Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to this lesson about "Understanding Helena." For today's lesson, you will need your pen and your papers.

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

Also take the time to turn off any notifications, any tabs you might have open, anything that might distract you from that perfect learning environment that we strive for.

So when you've got that lovely quiet space and you're ready, let's begin.

So today we're going to start off with a recap of some of that key information that we know so far that will help us understand Helena's character better.

So first question, who does Hermia love? Second, who does Demetrius love? Number three, who does Lysander love? Number four, who does Egeus want Hermia to marry? And number five, who does Helena love? So if you'd like to pause your video now please, see if you could answer those five questions in full sentences.

You've got to be very careful with spellings of characters' names.

All of your characters are written on the screen that you will need for your answers.

So copy of those spellings nice and carefully.

Off you go, please.

So let's have a look at those answers together then.

So number one, well done if you remembered that Hermia loves Lysander.

Number two, well done again if you've got that Demetrius loves Hermia.

So Hermia's actually got two people that are in love with her.

Number three, Lysander loves Hermia.

Number four, Egeus wants Hermia to marry Demetrius.

Well done if you remembered what Egeus wanted, because it wasn't the same as Hermia.

And that last question, Helena loves Demetrius.

It's reminding ourselves that there are two characters whose love is not returned.

And that should make you think of a key word, hopefully, from an earlier lesson.

So well done if you've got those five correct, that you made sure that Shakespeare didn't trick you and let you get those names muddled up.

So well done.

So the question that I posed to you is, what we looked at in a previous lesson.

Who is suffering from unrequited love? So let's take ourselves through our love square.

It's more than a triangle, isn't it, it's almost a love square.

So we've got Hermia who loves Lysander.

Lysander who loves Hermia.

Demetrius who loves Hermia.

And Helena who loves Demetrius.

So let's think about those relationships between those characters.

So we've got Hermia who loves Lysander.

Lysander who loves Hermia back.

So think, is Lysander or Hermia suffering from unrequited love? So is Lysander suffering from unrequited love? Is Hermia suffering from unrequited love? Are they both suffering from unrequited love or are neither of them suffering from unrequited love? We've got Demetrius who loves Hermia, and we've got Helena who loves Demetrius.

Think about those arrows when we're thinking about unrequited love.

So have a think, who is suffering from unrequited love? Say your answers to the screen now, please.

Well done if you recognise that Demetrius is suffering from unrequited love, because he loves Hermia and Hermia doesn't love him back.

The arrow is only pointing one way.

And double well done if you manage to remember that Helena is suffering from unrequited love because she loves Demetrius but Demetrius doesn't return her love.

So with that image that you've got on your screen, it's the reminder that the arrow is only pointing one way.

Unlike Hermia and Lysander who have an arrow pointing from each character to the other; Hermia to Lysander, and Lysander to Hermia.

They both return each other's love.

So Helena, the character that we're focusing on today.

Let's remind ourselves.

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

So her love for Demetrius is one-sided.

But we have to remind ourselves, why does Helena love Demetrius? Did she just suddenly wake up one day and decide she was in love with Demetrius? Or is there something else to it? And hopefully, some of you will be remembering from our previous learning that in actual fact, Demetrius professed his love for her.

He told Helena once that he loved her, he professed his love, he declared his love.

He made sure that she realised that he loved her.

He also won her soul.

He didn't just win her physically.

He won her whole entire being, her soul.

He won her entirely, not just on the surface, but completely.

And, as a result of that, because he professed his love, we're reminding ourselves that Helena dotes upon Demetrius.

She absolutely worships him.

And we can understand why she dotes upon Demetrius.

It's because Demetrius professed his love for her.

So there's two key quotations, bullet point two and bullet point three there.

Won her soul and dotes.

And you may remember that dotes, Shakespeare actually used repetition with the word dotes, to emphasise how much Helena actually loves Demetrius.

So we're going introduce a new term now.

New term, sympathy.

Sympathy.

So the picture on your screen now should give you a little clue of what sympathy might be, but let's have a look at a definition together.

So sympathy is feeling sorry for, or showing care about someone's suffering.

So you don't just give them a simple pat on the back and say, "There, there, it's okay." You actually feel sorry, or you show care about someone suffering.

So let's look at an example then of how we can apply that to the text.

