Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to today's lesson on love and arguments.

So for today, you will need your trusted pen and your trusted paper by your side for me, please.

Ensure that you have closed down any windows, any notifications, any distractions that you might have.

Clear those away, please, and find that lovely, quiet space.

When you are ready, let's begin.

So in the play, the love potion has two key functions, two things that it is able to do.

Firstly, it has the power to fix and heal, the power to fix and heal a number of different situations, but it also has the power to cause chaos, confusion, and conflict.

So it can be both a positive force and it can be a negative force.

So it has the power to fix and heal because it can fix and heal Helena's unrequited love for Demetrius, and that's Oberon's intention, to have the love potion placed on Demetrius's sleeping eyelids so that he will wake up, fall in love with Helena, and Helena is no longer suffering, because he has witnessed that she's willing to put herself in the position of a spaniel, to be abused, to be neglected, to be struck by Demetrius.

So it has the power to fix that.

Therefore, will it ease Demetrius's suffering, if he has the love potion put upon him? Because if he has the love potion put upon him then he is no longer suffering unrequited love for Hermia.

So although he will be under the influence of the love potion, and that's why he would love Helena, at least he'd no longer be suffering for his unrequited love for Hermia.

Also, the love potion has the power to fix Oberon and Titania's argument.

We can question whether it's the appropriate way to fix the argument, but they are arguing over the boy.

Oberon wants the boy for himself and thinks that Titania has stolen the boy from an Indian king, and Titania is saying that she's bringing up the child for her friend who has died.

And this argument between them means they don't even want to see each other.

They don't want to be near each other.

So the love potion has the power to fix and heal their relationship.

Won't fix it entirely, because it's Oberon and Titania, but it will certainly help the current situation, the current argument they have, the current conflict.

So it has the power to cause chaos, confusion, and conflict.

It can do the positives, but it can also do the negatives, and as a result of the love potion, all four lovers experience unrequited love.

So because of the love potion, they all suffer from unrequited love, whereas without the love potion, only two of the four lovers, Helena and Demetrius, were suffering.

The love potion also leaves Titania humiliated.

She's humiliated because Oberon chooses to use this powerful force upon her to get the boy that he wants.

So she is left humiliated, so that could be a negative.

Although for us, as an audience, we see that as humorous.

We see that as comical.

We see it as entertaining that she falls in love with an ass.

And also, Bottom looks like a fool as a result of the love potion, although the way bottom is presented to us as a character, he's already a fool anyway, so all it does is add comedy value for the audience.

So what Oberon's priority? Of all the things that love potion can do, both positive and negative, Oberon's priority is Helena's unrequited love.

That's the thing that he wants to fix most.

That's the thing that he wants to do more than anything else.

So as Oberon wants to help Helena, what is his first step for fixing the mistake? Does he want to remove the love potion from Lysander, put the love potion on Demetrius, send Helena back to Athens, or put the love potion on Helena? Have a think.

Excellent work, if you decided upon option number two.

He doesn't mention taking it off Lysander.

He wants to put the love potion on Demetrius.

That's what he wants to happen, because that's his ultimate aim, that Demetrius falls in love with Helena.

So Helena's wish.

This is Helena's wish.

The moment that the love potion goes on Demetrius's sleeping eyelids, Helena's wish comes true, or does it? So this is what Demetrius says upon waking.

"O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine! To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne? Crystal is muddy.

O how ripe in show thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow! That pure congealed white, high Taurus's snow, fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow when thou hold'st up thy hand.

O, let me kiss this princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!" So Demetrius has got the love potion upon himself.

He's under the influence of the love potion, so he is completely and madly in love with Helena, because she is the first person that he's seen, the first live creature.

So the love potion has taken effect.

He's waking up, and it's the first live creature that he sees that he will madly dote upon, which is Oberon's wish, and Helena's wish, in theory.

There's lots of references in this speech from Demetrius about the idea of crystal, pure, congealed white snow, pure white, and white symbolises certain ideas, and white symbolises purity.

