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How Is Helena Portrayed In A Midsummer Night's Dream

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In the text a Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare despite an individual's predominantly positive interpretation of themselves, there are those who catapult into a sunken abyss of low self-esteem due to a cynical perception of the world around them while others may perceive them in a more optimistic light which shows an ample difference in perception.

Helena’s self-hate in the play is a perfect example of a difference in perception. Helena’s friends such as Hermia and Lysander see her as a wonderful, kind, and respectable young lady while Helena views herself as a dog to be walked over and often mistakes their praise of her as mockery. Helena calculates her self-worth not positively on how her friends perceive her but negatively by a single biased opinion, as a result Helena is overly critical of herself and sees herself disgusting and ugly.

Helena’s perception of herself is directly influenced by the fact that she is blindly in love with Demetrius, Helena lusts after him so passionately that she endures the pain of seeing him run after Hermia; thinking that spending a few moments with him filled by “sweet pain” is better than not being around him at all. Demetrius chases Hermia similarly to how Helena chases after him, he is annoyed by the fact that …show more content…

Hermia considers Helena to be her best friend, she wants Helena to be happy and wishes her the best of luck with Demetrius, she tells her the more she scorns Demetrius the more he loves her; While with Helena it’s the exact opposite, the more she loves Demetrius the more he hates her. Helena is deeply jealous of Hermia since she has taken Demetrius away from her and constantly compares herself to Hermia because of

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