So we can say that the audience may feel sympathy for Helena because Demetrius once said that he loved Helena, but now he loves her friend instead.

So not only has he stopped loving Helena and changed his affections to somebody else, he's actually fallen in love with her friend instead.

So we can say that we may feel sympathy for Helena because he did once profess his love for her.

He'd won her soul and now she dotes upon him.

Regardless of what he does or what he says, she still dotes upon him.

So we can say that the audience may feel sympathy for Helena.

We can understand and show care to her situation.

So let's look at Helena's view then.

So Helena in the text says, "Call you me fair? That fair again unsay.

Demetrius loves your fair.

O happy fair! Your eyes are lode-stars and your tongue's sweet air more tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear, when wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear." So some of you may detect at this point, it says, "Your eyes are lode-stars and your tongue's sweet air," she's actually talking to Hermia at this point, she's talking to Hermia.

And in this speech from Helena, and remember if it's a long speech, we can say that is a monologue, and in this speech, she is struggling.

She's struggling because she says, "Call you me fair.

That fair again unsay.

Demetrius loves you fair.

O happy fair!" She's talking in terms of fair.

Not about how she feels about how a situation has been dealt with.

Whether she thinks it's fair what's happening to her.

In actual fact, when she's talking about fair, she's talking about the idea of beauty or being beautiful.

And she's saying, "Call you me fair." You shouldn't call me fair.

You shouldn't say that.

Demetrius loves you and your beauty, oh happy beauty.

And there's that sense perhaps at this point that she feels that, although she is seen to be as fair as Hermia, that actually that means nothing to her been called fair if Demetrius doesn't feel it too.

So if Demetrius doesn't think she's fair, then what does it matter what anybody else says or thinks? Because she only cares about Demetrius.

She dotes on him.

He's won her soul.

So Helena says directly to Hermia, "Your eyes are lode-stars." And you can see by the image on the right hand side of your screen, "Your eyes are like stars, your tongue's sweet air," the things that you say, "more tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear." So a lark is a morning bird.

It's a bird that comes out in the morning.

So this idea of the lark singing, that sign that it's going to be a good productive day for a shepherd, someone who is in charge of herding sheep.

So she said "more tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear," so that beautiful sign for a shepard, that sound of the lark, that it's a beautiful day.

It's ready for a new day, new hope, new beginning.

And she says that "Your eyes and your tongue's sweet air" are more tuneable.

But for her, they're more tuneable because that is what Demetrius believes.

Demetrius believes that Hermia was beautiful.

And he doesn't see Helena the same way he sees Hermia.

Let's carry on with Helena's view then, in her monologue, her speech, her long speech to Hermia.

Remember, she's just the one person talking.

She's giving us her feelings, but she's saying them to Hermia.

She says, "Sicknesses is catching.

O were favour so, yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go.

My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye, my tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.

Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated, the rest I'd give to you to be translated.

O teach me how you look, and with what art you sway the motion of Demetrius' heart." So we're really delving into how Helena feels now.

So she says, "Sickness is catching." So you can catch sickness.

And she actually wishes that she would catch the beauty, the fairness of Hermia, so Demetrius will love her.

So when she's talking about sickness being catching, she's actually saying she wishes that she would catch Hermia's charm, her beauty, whatever it is that Demetrius loves so much.

Because if she was infected by that, if she caught that, when she says, "my ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye, my tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody," if she caught all those things, like a sickness from Hermia, then perhaps Demetrius would love her.

Because she doesn't know what it is that Hermia has.

And that's what she struggles with.

She says, "Were the world mine," and that's why we've got a picture of the Earth on your screen.

If I owned the world, if I possessed everything in the world, and I had Demetrius, I would give you everything else, but him.

So she literally said if I had the world, everything in it, if I had Demetrius bated, if I had him, I wouldn't care about anything else.

Nothing else in the whole wide world would matter.

And she would give everything to Hermia.

She would just give it all away because she didn't care, she wouldn't care.

Because all she wants is Demetrius.

She's willing to give up the world for him.

She really has had Demetrius win her soul, hasn't she? Demetrius really has won her soul.

She really does dote upon Demetrius.

Literally, if I had the whole world, I would give it to you, Hermia, if I could just have Demetrius.

