Hermia Quotes

Full of vexation come I, with complaint
Against my child, my daughter Hermia. –
Stand forth, Demetrius. – My noble lord,
This man hath my consent to marry her. –
Stand forth, Lysander. – And my gracious duke,
This man hath bewitch’d the bosom of my child. –
Thou, thou, Lysander.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. An angry Egeus complaints to Duke Theseus that his daughter Hermia is disobeying his wish that she marry Demetrius and she wants to wed Lysander instead. He effectively accuses Lysander of witchcraft: putting a spell on his daughter’s heart.

What say you, Hermia? Be advised, fair maid:
To you your father should be as a god,
One that composed your beauties, yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax,
By him imprinted and within his power
To leave the figure or disfigure it.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. The young Athenian woman Hermia has been told by her father Egeus that she must marry Demetrius. In this passage the Duke Theseus, who is the authority in the city of Athens, upholds her father’s demand. Using a series of similes the Duke tells her that her father is "as a god" to her and she is to him "as a form of wax" to be shaped by him. Theseus is asserting a father’s complete power over his daughter and that she should obey him. As his daughter’s creator Egeus can do what he wishes with her, even "disfigure" her, according to Theseus.

THESEUS: Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.
HERMIA: So is Lysander.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. In trying to get Hermia to tow the Athenian line and obey her father’s wish to marry Demetrius, Duke Theseus points out that Demetrius is a "worthy gentleman." Quick as a flash, Hermia responds that the man she loves Lysander is as well. There is unintended irony in what Theseus says, as Demetrius later engages in some very ungentlemanly and mean behavior towards Hermia in the woods when he threats to do her "mischief" and leave her to the mercy of "wild beasts." While Demetrius has managed to fool Theseus and Egeus that he the perfect gentleman, he hasn’t at all fooled Lysander, who later brands him a "spotted and inconstant man."

I do entreat your Grace to pardon me.
I know not by what power I am made bold,
Nor how it may concern my modesty
In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;
But I beseech your Grace that I may know
The worst that may befall me in this case
If I refuse to wed Demetrius.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. A defiant Hermia, whose heart is set on Lysander, asks the Duke of Athens Theseus what her fate will be if she refuses to marry Demetrius. Tell me the worst that will happen me, she demands. Hermia is an outspoken and self-assertive young Athenian woman and has the courage to speak up for herself to the highest authority figure in the city.

So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
Ere I will yield my virgin patent up
Unto his Lordship, whose unwishèd yoke
My soul consents not to give sovereignty.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. Hermia shows herself to be one of Shakespeare’s strong women as she defies the wishes of her father Egeus and Duke Theseus. They have commanded that she marry Demetrius instead of Lysander. In a powerful expression of women’s autonomy, she declares that she will not give up the ownership of her virginity to her father. Nor will her soul give her father sovereignty to command her to enter an unwanted marriage. Using a metaphor, she compares marriage to Demetrius to an "unwishèd yoke" – a pair of oxen harnessed togeher under the yoke of enforced marriage. She says that she would rather die or become a nun than marry Demetrius.

LYSANDER: How now, my love! why is your cheek so pale?
How chance the roses there do fade so fast?
HERMIA: Belike for want of rain, which I could well
Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. Lysander asks Hermia why she is so upset. He uses a flower metaphor to compare her pale cheeks to roses which have faded. Hermia, also speaking metaphorically, says that it cannot be for lack of rain because there is a tempest in her eyes. She is upset because she has been told that she must marry Demetrius or become a nun. For she loves Lysander and wants to marry him. The word "tempest" is foreshadowing of Hermia’s strong and fiery personality. One of the strongest female characters in the play, she is someone who follows her heart.

