Apr 1; Love Knows Not the Rules of Man; Shake's Soliquoy

HELENA

Your virtue is my privilege: for that
It is not night when I do see your face,
Therefore I think I am not in the night;
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,
For you in my respect are all the world:
Then how can it be said I am alone,
When all the world is here to look on me?

...

The wildest hath not such a heart as you.
Run when you will, the story shall be changed:
Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;
The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind
Makes speed to catch the tiger; bootless speed,
When cowardice pursues and valour flies.

...

Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!
Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:
We cannot fight for love, as men may do;
We should be wood and were not made to woo.

'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,
To die upon the hand I love so well.

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Shakespeare often shows his obsession with the stage in his works (I.E.: "All the world's a stage and the men and women merely players.") We see that in Helena's chosen description of her love for Demetrius. Part of Helena's comfort is that she never feels alone in his presence, but that in Demetrius she feels a greater understanding and accompaniment with the world around her. As such, Shakespeare is describing the eyes of her beloved as her stage - the place where her character best comes to life.

The next stanza (the replies of Demitrius cut out) is Shakespeare's way of demonstrating the irrational nature with which one loves. Helena shows the audience her manic state of love by describing her grandiose confidence. Making reference to the tragedy of Apollo, the myth of the griffin, she lets the audience know that she truly believes that she can be the exception to these rules. Another way of showing that love need not require ration.

Finally Helena touches on what is a big theme at the core of this play, the debate over which love is a blessing (or curse) or something to be achieved through the efforts of the spirit. Clearly Shakespeare has put Helena on the side of the prior at this point in time. The strength of her confidence in the love she feels for Demetrius is not something that she can sell him on, rather it's something that he will eventually realize himself.