A MIDSUMMER NIGHT S DREAM

Transcription

1 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT S DREAM WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE UNIVERSAL SCHOOL SUMMER READING PACKET Honors British Literature Swift as a shadow, short as any dream; Brief as the lightning in the collied night. A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1. 1

2 For this play, we will not just read and discuss. For the most part, you are doing the reading and analyzing on your own as you read the play at home, and then we will discuss when you get back. However, you will have a focus and guided questions to help steer you in the direction we will go by in class. This is a book-noting packet, which means whatever directions or questions that are posed in this packet will not be answered on a paper. You will highlight, mark up, and tab them in your own book. I will collect the book for an assignment grade. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but it s actually not. Now, of course, we will not discuss everything in Shakespeare s A Midsummer Night s Dream that s not possible with the time we have but that s the point of this packet. It basically tells you what our focus is. So what do you have to do? It s simple. Buy book tabs and a highlighter. Yes, you must use tabs. It s easier for both you and me. It s organized, and it s required. Then read the notes in the packet and follow the directions in highlighting, noting, and/or tabbing anything on the Tasks page. You will enjoy reading this play. It s light and funny yet powerful. NOTES for you:...shakespeare probably wrote the play between 1594 and It was published in 1600 and 1619 quarto editions and then in 1623 as part of the First Folio, the first authorized collection of Shakespeare's plays. Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence Henry Louis Mencken 2

3 Vocabulary List A Midsummer Night s Dream Highlight in YELLOW anytime any of these words appear in the play 1. austerity 2. beguile 3. cloister 4. dote 5. extenuate 6. feign 7. reveling 8. dissemble 9. flout 10. progeny 11. promontory 12. wanton 13. bequeath 14. chide 15. derision 16. entreat 17. rebuke 18. recompense 19. sojourn 20. spurn 21. discourse 22. enmity 23. paragon 24. audacious 25. gait 26. premeditated 27. reprehend 3

4 Themes Love has many faces. The different types of love and that love ultimately triumphs in the end. Despite all the obstacles they face, the central characters eventually unite with the ones they love. Love presents pitfalls. All of the lovers encounter mishaps before they achieve their heart's desire marriage to the one they exalt above all others. As Lysander tells Hermia in Act I, Scene I, "The course of true love never did run smooth" (Line 134). Appearances vs Reality. Again and again thanks in part to Puckish pranks reality wears a deceptive mask. Imagination And Transformation. All the characters imagine things to be one way. Ex: The imaginations of Hermia and Lysander lead them to believe that they will be happy running away together. Father does not always know best. Egeus orders his daughter Hermia to marry a man she does not love. Hermia protests and runs away. In the end, Egeus is proven wrong. We are such stuff as dreams are made on. Bottom, Snug, Snout, Quince and Flute all bumbling comic characters fancy themselves great actors and wits. So they put on a play. The moral: Dare to dream and your dream will come true or at least you will have fun and enjoy life. The heart has its reason, of which the mind knows nothing Blaise Pascal 4

5 ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS for you to think about. Love is blind: What does this sentence mean to you and do you agree with it? When Hermia s father opposes her choice of husbands, Duke Theseus tells her not to go against her father s wishes, saying, To you.your father should be as a god. Is Theseus right? Puck s magic spells cause several characters to fall in love with the wrong persons. Are there magic spells in real life that affect people this way? What is the role of judgment in love? Perception? What is the power of dreams? Can dreams have an effect on reality? What is the relationship between dreaming and the imagination? What is the difference between sight (eyes) and perception? What is the common perception of true love vs. love at first sight? LAYERS IN A MIDSUMMER NIGHT S DREAM A Midsummer Night's Dream is the most original and varied of Shakespeare's early comedies. In structure it is rather like a layered cake, each layer seemingly separate, but all contributing to the overall flavour. The top layer: Oberon, Titania, and Puck As supernatural beings, Oberon and Titania seem appropriately to be the top layer of the festival cake that is A Midsummer Night's Dream--but they spend most of their time wrangling in an alltoo-human way. They do seem, however, to have a profound influence over the human world, not only in the way that they intermingle with it through the magic juice, but in the way that their actions influence the very seasons of the year. Their argument, according to Titania, has frighteningly changed the world, in the way that the macrocosm of nature influences the human microcosm. Puck seems to have less power, and to be nothing more than a michief-maker with a slightly bent sense of humour*. But this charming Shakespearean Puck, with broom*, hunting horn, and ears that look like the asses' ears he gave Bottom was actually more threatening as he was imagined by others in the period. The top human layer: Theseus and Hippolyta The mortal pair at the top of the hierarchy, Theseus and Hippolyta, play a minor part in the comedy. They hunt, they celebrate the midsummer festival*, and they get married. But Theseus, like Oberon*, seems to be concerned to maintain male supremacy. He reminds Hippolyta, who is after all an Amazon, the strongest of women: 5