My good Lysander,
I swear to thee by Cupid’s strongest bow,
By his best arrow with the golden head,
By the simplicity of Venus’ doves,
By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,
And by that fire which burned the Carthage queen
When the false Trojan under sail was seen,
By all the vows that ever men have broke
(In number more than ever women spoke),
In that same place thou hast appointed me,
Tomorrow truly will I meet with thee.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. Hermia is very strong, extremely brave and willing to fight for love. She pledges to run away with Lysander, even though it is a decision that could threaten her life. She is prepared to take great risks to be with the one she loves, Lysander. Shakespeare pokes a bit of fun at men’s unreliability in their love promises, when he says that men break a lot more vows than women. "By all the vows that ever men have broke." Hermia says in her pledge to rendezvous with Lysander.

Your eyes are lode-stars and your tongue’s sweet air
More tunable than lark to shepherd’s ear
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. Helena uses metaphors to compare Hermia’s eyes to stars that guide ships at night and her tongue to the sweet music of the lark as heard by the shepherd. She is referring to her beautiful friend’s abilities to attract and enchant Demetrius. Her praise of Hermia’s beauty and the manner in which she belittles herself and compares herself unfavorably to her friend seems excessive. This arises from Helena’s insecurities and low self-esteem.

Before the time I did Lysander see
Seem’d Athens as a paradise to me.
O, then, what graces in my love do dwell
That he hath turned a heaven unto a hell!

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. Hermia’s love for Lysander has, in her own words, had some devastating results for her.
What was once heaven to her – her home city of Athens – has been transformed into a hell. Her father’s decision that she must marry Demetrius and not Lysander, which carries the full weight of Athenian law, has made the city an unfriendly place for her. With society and the law not in support of her union with Lysander, they have had to make a decision to flee the city.

And in the wood where often you and I
Upon faint primrose beds were wont to lie,
Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,
There my Lysander and myself shall meet.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1. Hermia reveals to Helena her plan to run away with Lysander. Their meeting place, she informs her friend, is a spot in the woods where she and Helena used to spend time together. This foreshadows Helena’s return in Act 2 to this place, where she will awaken the enchanted Lysander, who falls in love with Helena instead of Hermia. It also foreshadows Hermia’s bid to replace Helena in the bewitched Lysander’s affections.

Lysander riddles very prettily:
Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,
If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied.
But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy
Lie further off; in human modesty,
Such separation as may well be said
Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid,
So far be distant; and, good night, sweet friend:
Thy love ne’er alter till thy sweet life end!

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 2, Scene 2. Hermia compliments Lysander on his skillful wordplay, when he tries to talk her into his bed. But she nevertheless turns him away. She asks him, in the interests of love and propriety, to sleep a little further away from her in the woods. With some irony she prays that his love for her never changes for his whole life. The next morning Lysander, under the spell of magic love juice, falls out of love with Hermia and in love with Helena.

Help me, Lysander, help me; do thy best
To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast.
Ay me, for pity! What a dream was here!
Lysander, look how I do quake with fear.
Methought a serpent eat my heart away,
And you sat smiling at his cruel prey.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 2, Scene 2. Hermia wakes up from a nightmare and calls out for Lysander, to find herself deserted by him. In her terrible dream a serpent devours her heart while Lysander stands by and smiles. The serpent is a metaphor for Lysander’s betrayal and the heart a metaphor for love, as Lyander’s affections switch to Helena. The symbolism of the dream foreshadows Lysander’s newfound love for Helena, as he pursues her, trying to convince her that his affection for her is genuine. The sleeping Hermia’s dream is thus a mirror for reality.

If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,
Being o’er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep
And kill me too.
The sun was not so true unto the day
As he to me. Would he have stolen away
From sleeping Hermia? I’ll believe as soon
This whole Earth may be bored, and that the moon
May through the centre creep and so displease
Her brother’s noontide with th’ Antipodes.
It cannot be but thou hast murdered him.
So should a murderer look, so dead, so grim.

– William Shakespeare

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, Scene 2. Hermia fears that Demetrius has killed Lysander. If that is so she tells Demetrius that he should kill her too. She cannot believe that her faithful Lysander would abandon her. She would only believe it if a hole appeared through the center of the earth and the moon sneaked through to surprise her brother, the sun, on the other side of the world.
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