A Midsummer Night's Dream By William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy written by William Shakespeare in 1595. The play begins with Theseus, Duke of Athens, and his fiancée discussing their marriage that is set to take place in four days. Theseus is impatient and tells Philostrate to entertain the people until their marriage. Later, Egeus brings his daughter, Hermia, to Theseus, demanding that she punished. He is upset because he has arranged for to marry Demetrius, but she refuses because her and Lysander are already in love. Theseus advises Hermia to choose Demetrius but he gives her until his wedding in four days to make up her mind. Hermia and Lysander decide that they want to run away together to Lysander's aunt's house where they can legally be married. Hermia promises to meet him the next day saying, "I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow/ By his best arrow with the golden head... In that same place thou hast appointed me/ To-morrow truly I will meet thee" (I.i). Helena, who is in love with Demetrius, enters the room. Hermia confides in her, assuming that she will be grateful that she is leaving Demetrius. Helena sees this as opportunity to win Demetrius back by telling him of their plan and following them into the woods the next day. Helena is clearly insecure and is probably not thinking clearly. She is sabotaging her friend for the off-chance that Demetrius will take her back. It displays how messy young love can be, especially when parents are involved. Do you think that Demetrius will want Helena after she tells him of Hremia’s plan or will it make him desire Hermia even more? Soon after, Philostrate begins planning a play to put on before the big wedding. Bottom, a troublesome man, is assigned the lead. This play will be put on for noble people so it has to be good.
The second act of A Midsummer Night’s Dream begins with the fairy king and queen, Oberon and Titania. There is a lot of turmoil in the marriage and they are currently arguing over a boy that Oberon wants to make a knight and Titania wants to keep. Oberon is angry and wants to get back at Titania. He gets help from another fairy, Puck. He tells Puck to retrieve a flower that has magical powers. When the flower’s juice is squeezed into the eyes of someone sleeping, they will fall in love with the first creature that they see when they wake up. Oberon wants Puck to squeeze this juice into Titania’s eyes in hopes that she will fall in love with some ridiculous creature. While in the woods, Oberon sees Helena pathetically chasing after the uninterested, Demetrius. Oberon feels bad and tells Puck to also use the flower on “Athenian man in the woods” Demetrius, so that he will fall in love with Helena. However, Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius because they are both wearing Athenian clothing. Helena wakes Lysander up and under the spell, he says, “And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake. / Transparent Helena! Nature shrews art / That through thy bosom makes me see they heart” (II.ii). Helena thinks that Lysander is making fun of her and storms off. Lysander follows her and Helena wakes up alone. Oberon just wanted to make life better for the humans, but he went against nature and this backfired. Both of the young couples have essentially lost all control of their own relationships due to the magic of the flower. The chaos that is only now truly beginning in the play, mocks young love in a way and how messy it often is. Do you think that Puck will try to fix his mistake or will he just leave it be?
ReplyDeleteAct III begins with the group of actors practicing for their play in the woods. When Bottom steps out of sight, Puck turns Bottom’s head into that of an ass. Bottom, unaware of his new circumstances, walks back to the rest of the group. They all run off in fear and Bottom does not understand. Titania is sleeping nearby and when she wakes up, Bottom is the first creature that she sees. Under the flower’s magic, she falls in love with Bottom and his head that looks like an ass. Titania approaches Bottom and offers him anything that he would like. Bottom is still oblivious of what is happening but he still goes with it. Oberon is very amused by this and feels that he has one-upped Titania. Hermia and Demetrius come along as she is accusing him of murdering Lysander because she cannot find him. Oberon and Puck see them and Oberon realizes Puck’s mistake. He tells puck that he has put the flower’s juice in the wrong man’s eyes and puck knows that he must fix it. He puts the juice is Demetrius’s eyes as well so that both Demetrius and Lysander are now in love with Helena. She grows even more upset at them because she now believes that they are both making fun of her. She says to them, “O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent… / if you were civil and knew courtesy, / you would not do me thus much injury (III.ii). Hermia is also upset now because she has done from having the love of two men to none. Demetrius and Lysander decide to fight for Helena and Oberon does not approve. He gives Puck until morning to fix his mistake. Puck leads the two men away from each other into the night until they are both lost. Everyone falls asleep and Puck squeezes more magic into Lysander’s eyes that will undo the original spell. Why do you think that Oberon is so invested in the humans and trying to make their lives better? This act is full of confusion and chaos for everyone. While Oberon and Puck know everything that is going on, the other parties, including the fairies, the young Athenians, and the actors are all unaware of each other.