White symbolises the idea of something that's heavenly, white symbolises the idea of innocence, and white symbolises the idea of goodness.

So with the colour white, it brings about these ideas.

It makes us think of these particular ideas.

So in literature, colours have particular symbolism, certain ideas that we think of when we think of that particular colour.

So white, purity, heavenly, innocence, and goodness, and those four key ideas really tell us how Demetrius feels about Helena, that she's this pure form, she's heavenly.

She's almost like an angel to him, something that's so perfect.

He even calls her a goddess.

He even calls her perfect.

He even calls her a nymph, he calls her divine, all these things to suggest that she is pure, that she's perfect to him.

There's this sense of innocence as well.

This sense of innocence of how beautiful a maiden Helena actually is, and this sense of goodness about her.

He feels that she's a purely and truly good person, because of her sheer beauty, that he's absolutely overwhelmed by.

And you can imagine these ideas, these ideas that white symbolises, for Helena, it's what she's always dreamed that Demetrius would think of her like again, like he did before, when he madly doted upon her before, and he won her soul.

And he wants a kiss.

He's asking her desperately for a kiss.

He repeats it.

He talks about her lips, kissing cherries.

He says, "Let me kiss this princess of pure white, this seal of bliss." He asks her for a kiss multiple times.

And Helena, in theory, has wanted to hear these words from Demetrius, because all she's heard of him since he changed his affection to Hermia is how much he hates her, how much he doesn't want her to follow him, how much he wants to leave her at the mercy of wild beasts in the forest.

But there's an element of dramatic irony here, and dramatic irony when the audience understands more than the characters.

So let's think, first of all, what the characters understand.

So what's really important in this situation is that Helena does not know about the love potion.

She cannot understand Demetrius's sudden change of heart, and it's not only Demetrius, remember, that poor Helena's putting up with.

It's Lysander as well.

Lysander's declared his love for Helena.

Now Demetrius is doing the same.

She cannot understand how Demetrius will go from being so cruel and unkind and spiteful to her, to suddenly change, and she doesn't understand.

However, the audience, we know that Demetrius's sudden change of heart is because of the powerful love potion.

So we know why he's acting this way.

There's a reason for it, but that reason Helena does not know about, and she does not understand, so Shakespeare is using dramatic irony here, and there's an element of it that's quite funny in some ways because Demetrius has been so cruel, and now he's saying all these heartfelt things, which sound so unlike him, but there's an element of it as well, where we question how Helena is going to feel and whether she's going to be glad that Demetrius is talking about her in this way, or whether she's going to be hurt and confused.

So let's look at a new term, mock, to mock somebody.

So if you mock someone, it means to laugh or make fun of someone or something.

And Helena feels that Lysander and Demetrius are both mocking her when they profess their love for her.

So she thinks they're both mocking her.

She thinks they're both laughing and making fun of her, and that's why they're saying they love her.

Helena feels she is being mocked when Demetrius tells her that he loves her.

She feels that he's mocking her.

So notice, we've got mock, mocking, and mocked.

We could change the form of the word to suit the sentence.

And that's another example of dramatic irony, isn't it? She feels mocked.

We know she's not being mocked.

It's the love potion.

So Helena does feel mocked.

This is her reaction to Demetrius.

She's not over the moon.

She's not grateful.

She's not excited.

She's not happy as you would want her to be, as Oberon would hope that she would feel.

Instead, Helena says, "Oh spite! O hell! I see you're all bent to set against me for your merriment.

If you were 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?" She's very, very hurt at this point.

She's suffering.

"O spite! O hell!" These two men, in her mind, are being incredibly cruel and incredibly unkind, and she cannot understand why.

So this scene that, in some ways, is comical is also making us feel perhaps sympathy for Helena.

She feels like she's the victim of a cruel joke, that they are playing a trick on her, they're doing it to just simply be spiteful.

So let's take a pause, then.

