Lesson video

Hello and welcome to this lesson about love and unrequited love.

It's an English lesson.

Those two important piece of equipment, never forget your pen and never forget your paper.

So make sure you've got both of those at hand, please.

We're going to need those today.

Remember to clear away any distractions you might have, make sure you've closed any of your tabs, notifications, anything that might just distract your attention away from learning.

So make sure that you've got that lovely, quiet space, that focused environment.

And when you are ready, let's begin.

So with our topic of love and unrequited love, we need to make sure that we know who the lovers are in the play.

And there are four main lovers.

We have Hermia, we have Lysander.

we have Demetrius and we have Helena.

So there are our four main lovers 'cause we're going to look a little bit today about who loves who, and whether these characters love each other back as well.

And that will bring in our term later on.

So we need to, first of all, remember what do we know so far.

What do we know about these lovers so far? So far, we know that Hermia loves Lysander.

We know that Hermia loves Lysander and we know that Egeus wants Hermia to marry Demetrius.

So remember Hermia loves Lysander, Lysander loves Hermia.

And Egeus wants Hermia to marry Demetrius, a different man.

So we looked at this a little bit last lesson.

Why can't Hermia marry Lysander? And we looked at quite a few ideas last lesson about the way ancient Athens was as our setting in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

So we're going to look at now how we can explain three different reasons why Hermia cannot marry Lysander.

So our first reason starts off with Hermia cannot marry Lysander because Egeus.

And on the right hand side of your screen in pink also, I've put the word, Demetrius.

So we need to think of what Demetrius has to do with that sentence.

How can we make Demetrius fit into that sentence? Hermia can not marry Lysander because Egeus.

Our second one, A Midsummer Night's Dream is set in a society which.

And I've left you with the word patriarchy at that point.

we looked at that last lesson, patriarchy.

So how would that mean that Hermia wasn't allowed to marry Lysander? And the last one, this means that Hermia must.

obey.

So that last sentence links to the second one.

So how can that term, obey, fit into that sentence? So I'm going to ask you to pause your video for a moment, and I'd like you to write me down three sentences.

So in your first sentence include the word Demetrius.

Then your second sentence, you include the word patriarchy.

And then your third sentence include the word obey.

Off you go, please.

All right, let's have a look how we can then complete these sentences.

So the first one, you may have put something such as Hermia cannot marry Lysander because Egeus has chosen for her to marry Demetrius.

Our second one, you may have put something along the lines of a Midsummer Night's Dream is set in a society which follows the rules of patriarchy.

Remember, patriarchy: A society where men enforce the rules and women have no power.

And our last one, this means that Hermia must obey her father's wishes.

So we've used those three key words in those instances.

Demetrius, patriarchy, and obey.

Well done, if you've managed to get those into each of your sentences, really impressive.

Let's have a quick recap then.

So our first question, who does Hermia want to marry? Is it option one, Lysander? Or option two, Demetrius? Take a quick moment to think.

Excellent if you've put Lysander, you've remembered that Hermia wants to marry Lysander.

Let's have a look at the second question.

Who does Egeus want Hermia to marry? Option one, does he agree with Hermia and chooses Lysander or is it option two, a different man, Demetrius? Take a quick moment to think.

Impressive, if you put Demetrius.

Really important that we get those characters the right way 'round, isn't it? So we don't get confused with who is who.

So our four lovers, let's make sure we're clear on who loves who.

So Hermia loves Lysander.

Lysander loves Hermia.

Wouldn't that be a perfect world, that Hermia loves Lysander, Lysander loves Hermia and they can be together.

But no, we're in ancient Athens, we're in a Midsummer Night's Dream and Egeus has different ideas.

The third lover, Demetrius, loves Hermia.

So he loves Hermia.

Two people are in love with Hermia.

And then we have poor Helena our fourth lover.

Helena loves Demetrius, Demetrius doesn't love her back.

So there are four lovers.

So it's important to remember who loves who because Shakespeare being Shakespeare and the fact that it is a Shakespearean comedy, we will await the confusion later on in the play because that's one of our features of a Shakespearian comedy that we looked at in an earlier lesson.

So it's really important at this point that we know who loves who at the start of the play.

So, pause your video for a moment, please and complete those four sentences.

Off you go.

All right, let's see if we've got those correct.

Well done if you remembered that Lysander loves Hermia.

Number two, Demetrius loves Hermia.

