Volu m e II - Purdue University Calumet

Matthew Lewis
University of Michigan – Flint
Michael Hoffman’s Transformation of Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
In Shakespeare’s play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Helena is portrayed as a very intelligent woman
who not only analyzes her relationships with others in great depth but can also uncover the weaknesses in
others through her analysis. She appears as a strong character with firm beliefs and feelings. In his 1999 film
of A Midsummer Night’s Dream Michael Hoffman recreates and reduces Helena as powerful character. Rather
than portraying her as an intelligent, relatively mature character, he depicts her as a childish being without
intelligence. Hoffman envisions her as irrational in her thoughts and actions and as much less defiant than in
Shakespeare’s text. Through his use of camera angles and other film tactics as well as through her actions
and tone of voice, Hoffman transforms Helena into a silly, immature and childish character.
The first thing that is noticed about Hoffman’s vision of Helena in his film, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is
how he uses her actions to portray her childish, unintelligent character. When Helena is first introduced in the film,
it is when she is calling for Demetrius while outside of the house. She sees him on the balcony of the house
and begins to yell for him. In this part, she ignores the fact that she is in a place full of people and is
directing much attention towards herself. These actions show her childish side, because she does not care
about the people around her or the fact that she is drawing much attention. This is very similar to what a
child would do, for they often cause scenes out in public without a realization of the people around and
what a fool they are making of themselves. After Demetrius simply shuts the door behind himself as he goes
back inside, Helena throws a temper tantrum and storms away. She looks as if she is about to weep over
him ignoring her and stomps away angrily. She begins to walk down some stairs with her bicycle at her side
wheeling it down the steps with not much care or respect for her possession. This reaction to Demetrius
ignoring her is very immature and Hoffman enhances it through these actions. Rather than being more of an
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