So she pleads with Hermia at the end of this screen, she says, "O, teach me how you look, and with what art you sway the motion of Demetrius' heart." She's desperate.

Even that "O," it's almost like a huge sigh.

Teach me how you look, just teach me.

Teach me how you look, teach me to look like you.

She's wishing that she's like Hermia, because she's so in love with Demetrius.

"And with what art," what kind of spell have you got Demetrius under that I just can't break it? And he doesn't notice me, he doesn't see me like he sees you? "With what art do you sway the motion of Demetrius' heart?" With what art, with what power do you get Demetrius' heart? And that is the secret that Helena is desperate to know.

Because she feels, if she knows this secret from Hermia, then she can win Demetrius.

Because she's already felt love from Demetrius.

The only catch is, he has taken that love away from her.

So let's pause and let's have a look at some key statements that we can write about, thinking of Helena's view.

So "Helena does not like Hermia calling her fair because.

." Key word I want you to include on that sentence is Demetrius.

So remember, you'll need more words than just Demetrius.

You can't just end your sentence with Demetrius, but try and include Demetrius in the remainder of that sentence.

You'll need to think with your own words as well though, remember.

Second one, "Helena wishes she could catch.

." What does she wish she could catch? And your key word to include in your answer there is the word beauty.

Beauty.

And the last one, "Helena wants Hermia to teach her.

." What does she want Hermia to teach her? Your key words or key phrase in this one is fall in love.

So put a phrase on that one.

And think about that phrase, fall in love, of how you can adapt your sentence to make that fit.

So I'd like you to pause your video for a moment.

And I would like you to try and complete those three sentences using each of the key words, please.

Off you go.

So let's have a look together then at some possible answers that you might have.

We could say, "Helena does not like Hermia calling her fair because.

she does not feel beautiful because Demetrius does not love her." So that idea of feeling beautiful.

The second one, "Helena wishes she could catch.

Hermia's beauty including her looks, her voice, and her eyes." And I've deliberately listed those there because she does talk about her looks, her beauty.

She talks about her voice, and how that sounds, the sweetness of it.

And she talks about her eyes being like stars as well.

And the last one, "Helena wants Hermia to teach her.

how to look at Demetrius, and what tricks she uses so that Demetrius will love her instead." So I've adapted that one slightly, and I've adapted that idea that Demetrius will love her instead.

The idea that he will fall in love with her instead.

So you could have simply put, Helena wants Hermia to teach her how to look at Demetrius and what tricks she uses so that Demetrius will fall in love with her instead.

So you could adapt it for that phrase also.

So well done if you've got sentences that use those key words and phrases.

And if you've used that key phrase on the third one perfectly, you've done even better than me.

So well done.

We have, poor Helena, her plea.

We feel that sense of sympathy, as an audience, towards her, because she dotes upon Demetrius, with a mission.

Dotes upon him.

He's won her soul.

He professed his love for her, and she won't let that love stop.

She won't stop loving him.

So there's a little bit of a comic interchange between these two characters, Hermia and Helena.

And the image that I've put on your screen kind of shows that clash between what Hermia is explaining and saying and what Helena is saying.

And this scene does seem quite comic.

We've literally moved from Helena pouring her heart out in a monologue to Hermia, to then a comic interchange, quick one liners almost, between Hermia and Helena.

So we move quite a lot in the Shakespearean comedy, between moments of kind of tragedy, despair, the sense of no hope, to then something quite amusing.

So let's read this together though, you follow on your screen.

So Hermia, "I frowned upon him, yet he loves me still.

O that your frowns would teach my smile such skill! I give him curses, yet he gives me love.

O that my prayers could such affection move! The more I hate, the more he follows me.

The more I love, the more he hateth me.

His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.

None but your beauty, would that fault were mine!" So you can hear, hopefully, by the way that I tried to say that that Hermia is actually a little bit confused.

And Helena is hoping and wishing that things will get better.

So you can almost hear the puzzled nature of Hermia's voice, "I frown upon him, yet he loves me still." So I frown at him, yet he still loves me.

So Hermia doesn't understand this power that she has over Demetrius.

It's like, I literally frown at him, but he loves me.

And Helena just wishes that Hermia's frown "would teach my smiles such a skill." So she just wishes she could learn what Hermia was doing.