Two people, remember, are in love with Hermia.

Poor Helena.

Number three, Hermia loves Lysander.

And number four, Helena loves Demetrius.

Excellent work, if you've got four out of four on those.

Even better if you have spelled the character's names correctly.

So make sure you have a little check at those spellings.

We're looking then at our romantic plot.

And we remember, hopefully, back to when we looked at Shakespearian comedy and the features that a romantic plot is part of a Shakespearian comedy.

So what we just want to make sure that we're nice and clear on is what this first kind of romantic plot is.

We've obviously had Theseus who wants to marry Hippolyta.

He can't wait for the wedding, four days is just far too long for Theseus to cope with, but we've got our main romantic plot now, introducing these lovers, particularly revolving around Hermia and Lysander as a romantic plot.

So let's have a look at a brief summary.

So Hermia loves Lysander.

She wishes Egeus could see how worthy Lysander is.

And that's in quotation marks because that's taken from the text.

Egeus has chosen Demetrius.

If Hermia refuses, she risks death or being sent to a nunnery.

So, she really doesn't have many options.

So Hermia literally, she can marry Demetrius like Egeus says and forget about Lysander.

Or she can be killed because the Athenian law says, if she does not obey her father.

Third option, she could be sent to a nunnery.

So if she is sent to a nunnery, that means she will then choose to serve God.

And she will not therefore have any relationships with any men in her lifetime.

So she will give up the idea of being able to be with a man at all.

So they are her three options because remember patriarchal society, she's a woman, she has no power.

So that's what a romantic plot is.

And it's not an easy path for Hermia and Lysander.

Well, let's introduce ourselves to a new word, monologue.

Monologue.

So a monologue is a long speech in a play, which is spoken by only one character.

So a monologue is a long speech in a play, which is spoken by only one character.

And it actually comes from a Greek word, monologous, speaking alone.

So one person speaking a speech, a long speech in a play.

But we can use that word then in a sentence because if we're introducing a new word we want to make sure we know how to use it.

And it's always really impressive if you can say, monologue, rather than just speech.

So when Egeus speaks to Theseus about his complaint, he speaks in the form of a monologue.

So he makes a long speech to Theseus and therefore is a monologue.

He's, one person talking.

And this is when he makes his complaint, isn't it? When he complains about his daughter, Hermia, not following his instructions.

And therefore he appeals to the Duke of Athens, Theseus, to help him and enforce the law to force Hermia to do what her father asks of her, which is to marry Demetrius.

So, here is an extract from Egeus' monologue.

This is from Egeus' monologue.

So this is part of the long speech, remember? Just spoken by Egeus that he says to Theseus.

This man has bewitch'd the bosom of my child, thou, thou Lysander, thou who has given her rhymes and interchanged love tokens with my child.

So remember, Egeus' monologue, he's complaining, he's angry.

He's angry that his daughter is not obeying him as she should.

And I've picked out some key quotations and they're in three different colours.

And we're going to look at those in turn.

We're going to think about what those key quotations might suggest.

So we're going to look at Egeus' view on Lysander and Hermia.

So let's look at the first box, the first column.

It's on the left hand side of your screen.

Bewitch'd, rhymes, love tokens.

So Egeus thinks that Lysander has tricked Hermia.

He's tricked her.

He's bewitch'd there.

He's almost put a spell on her to fall in love with him.

And he's given her all these rhymes and all these love tokens.

So by rhymes, he's given her lots of almost poetry.

If you think about the verses that you get in Valentine's cards or birthday cards, those kinds of rhymes, all those kind of poems of love.

And love tokens, presents.

Lysander has given Hermia lots of presents.

So almost in Egeus' mind Lysander has almost bribed Hermia to fall in love.

So therefore we can say that Egeus thinks that Lysander has manipulated Hermia, he's twisted her emotions to make her love him.

He also believes that Lysander has flattered Hermia.

He's bought her lots of presents.

He's said lots of rhymes and poems to her.

And therefore Egeus believes that Lysander is quite cunning.

And cunning's quite a negative idea.

It's not a compliment to Lysander.

He believes that Lysander has done something wrong, and he's been a bit sneaky about it as well.

So that's our first column.

Let's look at the second one.

He says my child, my child.

He says it twice.

He uses repetition.

My child.

And that shows possession doesn't it? That she belongs to him, she's his object.

My child, my child.

