Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Lysander - A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Shakespeare - KS3 English - Bitesize

Key points

Lysander is one of the main characters in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a comedy by English playwright William Shakespeare.
Lysander loves Hermia but her father, Egeus, refuses to let them marry because he wants Hermia to marry Demetrius. Helena is in love with Demetrius but he cruelly rejects her.
The couple run away together to get married in secret. Their plans are ruined when a fairy called Puck accidentally puts love potion in the wrong person’s eyes.

Did you know?

Shakespeare’s comedies are full of comical and creative insults. During an argument between the four lovers, Lysander mocks Hermia for being short:

You minimus, of hindering knot-grass made;
You bead, you acorn.

Images of a quill and ink pot, purple question mark and William Shakespeare above an open book.

Plot summary

A timeline infographic containing nine images connected by green ivy that show the main events of the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The first image shows Hermia, who has red hair, and Lysander, who has blonde hair, running away together hand in hand. In the second image, Helena, who has brown hair, is pointing in the direction of Hermia and Lysander, showing Demetrius, who has black hair, where they have gone. In the third image, the silhouette of Titania holds a baby boy while Oberon flies in and holds his hands out as if to take the baby himself. In the fourth image Puck can be seen dripping purple love potion into the eyes of a sleeping figure. In the fifth image Helena shrugs with her hands out and a confused expression on her face. On either side of her Lysander and Demetrius are looking at her with loving expressions, while purple love hearts encircle their faces. In the sixth image Titania, who is lying in the grass, looks up at Bottom, who has a donkey’s head and is wearing a white tunic, with romantic interest. In the seventh image, Oberon, who has green hair and is wearing a golden crown, holds a round bottomed flask of golden potion. In the eighth image, three couples – Hermia and Lysander, Helena and Demetrius, Theseus and Hippolyta – stand underneath wedding arches. In the ninth image, a man in a white tunic pretends to be scared of another man, who is crouched on the floor wearing a lion head costume.

Lysander’s key moments

Click through the slideshow to see Lysander’s key moments

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Image caption,
Lysander and Hermia are in love and wish to marry. Hermia’s father wants her to marry Demetrius, so Lysander and Hermia run away. Demetrius goes after them, followed by Helena.
Image caption,
Puck mistakenly puts love potion in both Lysander’s and Demetrius’ eyes and they both fall in love with Helena. When Hermia asks Lysander why he left her he replies that he hates her. Lysander and Demetrius fight over Helena.
Image caption,
Oberon and Puck reverse the effects of the love potion and Lysander returns to loving Hermia and Demetrius continues to love Helena. The four lovers think the events of the previous day were all a dream.
Image caption,
Lysander marries Hermia alongside Helena and Demetrius and Theseus and Hippolyta.

Character traits

An American actor in a white tunic as Lysander and a Vietnamese actress in a long yellow cloak with a golden hairband as Hermia — Image caption,
American actor Doug Miller as Lysander and Vietnamese actress Pham Ngan Hoa as Hermia in a joint American-Vietnamese 2000 production of the play

Lysander is a young man from the city of Athens. He is in love with a young woman called Hermia.

Hermia is in love with Lysander. However, her father, Egeus, does not approve of Lysander and insists that she marry Demetrius.

Romantic
Lysander is romantic and has Hermia with poetry, presents and music.

Intelligent
Lysander is a clever character. He is quick witted in his exchanges with Theseus and Egeus at the start of the play, arguing why he is as good a match as Demetrius. He also quickly comes up with the plan for him and Hermia to leave Athens to get married.

Loyal
Lysander remains loyal to Hermia throughout the play and is determined to escape Athens and marry her. Although he rejects Hermia when he is under the effects of the love potion, this does not represent his true character, as the potion given to him by Puck is causing his odd behaviour.

Listening activity

The audio clip below is from Act 1, scene 1, when Egeus describes how he thinks Lysander made Hermia fall in love with him. Listen to the clip and then answer the question below.

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How did Lysander woo Hermia?

Relationships

Lysander and Hermia are in love and want to get married. Hermia is willing to rebel against her father so she can be with Lysander. Although she is in love, Hermia refuses to let Lysander sleep near her in the woods.

Hermia’s father, Egeus, thinks Lysander has bewitched his daughter and turned her against him. The audience never finds out why Egeus disapproves of Lysander.

Demetrius loves Hermia and is angry that Lysander stands in his way. Lysander and Demetrius also argue and fight over their love for Helena when they are under the effects of Puck’s love potion.

Lysander is standing in a white circle in the middle of the infographic. The white circle is against a forest background. To the left of Lysander is Hermia, who is connected to Lysander by a green line labelled friend. To the right of Lysander are Egeus and Demetrius - they are connected with red lines, which signified that they are Lysander's enemies.

Why does Hermia tell Lysander to sleep further away from her in the woods?

Changes in character

On the left side of the infographic Lysander is pictured looking happy and surrounded by red love hearts. In the middle image Lysander is surrounded by purple love hearts and his tongue is lolling out. On the right hand side of the infographic there is an image of two wedding rings overlapping with each other.

At the start of the play, Lysander loves Hermia. Then Puck mistakenly puts a love potion in Lysander’s eyes and he falls in love with Helena.

Hermia is distressed when Lysander suddenly starts loving Helena. Lysander tells Hermia that he hates her and insults her height. Of course, the audience knows that this is not his true character and that the change is only due to the effects of the love potion.

Towards the end of the play, the love potion is reversed and Lysander loves Hermia again. The couple get married alongside Demetrius and Helena.

Activity - Order it

What do these key quotations mean?

The course of true love never did run smooth.

Lysander
Act 1, scene 1

I have a widow aunt, a dowager
Of great revenue, and she hath no child:
From Athens is her house remote seven leagues;
And she respects me as her only son.
There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;
And to that place the sharp Athenian law
Cannot pursue us.

Lysander
Act 1, scene 1

How does Lysander plan to marry Hermia?

And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake.
Transparent Helena! Nature shows art,
That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.

Lysander
Act 2, scene 2

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