So how is Helena feeling now that the love potion is on Lysander and Demetrius? We're at this particular point in the play, when the love potion has been put on both of the men.

Is she happy because Demetrius loves her? Is she glad that she has two men fighting for her? Is she happy that Demetrius loves her, but confused about Lysander? Or is she confused and hurt that both men suddenly love her? Have a think.

Well done if you thought option number four.

She is, she's confused and hurt that both men suddenly love her.

She can't understand it.

You would hope it would be number one.

She's happy that he loves her, but it just seems too sudden.

And this is after Lysander has confessed his love for her as well.

She's not glad she has two men fighting.

She now thinks she's got two men mocking her, so option number two cannot be correct.

And number three, she's not happy that Demetrius loves her, and she's not happy that Lysander loves her, because she thinks she is the victim of mockery.

So Helena, not Hermia.

There's changes in our characters.

Let's have a look.

Lysander, "And here, with all good will, with all my heart, in Hermia's love I yield you up my part; and yours of Helena to me bequeath, whom I do love and will do till my death." So Lysander at this point is giving up Hermia.

He's giving up Hermia to Demetrius, and he says, "Well, Demetrius, you love Hermia.

You can have her." And he says, "And then give me the love that Helena has for you, to me." So, "And yours of Helena to me bequeath." So, "Helena loves you.

Give that power to me, so she will love me instead." So Lysander is completely rejecting Hermia, to choose Helena, and Demetrius says, "Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none.

If e'er I lov'd her, all that love is gone.

If ever I loved her, all that love has gone." So Demetrius feels no love for Hermia, either.

He only loves Helena.

So we can see now the love potion has caused chaos, confusion, and conflict.

Lysander and Hermia, true love has been broken.

Demetrius loved Hermia.

He now no longer loves Hermia.

So chaos, confusion, and conflict.

And we have to keep reminding ourself that Shakespeare has used dramatic irony.

So when Lysander is giving up Hermia, we know that's not how you truly feels.

We know that he's under the influence of the love potion.

It's Helena that has no understanding of what's going on, and we've seen Helena's reaction.

She's confused by Lysander, and we're then going to have a think about how Helena and Hermia react, and that's what we're going to move towards in this lesson.

So first things first, Hermia does not know.

Dramatic irony again.

Hermia doesn't know any of these events that have just taken place.

She doesn't know anything about them.

As far as Hermia is concerned, Hermia fears Lysander is dead.

That's the worry that's going through her mind at the moment.

She's accused Demetrius of killing Lysander.

He said he didn't, but she fears Lysander is dead.

The audience, however, we know that Lysander left her in the forest asleep, because he loves Helena.

He woke up, he saw Helena, he fell in love because of the love potion, and followed Helena.

Both Lysander and Demetrius love Helena.

Hermia has no idea what's going on.

She thinks Lysander's dead.

She's still really worried and scared that Lysander has been killed, but we know, actually, all this chaos, confusion, and conflict has taken place and she has no awareness of it at all.

So at this stage, dramatic irony creates humour, but in this particular moment, it creates more suspense, because we're waiting to see Hermia's reaction.

So Hermia finds out.

Lysander, "Why should he stay whom love doth press to go?" "What love could press Lysander from my side?" So Hermia is confused straight away.

She confronts Lysander.

She says, "Why did you leave me?" You think, he's literally abandoned her in the middle of the woods and gone after another woman.

She doesn't know it was because of the love potion, but Lysander said, well, why should he stay? "Why should I stay when love pushes me and forces me to go? When love doth press to go?" So if love is forcing me to go somewhere else, why would I stay with you? And Hermia's really genuinely confused at this point.

She's like, "What love? What love at all could press Lysander from my side? One earth love could take you from my side?" Because the last conversation between Hermia and Lysander before they slept was the fact that they loved each other.

They wanted to be together forever.

He said if his loyalty ever stopped, that he would.

He may as well be dead.

That he doesn't, his loyalty will stop when he dies, and they completely declared their love for each other.