And we can therefore say that that clearly shows patriarchy doesn't it? Clearly shows patriarchy because Hermia is his daughter and she belongs to him.

And therefore he can dispose of her as he wants to, like an object, like we looked at in a previous lesson, and that therefore is quite controlling.

It's quite controlling, the fact that he can treat her this way and give her away and tell her what to do, when she can do it and how as well.

And our last column, thou, thou, thou.

It's just an archaic form of you.

It's the Shakespearean term for you, Y-O-U.

And there's repetition again.

He says it three times, three times.

And you can almost imagine Egeus in his monologue kind of pointing his finger at Lysander.

And that's quite an accusing tone that he's using.

You, you, you've done this, you've done this.

And that shows a great deal of anger, doesn't it? A great deal of anger.

And that, the fact that he blames Lysander so specifically, he blames Lysander for Hermia's disobedience, for not obeying him, for not doing what she's told he blames Lysander very directly.

You, you, you, thou, thou, thou.

So let's look at how we can turn that into some writing.

So let's look at the first one.

So what I've done on your screen, you will see your quotation is in a purpley, lilac colour.

And you will see that there are some phrases in a dark blue.

And those phrases are the kind of ideas that are really useful.

They've come from the bullet points we've just looked at, plus a couple of extra ones.

So, let's have a read through of this together.

So, Shakespeare presents Egeus as a character who feels so angry about Hermia's disobedience that he blames Lysander for tricking Hermia into loving him in his monologue.

So we can show off that we know it's a monologue.

Egeus lists examples, such as bewitch'd, rhymes and love tokens to show how he believes Lysander has been cunning and has forced his affection upon Hermia.

This suggests that Egeus refuses to believe that the love between Lysander and Helena is genuine.

He believes Lysander has manipulated Hermia using flattery.

So we've got lots of key words and ideas, but the main idea that is coming through that paragraph is the fact that he blames Lysander for Hermia's disobedience, and he believes that she's been tricked.

And that's the basis of our idea running through that paragraph.

So we're going to have a look now at how you can have a go at the last two columns.

Let's look at the pink one first.

My child, my child, Shakespeare further shows, Egeus' anger when he uses repetition with the phrase, my child.

So we've got our bullet points there, repetition, possession, patriarchy, and controlling.

I'd like you to pause your video and see if you can finish off the opening of that paragraph with those four bullet points at the bottom.

Off you go.

Well done.

Hopefully you've managed to get those key points in.

You might not have used repetition because that's used in the opening, but you may have found another way to use that.

But hopefully you've managed to get in: Possession, patriarchy and controlling.

Let's have a look at the next one.

Thou, thou, thou.

Another example of Egeus' anger towards Hermia is shown when he repeatedly says thou to Lysander.

So we've got that starting opening of our sentence at that point.

And I have given you four bullet points again: Repetition, accusing tone, anger and blames for disobedience.

So you can either put a full stop on the sentence opening, there is or you can choose to continue that sentence if you so wish, left it open to you.

So have a go at writing that paragraph now, please.

Well done.

Hopefully you've managed to get some of those key terms in: Accusing tone, anger, blames for disobedience, that whole line of thought that's running through our argument, how Egeus does not want Lysander to marry his daughter at all.

We need to then go back to our four lovers.

So we know that Egeus does not favour Lysander.

We know that in his monologue, he has said that Lysander has tricked, manipulated Hermia into falling in love with him and therefore blames Lysander for her disobedience.

So we've got that element of our romantic plot running at the moment, but we need to think about the key term that we're now going to introduce.

So we need to be thinking about the relationship between these four lovers because when we looked at Egeus, we focused on Hermia and Lysander and brought in this element of Demetrius, but there's another layer to this love story.

So let's recap, Hermia loves Lysander, Lysander loves Hermia, Demetrius loves Hermia, and Helena loves Demetrius.

So let's think about how this love moves between these characters.

So Hermia loves Lysander.

So you can see an arrow's appeared on your screen now to show the love that goes from Hermia to Lysander.

And Lysander loves Hermia.

So the love between these two characters is reciprocated.

They both love each other.

They can't be together, but they do both love each other.

Demetrius has loved towards Hermia, but remember she does not love him back.

So we haven't got an arrow going back 'cause we've only got an arrow moving from Demetrius to Hermia.

And then we have Helena who loves Demetrius.

But remember, Demetrius does not love Helena back, he loves Hermia.

