Friendship in a Dream

Brianna

There are many types of friendships in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. There is the friendship of Lysander and Demetrius. Helena and Hermia are childhood friends. The friendship of Lysander and Hermia is romantic. Demetrius and Helena have only a hateful; at least until they fall in love. What are the qualities of a good friend?

A good friend is someone that you can count on. They are always there for you. Hermia found Helena to be accountable in the beginning, before their trust in each other was lost and Helena felt the same way. Another part of their friendship was being able to trust each other and be able to keep a promise. Good friends also do things for each other. Hermia had told Helena that she was planning to run away with Lysander and marry him. “Hermia. Take comfort. He no more shall see my face: Lysander and myself will fly this place. Before the time I did Lysander see, Seemed Athens as a paradise to me. O, then, what graces in my love dwell, That he hath turned unto a hell!” This was good news to Helena because now Hermia was not getting married to Demetrius, the man Helena loves. Hermia could have easily married Demetrius and been unhappy. She knew Helena liked Demetrius and she like Lysander, so why not make them both happy and marry the one they want. Jealousy is not a quality of a good friendship. Lysander and Demetrius are a great example of this. They both want Helena after falling under a love spell. Hermia becomes jealous because her best friend is with her husband to be.

Hermia and Helena are great friends and they know a lot about each other. They’ve been that way since they were little. That’s another quality of friendship, knowing the other person well. They are this way through part of the play and then they have a cat fight.  Lysander and Demetrius are both under the love spell and have fallen in loved with Helena. Hermia has no idea what is going on; just her lover is not with her, but her best friend. Helena is so shaken up that she thinks they are making fun of her and that Hermia is just pretending not to know. This creates a disagreement, which leads to the fight. They are both really confused and ruin their friendship.

Lysander and Demetrius hate each other. Before the spell they both want Hermia, one for love the other for money. After the spell they both want Helena. They even got into a fight over Helena. “Lysander. Helen, I love thee; by my life, I do! I swear by that which I will lose for thee, To prove him false that says I love thee not. Demetrius. I say I love thee more than he can do. Lysander. If thou say so, withdraw and prove it too. Demetrius. Quick, come!” These two are not on their way to a very good friendship.

Demetrius and Hermia have kind of a love and hate friendship. Demetrius doesn’t really like Hermia that much he just likes her money. Hermia just dislikes Demetrius all around. The friendship of Lysander and Hermia friendship is romantic. They are in love and think the whole world agrees with it; even they know it’s not true. But they are not always romantic. They do sometimes act like good friends. Like at night, Hermia and Lysander sleep on opposite side of the clearing in the woods. More like friends than people getting married.

In conclusion they’re many forms of friendship A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Some are on their way to last forever and others no so much. Friendship is great, but a good one comes with cat fights. In the end you get a lot in return.