We can see there's still an element of true love now, even though he's under the love potion, and this is quite subtle.

There's mirrored language.

Lysander and Hermia are using the same word, so Hermia picks up on Lysander's word and uses it in her conversation back to him.

So there's an element of Shakespeare being quite subtle here to show that there's still that true love between them.

It's just the fact that Lysander is taken over by the love potion at this point, and it's those little subtleties that Shakespeare's so amazingly clever at.

Lysander then says, "The hate I bare thee made me leave thee so?" "You speak not as you think; it cannot be." Lysander is explicitly telling the woman he's supposed to have loved, Hermia, saying he hates her.

He doesn't just dislike her.

He hasn't just changed his affection to Helena.

He actually hates Hermia.

"The hate I bare thee.

I absolutely hate you, and that made me leave you." And Hermia is like, "It can't be." She can't believe what is actually happening.

She's absolutely shocked.

As a result of Lysander's change of heart for Hermia, Hermia feels the pain of unrequited love.

She didn't suffer it before, because she loved Lysander and Lysander loved her back.

Demetrius was suffering from unrequited love for Hermia, but that was on his side, not hers.

Now Hermia is actually feeling the pain of unrequited love.

She now is able to understand how Demetrius and Helena would have felt before.

So all four lovers argue as a result of the chaos, confusion, and conflict of the love potion.

So let's look at each of these characters in turn.

So if we have a look at Hermia, so Hermia is obviously left feeling very confused, and as a result of her confusion with Lysander, she actually starts to accuse Helena, because Hermia and Helen have been friends for a very, very long time, and she actually accuses Helena of being involved in the situation.

And she says, "I scorn you not; it seems that you scorn me." So we've got this sense of she feels now that she's a victim, too.

Helena.

Helena feels mocked.

She feels mocked by Demetrius and Lysander, and she accuses Hermia.

She thinks that Hermia is involved as well.

She says, "Now I perceive they have conjoin'd all three," so Hermia and Demetrius and Lysander have all grouped together, "To fashion this false sport in spite of me." So she thinks all three of them are working against her.

Lysander, in this situation, as a result of the love potion being on himself and Demetrius, he loves Helena.

He competes with Demetrius.

So he's trying to compete with Demetrius for Helena's affections.

And he says, "Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse; my love, my life, my soul, fair Helena!" He's absolutely madly doting upon Helena, but it's as a result of the love potion.

And then we have Demetrius.

Demetrius also loves Helena, and he competes with Lysander.

So as a result of this chaos, confusion, and conflict of the love potion being put on Lysander by mistake by Puck, and now it's on Demetrius as well, we have Hermia and Helena, who are both accusing each other of having some involvement in what's going on, and we have the two men competing with each other for Helena's affections, and Demetrius says, "Be certain, nothing truer; 'tis no jest that I do hate thee and love Helena." So he now feels hatred for Hermia, who he loved before, and nothing truer in his mind than the fact that he loves Helena.

So we've got chaos, confusion, and conflict, and we have all four lovers arguing with each other about what an earth is going on, because as far as Lysander is concerned, he loves Helena, and that's it.

Demetrius loves Helena.

That's it.

Helena thinks that they're all playing a trick on her, and Hermia is really confused and blames Helena.

What a mess.

So I'm going to ask you to pause your video, please.

I've given you the four characters down the left side of your screen, and then I've given you four different sentence openings, and think about how the characters feel at this point in the play, and why.

So at this point in the play, Hermia feels what, because? You can use one or two key words or a phrase in that gap, but make sure you give a reason for each one.

So when you're ready, off you go.

Excellent work.

So let's have a look at some of the answers that we could have put.

So for Hermia, we could have said at this point in the play, Hermia feels confused because Lysander suddenly doesn't love her anymore.

So confusion's an option for Hermia.

Helena, at this point in the play, Helena feels mocked because she thinks the men are playing a cruel joke on her.

Number three, at this point in the play, Lysander only feels love for Helena, because he's under the influence of the love potion, and it's the same, put the same for Demetrius.

