i am helena, hear me roar

“Call you me fair? That fair again unsay.
Demetrius loves your fair, O happy hair!
Your eyes are lodestars; and your tongue’s sweet air
More tuneable than lark to shephard’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 give to you translated.
O, teach me how you look, and with what art
You sway the motion of Demetrius’ heart”

Helena is basically telling how jealous she is of Hermia because she has the one thing Helena really wants, Demetrius. She tells her friend about how she wishes she could have whatever Hermia had so that Demetrius would love her. Helena is saying “Teach me how to be like you!” which doesn’t really help because Hermia replies with how she loathes him and tells him to go away, but he loves her, which is the exact situation Helena is in.
When I imagine acting this scene out, I hear Helena’s voice sound a little harsh and sarcastic, especially the first two lines. Then she begins to kind of fawn over Hermia in jealousy and follow her around, trying to figure out what she does to attract Demetrius. When she says, “The more I love, the more he hateth me” I can picture her rolling her eyes and sighing because she feels like no matter what she does, she’ll never compare to Hermia. Helena sounds very whiny in this seen so she might do childish things such as stomp or turn to Hermia and practically ask Helena to give her good looks to her.

When I act out the part I was thinking of gesturing between me and Casey when Helena says “My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye…“ where she talks about how she wants to be just like Hermia, I might point at Casey a little for comparison. When she gets to the part where she says, “Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated…” She might go into a girly phase and stare off, just picturing this world of hers where Demetrius loves her.

Overall her gestures show that she is pleading with Hermia to teach her how to be her. Helena looks at Hermia with jealousy and admiration and I will try to portray that.