Scene "Demetrius & Helena"
Duration | 4 minutes | Preparation time | 2 lesson units |
|---|---|---|---|
Number of roles | 2 | Age | from 10 years |
Language level | medium | Scene type | Love scene |
Props | none | ||
Introduction
The love scene between Demetrius and Helena is a deeply passionate one that embodies the ultimate heightening of emotionality. It deals with the eternal theme of love without love in return.
Helena is completely desperate because her lover Demetrius suddenly no longer loves her. However, she has fallen for him and cannot help but follow him. There is no alternative for her personally but to stay with Demetrius. If that would mean her death, then she would accept that too.
Demetrius, on the other hand, is infatuated with Hermia, so he is rude to Helena, wants to get rid of her at last, and lacks any empathy towards her.
Information about the play - A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare)
Background knowledge about the author - William Shakespeare
Context
Number of acts: 5
Position: Act 2, Scene 1. In total, Act 2 consists of 2 scenes.
We are relatively at the beginning of the plot. Hermia and the two young courtiers Lysander and Demetrius are introduced in Act 1 at the Prince's court. Demetrius is to marry Hermia, but Hermia refuses because she is in love with Lysander. Lysander and Hermia decide to flee Athens. At the beginning of the 2nd scene we meet Demetrius, who has followed the two into the forest. Helena has gone after him because she loves him.
Roles
Helena: young woman, friend of Hermia and former lover of Demetrius.
Demetrius: former lover of Helena, but has suddenly fallen in love with Hermia and wants nothing more to do with Helena.
Both come from noble Athenian families and are close to the court.
In A Midsummer Night's Dream there are the two pairs of lovers: Hermia and Lysander, Helena and Demetrius. Hermia is in love with Lysander, but Demetrius is also in love with Hermia. Helena, however, is in love with Demetrius, who wants nothing to do with her. Helena and Hermia are friends.
Plot
Demetrius appears in the forest with the intention of finding and killing Lysander, as he is in love with Hermia and she has been promised to him. Helena has followed him and wants to convince Demetrius of her love.
As already mentioned, Demetrius does not want Helena, but she is hopelessly in love with him and pursues him at every turn. Demetrius searches for Hermia in the forest, with whom he is infatuated.
Helena is quite a nuisance, humiliates herself before Demetrius and still won't let go of him, and Demetrius is very unkind to her and rejects her harshly.
Oberon, who has witnessed this scene, decides to help Helena.
Text
DEMETRIUS
I love thee not; pursue me no more!Where is Lysander, where fair Hermia? Thou toldst me of her flight hither; Now am I here, am in the wild wilderness,Because I seek my Hermia here in vain.Away! Lift thyself away, and follow me no more!
I don't love you, don't pursue me any more.Where are Lysander and Hermia? You told me they fled here. Now I'm here in the wilderness, looking for Hermia in vain. Away! Go away and pursue me no more!
HELENA
Thou dost attract me, hard-hearted magnet! But thou dost not attract iron, for my heart is real as steel. Let me not be attracted, for I have no power to follow thee.
You attract me like a hard-hearted magnet!
Stop attracting me like that. I can't help but follow you.
DEMETRIUS
Do I attract you and do I make love to you? Do I not tell you the truth, that I can never love you?
Do I attract you and am I kind to you? Do I not tell you the truth quite directly that I no longer love and can love you?
HELENA
And for that very reason I love you only more!I am Eur little dog and, Demetrius,If you beat me, I must still flatter you.Meet me only as your little dog,Push me, beat me, disrespect me, lose me:Only allow me, unworthy as I am, to accompany you. What worse place can I ask for in your love,Than that you keep me like your dog?
And that's why I love you even more! I'm your little dog, Demetrius. You can treat me like your dog, you can beat me, push me and disrespect me.
I only want to accompany you! I don't want to have any other role than that you keep me with you like a dog.
DEMETRIUS
Don't arouse the disgust of my soul! I feel sick just looking at you.
You make me sick just looking at you!
HELENA
And I feel sick, don't look at you.
DEMETRIUS
I run away, hide in the bush And leave you to the mercy of wild beasts.
I run away and hide in the bushes and leave you to the wild animals.
HELENA
The wildest has not a heart like yours.Run if you will!
DEMETRIUS
Let me go! If you follow me, I assure you, I'll do you harm in the forest.
Let me go! I promise you: if you follow me, I will do something to you in the forest!
HELENA
Ich folge dir und finde Wonn in Not,
Gibt die geliebte Hand mir nur den Tod.
I follow you and find delight in distress,If the beloved hand gives me only death.
DEMETRIUS and HELENA off.
Sprache
Text work
Story: Helena is in love with Demetrius, so much so that she has followed him into a large forest. Demetrius, however, is not in love with Helena. Alas. She gets on his nerves terribly.
Presentation as pantomime
Improvisation: A wants something from B (friendship, love, to get something, to go to the cinema together... etc.) But B doesn't want it. The more A pushes, the more violently B rejects her.
Scenarios
"Helena and Demetrius as grandparents": Helena and Demetrius are grandparents and remember this scene in their youth. They tell their grandchildren about it.
Helena meets a friend (before the scene in the forest) and tells her about the great love of her life, Demetrius.