HERMIA Take comfort: he no more shall see my face.
Lysander and myself will fly this place.
Before the time I did Lysander see,
Seemed Athens as a paradise to me.
O then, what graces in my love do dwell,
That he hath turned a heaven unto a hell! (1.1.202-7)
Lysander sometimes makes no, no, stop, don’t tell her gestures or expressions, but, too late: does Hermia naively see no reason not to confide in her old friend? Or does she just want Helena to shut UP about it all, enough of the self-pity, it’s not my FAULT that Demetrius is like this, I haven’t DONE anything! No matter, she blurts it out: take comfort (and this can be said with more than a touch of sarcasm and exasperation: will anything make you get a grip?), he no more shall see my face. No more mooning around after me for Demetrius, because Lysander and myself will fly this place. We’ve had enough, we’re out of here. Before the time I did Lysander see, seemed Athens like a paradise to me. I used to be so happy with my little life, so utterly content (and friendship with Helena is implicit in that contentment? things were good, uncomplicated!) But then, I saw him, loved him, and everything changed. Paradise became where he was… O then, what graces in my love do dwell, that he hath turned a heaven into hell! It’s double-edged, because on the one hand Hermia is confirming that her situation, her life has become intolerable: loving Lysander means her former happy life in Athens has become impossible. Loving Lysander has turned her life upside-down; what graces indeed, she says, ironically. More positively, being with Lysander makes her so happy, is so utterly blissful, that even a former paradise, life in Athens BL*, seems now seems unimaginably hellish. Everything is extreme, zero-sum, and just a little** immature and naïve.
*Before Lysander ** very
