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Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Helena

Part of EnglishA Midsummer Night's Dream

Key points

  • Helena is one of the main characters from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a comedy by English playwright William Shakespeare.

  • Helena is in love with Demetrius, but he loves Hermia. Hermia loves Lysander and they run away to get married. Helena and Demetrius follow them into the woods.

  • Fairy magic makes both Lysander and Demetrius fall in love with Helena, but she doesn’t believe either of them.

Did you know?

Performances often have a tall actor playing Helena and a short actor playing Hermia. There are lines in the play that suggest there is a height difference between the two friends. For example, Hermia insults Helena by calling her a “painted maypole”.

Images of a quill and ink pot, purple question mark and William Shakespeare above an open book.
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Plot summary

A timeline infographic containing nine images connected by green ivy that show the main events of the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The first image shows Hermia, who has red hair, and Lysander, who has blonde hair, running away together hand in hand. In the second image, Helena, who has brown hair, is pointing in the direction of Hermia and Lysander, showing Demetrius, who has black hair, where they have gone. In the third image, the silhouette of Titania holds a baby boy while Oberon flies in and holds his hands out as if to take the baby himself. In the fourth image Puck can be seen dripping purple love potion into the eyes of a sleeping figure. In the fifth image Helena shrugs with her hands out and a confused expression on her face. On either side of her Lysander and Demetrius are looking at her with loving expressions, while purple love hearts encircle their faces. In the sixth image Titania, who is lying in the grass, looks up at Bottom, who has a donkey’s head and is wearing a white tunic, with romantic interest. In the seventh image, Oberon, who has green hair and is wearing a golden crown, holds a round bottomed flask of golden potion. In the eighth image, three couples – Hermia and Lysander, Helena and Demetrius, Theseus and Hippolyta – stand underneath wedding arches. In the ninth image, a man in a white tunic pretends to be scared of another man, who is crouched on the floor wearing a lion head costume.
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Helena’s key moments

Click through the slideshow to see Helena’s key moments

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  1. On the far left of the infographic is Hermia, who is in love with Lysander. Lysander has his arm around Hermia as he loves her back. Next to Lysander is Demetrius, who has his arms folded and is glaring at Lysander, because he is in love with Hermia too. Helena is on the far right of the infographic. She looks sad and has her hand on Demetrius' arm. She is in love with Demetrius. In the background of the infographic are fairies and woodland.

    Helena loves Demetrius but he is in love with Hermia, who in turn wants to marry Lysander. Hermia and Lysander run away to be together and Helena and Demetrius follow them.

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Character traits

Helena is standing with her hands on her hips against a forest background. She has a suspicious look on her face and is wearing a white dress and flowery headband.

Frustrated
Helena is frustrated at the beginning of the play because Demetrius does not return her love.

Suspicious
Even when Demetrius later declares his love, she thinks he is mocking her. She is suspicious when both men switch their affections from Hermia and say they love her. She also suspects that her friend Hermia is involved in the joke and that everyone is mocking her.

Untrustworthy
Hermia shares her secret plan to run away with Lysander with her friend Helena. Helena betrays her friend by sharing this secret with Demetrius, in the hope of gaining his affection.

Witty
Helena is a witty character and makes jokes even when she feels frustrated and unhappy.

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Relationships

In the middle of the infographic is Helena with her hands on her hips. On either side of her are images of Hermia and Demetrius, connected to Helena by a green line which signifies that they are friends.

Helena loves Demetrius. Demetrius rejects Helena’s love and is unkind to her when she follows him into woods. However, at the start of the play it is made clear that Demetrius and Helena have previously had a romantic relationship.

Helena is friends with Hermia, and they have known each other since childhood. Despite their friendship, Helena breaks Hermia’s trust and tells Demetrius she has run away with Lysander. Helena is jealous of Hermia because Demetrius loves her.

Demetrius later falls in love with Helena because of Puck’s love potion. At the end of the play, it is implied that his feelings for Helena are genuine and they get married.

Why do Helena and Hermia fight in the woods?

Hermia, Helena, Lysander and Demetrius dressed in ragged clothes in the middle of a fight - Demetrius and Lysander are trying to pull Helena and Hermia apart
Actress Olivia Ross (far right) as Hermia in a 2013 production of the play, alongside fellow cast members Sarah MacRae as Helena, Joshua Silver as Demetrius and Luke Thompson as Lysander

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Changes in character

On the left hand side of the infographic Helena looks sad and is holding her arms around her belly. In the middle section she is scratching her head with a confused expression on her face. On the right hand side she looks happy, has her hand over her heart and is surrounded by red love hearts.

Helena is lovesick and suffers from love at the start of the play. She tells Demetrius where Hermia and Lysander have gone to please him, but Demetrius then cruelly rejects her.

Oberon sees Demetrius rejecting Helena and tells Puck to give Demetrius a love potion. Puck mistakenly puts the love potion in Lysander’s eyes, and then in Demetrius’ eyes. Both men fall in love with her.

Helena is very confused and suspicious when both men say they love her. She doesn’t believe that they could have switched their affections so quickly from Hermia. She fights with Hermia, who blames her for the change in Lysander’s affections.

At the end of the play, all the confusion is resolved and Helena and Demetrius are in love with each other. They get married alongside Hermia and Demetrius.

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Activity - Order it

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What do these key quotations mean?

The more I love, the more he hateth me.

Helena
Act 1, scene 1

Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think,
Because she is something lower than myself,
That I can match her.

Helena
Act 3, scene 2

O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent
To set against me for your merriment:

Helena
Act 3, scene 2

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Listen to a scene

This audio clip is from Act 2, scene 1, when Helena describes how upset she is that Demetrius does not return her feelings. Listen to the clip and then answer the question below.

What does Helena compare love to?

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Test your knowledge

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Have fun playing science, maths, history, geography and language games.

Play Bitesize secondary games
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