At this point in the play, Demetrius only feels love for Helena, because he's under the influence of the love potion.

So they are optional answers.

You may have put something different, but make sure that you've been really careful to be accurate with the characters, particularly making sure that you get the names the right way round, because they are easily confused.

So we've got Lysander, Demetrius competing for Helena's affections.

Helena thinks they're playing a joke, and thinks that neither of them are genuine.

Hermia is really hurt and confused, because the love of her life suddenly doesn't want her anymore, but as is timeless, women fighting over men, and Helena and Hermia are no exception to the rule.

And they throw insults at each other.

They completely insult each other.

They bicker.

And this is all to do with the fact that Helena's very confused, and Hermia thinks that Helena has tried to steal Lysander from her.

So let's hear some of their insults.

"O me! You juggler! You cankerblossom! You thief of love! What! Have you come by night and stol'n my love's heart from him?" "Fine, i' faith! Have you no modesty, no maiden shame, no touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear impatient answers from my gentle tongue? Fie, fie, you counterfiet, you puppet, you!" They're starting to throw insults each other.

Shakespearean insults are great.

They sound a little bit ridiculous with what they are, and they're very, very funny at the same time.

But some of the ideas that they bring about are still something that we can understand today.

So they might not be insults that we use today, but the ideas and the theory behind them are often quite similar.

So let's have a look.

Hermia's insults to Helena.

She says, "You juggler! You cankerblossom!" So let's have a look, then.

The idea of a juggler, someone who's a deceiver.

The idea of juggling, deceiving, making you see something that's not quite there, a trickster, and what is really quite ironic at this point, and quite humorous as well, is the irony that Hermia is calling Helena a trickster, a juggler, but actually, the trickster is Puck.

He's the one to blame for this.

He's the one that's made the mistake.

So she's calling Hermia, Hermia is calling Helena a juggler, calling her a trickster, but in actual fact, the blame should be put on the trickster himself, which is mischievous Puck.

So there's that element of irony there, and that comic value that we have as an audience.

And then our next one, cankerblossom.

What a silly sounding insult.

But the idea behind it is actually something that we can still understand nowadays, quite comfortably.

So it's a metaphor.

She's calling her something.

She's saying she is something else.

And actually a canker is something that causes infection or decay.

So we can see this is definitely an insult.

It's not a compliment.

She's not saying, "Oh, what a lovely, nice person you are." She's saying very, very much the opposite.

So canker causes infection or decay and blossom is lots of flowers on a plant, is when you get the lovely blossom in spring and all the little flowers that appear on the plant.

And she says, "You cankerblossom!" So what she's actually saying, she is saying that Helena has infected, infected Lysander and Hermia's love.

So she's infected it.

She's destroyed it.

She's caused this infection and this decay upon their beautiful, blossoming love.

So in Hermia's mind, Helena has destroyed Lysander and Hermia's beauty of their love, the growth of their love, and the goodness of their love.

So she's infected and decayed it, she's destroyed it.

She's destroyed the love that they have.

And remember Hermia and Helena are two friends.

They are two friends arguing over men, a timeless, timeless thing that still happens, these arguments over friends versus relationships, and this is no exception, but the comedy value here is the fact that these two women are completely throwing insults at each other, not very nice insults, but ones that are also quite silly at the same time, and they get worse.

So Helena's insults to Hermia.

Helena says, "Fie, fie, you counterfeit, you puppet, you!" So she calls her a puppet, and our first thoughts perhaps of a puppet are the idea of a little doll on a set of strings.

So the suggestion is that Helena thinks that Hermia is being controlled by Lysander and Demetrius.

So she thinks she's being controlled, and therefore she's like a puppet, and this is because Helena believes that Hermia, Demetrius, and Lysander all working together with a nasty little plan for her.

So she thinks they are controlling Hermia.

So that's why she accuses her of being a puppet.

The fact that Demetrius and Lysander are holding her strings and making her do what they want her to do.