So that's why we've got no arrow going backwards.

So we can see that this love kind of square almost is a little bit complicated.

We've got our romantic plot running, certainly not smoothly because of Egeus and his complaint to Theseus.

But we've also got people are suffering and they're suffering because they love someone who does not love them back.

So that takes us into our new term, unrequited love, unrequited love.

And unrequited love is one sided love.

It's love that happens on one side, but it doesn't happen back, if a person loves someone who does not love them back.

So we can use this term when we're talking about our four lovers, but we have to obviously use it nice and accurately and think really carefully, which character we're choosing to talk about.

So the question I then propose to you is who is suffering from unrequited love.

Let's take ourselves through our journey again, Hermia loves Lysander, Lysander loves Hermia, Demetrius loves Hermia, Helena loves Demetrius.

So Hermia loves Lysander and Lysander loves her back.

So they're not suffering from unrequited love because we have an arrow going both ways.

The love has moved from one person and it's returned.

So it's not unrequited between Hermia and Lysander.

However, remember Demetrius loves Hermia, but Hermia does not love Demetrius back.

That means Demetrius' love for Hermia is one sided.

So Demetrius is suffering from unrequited love.

Helena loves Demetrius, Demetrius doesn't love Helena back.

So therefore Helena is suffering from unrequited love.

We've got our two characters, or you can see it's two green boxes up here to show that they are the characters that are suffering from unrequited love.

So take a pause.

There are two sentences on your screen.

If you could write those out now, be really careful with your H female characters, remember.

Both six letters, both start with an H, both end in an A, be really careful, Take the time to pause your video, now, please.

All right, well done, excellent work if you have managed to get Demetrius is suffering from unrequited love because he loves Hermia, but she does not return his love.

And our second sentence, Helena is suffering from unrequited love because she loves Demetrius but he does not return her love.

So they're both suffering from unrequited love.

So we've got our characters suffering from unrequited love.

We know that Helena loves Demetrius, Demetrius loves Hermia.

They're both suffering, but there's a little bit of information that we need to learn about Helena next.

So, but before we get to that, we're going to look at Lysander and how he defends himself.

And he has to defend himself when it comes to Egeus speaking in his monologue.

So Lysander defends himself and by defending himself, I mean that he argues his case of why he should get Hermia and Demetrius shouldn't.

So Lysander has three initial arguments and it's the fourth one that's going to involve Helena.

So the first reason he gives for why he is as good as Demetrius, he says, he comes from a family, which is as good as Demetrius'.

So the family that Lysander comes from is as good as Demetrius'.

So in terms of their family background, they're equal.

The second one, he has as much wealth as Demetrius.

So, he has just as much money as Demetrius.

They're both just as rich as each other.

So, they're equal in terms of wealth and family.

And thirdly, which Lysander actually labels as a really important reason is that Hermia returns his love.

He says, to Egeus particularly, you know, I come from just a good as family as Demetrius.

I have just as much wealth as Demetrius and most importantly Hermia returns my love as well.

They're three pretty good reasons.

But remember Egeus has chosen Demetrius not Lysander.

So let's test ourselves on those.

So what are the three reasons Lysander gives for allowing him to marry Hermia? I've given you three key word triggers there.

The first reason begins, key idea begins with an F, the second one with a W and the third one with an L.

So I'd like you to pause your video in a moment and see if you can write down the three reasons that Lysander gives for allowing him to marry Hermia.

Try and do those in full sentences as well, please.

Off you go.

All right, well done if you mentioned for number one that it has to do with his family, number two, to do with his wealth and number three, to do with love.

And that's what Lysander probably ranked the highest in the way that he talks in his defence, that Hermia returns his love.

For him that's really important.

And that's a better reason than the other ones.

However, I told you that there was another reason, another way in which Lysander tries to fight his case to gain Hermia because he loves her and he wants to be with her.

So he reveals something about Demetrius to the audience.

So, follow it on your screen.

Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head made love to Nedar's daughter Helena and won her soul.

And she sweet lady dotes, devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry upon this spotted and inconstant man.

So he reveals some very key information to the audience.

So remember, don't worry about trying to unpack the whole piece of text at the moment because we're going to break it down.

But you will see Helena's name mentioned.

So there is a bit of a past between Demetrius and Helena that has not yet been revealed.

So we now know that Demetrius once made love to Nedar's daughter, which means that there was a time when Demetrius was in love with Helena! Shocking.

