In this extract of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare...

In this extract of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare vividly portrays Demetrius and Helena’s contrasting feelings towards each other through the use of language and tone. Helena follows Demetrius into the woods in spite of him blatantly telling her that he doesn’t love her and this makes him angry and frustrated. However Helena still perseveres and begs for his love, highlighting the theme of the irrational nature of love. Shakespeare vividly portrays Demetrius’ feelings of anger and aggression towards Helena through his insults and his use of language and tone. He ignores the fact that he had loved her once before and abuses her both morally and physically. He rejects her by saying â€Å"I love thee not, therefore pursue me not†.†¦show more content†¦Demetrius is extremely insensitive to her feelings, Helena is obviously pursuing him yet he still asks where Hermia is, showing that he is clearly interested in Hermia and not in Helena. His choice of diction is harsh and he shows no respect for her; instead he shows his frustration and irritation with her. The audience feel a sense of hatred towards him for abusing Helena and rejecting her so bluntly. The tone in which he talks to Helena in this extract is a huge contrast to how he talks to Hermia and how he will talk to Helena at the end of the play when he loves her again. This shows that Demetrius is a very inconstant and fickle character because his feelings towards Helena are always changing. Helena’s feelings for Demetrius are shown through her desperate tone and the use of language like contrasting imagery and metaphors, vividly portraying her perseverance to win Demetrius’ love. Throughout this extract Helena is begging for his love and will not take no as an answer. Although she believes him to be a â€Å"hard hearted adamant† she cannot resist her temptations to love him. The metaphor suggests that Demetrius attracts and resists her like a magnet but her love for him will never change because she believes that â€Å"my heart is true as steel†. Steel was hard and expensive to make in the Shakespearean times so Helena was trying to