Hermia

Sarah Ruhl did not make any careless choices in her writing.  Therefore, I wanted to unlock the mystery behind Hermia's character name.  By researching the etymology I found that basically 0% of people name their children Hermia (big surprise).  Why then, did Ruhl choose this as the name for Gordon's wife?

A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare is the only other work that familiarized me with the name Hermia.  In Greek, Hermia is the female version of the name Hermes, meaning messenger.  It had me thinking about how Hermia was a messenger in DMCP.  She is the one that tells Jean about Gordon's work which is a huge opposition to the man Jean had built in her imagination.

Also, in  A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hermia learns what it means to hold on to love even when it is threatened.  DMCP's Hermia knew that Gordon had other lovers,  knew he was in an illegal business, yet held on.  She even says at one point that she felt she had married the wrong man.  However, she wasn't going to give up on her marriage, or their love.  Gordon is almost like Lysander; he doesn't stay loyal to Hermia but still she remains loyal to him.  She isn't exactly a hopeless romantic, but she realizes that to love is a choice, not just butterflies in your stomach and wild passions, she chose to love Gordon regardless of his actions, she chose to stay.