In A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, Hermia seems to be the strong woman, while Helena is considered as weak and easily dominated. In Gohlke's article, for example, she describes Helen's “exaggerated submission to Demetrius” (151), thus expressing an opinion common to all literary criticism. What concerns me, however, is the other side of the coin; Helena is actually a much stronger woman than she appears at first glance. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned'?Get the original essayOur first introduction to Helena, the pale, tall, slender girl, is very much in keeping with 'the traditional emblem of "desperate virgin love". (Charlton 115) as she laments over Demetrius, her lost love. We quickly discover that Demetrius has begun to believe himself in love with Hermia, Helena's best friend, a situation which brings much sorrow to Helena's heart, as is evident when she begs Hermia: "Oh, learn- me what you look like; and with what. art/ You influence the movement of Demetrius’ heart” (155, Act I, Scene I). The extremely desperate lover is played very convincingly here, but Helena's character is called into question before the scene ends. As Loeff says, “she [Helena] shows a certain initiative when she betrays her best friend in order to achieve her own ends” (72). In her wonderful, character-revealing monologue at the end of Scene I, Helena decides that I will go and tell her about the escape of the beautiful Hermia; then he will go to the woods tomorrow evening to pursue her; and for this intelligence, if I have thanks, it is a costly expense: but by that I mean to enrich my pain, to have sight from one side to the other (155, act I, scene I). In these lines we see clearly that Helena is fully capable of being her own woman, making her own decisions, and taking control of her own life. Although these actions are undertaken in the interest of romantic happiness, they do not at all correspond to the pitiful little woman abandoned by love that one might have previously imagined Helena to be. This is a very bold action from a woman who was complaining earlier, wondering “[how happy] can everyone be!” (155, Act I, Scene I). By risking any future relationship of trust with the woman into whose trust she was taken, Helena shows that she is willing to take the risk of living in a state of complete and utter absence of friendship for the chance to find his “true love”. A later example of this same audacity comes in her confrontation with Hermia as the four lovers wander the woods, while, "with both men claiming to love her, she [Helena] becomes suspicious and suspects that they have invented a joke at his expense.” (Quennell 121). Although she doesn't understand any of the mysterious causes of these sudden infatuations, Helena takes another big step toward becoming her own independent person when she essentially defies her three companions (Hermia, Demetrius, and Lysander) and runs away with her . clean, pronouncing this last curse to Hermia: I will not trust you, me; I won't stay in your bad company any longer. Your hands are faster than mine for a melee; My legs are, however, longer to escape (165, Act III). , Scene II).As she literally flees from her friends and heads alone into the unknown, she figuratively leaves the dependent life she leads under the shelter of her friends and enters the world of independent living . Leoff sums up this scene quite well when she says., 1974.