Even if it's a frown, that she could make her smile look like that.

Just so Demetrius would love her.

Hermia says, "I give him curses." I curse at him.

She doesn't say kind things to him, "yet he gives me love." So I'm horrible to him, but he still loves me.

Hermia can't understand it.

She's not doing anything to be nice to Demetrius.

She's not making any attempt to even flirt with him in any way.

Hermia then says, "The more I hate, the more he follows me." So the more hateful I am towards him, the more horrible I am towards him, the more he follows me around.

That's almost amusing, isn't it? You know, the fact that she's literally showing this hatred towards him, and he just follows her around even more.

And Helena, the mirroring on that line, and you'll see that I've put it in bold deliberately.

She uses the same format of the sentence that Hermia does.

But look how the wording changes.

"The more I love, the more he hateth me." So the more I love him, the more he hates me.

And that might be another example of how we could suggest that the audience might feel sympathy for Helena.

Literally, the more she loves him, the more he hates her.

So the more she gives him her heart, the more he hates her.

Yet Hermia, "The more I hate him, the more he follows me." She doesn't understand it.

But Helena can't win Demetrius, can she? And Helena just wishes that she could be like Hermia, to get the man that she loves.

But these two girls, they were having this conversation.

But Hermia said, I don't what I'm supposed to tell you.

I don't know what I'm doing that's attracting him.

I'm really not trying to.

And Helena is just desperate for the secret, whatever this may be.

So there's a sense of comedy in this interchange between these two characters.

This sense of, Helena's so desperate to find an answer, and it's an answer that Hermia has no idea what it's all about.

No idea what she's doing, no idea what's attracted Demetrius, and her friend is asking her for this important secret that will solve her heartache.

But Hermia can't give it to her.

She doesn't know what she's doing.

She's not trying to attract him.

So, let's have a quick pause then.

So the question is, "What does Hermia not do to Demetrius?" So option one, "Frowns at him." Option two, "Curses him." Option three, "Hates him." And option four, "Say that she loves him." So what does Hermia not do to Demetrius? Have a quick think.

Well done if you identified that she does not say that she loves him.

And that's really important.

Hermia gives Demetrius no reason to love her.

She gives him no reason to follow her around.

But Demetrius still does, because remember Demetrius is suffering from unrequited love.

He loves Hermia, she doesn't love him back.

He's even got the permission of Egeus, but still Hermia doesn't love him.

So the one thing that she does not do is she never says that she loves him.

She actually does the opposite.

So it's really important that you identify that that's the only positive option.

And so well done if you got that correct.

I think where we are so far with Helena and Hermia, so we know that they're friends.

There's this sense of secrets, isn't there, that Helena believes that Hermia has got this ultimate answer.

But what we're going to move on to next is this idea of betrayal between the friends.

So this sense of betrayal.

So we've got two friends who've known each other a very long time.

There's these secrets that Helena is desperate to find out but Hermia genuinely can't help her because she doesn't know the answer.

And that key word, betrayal.

So we're going to now see and start to look at how Helena betrays Hermia.

And I've put that sentence on the bottom of your screen.

Helena chooses love over friendship.

Is that a fatal mistake? Should you choose love over your friends? It's a huge question, isn't it? Who are you loyal to, the person that you love, or your friend or your friends? Huge decisions, a big life question really, isn't it? So let's look at Helena's monologue then.

So we're going to look at Helena's monologue.

And what's key about this monologue is that Helena speaks to the audience.

She speaks to the audience.

And that's quite significant.

So let's look at this in stages then.

So we'll start off with what's on your screen at the moment.

How happy some over others? We'll try that again.

How happy some o'er others some can be! And you'll notice there there's the apostrophe.

And that means there's a letter or letters missing.

It's to help the rhyme of the line.

So, "How happy some o'er others some can be!" And there's that sense, just from the opening, is there a hint of jealousy there, that other people can be happier than Helena? Does jealousy make us do bad things? "Though Athens I am thought as fair as she, But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so.

He will not know what all but he do know.

And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes, so I, admiring of his qualities." So we've looked at that opening, that possibility of jealousy, that sense that everybody seems happier than you are.

And this is what Helena feels that she's struggling with it.

Others seem so happy.

