Helena ( a Midsummer Night 's Dream ) - wikipedia Helena ( a Midsummer Night 's Dream ) character in A Midsummer Night 's Dream hide This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. ( Learn how and when to remove these template messages ) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( November 2013 ) This article describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in - universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. ( April 2010 ) Helena A Midsummer Night 's Dream character Washington Allston 's 1818 painting Hermia and Helena. Created by William Shakespeare Date ( s ) Shakespearean times Helena is a fictional character and one of the four young lovers -- Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia and Helena -- featured in William Shakespeare 's play A Midsummer Night 's Dream. She is the daughter of Nedar, and a friend of Hermia ( with whom she often compares herself ). Prior to the play 's beginning, she is betrothed to the nobleman Demetrius but is jilted when his affections turn to Hermia. Despite this, Helena 's abiding love for Demetrius remains consistent throughout the play. Hermia and her suitor, Lysander, confide in Helena that they plan to elope. In the hopes that she will gain back some of his respect, Helena tells Demetrius of Hermia and Lysander 's plans and, the next night, they follow the escaping lovers into the forest. Though Demetrius is deliberately cruel towards her, Helena remains intent in her devotion. Her ardor catches the attention of Oberon, who commands that Puck enchant Demetrius so that he will fall back in love with Helena. When Puck mistakenly enchants a sleeping Lysander instead, Lysander wakes and falls instantly in love with Helena. He pursues a shocked and hurt Helena, deserting a sleeping Hermia. Oberon, trying to correct Puck 's error, then puts the potion on Demetrius. Confused by the two men 's change in behaviour, Helena concludes that the other three lovers have banded together to ridicule her. Helena is left confused and hurt by how cruel and unkind her closest friend and her two suitors have become. In the scene 's climax, she and Hermia nearly come to blows while the two men set out to kill one another to prove who is more worthy of Helena 's affections. Oberon commands Puck to correct the enchantment placed on Lysander. Separated by Oberon 's command and Puck 's magic, and with dawn approaching, the lovers each go sleep again. Puck crushes another herb into Lysander 's eyes, negating the effect of the first one. When the lovers are discovered in the morning by a hunting Theseus, Hippolyta, and Egeus, all is put to rights. Demetrius claims that a metaphorical ' sickness ' made him love Hermia, but in health, his love has returned to Helena. The lovers are married in a joint ceremony with Theseus and Hippolyta ( offstage ) and together watch the play put on by the Mechanicals in honor of the marriages. While not the only protagonist of A Midsummer Night 's Dream, Helena is one of its most talkative characters. Her dialogue provides key insight for the audience into humanist beliefs on the nature of love and the process of falling in love. It is her honest, unrequited love that convinces Oberon to meddle with the lovers, and her pain in being `` tricked '' by her friends ( she thinks ) that convinces Oberon to restore everyone. Helena is never criticised for her unrequited love for Demetrius ; her constancy is seen by other characters as a great virtue, compared to his fickle nature. She also demonstrates great platonic love and sisterly devotion to Hermia. Within the cast of the lovers, her role is comparable to Lysander 's. Both are more outwardly romantic and thoughtful than their partners, and both speak those lines most pertinent to the play 's themes of romantic maturity and the source of lasting love. While Lysander says, ' the course of true love ne'er did run smooth ', Helena 's speech in Act I includes the well - known quote : `` Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind ; And therefore is wing 'd Cupid painted blind. '' Her name is reminiscent of Helen of Troy, a reference made by Theseus towards the play 's end, and her character is similar to another of Shakespeare 's Helenas in All 's Well That Ends Well. Helena 's character was portrayed in movies by famous actresses like Jean Muir in Max Reinhardt 's and William Dieterle 's 1935 version, by Vanessa Redgrave in Peter Hall 's 1959 TV movie, by Diana Rigg in Hall 's second adaptation in 1968, by Claude Jade in Jean - Christophe Averty 's famous 1969 French adaptation and by Calista Flockhart in the 1999 film directed by Michael Hoffman. References Jump up ^ `` All Shakespeare characters ordered by part size ''. ShakespeareWords.com. Retrieved 10 August 2013. Jump up ^ `` Helena in A Midsummer Night 's Dream ''. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 29 March 2014. Shakespeare, William & Gill, Roma ( ed. ) 1981, `` A Midsummer Night 's Dream '', Oxford University Press, United Kingdom. Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night 's Dream. `` The Penguin Shakespeare. '' Penguin / Puffin Books, 1977. Jacobson, Karin. CliffsNotes on A Midsummer Night 's Dream. 15 November 2010 < http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/literature/id-78.html >. Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night 's Dream. Evans, Bertrand, ed. ; Lynch, James J., ed. The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night 's Dream. New York : The Macmillan Company, 1963. 131 -- 238. hide William Shakespeare 's A Midsummer Night 's Dream Characters Lovers Theseus and Hippolyta Oberon and Titania Hermia and Lysander Helena and Demetrius Mechanicals Nick Bottom Peter Quince Francis Flute Robin Starveling Tom Snout Snug Other characters Puck Egeus Philostrate Film 1909 1935 1959 1968 1999 Television 1969 1980 2016 Stage A Midsummer Night 's Dream ( 1970, play ) The Park ( 1983, play ) The Donkey Show ( 1999, musical ) The Dreaming ( 2001, musical ) Ballet A Midsummer Night 's Dream ( 1962 ) The Dream ( 1964 ) Opera The Fairy - Queen ( 1692 ) Pyramus and Thisbe ( 1745 ) Puck ( 1949 ) A Midsummer Night 's Dream ( 1960, opera ) The Enchanted Island ( 2011 ) Film adaptations Wood Love ( 1925 ) Dream of a Summer Night ( 1983 ) Get Over It ( 2001 ) A Midsummer Night 's Rave ( 2002 ) Midsummer Dream ( 2005 ) Were the World Mine ( 2008 ) Strange Magic ( 2015 ) Other adaptations The Triumph of Beauty ( 1646 ) St. John 's Eve ( 1852 ) `` Fascination '' ( 1994 ) Literature A Midsummer Tempest ( 1974 ) A Midsummer Night 's Gene ( 1997 ) A Midsummer 's Nightmare ( 1997 ) Lords and Ladies ( 1992 ) The Great Night ( 2011 ) Comics Auberon Faerie Titania Music A Midsummer Night 's Dream ( 1842, Mendelssohn ) Wedding March ( 1842, Mendelssohn ) Three Shakespeare Songs ( 1951 ) Symphony No. 8 ( 1992, Henze ) Il Sogno ( 2004 ) Art Hermia and Lysander The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania Scene from A Midsummer Night 's Dream Related The Sandman : Dream Country ( 1991 ) Pyramus and Thisbe Mechanical Love - in - idleness The Apartment ( 1996 ) Wicker Park ( 2004 ) Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Helena_(A_Midsummer_Night%27s_Dream)&oldid=855222231 '' Categories : Fictional characters introduced in 1596 Female Shakespearean characters Characters in A Midsummer Night 's Dream Fictional Greek people Fictional nobility Hidden categories : Articles with short description EngvarB from September 2017 Use dmy dates from September 2017 Articles needing additional references from November 2013 All articles needing additional references Articles that need to differentiate between fact and fiction from April 2010 All articles that need to differentiate between fact and fiction Articles with multiple maintenance issues Pages using deprecated image syntax Articles using Infobox character with multiple unlabeled fields Talk About Wikipedia Bahasa Indonesia Nederlands Edit links This page was last edited on 16 August 2018, at 19 : 32 ( UTC ). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who loves helena in a midsummer night's dream
Answer: Lysander