Hermia comes up first. And she has some real guts to, when she's practically on trial and threatened with death anyway, to openly suggest in front of the Duke that she might actually refuse to wed Demetrius:
I know not by what power I am made bold,
Nor how it may concern my modesty,
In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;
But I beseech your Grace that I may know
The worst that may befall me in this case,
If I refuse to wed Demetrius.
She's feisty and strong, and able to match Lysander word for word. And even though he's the one who comes up with the ideas, she's the one who actually talks about how their relationship will be improved. She's also the one who takes the liberty of telling Helena all about the secret plans.
For Helena, she starts of seeming incredibly self-pitying and a bit pathetic: wanting to somehow copy Hermia's beauty.
Call you me fair? That fair again unsay.
Demetrius loves your fair...
Sickness is catching; O, were favor so,
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go!..
Sickness is catching; O, were favor so,
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go!
Yet she also, in the same scene, shows her manipulative side, deciding to use Hermia's secret to her own advantage with Demetrius:
I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight;
Then to the wood will he tomorrow night
Pursue her; and for this intelligence
If I have thanks, it is a dear expense.
As we see later, she ain't all that pathetic. Hope it helps!
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