Puck’s interference with the love juice caused a lot of chaos in the lover’s realm. Love for one could instantly change for love for another in a matter seconds, and the scene is rife with confusion and bewilderment, which is not helped by a bemused Robin Goodfellow (Puck) who can’t help but find the lover’s lamentable situation anything but comical. 

Throughout the whole of Act 3 Scene 2 the characters assumptions about themselves and others are questioned and undermined, for example before Puck’s interference Helena and Hermia were best friends. Helena was in love with Demetrius but he put all his attention into Hermia, which made Helena extremely envious. Helena is also jealous of Hermia’s appearance as she thinks that Demetrius favours her because of it “Call me fair? that fair again unsay. Demetrius loves your fair. Oh happy fair…” this tells us that Helena is feeling quite spiteful towards Hermia and that she wishes to be able to look like her in order to win Demetrius’s heart. Helena thinks little of her self and has rather low self esteem. It is obvious when she says “Sickness is catching. O were favour so, yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go…” Helena shows a great amount of self-pity where she pathetically exposes her desire to be in Hermia’s place and have Demetrius dote upon her. 

After Puck’s interference Helena and Hermia’s relationship becomes acrimonious and bitter. Helena accused Hermia of being part of Demetrius and Lysander’s mockery, “Lo, she is one of this confederacy. Now I perceive they have conjoined all three to fashion this false sport in spite of me” Helena believed that the men were mocking her and that Hermia was the brains behind the conspiracy, all bent on destroying her self esteem even more. 

Hermia is confused by her words and doesn’t understand why Helena is upset as she has not collaborated with Lysander and Demetrius and she is equally confused by their behaviour as Helena is. Although, her confusion quickly turns into aggression as she is significantly smaller that Helena, and she believes that Lysander went off her because of this “Her height forsooth, she hath prevailed with him. And are you grown so high in his esteem, because I am so dwarfish and so low” Hermia’s subconscious anxiety about her height shines through as she is convinced that she lost Lysander to Helena because of her height deficiency. Helena reminds Hermia about how their relationship used to be like