You are here

All Site ContentMidsummer Night's DreamAct 2Scene 2
Back to the Play
“heresies”
Metaphor
Act 2,
Scene 2
Lines 141-150

An explanation of Lysander’s reference to “heresies” in Act 2, Scene 2 of myShakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Lysander

She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there
And never mayst thou come Lysander near.
For as a surfeit of the sweetest things
The deepest loathing to the stomach brings;
Or as the heresies that men do leave
Are hated most of those they did deceive;
So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,
Of all be hated, but the most of me.
And all my powers, address your love and might
To honor Helen and to be her knight.

Lysander uses two metaphors to describe why his love for Hermia has turned into an intense loathing. The first is having an excess of dessert; eating too much of even a good thing will make you sick to your stomach. The second is his observation that the men who were once the most adamant supporters of a belief turn into its harshest critics once it’s proven false.