Subject: Literature. Topic: Reading Journal.
Academic Level: Bachelor
Paper details;
Several characters in the play refer to eyes and sight when talking about love and relationships, with Theseus, Helena, and Demetrius referring to beauty being in people’s eyes in the opening scene. Hermia even declares to the court: “I would my father look’d but with my eyes” as she tries to convince the Duke that Lysander is a better choice for her marriage. Demetrius argues with Helena in Act II, Scene 1, saying “I am sick when I look on you” but later claims “The object and the pleasure of mine eye, / is only Helena. To her, my lord, / was I betrothed ere I saw Hermia”, again placing the emphasis on sight and seeing clearly. This is even more apparent when Oberon chooses to use the juice of the flower by placing it in the lovers’ eyes.The lack of sight is equally important in the play. Oberon is able to make himself invisible so he can overhear a conversation in Act II, Scene 1; and in Act III, Scene 1 Titania is blinded to Bottom’s true appearance, declaring “So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape”
and Puck overcasts the moon to enable him to trick the lovers, leaving them in darkness.
In Acts III & IV, what do the uses of eyes, sight, and visibility reveal about the characters who talk about them? How are they working both on the level of the text, and more broadly as themes for the play? Choose one +/- 10 line example from Act III or Act IV to use as your test case – how are eyes, vision, or the lack of either one working in your chosen excerpt? Be attentive to the details of the language – are these concepts being used literally? Figuratively [as metaphors]? Allusively [as references to other texts or concepts]? Some combination?
-Your response should be 275-300 words, not including the lines from the play, and may
be more if you choose.
Example: At the very end of Act I, Scene 1, Helena bemoans the fact that Demetrius loves Hermia and not her: How happy some o’er other some can be!
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;
He will not know what all but he do know:
And as he errs, doting on Hermia’s eyes,
So I, admiring of his qualities:
Things base and vile, folding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity:
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blind (I.i.232-241)
Helena here not only puns on “eyes” and “I” – drawing a connection between what can be seen by others and how that informs self-esteem – but also uses “eyes” as a metonymy for all of Hermia’s good qualities, including but not limited to her beauty.