Helena’s Monologues
From: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Casting type notes: Helena is generally cast as young, tall and with light coloured hair. This is due to references in the text about her height and colouring, however it can vary, depending on the casting of Hermia, who is said to be shorter than Helena and with darker coloured hair. However, for the purposes of an audition or exam, especially for drama school, don’t worry too much about whether you are the right height. Mostly you will need to have a comic ability, and good stamina - Helena has a lot of monologues! She also has a self-pitying quality, which can be tricky to play.
If you’d like to know more, you can watch my Helena character analysis video here.
On this page you’ll find all of Helena’s monologues from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with quick tips to get you thinking about your acting choices.
If you’re not sure which monologue is right for you, you might find the video below helpful. It is my breakdown of the pros and cons of each of Helena’s monologues. I let you know my favourite out of all six, but it’ll also give you a picture of which monologue might be most suited to your circumstances.
Act 1, Scene 1
Call you me fair? that fair again unsay.
Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!
Your eyes are lode-stars; and your tongue's sweet air
More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
Sickness is catching: O, were favour so,
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;
My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,
My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.
Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,
The rest I'd give to be to you translated.
O, teach me how you look, and with what art
You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart.
Quick Tips:
This is an expository monologue, to explain to the audience what’s going on. Often in these types of monologues, the stakes feel very low. Make sure you choose a strong objective that creates a sense of urgency and drive through the monologue.
A tendency with this monologue is to get quite whiny (fair enough, because she is whining)! You can either lean into this and create comedy, or you can lean away and work towards something more naturalistic.
Act 1, Scene 1
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:
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:
And therefore is Love said to be a child,
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
So the boy Love is perjured every where:
For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,
He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;
And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.
I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:
Then to the wood will he to-morrow night
Pursue her; and for this intelligence
If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:
But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
To have his sight thither and back again.
Quick Tips:
This is yet another expository monologue, and a soliloquy this time! This means you are speaking to the audience.
Don’t get overly reflective or wallow in self pity. She is driven by a NEED - what do you think that is? For example, “I need to understand how love works” or “I need to decide what action I can take next”.
This is a very popular monologue - in fact, I would call this overdone. Consider some of her others!
You can watch my full breakdown video for this monologue here.
Act 2, Scene 2
O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!
The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.
Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies;
For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.
How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears:
If so, my eyes are oftener wash'd than hers.
No, no, I am as ugly as a bear;
For beasts that meet me run away for fear:
Therefore no marvel though Demetrius
Do, as a monster fly my presence thus.
What wicked and dissembling glass of mine
Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne?
But who is here? Lysander! on the ground!
Dead? or asleep? I see no blood, no wound.
Lysander if you live, good sir, awake.
Quick Tips:
This is a very ‘active’ monologue, so it is most suited to an in-person audition rather than Zoom or self-tape.
This is essentially a soliloquy, as the only other character on stage is asleep! Soliloquies are spoken to the audience, not to yourself!
Think of the audience as your best friend. Pick one or two focal points as example audience members, don’t let your eyeliner wander.
Keep in mind that you have to run into the scene and discover a body towards the end. Think about how you will use the space creatively.
Act 3, Scene 2
O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent
To set against me for your merriment:
If you we re civil and knew courtesy,
You would not do me thus much injury.
Can you not hate me, as I know you do,
But you must join in souls to mock me too?
If you were men, as men you are in show,
You would not use a gentle lady so;
To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts,
When I am sure you hate me with your hearts.
You both are rivals, and love Hermia;
And now both rivals, to mock Helena:
A trim exploit, a manly enterprise,
To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes
With your derision! none of noble sort
Would so offend a virgin, and extort
A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport.
Quick Tips:
Lengthen the initial O sounds much longer than you would in everyday speech - they will help you connect with your breath and express her anger and indignance.
Make sure you decide on clear emotional shifts throughout this monologue to create variety, otherwise it just sounds like someone whining and yelling for two minutes!
Practice creating variety through technical means - try a few lines soft, then loud; try fast, then slow, etc. Notice what works.
You can watch my full breakdown video for this monologue here.
Act 3, Scene 2
Lo, she is one of this confederacy!
Now I perceive they have conjoin'd all three
To fashion this false sport, in spite of me.
Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid!
Have you conspired, have you with these contrived
To bait me with this foul derision?
Is all the counsel that we two have shared,
The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent,
When we have chid the hasty-footed time
For parting us,--O, is it all forgot?
All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence?
We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,
Have with our needles created both one flower,
Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,
Both warbling of one song, both in one key,
As if our hands, our sides, voices and minds,
Had been incorporate. So we grow together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,
But yet an union in partition;
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem;
So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart;
Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,
Due but to one and crowned with one crest.
And will you rent our ancient love asunder,
To join with men in scorning your poor friend?
It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly:
Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it,
Though I alone do feel the injury.
Quick Tips:
In this monologue, Helena is appealing to Hermia by reminding her of their childhood days together. A fun way to connect to this is to create some fictional childhood memories of moments that Helena and Hermia shared together.
There are some BIG shifts in this monologue from accusing Hermia to appealing to Hermia. You can use your own action words to clarify what you think she is doing in each section, but make sure the change is noticeable!
You can watch my full breakdown video for this monologue here.
Act 3, Scene 2
Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me.
I evermore did love you, Hermia,
Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you;
Save that, in love unto Demetrius,
I told him of your stealth unto this wood.
He follow'd you; for love I follow'd him;
But he hath chid me hence and threaten'd me
To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too:
And now, so you will let me quiet go,
To Athens will I bear my folly back
And follow you no further: let me go:
You see how simple and how fond I am.
Quick Tips:
Don’t be fooled, just because this monologue is on the shorter side, that doesn’t mean it lacks variety or punch!
There are beat shifts almost every two lines in this monologue. Make sure you understand how her action and intention is changing throughout the monologue and that you are embodying it.
You can watch my full breakdown video for this monologue here.
