Comprehension

1. Why does Lysander no longer love Hermia?

2. Does Hermia believe what Lysander says?

3. What does Helena think that Hermia, Lysander and Demetrius have joined together to do?

4. Why is she particularly angry with Hermia?

5. How long have Helena and Hermia been friends?

6. What activity does Helena recall them doing together? (Lines 19-24)

7. In lines 24-30 Helena makes two comparisons. What does she compare her friendship with Hermia to?

8. Does she believe that she will be the only one to criticise Hermia's behaviour?

ANALYSIS

1. In line 1 Hermia asks Lysander why he no longer loves her. How would you describe Lysander's reply?

• Truthful • Straightforward • Hurtful

• Insensitive • Reasonable

What justification can be given for Lysander's harsh reply?

2. Helena asks three questions in her attack on Hermia. Underline them in the text. What effect do you think Helena hopes to achieve through her questioning? She hopes:

• to embarrass Hermia into an admission of guilt.

• to win Hermia over to her side.

• to discredit Hermia in front of Lysander and Demetrius.

• to get answers and understand why Hermia has betrayed her.

3. In lines 19-24 Helena describes how she and Hermia embroidered a flower together as an example of how close they were as friends. Which adjectives would you choose to describe the example she chooses?

• Intimate • Feminine • Trivial

• Striking • Calming

4. Helena says that she and Hermia were a 'double cherry' (line 25). Do you think that this image is effective? Justify your answer

5. In lines 1-10 there is end-of-line rhyming. Write the same letter of the alphabet beside the words that rhyme. Read the lines aloud emphasising the rhyme pattern.

WRITER’S WORKSHOP

Blank verse. Heroic couplet ◊ Shakespeare's plays have been described as poetic drama. Part of what gives his work its poetic quality is the rhythm and musicality of the language. In the extract that you have read Shakespeare uses two verse forms: blank verse and rhyming (or heroic) couplets. Blank verse consists of unrhymed iambic pentameters – ten syllable lines in which
unstressed syllables are followed by stressed syllables.

A rhyming couplet consists of two lines of iambic pentameter that rhyme in pairs: AA, BB, and so on.

Task

The first part of the extract that you have read is written in rhyming couplets, the second part is blank verse. At what point does the change take place? Say why you think the verse form changes. Consider the following points:

- as Helena gets angrier her language becomes freer;

- blank verse is better suited to the tone of what Helena is saying.

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