Jealousy: The Bane of Friendship
Helena's Playlist
Theme: Jealousy can destroy friendship
In my opinion, this theme in A Midsummer Night's Dream is best portrayed by Helena, namely involving Helena and Hermia's friendship interrupted by Helena's frequent jealousy of Hermia. Helena's first episode of jealousy was when Demetrius, the man she loved, went and pursued Hermia. This resulted in Helena betraying Hermia when she told Demetrius about their plan to flee because of her want for Demetrius to love her. Also later when Helena finally accepted that Demetrius only loved Hermia--but she was still jealous--Demetrius magically started loving Helena, who blamed Hermia of telling Demetrius to make fun of her. This act seemed to be at least indirectly based on Helena's jealousy of Hermia. Finally, this conflict of friends was only resolved when Demetrius and Helena's love was made true, ending Helena's jealousy and restoring her friendship with Hermia.
Nick Jonas - Jealous (Lyrics)
1: "Jealous" by Nick Jonas
This song represents one of the core problems between Helena and Hermia--jealousy. Helena is jealous of Hermia for her love attracting beauty, starting off a long term conflict that influences many different parts and pieces later on. The singer in the song explains jealous feelings with similar reasons--beauty and love--and helps give some insight to the problems Helena faced at the beginning of A Midsummer Night's Dream. By listening to this I feel that Helena could relate her life and feelings to the song (someone else's life), which might have helped her feel less alone and more supported with her emotions.
Taylor Swift - Stay, Stay, Stay (Lyrics)
2: "Stay, Stay, Stay" by Taylor Swift
After Helena betrayed Hermia and Lysander's plan to run away to Demetrius, Demetrius went straight off in pursuit with Helena right behind. While following Demetrius, Helena pleaded Demetrius to stay with her and love her, but he constantly denied. This song represents how Helena was feeling at that moment and what she wished that Demetrius would do--"stay". It describes the feeling of finally finding someone (Demetrius in this case) that the the singer truly loved and having to negotiate a conflict in order to keep the love going.
MARC ENFROY - Unconditional (Relaxing music)
3: "Unconditional" by Marc Enfroy
This song was written to express the theme of unconditional love--loving with no strings attached. This is what Helena was expressing when she continued to follow Demetrius around, even after he explained that he would do something harmful to her if she kept at it. Her jealousy of Hermia was still developing; she was still in a phase where she loved Demetrius no matter what, despite any jealous feelings she may have that may have led to her later stopping her pursuit.
Acceptance by Marc Enfroy
4: "Acceptance" by Marc Enfroy
After chasing Demetrius around the woods for a while, Helena realizes that continuing to pursue Demetrius is futile, and accepts that she had no chance against Hermia's beauty, of which she is extremely jealous. This song is shaped around this theme of acceptance, thus the title, and in my opinion, is very calming and helps ease the difficulty of accepting, perhaps why it was written. Listening to this relaxing song would help Helena ease her sorrow, if only a little bit, over Demetrius seeming to leave her permanently.
I Knew You Were Trouble - Taylor Swift - Lyrics
5: "I Knew You Were Trouble" by Taylor Swift
Having accepted that Demetrius is going to go after Hermia alone, Helena begins to feel that she is incapable of being loved because of beauty reasons. Naturally she is now even more jealous of Hermia for these same reasons, and when Lysander claimed to love her, confusion was added to this mix. This song explains her feelings towards Lysander concerning the assumption that he is making fun of her, which is based on the notion that he couldn't possibly love her. The main part of the refrain: "Cause I knew you were trouble when you walked in" describes exactly how Helena felt in this situation, and ties into Helena's main belief that Lysander could only love "beautiful" Hermia.
The Tempest by: Robert W. Smith
6: "The Tempest" by Robert W. Smith
Helena's unhappiness and frustration at rejection begin to get more and more tense as Lysander and Demetrius claim that they love her. After assuming that they are lying, she notices Hermia coming and blames her for all of her sorrow, largely based on the jealousy she was feeling concerning Demetrius' love. The Tempest symbolizes this inner tension with a pulsing, steadily increasing melody, leading up to a climactic ending, similar to Helena's accusation.
Diana DeGarmo- Don't Cry Out Loud w/ Lyrics
7: "Don't Cry Out Loud
After Hermia got upset, finding out that Lysander didn't seem to love her in the least, she blamed Helena and attempted to hurt her. Realizing the danger, Helena changed gears and tried to remind Hermia of all the good times they'd had together, and what good friends they used to be. It worked well enough, and in my opinion, this is just what Helena needed herself. This song explains that you should hide some of your feelings in order to stop them from hindering you, and relate to others through a similar context.
Kiss the Rain - Yiruma
8: "Kiss the Rain" by Yiruma
After spending a long evening dealing with assumed lies, unhappiness, jealousy, and negotiation, Helena is extremely exhausted. This helps dilute all of the negative emotions she has been experiencing and allows her to realize that Hermia isn't in a very good place anyways. This helps end her jealousy of Hermia, and empathize with her instead. This song is a slow, and has a more end-of-the-day type feel to it. Also in my opinion, the melody is full with emotion and empathy all the way through.
Autumn Wind Sounds : 2 Hour Long Relaxing Nature Sounds for Sleep
9: "Autumn Winds"
After Helena's jealousy died off, she figured that it wouldn't do any good to keep staying around Hermia as a possible stimulus for either one's anger. Helena made the decision to leave, providing herself and Hermia with some alone time, which would help neutralize many negative feelings both had. These sounds of autumn wind represent alone time and peacefulness, both of which Helena and Hermia needed. Also, it was created to help with sleep, the final element that would help ease Hermia and Helena's feelings.
Ever I Love You
10: "Ever I Love You" by Tim Janis
As a product of a emotion-stabilizing sleep and a bit of magic, Helena and Hermia both now have lovers whom they love, with little, if no, jealousy existing between Helena and Hermia. Resulting from this, Helena and Hermia are fast friends for apparently forever. This song's soaring melody helps demonstrate the length of this concluding happy relationship, as it says in the title,"Ever I Love You".