Superficial love in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's DreamIn the first soliloquy of A Midsummer Night's Dream Shakespeare's Summer, Helena is all about a love that contains depth, a love that looks at who a person is, personality-wise, as opposed to nothing more than their appearance. Helen explains: “Love does not look with the eyes, but with the mind” (1.1.240). In the superficial culture Helena lives in, and even in today's society, it is difficult for people to look beyond the outer shell and follow a deeper perception. The concept of the "perfect person" is constantly ingrained in people's minds. In Helena’s time, this was done through the expectations taught to children by their parents. Today, this type of expectation comes primarily from the media and entertainment industries. Helena describes love as "admiration of one's qualities" and as possessing the capacity to "transpose into form and dignity" (1.1.238-240). Although this definition may not be perfect, it is much closer to the biblical definition described in 1 Corinthians than to the more common definitions of Helen's day. Due to the strong influence of the superficial culture Helena lives in, she too struggles to keep society's pressure outside of its definition of love. One of the first things she points out in her soliloquy is the fact that "thanks to Athens, I am considered as beautiful as she" (1.1.232). She then explains how she wishes Demetrius would think she is as righteous as Hermia. If Helena believes so strongly that love comes from admiring one's personality, one has to wonder why she loves this man who only focuses on how women look and doesn't care about who they are as a person . Then again, the number of men of his era who didn't find their love on such superficial characteristics was probably quite small, if any. Regardless, Helena's perception of love is not perfect, her thoughts are always influenced by the surrounding culture. Helena's interpretation of love, as a deep and powerful emotion, is virtually invisible in the rest of the play. It is rather the opposite, superficial love, which torments most of the characters in the play. Theseus, Demetrius, and Lysander constantly make comments about women. Rather than focusing on who these women are, these comments are about their appearance..