They've got it so much better than she has.

And then we've got that reference to fair again, haven't we? That reference to fair, that idea of beauty.

So, "Through Athens, I am thought as fair is she." So in Athens, people think that Helena and Hermia are equally as beautiful, equally as beautiful.

And that might remind you of when we looked at Lysander and Demetrius, that idea that they have the same kind of family background, the same sense of wealth, that they are equals, just like Helena and Hermia.

But it's very much about their beauty because they're women.

And she said, well, but what of that? Does it really matter what anybody thinks, because if Demetrius doesn't think it, then what's the point? So you can see the same idea coming through in this monologue as we had before.

This sense that if Demetrius doesn't think it, then why would it matter what anybody else thinks? And Helena then says, "doting on Hermia's eyes, so I, admiring of his qualities." So Demetrius is going around doting on Hermia, worshipping Hermia, and she says, Hermia doesn't feel it back, but I'm standing here admiring all of his qualities, but he doesn't notice me.

That's quite sad, isn't it? That she's trying so hard, but he just doesn't notice her.

All he sees is Hermia because he's in love with Hermia.

And that must be particularly hard on Helena, because remember, Shakespeare, through the character of Lysander, told us that Demetrius once professed his love for Helena.

So the fact that she loves Demetrius, hasn't come out of nowhere.

It's come out of the fact that Demetrius once professed his love for her, and he won her soul.

Let's look at the next bit.

"Things base and vile, holding no quantity, love can transpose to form and dignity.

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind." So you've got your image on the right hand side of your screen there, Cupid blindfolded.

So Cupid, the idea of being the messenger, the idea of being the messenger of love.

And if you get hit by Cupid's arrow, then you're instantly in love with that person, that kind of almost like a spell has been cast upon you.

And she's saying here that "love can transpose to form and dignity." "Things are base and vile." So love can make things that seem so terrible, turn into something that seems so positive.

So things base and vile, things that are horrible, they should hold no value that aren't important.

And love can turn that into something else.

So she's suggesting here that love is incredibly powerful.

It's incredibly powerful.

It can turn things that are negative into something that is really positive.

So love can transform things.

It can make you believe things, perhaps that aren't even true.

Almost like love has a spell over you.

And she says, "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; and therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind." So love doesn't look with the eyes.

You love with your mind, you love with your head.

You don't love with your eyes.

And therefore, wing'd Cupid is painted blind.

So therefore, Cupid is blinded, because love doesn't look through the eyes.

Love moves through the mind.

Let's carry on with Helena's monologue.

"Nor hath love's mind of any judgement taste.

Wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste, and therefore is love said to be a child, because in choice he is so often beguil'd.

As waggish boys in games themselves forswear, so the boy love is perjur'd everywhere." So she said, "Nor has love's mind of any judgement taste." So this idea that we perhaps misjudge, we misjudge because we think with the mind and not with our eyes.

We don't look, so we might make these judgments, which she describes as hasty.

Because "wings, and no eyes, figure unheedy haste." Haste is to do with speed.

So haste is to do with speed.

But when she talks about this idea of "wings and no eyes, figure unheedy haste," if you've got wings and you're flying around, you've got complete freedom to go anywhere you like, and you've got no eyes, you're blinded, then that's unheedy haste.

You can't make wise decisions.

You can't make wise judgments.

And that's why she then brings in this image, "And therefore is love said to be a child." So she's comparing love to a child, this idea of not thinking things through properly.

And that image we're going to come on to in a moment.

So, "because in choice he is so oft beguil'd.

As waggish boys in game themselves forswear, so the boy love is perjur'd everywhere." It's just like messing around with boys' games, not taking things seriously because you've got the mind of a child, not understanding perhaps the consequences of the situation.

Let's then introduce a new term, metaphor.

Metaphor.

So I've got an image of a lion, a closeup lion up at the moment.

And we'll come on to how that will make sense in terms of helping us to define the word metaphor.

So as a definition, a metaphor "compares two things where one becomes the other because of its similarities." It's where one becomes the other.

So let's look at an example.

Theseus is a lion.

Now Theseus isn't really a lion.

He's the Duke of Athens.

However, he's not literally a lion.

He's a human being.

But this metaphor can suggest Theseus is strong and brave.