So that's the basis of the insult.

However, this is the funny part.

Actually, she's insulting her height, and this is something that Helena and Hermia bicker about quite a lot.

In Athens, Helena and Hermia are very, very equal in terms of beauty, very, very equal in terms of beauty.

They're both considered very beautiful women.

They're both considered very fair.

However, the only difference between them is the height, and it is the root of a lot of their arguments.

A lot of their disagreements and based upon the idea of height, and it keeps coming back to this.

So she's insulting her height.

So the only difference between them, in Hermia and Helena, is that Helena is taller.

So Hermia is the short one.

Helena's the tall one.

That's the only difference between them, but that's therefore the only ammunition they have in this battle of insults that they're actually having, these two girls, these two women fighting over men.

So it's the battle of heights.

Helena versus Hermia.

Hermia is short.

Helena's tall.

And Hermia, her reaction.

So Helena has called a puppet, suggesting that she's being controlled by Lysander and Demetrius.

Hermia automatically assumes that it's an insult, and a comment on her height.

And she says, "Puppet! Why so? "Ay, that way goes the game.

Now I perceive that she hath made compare between our statures; she hath urg'd her height; and with her personage, her tall personage, her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him." So she's like, "Oh, puppet.

Oh, that that's the way the game goes again.

Oh, what a surprise.

You're going on about height again." So we can see that this is something that's happened before.

"Ay, that way goes the game.

Oh, there we go.

Surprise, surprise.

You're making a comment about the fact that I'm shorter than you." And she mentions statures, she mentions height, tall personage, height again.

And she actually suggests that Helena has won Lysander with her height.

So because Helena is taller, that's how she's stolen Lysander from Hermia.

That's Hermia's idea, all down to this battle of heights, but at the root of it, all caused by the love potion and Puck's mistake of putting it on Lysander instead, causing chaos, confusion, and conflict.

There's also something at the back of this, though.

There's the superficial side of love, is that there's no suggestion from Hermia that Helena has won Lysander through her personality, through the way that she acts, through who she really is.

It's all about the fact that she believes that Helena has won Lysander just through height alone, and that suggests that very superficial side of love, the idea of love on the surface, the idea of finding someone's eyes beautiful, or worrying about how your hair looks, this superficial side of love to do with height, to do with build, all these things that make love very, very superficial, and height is one of them, and this is what Hermia says has changed Lysander's mind, that Helena has insisted upon her height and that's how she's won Lysander's heart.

Hermia goes on to say, "And are you so grown so high in his esteem because I am so dwarfish and so low.

How low am I, thou painted maypole? Speak, how low am I? I am not yet so low but that my nails can reach unto thine eyes." What she's actually saying at the end, how shocking.

So she's making a point of the fact that she's dwarfish and low.

She actually says low four times.

Hermia is obviously really conscious of the fact that she is shorter than Helena, and she actually throws the insult at Helena that she's a maypole, that she's a tall pole that people dance around.

So she's insulted her, to make a critique or criticism of their height, isn't she, because she's again saying, "Helena, you're the tall one.

Look, you're just a maypole." And the other thing is that a maypole doesn't have a personality, either.

So she's saying Helena is perhaps more height than she is anything else.

But think about how timeless this is as an idea, friends fighting over lovers.

The idea of friends fighting over relationships, over lovers is an absolutely timeless theme in this play that runs right through history, and is still going on today.

Who said Shakespeare was out of date? Never.

And it's this permanent idea of love versus friendship.

When you make that choice for love, or you make that choice for your friends, and it's a constant, constant debate.

And what's also worth mentioning is what is actually going on at the end of that, when she says, "My nails can reach unto thine eyes." She's saying, although she's short, she's not too short that she can't scratch Helena's eyeballs out, that she can't scratch her eyes.

How vicious.

Helena then says in response to the fact that she's just had her eyes threatened to be gouged out, she says, "O, when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd.

