Renaissance lesson7: A Midsummer Night's dream

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 5

What do you know about
William Shakespeare?

Shakespeare's Comedies (p. 30)

• comic reversal (omkering): the characters are placed in circumstances where they have to reverse social roles. 
• all characters have (minor) faults
• Prominent themes: love, sex, relationships between man and wife
• they usually end in a wedding
• Best known comedy: A Midsummer Night's Dream. 

Magical creatures

• Trolls, Witches, Fairies - 16th-century lore (overlevering)

• They can be the object of mischief (ellende) or they can sometimes be helpful

• At the beginning of the play, Titania and Oberon are fighting over a changeling boy. This might remind you of stories about fairies kidnapping babies

• Fairy folk and woodland creatures exist in many stories around the world.  

Plot summary

The end of the story

• This play is full of couples - and some of them are not very happy.
• However, in the end, with a bit of help from the fairies, everything is sorted out.

• If you are thinking of pretty creatures with wings and magic wands, think again. Shakespeare's fairies argue and fight as much, if not more than human beings - and they are not above playing some nasty tricks. 
• But as Puck says when he apologizes to the audience at the end, it is probably best not to take all this too seriously. Perhaps it was all a dream...
  

Puck changes the actor Bottom's head in that of a:

1. dog
2. cat
3. horse
4. donkey

How does the play end?

1. Everybody loves the right person
2. Everybody loves the wrong person
3. Oberon falls in love with Helena
4. Oberon falls in love with Hermia

A Midsummer Night's Dream is

1. a sonnet
2. a comedy
3. a historical play
4. a tragedy

Alquin questions page 32

Question 1 

You don't have to answer this one because the answer is right here!

Why are the violets described as 'nodding'? 

answer: the nodding violets create a picture of them being disturbed by a gentle summer breeze and thus helps to make the spot sound idyllic.

Question 2: In this short passage Shakespeare appeals to various senses. Which?

• Sight: you will see all the beautiful things described. Smell and possibly taste: you can smell the wild thyme, and you may wish to taste some; the other wild flowers all have strong and attractive scents.
  
• Touch: there is a gentle summer breeze that you will feel; the bank will be like a soft warm bed, and you are likely to feel snug under the covering of plants.
  
• Hearing: under the canopy, it is likely to be sheltered and quiet, but you will presumably hear the breeze

3. If you could choose to play a part in this play, which one would it be, and why?

4. Name the three different storylines in the play.

1. The Athenians, the craftsmen, the fairies
2. The musicians, the gods, the lovers
3. The people of Crete, the craftsmen, the magicians
4. The Athenians, the gods, the fairies

Question 4 explained

The three worlds that meet in the wood are: 

• The world of the Athenian aristocracy, involving Theseus, king of Athens, and his courtiers
• The world of the fairies, represented by Oberon, Titania, Puck and the others
• The world of the ordinary working people, in the form of Bottom (the weaver) and his friends rehearsing their play.

5. What is the significance of the setting in terms of facilitating the events portrayed? 

• The play is set outside the city in a large wood. 
• As such, it is outside the rules and laws of ordered society, in a wild environment where nature (and its magic) prevails, rather than mankind.

6. What is the basis of the three marriages that take place at the end?

1. Lust
2. True love
3. Money
4. Power

The end, thank you for your answers!