- What does Puck do to Bottom when he leaves the stage during the rehearsal in the woods? What will happen if the actors are unable to find their missing fellow in Act 4, Scene 2? What does Bottom think needs to be explained to the audience at the...
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An interactive data visualization of A Midsummer Night's Dream's plot and themes. Brief Biography of William Shakespeare Shakespeare's father was a glove-maker, and Shakespeare received no more than a grammar school education. He married Anne...
- Further, a plot that hinges on two lovers fighting to marry according to their will and in defiance of their fathers was standard in both Greek and Roman drama and also drove the plot of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Literary Period: The Renaissance - Genre: Comic drama Setting: The city of Athens and the forest just outside, in some distant, ancient time when it was ruled by the mythological hero Theseus. There are some who believe Shakespeare wasn't educated enough to write the plays attributed to him. The most common anti-Shakespeare theory is that Edward de Vere, the Earl of Oxford, wrote the plays and used Shakespeare as a front man because aristocrats were not supposed to write plays.
- Yet the evidence supporting Shakespeare's authorship far outweighs any evidence against. So until further notice, Shakespeare is still the most influential writer in the English language. A Midsummer Night's Parallel. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare mocks tragic love stories through the escapades of the lovers in the forests and the ridiculous version of Pyramus and Thisbe a tragic romance from Ovid's The Metamorphoses that Bottom and his company perform.
- So at the same time Shakespeare was writing the greatest love story ever told, he was also mocking the conventions of such love stories. It's almost as if Shakespeare was saying, "Yeah, it's tired, it's old, and I can still do it better than anyone else ever could.
- Explain the relations between the four lovers. Lysander and Hermia are in love with each other, but Hermia's father, Egeus, favors a second suitor, Demetrius, for his daughter. Demetrius has formerly been in love with Helena but has deserted her, although she still loves him. Just why does each of the lovers go to the forest? Hermia goes to the forest to meet Lysander with whom she is going to his aunt's to be married. Helena knows of it, so tells Demetrius so he can pursue them, she follows that she may watch him — Lines — Scene i. Are these characters to be thought of as Athenians? If not, do they belong in this play? These characters are not to be thought of as true Athenians.
- They belong to the play. Athens was taken because to the English that was the city of beauty and the nearest approach to an ideal city. What sort of a person is Bottom? Bottom is a weaver, a thinker, an egotist and a tyrant. Do these fairies make you think of Greece, or some other country? These fairies remind one more of England than Greece. The references to the cowslips and to the housewife churning are truly English. What are some of the lines that are most fairy-like? The first fifteen lines of scene i are most fairy-like. Are they represented with petty minds as well as tiny forms? Titania is not represented with a petty mind although Oberon and Puck are. What is the power of the magic plant, and how does Oberon mean to have it used? The magic plant, love-in-idleness, makes the one to whom it is applied love the first thing he or she sees upon awaking.
- Oberon means to have it applied to Titania, so that she will give up the page before he will remove the charm from her. How seriously are we to take this scene? We are to take this scene as one of Puck's inimitable jokes. In this and other scenes, how does Puck feel about his mistakes? Puck has no compunctions about any of his mistakes. Do the characters in this scene know that they are funny?
- The characters in this scene have no idea that they are funny, in fact Bottom wishes the audience to be informed that he is Bottom to put them out of fear. Show how Titania's fairy daintiness affects the humor of the closing part of the scene. That the dainty fairy Titania could love the monster Bottom with the body of a man and the head of an ass adds much humor to this scene, especially when she calls Cobweb, Peaseblossom, and Mustard Seed to wait upon him. Explain the confusion of the lovers here; how is it to be straightened out? Oberon told Puck to put love-in-idleness on Demetrius, instead he put it on Lysander by mistake, then he puts it on Demetrius; both men see Helena on first awaking and scorn Hermia.
- Oberon tells Puck to put them to sleep when they go to fight a duel and put something on Lysander's eyes to break the charm. How far is Bottom turned into an ass, and how far does he remain his natural self? Bottom is turned into an ass only in the shape of his head and what he wishes to eat. He still thinks as the Weaver Bottom did. Is the hunting party a good addition to the play? The hunting party makes the awakening of Lysander and Demetrius seem more natural and helps straighten out the confusion of the preceding scene. When Bottom wakes, how much does he remember?