She was a vixen when she went to school, and though she be but little, she's fierce." "Little again! Nothing but low and little? Why will you suffer her to flout me thus? Let me come to her." So Helena has just been threatened, physically threatened by Hermia, Hermia has threatened to gouge, scratch her eyes with her nails, because she says, "I might be short, but I can still reach your eyeballs." And Helena says, "O, when she's angry, she's keen and shrewd." So she's quite vicious and aggressive, and there's a sense of violence coming through, the idea of a vixen, a female fox, that she's something that's quite fierce, quite aggressive.

And she even uses the word fierce explicitly.

She is fierce, and she's always been like that.

Hermia is much more of the fiery one of the two.

So she's small, but fiery.

And Helena says, "And though she be but little, she's fierce." So she's saying to Demetrius and Lysander, you know, "Don't be fooled by her.

Although she is little, she's actually very, very fierce." So there's a sense perhaps of Helena being a little bit afraid of Hermia at this point, because she knows what she's capable of, and Hermia's instant reaction, "Little again!" Helena simply mentioned the word little, and Hermia has immediately taken offence here.

"Nothing but low and little." Actually, Hermia said it four times, didn't she, in the last extract.

She said it four times, the fact that she was low.

She even said the word dwarfish.

And Hermia can't understand Lysander standing there and not defending her.

As far as she's concerned, Lysander still loves her, or should love her because she doesn't see how anything's changed or anything different.

And she says, "Let me come to her." She's trying to really go for her at this point.

She's really trying to attack her.

So there's physical violence starting up between these two women over Demetrius and Lysander, who are completely under the influence of the love potion, as a result of Puck's mistake.

So women now are physically fighting over men.

It's gone beyond this verbal attack of insults thrown at each other, and now it's becoming quite vicious.

It's becoming more physical.

So let's just pause, then, just make sure we are tracking these characters perfectly.

So who has two men currently fighting for her? Helena or Hermia? Have a think.

Of course, it is Helena.

She has two men under the love potion, who have both woken up and seen her first.

Who is taller, Helena or Hermia? Have a think.

Excellent.

It is Helena who is taller.

It is Hermia that is the vixen who is a little bit more vicious, a bit more fierce than Helena is.

Who is most fiery? I've just given you a clue for this one.

Helena or Hermia? Have a think.

Exactly, Hermia the vixen.

Helena labels her as fierce.

And then we've got two women fighting.

A man gets involved.

Lysander gets involved.

He gets involved in this argument as well, and to the person who is supposed to be his true love, he says, "Get you gone, you dwarf; you minimus, of hind'ring knot-grass made; you bead, you acorn." So Lysander starts throwing insults at Hermia as well.

Really, we feel a bit sorry for Hermia at this point, can't we? She might be getting a little bit vicious in terms of that physical attack, but actually, she's got people ganging up on her now.

So he calls her a dwarf, minimus.

Think of minimum, minimal, the idea of something being very small.

He calls her a type of weed, hind'ring knot-grass, and then he says, "You bead, you acorn." He gives insults that, again, are criticising her height and the fact that she is smaller.

So you can understand why Hermia would then probably still want to blame Helena, because Helena's the tall one, and Lysander's saying how much smaller Hermia is.

As a result, a friendship is lost.

So let's have a look what happens between the two women now.

"You mistress, all this coil is long of you.

Nay, go not back." So Helena wants to go back to Athens.

She wants to walk away from this, and Hermia says, "No, you've made this mess.

You're not going back and leaving it." Helena, "I will not trust you.

I no longer stay in your curst company.

Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray.

My legs are longer though, to run away." And then Hermia says, on her own, "I am amaz'd, and know not what to say." So Helena no longer has trust for Hermia anymore.

She doesn't want to stay around her any longer.

And she said, "Although your hands might be quicker in a fight, my legs are longer, to run away." And she wants to run away.

She doesn't want to fight Hermia.

Hermia is left very, very confused, but Hermia says, "All this argument's about you, and you will therefore not to go back to Athens.