6 ... I wooed thee with my sword, And won thy love, doing thee injuries ( ) The middle layer: the lovers The centre of the plot is rather like a Roman comedy--with romantic trimmings. There are two young lovers, hindered in their love by the crusty old man, the senex*, and they plot to escape his tyranny. But the second plot, the misdirected love of Demetrius and Helena, and the whole invention of a love-juice, is wholly new, and much more in the tradition of romantic comedy. Even in this one plot, Shakespeare has created different layers--roman and romantic--in the recipe for comedy. Like the lesser plot of Theseus and Hippolyta, the situation and character of the lovers draws attention to the traditional relationship between the sexes*. The Bottom layer: the "rude mechanicals" Bottom the weaver and his fellow tradesmen are called, rather patronizingly, "hempen homespuns" and "rude mechanicals*" by Puck, and "hard-handed men" (because they work with their hands; see ) by Philostrate, the master of the revels at the court of Theseus. The ancient tradition of the mystery plays was that a single guild of workmen would put on each play. Shakespeare, however, has created an acting company made up of several different trades--of which there were many in the City of London. The play-within-the-play A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth. In Pyramus and Thisbe, Shakespeare parodies earlier plays, and presumably earlier acting styles. Bottom, who would have been played by the renowned clown, Kempe, claims to be especially knowledgeable about both acting (he wants all the parts), and props--even the kind of beard to perform in. By Shakespeare's time, far more sophisticated plays were being acted before royalty--often by companies of child actors. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Francis Flute has to play the female part because he is the youngest--despite his protest: "Nay, faith, let me not play a woman. I have a beard coming" ( ). As you may have noticed, the language of the characters likewise occurs in a layer or mix: (1) the verse or poetry of the love-struck couples and (2) the homespun and often humorous prose of the bumbling tradesmen as shown in the above quote. 6

7 THE DURATION OF THE ACTION IN A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM by: P.A. Daniel The following article was originally published in Transactions of the New Shakespeare Society, , Pt. II. p DAY 1.--Act I. sc. i. Athens. In the first two speeches the proposed duration of the action seems pretty clearly set forth. By [them] I understand that four clear days are to intervene between the time of this scene and the day of the wedding. The night of this day No. 1 would, however, suppose five nights to come between. DAY 2.--Act II., Act III., and part of sc. i. Act IV., are on the morrow night in the woods, and are occupied with the adventures of the lovers; with Oberon, Titania, and Puck; the Clowns. Daybreak being at hand, the fairies trip after the night's shade and leave the lovers and Bottom asleep. DAY 3.--Act IV. sc. i. continued. Morning. May-day. Theseus, Hippolyta, etc., enter and awake the lovers with their hunting-horns. In Act I. it will be remembered that four days were to elapse before Theseus's nuptials and Hermia's resolve; but here we see the plot is altered, for we are now only in the second day from the opening scene, and only one clear day has intervened between day No. 1 and this, the wedding day. Act IV. sc. ii.--athens. Later in the day. Act V.--In the Palace. Evening. According to the opening speeches of Theseus and Hippolyta in Act I., we should have expected the dramatic action to have comprised five days, exclusive of that Act; as it is, we have only three days inclusive of it. Day 1.--Act I. Day 2.--Acts II., III., and part of sc. i. Act IV. Day 3.--Part of sc. i. Act IV., sc. ii. Act IV., and Act V. 7

8 Not With the Eye, But With the Mind The key passage in the play is Theseus's speech on "the lunatic, the lover, and the poet" (V.i.5-22). Mentally ill people hallucinate, lovers see ugly people as beautiful, and poets create an imaginary world to give life to ideas ("giving to airy nothing a local habitation and a name"). Fear can make even a normal person in dim light can mistake a bush for a bear. As you read the play, focus on the theme of how emotions, however irrational, color perception. Shakespeare is writing about how fantasy and imagination influence how we see the world, and how we see and behave toward each other. Egeus accuses Lysander of being insincere, and using evil magic to win Hermia's love (I.i.27-32). Actually, it's Egeus who's fantasizing. Hermia says, "I wish my father looked but with my eyes", to which Theseus replies "Rather your eyes must with his judgment look" (I.i.56-57). No two people see the world in the same way. Helena knows Demetrius is a jerk, says he has bad taste in women, etc., etc. But Helena loves him anyway (I.i ). She reflects on love's blindness and sudden changeability ( ). Demetrius, who remains under the influence of the love juice, remarks after talking with Theseus in the woods that he doesn't know what he dreamed, and what really happened. Theseus says that even the best theatrical productions are "shadows", and that imagination can "amend" (mend, repair) a bad play so it seems good. Notice that Theseus is himself a character in a play. At the end, Puck invites the audience to believe that, if they didn't like the play, they just dreamed it. 8

9 TASKS 1. Keep track of the four plots ((1)the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta; (2) the mixed-up love affairs of Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius, and Helena; (3) the preparation and performance of the play by the Athenian tradesmen; (4) and the quarrel between Oberon and Titania) as they emerge in the play. Note where the plots meet and overlap. Use YELLOW tabs here and distinguish them by numbering them 1, 2, 3, Make note and highlight in GREEN of each time the word dream is used in the play and how it is used. For example, Hippolyta in her first speech says, Four nights will quickly dream away the time, (I, i) in reference to time passing until her wedding with Theseus. Lysander says, short as any dream, (I, i) in explaining to Hermia how quickly their hopes for a life with each other are dashed. 3. Make note and highlight in ORANGE of each time the word moon is used in the play and how it is used. For examples, Theseus mentions moon in I, i, in reference to the stages of the moon. He says the old moon lingers and is impatient for the new moon to come so he can get married. Hippolyta says the new moon will soon behold their marriage ceremony (I, i). Here is an example of what your book should look like when you mark it. 4. Review the themes in this play. As you read, find examples (quotes) to support the following themes and highlight in BLUE. Also number the themes as well as highlighting them. (1) Appearance versus Reality, (2) Love has many faces, (3) Love presents pitfalls 5. Mark any shift in time or place in the play in PINK. Note what effect it has on the plot development, tone, etc. 9

10 **Not every page will be marked. Please do not go overboard. These are five simple things and let s keep it simple and just focus on these things. SOURCES: