Lysander And Demetrius Similarities

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Although the characters Lysander and Demetrius have similarities, they are portrayed as complete opposites and rivals throughout the entirety of the play. Demetrius is the first of the two to be introduced both in mentioning and lines. We find out early on that Egeus, Hermia’s father, favors Demetrius over Lysander, and therefore wants Hermia to marry him. Unfortunately for him, Hermia favors Lysander. While Egeus and Theseus are discussing Demetrius’ worth, Hermia chimes in to point out that Lysander is just as worthy. She flat-out tells her father that she absolutely refuses to marry Demetrius and he responds with her two other options: to die or become a nun. Egeus continues to explain that marrying Demetrius is her best option, as she will be obeying her father by doing so. Demetrius’ first line comes in for him to say that he thinks it is his “certain right” to marry Hermia (Shakespeare 231). Lysander immediately retorts that Demetrius only has Egeus’ love and to let him “have…show more content…
This can be easily perceived when Lysander is comparing himself to Demetrius in the beginning, including any reason to prove that he is better than Demetrius. Another example is when Demetrius takes things too far, telling Hermia that he would “give [Lysander’s] carcass to [his] hounds” (Shakespeare 272). Hermia worries that Demetrius has already killed Lysander and grieves about how innocent and undeserving he was. Demetrius retorts by telling Hermia that she cares too much about Lysander for his liking before revealing that he did not kill Lysander, but only wishes him dead. Hermia then asks Demetrius to tell her that Lysander is alright, and Demetrius wants to know what he would get out of giving her an answer if he actually had one. This shows Demetrius’ manipulative nature: he only cares about his own personal

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