A Midsummer Night's Dream

The four young lovers of A Midsummer Night's Dream may seem interchangeable, squabbling adolescents as they are. However, Demetrius is somewhat the more privileged, flamboyant, and scattered than Lysander. The text strongly indicates that everyone has always made a fuss over Demetrius, the golden boy, who has made love to Helena, only to turn fickle and his attention to Hermia. Lysander says Demetrius is "spotted and inconstant" (I.i.110). Demetrius, indeed, is at the core of the play's manifest conflict; Egeus wants him as a son-in-law, but daughter Hermia just wants Lysander. Egeus's recital of Lysander's gifts and poetry to her is treated as a curse, though Demetrius apparently has expended little effort to deserve Hermia's love and has cruelly rejected Helena's. But Papa is in charge, and it is enough for Hermia to know that Demetrius has his blessing.

If the stakes of this situation seem high, it is only because absent the comedic context they would be unbearable. But Shakespeare is supplying a comedy, and how to work out which lover goes where to the satisfaction of everybody constitutes the meat of the action. In that environment, however, Demetrius can be said to stand out as rather a cad and a lout, expecting entitlement to a whole range of benefits that he does not bother to appreciate. If that character content is evident onstage, the audience should be able to get the message that, at minimum, he needs to learn a lesson (alas, Helena!). The dream adventure in the

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Category: Literature - A