Midsummer Night's Dream review...sort of.

The last part of my Once Upon A Time Challenge is to read Midsummer Night's Dream. Midsummer Night's Dream is my hands down favorite Shakespeare play. I've seen it performed at least 20 time if I've seen it once. Sometimes it's good, other times it is horrible. One of the things that makes the difference is whether or not the actors understand what they are saying. Don't laugh. You'd be amazed at how many times I've seen the play where it was obvious that the actor didn't get the meaning, the sense of the lines. So I thought I'd share my favorite monologue with you.....and what I think the meaning is.....

HELENA :
How happy some o'er other some can be!

Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.

But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;

He will not know what all but he do know:

And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,

So I, admiring of his qualities:

Things base and vile, folding no quantity,

Love can transpose to form and dignity:

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;

And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:

Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;

Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:

And therefore is Love said to be a child,

Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.

As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,

So the boy Love is perjured every where:

For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,

He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;

And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,

So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.

I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:

Then to the wood will he to-morrow night

Pursue her; and for this intelligence

If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:

But herein mean I to enrich my pain,

To have his sight thither and back again.

To Paraphrase, nay to sum up:

I'm happy for Hermia, but I'm pretty too! Why won't Demetrius see that anymore? He use to love me, now he loves Hermia! I love him, all his faults are charming to me. He is acting like a child, making promises then denying them. I will tell him of Hermia's plan, even though I am betraying my best friend, just to try to get him to see me again, hopefully to love me again.

To me, that is what Helena is trying to say. This monologue was one of my favorite audition pieces. Even if Helena is a whiny little pain in the ass.