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The following question is based on your reading of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare.

HERMIA [Awaking]
Help me, Lysander, help me! do thy best
To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast!
Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here!
Lysander, look how I do quake with fear:
Methought a serpent eat my heart away,
And you sat smiling at his cruel prey.
Lysander! what, removed? Lysander! lord!
What, out of hearing? gone? no sound, no word?
Alack, where are you speak, an if you hear;
Speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear.
No? then I well perceive you all not nigh
Either death or you I'll find immediately.

This speech ends Act 2. Why is it ironic?

User Andylamax
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2 Answers

9 votes
9 votes

Answer:

Lysander has just abandoned Hermia in pursuit of Helena because of the love potion. It is ironic that Hermia has this dream that Lysander has abandoned her, with a snake eating her heart.

User Serkan
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28 votes
28 votes

Answer:

It is ironic that Hermia has this dream that Lysander has abandoned her, with a snake eating her heart

User Cameron Gilbert
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