This essay examines Hermia's role as an underappreciated heroine in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Despite being overshadowed by Helena, Hermia's courageous defiance of her father and the king sets the entire plot in motion. The paper traces her emotional development through close reading of key speeches, showing how she moves from a demure young woman who dares to speak before powerful men to someone willing to physically defend herself. The essay argues that Hermia's self-respect and determination distinguish her from Helena, who abases herself before men, making Hermia a more assertive and ultimately more admirable figure in the play.
In Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, it is easy to overlook the influence of the romantic, mortal heroine Hermia. The shorter, dark-haired Hermia initially seems less sympathetic than her taller, blonder, and "fairer" compatriot Helena, because she begins the play with the affections of her beloved Lysander already secure. Yet it is Hermia's brave and defiant action that causes the rest of the play's events to unfold. Hermia refuses to marry Demetrius, a man she does not love. In doing so, she still leaves open the possibility for Helena to marry the man she was originally promised to. And Hermia's bold decision to flee into the woods brings the rest of the human world into contact with the fairy kingdom.
Hermia also undergoes a tremendous emotional change across the play, both in terms of how she sees herself and how she views her relationships with others. She describes herself as very demure, yet she is willing to speak aloud before more powerful men in public — including her father and the king — at the very beginning of the play.
Standing before the king, Hermia speaks with remarkable candor and self-possession:
I do entreat your grace to pardon me.
I know not by what power I am made bold,
Nor how it may concern my modesty,
In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;
But I beseech your grace that I may know
The worst that may befall me in this case,
If I refuse to wed Demetrius (I.1).
Hermia says she would rather become a nun than bend to her father's or the king's command that she marry Demetrius — the same man who had originally promised to marry Helena. This public act of defiance, for a young woman in Elizabethan society, is extraordinary. It sets in motion every subsequent event in the plot: the flight to the forest, the intervention of the fairies, and ultimately the resolution of the romantic entanglements among all four lovers.
Hermia's instinct to remain true to her values continues in the forest, where she politely but firmly works to preserve her chastity:
Lysander riddles very prettily:
Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,
If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied.
But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy
Lie further off; in human modesty,
Such separation as may well be said
Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid (II.2).
Although this may seem prudish, Hermia is acting wisely. She has just eloped with Lysander, and she needs to ensure that he will marry her in order to preserve her position in society. Her insistence on sleeping apart is less a matter of rigid convention than of practical self-preservation — the act of a woman who understands the stakes of her situation and acts accordingly.
"Confronting Helena and defending herself forcefully"
"Contrasting Hermia's self-respect with Helena's self-abasement"
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