And we talked about that quite a few lessons ago now where we introduced the idea of rule and order in Athens, and we talked about Theseus being the Duke and being in charge.

And the fact that he'd just come back from a war.

And Shakespeare chose to tell us that.

And that could suggest that Theseus is strong and brave.

So we're comparing Theseus to a lion.

We can say Theseus is a lion.

It doesn't mean he's transformed into an animal.

It doesn't mean he's wearing a costume.

But the qualities of a lion, the idea of a lion being strong and brave, are similar to the qualities of Theseus being strong and brave, having come back from the war.

So let's look in Helena's monologue, an example of a metaphor.

So we're using that phrase that we looked at, "love is said to be a child." So we can think about what this image of love, being compared to a child, and this idea of Cupid, might actually mean.

So let's look at the bullet points together.

So it could suggest that it changes its mind easily.

So love can change its mind easily.

We've got the perfect example in Demetrius, haven't we? That he changed his mind from Hermia to Helena.

And a child does that.

A child changes their mind really easily.

You think when they pick up one toy, and then they decide they want a new toy, or they want to play with the box that the toy was in.

But a child will change their mind really easily.

There's a sense of being innocent as well.

And these next two bullet points all linked together.

So we've got unwise and lacks experience.

So we've got innocent, unwise, and lacks experience.

These three key ideas associate with the idea of a child.

And a child can said to be innocent.

They haven't learned about the bad things that happen in the world so much.

They don't realise how bad the world can be.

So there's a sense of innocence.

So this idea of falling in love and believing perhaps that it can all turn out perfect would be the view of a child.

You can say it's unwise and lacks experience, the fact that love is a child.

We can suggest that because this idea of being unwise, not having any experience or understanding the different situations, the fact that Hermia and Lysander, for example, have fallen in love with each other, but now they're battling all these circumstances against them.

The law of Athens, Theseus, Egeus.

The idea of love being compared to a child, a child wouldn't recognise all those things that could happen and go wrong.

They would just see the love as a simple thing, that one person loves another person, so they should be together.

And that links in with the idea of a lack of experience, doesn't it? That idea of lacking experience, that innocence of love, that innocence said love will just turn out perfectly.

We're now going to have a go at trying to write our own answer explaining this metaphor.

We're going to read it through together, and then I'm going to ask you to pause your video to write your own response.

So let's read the opening together.

"Shakespeare uses the metaphor of 'love said to be a child' to show how Helena feels about love." I could have made that even better.

I could have put, in Helena's monologue, comma, at the start of that if I want to really show off.

"This metaphor suggests that love is a child which implies.

." And that would be your opportunity to bring in those key bullet points that we had on our previous slide.

We could bring in those key bullet points.

So take yourselves back.

So, changes its mind easily, innocent, unwise, and lacks experience.

So you might wish to use those key bullet points in your response.

So when you're ready, pause your video.

See if you can write your own paragraph.

Off you go, please.

So let's read through an example together.

So remember, whenever you're given an example of a paragraph, then don't worry if yours doesn't read exactly the same, but think about, what are the key points in that paragraph? Have I got them in mind? What could I add, what could I improve? So what we'll do is we'll read through this together, then if you'd like to, you can pause your video and make any improvements to your own paragraph.

Anything that you missed, that you could have said, or something that you might find, oh, that's phrased a little bit better than mine, maybe I could use that instead.

So let's read the example together.

"So Shakespeare uses the metaphor of 'love is said to be a child,' to show how Helena feels about love.

This metaphor suggests that love is a child, which implies that love is innocent.

Love is not seen as wise, which is perhaps Helena's way of admitting her love for Demetrius is not wise, but this makes no difference to her.

She loves him unconditionally," and I've underlined that word specifically so we can explain it and pause.

So she loves him unconditionally.

So no matter what he does, what he says, she will still love him unconditionally.

She's not saying, I will only love him because of this, this and this.

And if he does this, I will change my mind.

Unconditionally, no conditions whatsoever.

So "She loves him unconditionally, as she dotes upon him.

In addition, she accepts that love can change even though it remains unchanged for her.

Ultimately, love is blind, and she will continue to love Demetrius despite his actions." So if you'd like to, you can pause your video, have a look at your paragraph, and see if there's anything you'd like to add, improve or change.

