Opened Questions: A Midsummer Night's Dream

If you were to act this play out on stage, which character would you choose to be and why?

I would be the character Helena because its not obvious what her thought process is, but once you try hard to understand it she becomes a very interesting character. For example, when she makes the decision, the first crazy one we see, to tell Demetrius about Hermia and Lysander's plans to elope, in hopes that Demetrius will be so grateful that Helena told him about the plans that he would want to marry her. When we read that in class, the entire class was so confused by her thought process into thinking that that would work. Well after I thought about it for a while, it's not that Helena is stupid she is just blinded by love and can't think straight. You can tell that she would do anything for Demetrius to go back to being in love with her, like when she told him that she doesn't care  if he treats her like a dog as long as she is with him she is happy. She is hopelessly in love and I find that really interesting because when you are in love you do unpredicatable things. Let's face it, Helena does some pretty unpredictable stuff all because of love (and a little jealousy and low self esteem), it would be fun to take on that role.  

Who was your least favorite character? Why?

My least favorite character is Hermia. I know its pretty shocking but I really don't like her. I feel that she lacks depth in the sense that she is so not complicated. That may sound weird that I like complicated characters, but it's true, throughout the whole story you know exactly what she wants the whole time. Hermia only has a couple of struggles with getting what she wants but she really doesn't have an issue going against those struggles. She gets around her father, Theseus, and Demetrius by running away in the woods. The only real struggle she has to face and deal with, but then is fixed, is when Lysander "falls in love" with Helena. I mean yes it was devastating to her but its like Hermia couldn't take what she had brought upon Helena before the story. And yes it was not Hermia's fault that Demetrius fell in love with her, but I feel like Hermia never quite understood why Helena was so devastated. I think overall Hermia is a spoiled brat. 

Did you like the play? Why or why not?

I loved the play because of the parallels and all the different kinds of characters. One of the parallels that I picked up throughout the whole story is how every couple is in a different stage of a relationship. Helena and Demetrius are in the stage of like where one person is stalking the other after dealing with the other breaking up with them. Hermia and Lysander are in the stage of the couple who are engage but go through the ups and downs. Theseus and Hippolyta are the opposite of them because they are the perfect couple that balances out all the drama with the other couples. Titania and Oberon are the troubled married couple who are fighting over one thing, but once that one thing is gone everything is fixed. The play was overall my favorite Shakespeare play.