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Bottom remembers that he thought he was an ass and had ass's ears. Is Quince's prologue nonsense because of the way it was written, or of the way he recites it, or both? Quince's prologue is nonsense because of the way it is written and the way in which he recites it. What absurdities of stage-management occur in the mechanics' play? The wall making a speech, and later showing a chink by holding up two fingers; the man with lantern, the dog and bush of thorn representing Moonshine; and Snug's announcement that he is not a real lion are a few of the absurdities. Which of the actors makes the funniest blunders in language, and what trait of his character leads him to make them? Pyramus makes the funniest blunders in language; his bombastic and dictatorial manner causes him to do this. Do the comments of the spectators have any effect on the actors?- The comments of the spectators have no effect upon the actors so intent are they upon their play. What popular beliefs are connected with Midsummer's Night? Some of the popular beliefs are that whatever is wished on Midsummer's Night will come true; that after night-fall the fairies are all-powerful; that they often steal new brides, or turn cowslips sprinkled on the doorstep into flames to burn those who have harmed them.
- Whose dream is meant — Titania's, Bottom's, the lovers', or the reader's? See lines to in Act IV. It is generally believed to refer to the audience. How to cite this article: Lunt, Forrest. Shakespeare Explained. New York: Hearst's International Library,
- Oberon —King of the Fairies Titania —Queen of the Fairies Robin "Puck" Goodfellow —a mischievous sprite with magical powers Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth and Mustardseed—fairy servants to Titania Indian changeling—a ward of Titania Plot[ edit ] Hermia and Helena by Washington Allston , The play consists of four interconnecting plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazon queen, Hippolyta , which are set simultaneously in the woodland and in the realm of Fairyland , under the light of the moon.
- The play opens with Hermia who is in love with Lysander, resistant to her father Egeus 's demand that she wed Demetrius , whom he has arranged for her to marry. Helena , Hermia's best friend, pines unrequitedly for Demetrius, who broke up with her to be with Hermia. Enraged, Egeus invokes an ancient Athenian law before Duke Theseus, whereby a daughter needs to marry a suitor chosen by her father, or else face death. Theseus offers her another choice: lifelong chastity as a nun worshipping the goddess Diana. Quince reads the names of characters and bestows them on the players. Nick Bottom, who is playing the main role of Pyramus, is over-enthusiastic and wants to dominate others by suggesting himself for the characters of Thisbe, the Lion, and Pyramus at the same time.
- Quince insists that Bottom can only play the role of Pyramus. Bottom would also rather be a tyrant and recites some lines of Ercles. Bottom is told by Quince that he would do the Lion so terribly as to frighten the duchess and ladies enough for the Duke and Lords to have the players hanged. Snug remarks that he needs the Lion's part because he is "slow of study". Quince assures Snug that the role of the lion is "nothing but roaring. Titania tells Oberon that she plans to stay there until she has attended Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding. Oberon and Titania are estranged because Titania refuses to give her Indian changeling to Oberon for use as his "knight" or "henchman", since the child's mother was one of Titania's worshippers. Oberon seeks to punish Titania's disobedience. He calls upon Robin " Puck " Goodfellow, his "shrewd and knavish sprite", to help him concoct a magical juice derived from a flower called " love-in-idleness ", which turns from white to purple when struck by Cupid's arrow.
