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A Midsummer Night's Dream · William Shakespeare · c. 1595
HELENA
A young woman chasing a man who despises her keeps offering herself lower and lower, and the more he refuses the harder she clings. Humiliation becomes a strange kind of courage.
The speech112 words · 3 beats
0:00 / 1:08
And even for that do I love you the more.
I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
What worser place can I beg in your love,—
And yet a place of high respect with me,—
Than to be used as you use your dog?turn
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.
- Speaking to
- Demetrius, who is trying to lose her in the forest.
- What just happened
- Demetrius has fled into the woods after Hermia, and Helena has followed uninvited. He tells her flatly he does not and cannot love her. She refuses to leave.
- Objective
- To wear down his rejection until he takes her at any price.
- The turn
- 'And even for that do I love you the more' — his contempt, meant to drive her off, becomes her reason to stay.
- Watch out for
- The trap is pathetic whining. Helena is witty and self-aware even while debasing herself; the spaniel image is a deliberate, almost defiant argument. Keep it playable as pursuit, not collapse.