V5 P2 W8 Midsummer Night's Dream

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 5

Basic rules

• We do our work when we should
• We are silent during explanations and raise our hands for questions
• Our phone is in our "zakkie" on the corner of our table
• We don't eat, drink, or chew gum in class

learning goals

I know the basic plot of A Midsummer Night's Dream

What is the key characteristic of a comedy (in renaissance times!)

A Midsummer Night's Dream

• Because there are three main groups of characters, there is no single protagonist in the play; however, Puck is generally considered the most important character.
  

• The point of view differs from scene to scene
  

• Themes: The difficulties of love; magic; the nature of dreams; the relationships between fantasy and reality and between environment and experience
  

Magical creatures

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

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

• Shakespeare's fairies argue and fight as much, if not more than human beings - and they are not above playing some nasty tricks. 

• 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.

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.

• 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...
  

Story lines

In A Midsummer Night's Dream there are four story lines, each focussing on a different social group. 

Here are the four story lines:

1. the Athenian wedding 

2. the young lovers

3. the mechanicals (= de handwerkslieden)

4. the fairies.

Story lines

The next question is a drag and drop question. 

It asks you to match characters of A Midsummer Night's Dream to their correct social group.

AMSND Characters

https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeare-learning-zone/a-midsummer-nights-dream/character/whos-who

More

https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/characters/

The Athenian Wedding

The Young Lovers

The Mechanicals 

The Fairies

 Puck

Theseus 

and 

Hyppolyta

Lysander

 

Bottom

the 

Weaver 

Hermia 

Titania and Oberon 

Helena and Demetrius 

Quince and Snug

In Act 1 Scene 2 the Mechanicals with Bottom in the lead come together to stage a play for Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding. Which one?

A play within a play

https://www.rsc.org.uk/shakespeare-learning-zone/a-midsummer-nights-dream/story/scene-by-scene#act-1

1. All's Well That Ends Well
2. A Midsummer Night's Dream
3. Pyramus and Thisbe
4. Hero and Lysander