Well done on those paragraphs.

Lots of information, lots of key ideas.

So let's continue with Helena's monologue.

"For, ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne, he hail'd down oaths that he was only mine.

And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt, so he dissolv'd, and showers of oaths did melt." So this is Hermia explaining how Demetrius changed his mind from Helena to Hermia.

She says, "Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne." When he "look'd on Hermia's eyne, he hail'd down oaths that he was only mine." So before he looked at Hermia's eye, Hermia's eyne, eye, "he hail'd down oaths that he was only mine." Hailed down oaths.

You think of a hail storm, hail, quite painful as well, big, almost like lumps of ice, isn't it, coming from the sky.

Hailed down oaths, there were so many of them, and they came with such force, such force, this love that he professed to Helena at the start.

"Hail'd down oaths that he was only mine," and he promised himself to Helena.

"And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt," so when he felt affection for Hermia, he changed his mind.

So he dissolved.

It just disappeared.

You think, if you put a teaspoon of salt, for example, in water and give it a quick stir, it dissolves.

It just disappears, you can't even see it's there.

The idea of dissolving.

"And showers of oaths did melt," showers of oaths just melted away.

This force of love that he had for her just melted away.

Showers that just disappeared.

And there's that sense of hail as well, possibly suggesting a little bit of pain, isn't it? "He hail'd down oaths," this love, this powerful force of love that he had for her.

But that hail moved from Helena to Hermia, and then his affection for Helena melted.

Just like hale does, because it's like little droplets of ice, isn't it, that hits the ground and then they just melt and they disappear and then they completely evaporate or run away and they're completely gone.

You don't ever get them back again.

And I've also, in this section, put in the term patriarchy.

And just touching on it as a reference because, as a man, for a man, as a man, Demetrius' feelings matter most.

Her feelings matter less.

So as a man, Demetrius, his feelings matter more.

The fact of what he has done to Helena, it makes no difference.

It's important to recognise the fact that, despite his promises to Helena, he's not bound by anything.

Men dominated society.

They ruled the society.

He's only promised his love to Helena, that means nothing.

He's not committed to anything.

And he's quite at liberty to change his mind without any issue at all.

So Helena makes a decision at the end of her monologue.

She makes a decision.

And this decision is the example of her betrayal.

It's the example of when she chooses love over her friendship.

So let's read the last part of her monologue.

"I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight.

Then to the wood will he tomorrow night pursue her.

And for this intelligence, if I have thanks, it is a dear expense.

But herein mean I to enrich my pain, to have his sight thither and back again." So that bit in bold and pink at the top, "I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight," I will tell him that Hermia is running away.

She's betraying her friend, isn't she? She's telling she's going to tell Demetrius that Hermia and Lysander are planning to flee Athens.

Remember they're fleeing Athens, so they can go to his aunt's house in the woods, that is not under Athenian law.

And she's going to tell Demetrius.

That's a huge decision to make.

But look at why.

She says, "Then to the wood will he tomorrow night pursue her." So she said, if Demetrius knows that Hermia is running away, he will follow her.

That's what she thinks will happen.

And she says, and for this intelligence, for this information that I'm giving him, "if I have thanks, it is a dear expense." So if I have thanks, he might be grateful.

He might be grateful that I've told him.

So she wants to be in his favour.

He will be grateful, or so she hopes, but she said it's a dear expense.

"But herein mean I to enrich my pain." So although she might get thanks, and that's her hope, that he'll thank her, the problem is, she said it will be painful to watch him run after Hermia.

So if he pursues Hermia, if he chases after Hermia to stop her, then Helena admits that's going to be hard to watch.

So the man she loves, chasing after her friend, she's going to find that really hard to watch, but she says "To have his sight thither and back again," so she hopes, she hopes that this will change Demetrius and that he will appreciate what she's doing for him.

So I've left a little question at the bottom, it's there for the audience.

"Helena reveals that she will betray her friend for love.

Is she right to do this?" So that's just a question to get you thinking about, do you think she's right or wrong? You're completely entitled to your opinion.

Some of you might say, well, she's definitely right to do that because she might get Demetrius.

But some of you might be thinking, well she's completely wrong, she's betraying her friend.

So keep that thought in the back of your mind.

