadows have offended, / Think but this, and all is mended, / That you have but slumber'd here / While these visions did appear. / And this weak and idle theme, / No more yielding but a dream.” Puck’s final speech enables the audience to accept that Helena could stay with Demetrius, even though he betrayed her and is only with her because he is drugged. If that doesn’t make him “as black as hell, as dark as night,” then I’m not sure what does.