You're not going to leave this mess behind." So to repeat, the love potion has caused chaos, confusion, and conflict.

A friendship is lost as a result of the love potion being mistakenly put on Lysander.

But we have to remember Shakespeare's use of dramatic irony.

We know about the love potion, so there's an element of this that is humorous.

There's an element that is humorous.

So to pause, as a result of Puck's mistake, what has happened between the lovers? Chaos, confusion, conflict, insults, height, friendship, true love, hurt, loyalty, comical, humour, dramatic irony.

There's an awful lot of ideas there.

But what we're going to do is we're going to have a brief discussion on these ideas.

I'm going to talk you through some of the key things that we can say, and then I'm going to ask you to write a summary of what has happened between the lovers.

So our first three words, chaos, confusion, and conflict are definitely what the love potion has caused, aren't they? That's what the love potion has caused, chaos, confusion, and conflict.

It's caused chaos because people are loving different people.

It's caused confusion, because people don't know what's going on, and it's caused conflict.

It's caused arguments between these different lovers, and as a result of that, insult are thrown between particularly Helena and Hermia, but also Lysander gets involved in those insults as well, and those insults are based around the height of Hermia and Helena.

Helena is taller.

Hermia is shorter.

That's the only difference between these two women.

So therefore, that's the ammunition for their argument.

That's the excuse they can have to have a disagreement with each other.

That's the thing they can use as the basis of their insults.

So therefore, their friendship is lost.

Their friendship is over as a result of Puck's mistake.

And true love has not conquered this situation.

Lysander and Hermia, there's true love between them, but as a result of the love potion, Lysander's now in love with Helena, and that's left Hermia very hurt.

Helena's hurt because Lysander and Demetrius are both, in her mind, mocking her, and Hermia is hurt because her true love no longer loves her and has chosen her friend.

At the bottom of your screen, there are four words in blue boxes.

They are your challenge words.

They're the ones that you can really try and include in your paragraph as well.

So the idea of loyalty.

Lysander has loyalty for Helena now, but no longer for Hermia, so he starts to insult Hermia like Helena does.

There's an element of it being quite comical and creating humour for the audience, because of Shakespeare's use of dramatic irony, because we know that the men are under the influence of the love potion.

So to guide you as well, some sentence starters.

As a result of Puck's mistake, the four lovers are.

Helena and Hermia have been friends for a long time, but.

It creates something for the audience because.

The four lovers are.

Helena and Hermia argue about.

All of the four lovers feel.

So there's some key sentence starters of how we can work through this summary, also.

When you are ready, pause your video, please.

You can either have your video paused on your key words, if you find that easier, or you can switch to pause your video where your sentence starters are.

That is up to you.

But when you are ready, off you go, please.

So let's have a look at an example paragraph.

I've put your key words in bold, in the same colours as the boxes, so you can see how they're included.

So if there was a word or phrase that you couldn't fit into your paragraph, you can see how it's put into this one, and then you may wish to add it to your own.

So let's have a read through.

As a result of Puck's mistake, the four lovers are left in a state of confusion.

Lysander and Hermia's true love has been destroyed, and Hermia can not understand why.

Helena and Hermia have been friends for a long time, but their friendship ends because they're arguing about Lysander and Demetrius.

They throw insults at each other and their heights.

It seems like this height difference has always been an issue between the friends, and now Hermia thinks that Helena was stolen Lysander using her height.

This implies that love is superficial.

Lysander shows no loyalty towards Hermia because of the love potion, so she is left hurt.

Although this conflict between the four lovers is verbal and physical, because of Shakespeare's of dramatic irony, the scene is comical for the audience.

It creates humour because of the ridiculous insults and the chaos which ensues.

So if you've missed out any of those key words or phrases, as I said, by all means, please use this to add them in.

So that brings us to the end of today's learning on love and arguments.

So don't forget to take your quiz and ensure that you aim for that 100% to really showcase all of your amazing learning that you've achieved today.

So from me, thank you very much.

Take care, and enjoy the rest of your learning.