We're going to look at some questions now in terms of understanding Helena's monologue.

So I've talked you through it and rated the monologue to you.

That said, you can have a look at these questions.

We'll read them through together, then we'll pause and then we'll have a look at what we could put in some answers.

So "In Athens, Helena is generally seen to be as fair as Hermia.

Why does this not make her happy?" Remember that fair is to do with the idea of beauty.

And think about Demetrius when you come to the answer.

Number two, "What does love have the power to do in Helena's mind?" Key word for there is transform.

Transform.

Number three, "Helena uses a metaphor to describe love.

What does she compare love to and why?" Your paragraphs that you wrote will really help right there.

Number four, "What did Demetrius hail down on Helena, and how did this change?" There was a key word, oh, from the text.

The key word, oh, if you want to use a quotation in the question four.

And number five, "What does Helena resolve to do?" And when I say resolve to do what does she choose to do at the end of her monologue? So have a look at those questions.

Go to write out those answers in full sentences for me please.

And when you're ready, pause your video.

Off you go.

Now I've just added two more on to the end of that.

Two more on to the end.

So number six, "what does she hope will happen as a result of this?" So this is us thinking now of what she hopes will happen.

Not what we know from the text, but what can we infer? What can we work out that she hopes will happen as a result of this? And number seven, "How might the audience feel about her decision and why?" That's the question I posed to you a moment ago, and to think about how we would react to her decision and why.

So six and seven are slightly different questions.

Pause your video again when you're ready, and answer those last two for me, please.

Well done.

Lots of information covered there.

So let's have a look at these answers together.

Remember, these are guidance for answers.

They're not the only possibility of what you could have.

So number one, "Although the Athenian society believe Helena is as fair as Hermia, Helena believes this is worthless because the only opinion she cares about is Demetrius'." And that's really important to recognise.

She only cares about Demetrius' opinion and that's why it doesn't make her happy.

Number two, "Love has the power to trick your mind and stop you seeing clearly, turning something negative into something that seems positive." So that sense of trickery that love can do, because love is blind.

And that idea of transforming, was the key word, transform, that you could also include in that answer.

I've used the word turning, but you could have transformed or transforming.

Number three, "Helena uses a metaphor when she compares love to a child.

This implies that love is innocent but also blind.

Love fails to see things negatively, so she continues to love Demetrius despite everything." So that idea of not seeing things negatively, seeing the world with the eyes of a child, the eyes of innocence, the eyes of positivity.

Number four, "Demetrius chose to hail down affection upon Helena.

He then turned his attention upon Hermia, which melted his affection towards Helena." Really important, you can see there.

I've even concentrated when I say those characters' names to make sure I get them the right way round.

So be really careful in your answer that you haven't muddled up our two female characters, our two female lovers in our love square.

Look at the next one, number five, "Helena resolved to tell Demetrius that Hermia was going to run away with Lysander." Some of you might have shown off there, and put even more details about the aunt's house, the woods, the fact that they're not under Athenian law, all those details you could have included in there.

But it's important that you recognise the fact that she was going to tell Demetrius.

You may have also included the idea of betrayal as well.

Number six, "She hopes he will be thankful towards her, although she does say it will be painful to watch him chase after Hermia." So she hopes he's going to be grateful.

However, it will be painful to watch him chase after a different woman.

And number seven, "The audience may feel that her decision to betray her friend is wrong, but, particularly an Elizabeth audience who support the rules of patriarchy, will see Helena's actions are stopping Hermia's disobedience." So we might feel that decision to betray a friend is wrong.

Perhaps we do.

We think we should support friendship over love.

But, an Elizabethan audience who support the rules of patriarchy, who see that men are in charge, and accept that, will see that Helena's actions are going to potentially stop Hermia's disobedience.

If Demetrius goes after Hermia, then perhaps Hermia can be forced to obey Egeus and, therefore, Athenian law.

So the audiences there, a modern audience- Perhaps an Elizabethan audience might see that differently.

So well done on those answers.

Lots and lots of information we've covered there in terms of understanding Helena's monologue at the end of that scene.

But if you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.

Type in @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

So that brings us to the end of today's learning on "Understanding Helena." Another huge achievement, lots of information covered.

So really well done, really impressed.

So thank you very much, and enjoy the rest of your learning.