So Demetrius who now loves Hermia used to be in love with Helena, Hermia's friend.

So he used to be in love with Helena.

And Helena, Helena's soul was won.

He won her soul.

He confessed his love for her.

He said he loved her so many times.

He told her how much he cared for her.

And he won her soul.

Because he told her he loved her Helena then loved Demetrius back.

The only catch is, for poor Helena, is that Helena has never stopped loving Demetrius, but Demetrius has stopped loving Helena.

And Lysander emphasised, he said, and she sweet lady, he's calling Helena a sweet lady, dotes, devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry.

If you dote upon something, you worship it.

So Demetrius has told Helena how much he loves her.

He won her soul.

He won her completely, not just on the outside, but on the inside.

He won her whole soul.

She fell completely in love with him.

And now she utterly worships him, dotes, devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry.

He says dotes three times to emphasise how much Helena worships Demetrius.

But the problem is as Lysander reveals in that last line, spotted and inconstant man, is that Demetrius changes his mind.

He's inconstant, he's stained.

He's not a man to be trusted.

He's not trustworthy.

So Lysander not only has valid reasons about his family and his wealth, he has the reason that Hermia loves him and he's also now told us that Demetrius changes his mind because Demetrius once loved Helena and she now still worships him.

And that's why when we talk about Helena suffering from unrequited love, we can believe that it is basically Demetrius' fault that she is suffering from unrequited love because he changed his mind about her and then decided to put his attention on Hermia instead.

So let's look at these quotations separately then.

So the question still remains, what does Lysander reveal about Demetrius to the audience? So I've given you a sentence starter, Lysander reveals to the audience that.

You've got your quotation on the right hand side and a phrase, professed his love for Helena.

Profess, that insistence.

Insisted his love, declared his love for Helena.

So if you can pause your video for me, I'd like you to see if you can write that explanation down, finishing off that starting opening of your sentence.

Off you go.

All right, let's look at the next one then.

So the next one.

Although Demetrius, and I've left lots of Hs missing out and our key term that we introduced.

Although Demetrius no longer loves, she still loves him.

This means is suffering from.

Lysander emphasises how.

Now, I'm going to read that opening sentence again but this time I'd like you to say the words that fill in the gaps to your screen for me, please.

So I'll say, although Demetrius no longer loves.

I then expect you to say the character's name beginning with H, but be careful which one you pick.

So let's do that again.

Although Demetrius no longer loves, she still loves him.

This means is suffering from.

Lysander emphasises how still.

And then notice, at the end of that opening paragraph, I have given you a.

and some quotation marks, and that would be the perfect time to bring in your pink quotation.

Dotes, devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry.

And I've given you the bullet point, worships him.

Some of you might want to show off with the idea of repetition as well, if you like a challenge.

So pause your video now.

See if you can write the next piece for me.

Off you go.

Well done.

Let's look at the last one then.

I'm going to read this through.

I want you to say the character's name beginning with D for me, when I read it.

Lysander accuses of being a.

Perfect time to bring in your quotation, isn't it? By telling the audience about Demetrius' past Shakespeare is making the audience think that.

So remember, we always think about the audience.

We think about how the people watching the play will react as it is performed.

And I've put in your bullet points, not trustworthy.

You can add a little bit to that, of course, but I think that's quite a nice basis for our thinking here, isn't it? By telling the audience about Demetrius' past Shakespeare is making the audience think that.

Because it's not Lysander that's chosen to talk about Demetrius' past.

Shakespeare has chosen for Lysander to talk about Demetrius' past.

So it's Shakespeare's decision.

And he wants to include that bit of information.

So on the end of that, it might be worth thinking about which character the audience are meant to prefer at this stage.

Which characters do we have sympathy for? Do we feel sorry for? Which characters do we find more likeable? Which characters do we trust more? Who do we side with? Whose side do we take? When we look at this Lysander/Demetrius battle for Hermia whose side are we being encouraged to take, perhaps? So pause your video now and then have a go at that last paragraph for me, please.

Off you go.

Well done, excellent work.

That brings us to the end of today's learning on love and unrequited love.

Well done on the fantastic learning that you've achieved today, really impressive.

So, don't forget to take your quiz, try and aim for that hundred percent so you can get those top marks, just to showcase everything that you've done today.

So, final words from me, thank you very much.

Take care and enjoy the rest of your learning for the day.