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When the concoction is applied to the eyelids of a sleeping person, that person, upon waking, falls in love with the first living thing they perceive. He instructs Puck to retrieve the flower with the hope that he might make Titania fall in love with an animal of the forest and thereby shame her into giving up the little Indian boy. Helena, desperate to reclaim Demetrius's love, tells Demetrius about the plan and he follows them in hopes of finding Hermia. Helena continually makes advances towards Demetrius, promising to love him more than Hermia. However, he rebuffs her with cruel insults. Observing this, Oberon orders Puck to spread some of the magical juice from the flower on the eyelids of the young Athenian man. Instead, Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius, not having actually seen either before, and administers the juice to the sleeping Lysander.Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream Final Test With Answer Key
Helena, coming across him, wakes him while attempting to determine whether he is dead or asleep. Upon this happening, Lysander immediately falls in love with Helena. Helena, thinking Lysander is playing a trick on her, runs away with Lysander following her. When Hermia wakes up, she sees that Lysander is gone and goes out in the woods to find him. Oberon sees Demetrius still following Hermia, who thinks Demetrius killed Lysander, and is enraged. Upon waking up, he sees Helena. Now, both men are in love with Helena. However, she is convinced that her two suitors are mocking her, as neither loved her originally. Hermia finds Lysander and asks why he left her, but Lysander claims he never loved Hermia, just Helena. Hermia accuses Helena of stealing Lysander away from her while Helena believes Hermia joined the two men in mocking her.- Hermia tries to attack Helena, but the two men protect Helena. Lysander, tired of Hermia's presence, insults her and tells her to leave. Lysander and Demetrius decide to seek a place to duel to prove whose love for Helena is the greater. The two women go their own separate ways, Helena hoping to reach Athens and Hermia chasing after the men to make sure Lysander doesn't get hurt or killed.
- Oberon orders Puck to keep Lysander and Demetrius from catching up with one another and to remove the charm from Lysander so Lysander can return to love Hermia, while Demetrius continues to love Helena with none of them having any memory of what happened, as if it were a dream. Quince leads the actors in their rehearsal of the play. Bottom is spotted by Puck, who taking his name to be another word for a jackass transforms his head into that of a donkey. When Bottom returns for his next lines, the other workmen run screaming in terror: They claim that they are haunted, much to Bottom's confusion. Determined to await his friends, he begins to sing to himself. Titania, having received the love-potion, is awakened by Bottom's singing and immediately falls in love with him.
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She lavishes him with the attention of her and her fairies, and while she is in this state of devotion, Oberon takes the changeling boy. Having achieved his goals, Oberon releases Titania, orders Puck to remove the donkey's head from Bottom, and arranges everything so Helena, Hermia, Demetrius and Lysander will all believe they have been dreaming when they awaken. Puck distracts Lysander and Demetrius from fighting over Helena's love by mimicking their voices and leading them apart. Eventually, all four find themselves separately falling asleep in the glade. Once they fall asleep, Puck administers the love potion to Lysander again, returning his love to Hermia again, and claiming all will be well in the morning. The fairies then disappear, and Theseus and Hippolyta arrive on the scene, during an early morning hunt.- They find the lovers still sleeping in the glade. They wake up the lovers and, since Demetrius no longer loves Hermia, Theseus over-rules Egeus's demands and arranges a group wedding. The lovers at first believe they are still in a dream and can't recall what has happened. The lovers decide that the night's events must have been a dream.
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After they exit, Bottom awakes, and he too decides that he must have experienced a dream "past the wit of man". At Quince's house, he and his team of actors worry that Bottom has gone missing. Quince laments that Bottom is the only man who can take on the lead role of Pyramus. Bottom returns, and the actors get ready to put on "Pyramus and Thisbe". The performers are so terrible playing their roles that the guests laugh as if it were meant to be a comedy, and everyone retires to bed.- Afterwards, Oberon, Titania, Puck, and other fairies enter, and bless the house and its occupants with good fortune. After all the other characters leave, Puck "restores amends" and suggests that what the audience experienced might just be a dream. Titania and Bottom , Henry Fuseli c. Some have theorised that the play might have been written for an aristocratic wedding for example that of Elizabeth Carey, Lady Berkeley , while others suggest that it was written for the Queen to celebrate the feast day of St. John , but no evidence exists to support this theory. In any case, it would have been performed at The Theatre and, later, The Globe. Though it is not a translation or adaptation of an earlier work, various sources such as Ovid 's Metamorphoses and Chaucer 's " The Knight's Tale " served as inspiration. The play belongs to the author's early-middle period, a time when Shakespeare devoted primary attention to the lyricism of his works.
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The title page of Q1 states that the play was "sundry times publickely acted" prior to Themes and motifs[ edit ] Lovers' bliss[ edit ] In Ancient Greece , long before the creation of the Christian celebrations of St. John's Day , the summer solstice was marked by Adonia , a festival to mourn the death of Adonis , the devoted mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite. According to Ovid's Metamorphoses , Aphrodite took the orphaned infant Adonis to the underworld to be raised by Persephone.- He grew to be a beautiful young man, and when Aphrodite returned to retrieve him, Persephone did not want to let him go. Zeus settled the dispute by giving Adonis one-third of the year with Persephone, one-third of the year with Aphrodite, and the remaining third where he chose. Adonis chose to spend two-thirds of the year with his paramour, Aphrodite. He bled to death in his lover's arms after being gored by a boar. Mythology has various stories attributing the color of certain flowers to staining by the blood of Adonis or Aphrodite. The story of Venus and Adonis was well known to the Elizabethans and inspired many works, including Shakespeare's own hugely popular narrative poem, Venus and Adonis , written while London's theaters were closed because of plague.
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It was published in It was written for a wedding, and part of the festive structure of the wedding night. The audience who saw the play in the public theatre in the months that followed became vicarious participants in an aristocratic festival from which they were physically excluded. My purpose will be to demonstrate how closely the play is integrated with a historically specific upper-class celebration. The date of the wedding was fixed to coincide with a conjunction of Venus and the new moon, highly propitious for conceiving an heir. He writes that the fairies make light of love by mistaking the lovers and by applying a love potion to Queen Titania's eyes, forcing her to fall in love with an ass. Hermia and Lysander are both met by Puck, who provides some comic relief in the play by confounding the four lovers in the forest.- However, the play also alludes to serious themes. At the end of the play, Hippolyta and Theseus, happily married, watch the play about the unfortunate lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe, and are able to enjoy and laugh at it. Problem with time[ edit ] There is a dispute over the scenario of the play as it is cited at first by Theseus that "four happy days bring in another moon". It is possible that the Moon set during the night allowing Lysander to escape in the moonlight and for the actors to rehearse, then for the wood episode to occur without moonlight. Theseus's statement can also be interpreted to mean "four days until the next month". Another possibility is that, since each month there are roughly four consecutive nights that the moon is not seen due to its closeness to the sun in the sky the two nights before the moment of new moon, followed by the two following it , it may in this fashion indicate a liminal "dark of the moon" period full of magical possibilities.
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This is further supported by Hippolyta's opening lines exclaiming "And then the moon, like to a silver bow New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night of our solemnities. The play also intertwines the Midsummer Eve of the title with May Day , furthering the idea of a confusion of time and the seasons. This is evidenced by Theseus commenting on some slumbering youths, that they "observe The rite of May". Titania and Bottom Maurice Hunt, Chair of the English Department at Baylor University , writes of the blurring of the identities of fantasy and reality in the play that make possible "that pleasing, narcotic dreaminess associated with the fairies of the play". This also seems to be the axis around which the plot conflicts in the play occur. Hunt suggests that it is the breaking down of individual identities that leads to the central conflict in the story.- It is driven by a desire for new and more practical ties between characters as a means of coping with the strange world within the forest, even in relationships as diverse and seemingly unrealistic as the brief love between Titania and Bottom: "It was the tidal force of this social need that lent energy to relationships. In describing the occupations of the acting troupe, he writes "Two construct or put together, two mend and repair, one weaves and one sews. All join together what is apart or mend what has been rent, broken, or sundered. Further, the mechanicals understand this theme as they take on their individual parts for a corporate performance of Pyramus and Thisbe.
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The book is ok i hate shakespere tho cause the way the people talk is annoying. Im gonna come up with a sweeter play and have dave chapelle co write it and im gonna make millions tilden i think that helen is a evil witch shes just haten on hermia cause shes hotter tilden The book is very confusing because they talk in all poetry all the time.. Tilden — Great job with number two, but try to stay on task, please. Does anyone have any strategies for understanding Shakespeare that Hali and others might benefit from?
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