DeleteFor this months MOR we chose A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare. It is a comedy about four Athenians: Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena. The play starts off with Theseus, the duke of Athens, captures Hippolyta to be his bride, and is quickly called upon to resolve a dispute between Egeus and his daughter Hermia. Hermia is forced to choose death, life in a nunnery, or marriage to Demetrius. But, she chooses none of those and decides to run away with Lysander, the man she loves. Her friend Helena follows them (along with Demetrius) and, thanks to a mistake with some love juice from the fairy Puck, the relationships between the four start to get a little complicated. I don’t think Demetrius would want Helena after he finds out what she is actually trying to do to Hermia and Lysander. Snooping around in others people’s business is not attractive. Helena is obviously envious of her friend and is madly in love with Demetrius, “I am your spaniel, and, Demetrius, The more you beat me, I will fawn on you. Use me but as your spaniel—spurn me, strike me, Neglect me, lose me. Only give me leave, Unworthy as I am, to follow you” (II.i.). Helena sounds desperate in her language, even willing enough to sacrifice her own well-being. Later, a group of common laborers meet together to rehearse a play they hope to perform at Theseus and Hippolyta’s wedding, with Nick Bottom as their leader.
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DeleteIn Act 2 there is one key change in the synopsis: the tables have been turned and it is Titania who gets to wreak mischief with love-in-idleness rather than Oberon. I noticed that in some ways it takes the woman out of the role of victim, allowing her to make fun at her husband’s expense. Also, Hippolyta teaching Theseus a bit of a lesson, to help the lovers and to receive slightly better treatment herself. I thought these gender switches were a refreshing change. Demetrius and Helena get into a fight and Helena declares her love for him, but only Oberon knows that by the end of the night it will be Demetrius chasing Helena. Oberon creeps up on Titania while she sleeps and squeezes the flower’s juice onto her eyelids, chanting a spell, so that she will fall in love with the first creature she sees when she wakes. Helena expresses shock and shame after Lysander suddenly proclaims his love to her, “Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born? When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?Is ’t not enough, is ’t not enough, young man, That I did never, no, nor never can, Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius’ eye, But you must flout my insufficiency?” (II.ii.). At no point yet has Helena desired Lysander’s affection, and she sees this turn of events as further mockery of her “insufficiency” to catch Demetrius’ eye. Lysander’s sudden romantic pursuit thus has a powerful, negative effect on Helena.
ReplyDeleteOops i forgot to respond to the question, i dont think Puck will try to fix his mistake because he doesnt really have anymore affect on the characters besides putting the love potion in their eyes. He definitely wont try to fix it...and possibly might even make things worse.
ReplyDeleteActs IV and V wrap up the play. Puck undoes the spells that he put on Titania and Bottom. The Athenian couples and bottom wake up in a daze. They tell people that the last day felt like a dream and that they cannot remember much. They are able to establish that Hermia and Lysander are in love as well as Helena and Demetrius. Theseus, Hippolyta, and the two young Athenian couples all get a married and they want to see a play afterwards. The actors feel that they cannot do their play without Bottom but he shows up right at that moment and they go through with it. The play was terribly performed but everyone loved it and found it to be very amusing. The audience was educated and knew that the play was being portrayed very messily; they simply did not care. Everyone goes to bed and the fairies bless all of the new couples. Titania’s blessing says, “ now until the break of day through this house each fairy stray. To the best bride bed will we, which by us shall blessed be, and the issue there create even shall be fortunate. So shall all the couples three ever true in loving be, and the blots of nature’s hand shall not in their issue stand” (V.i.). Puck ends this play by telling everyone to think of it as a dream if they find it offensive. Most of the action in the play happened in the first three acts so these last two were mainly served to tie up loose ends and conclude the plotline. What about this play do you think could be offensive enough for Shakespeare to include a disclaimer at the end?
DeleteIn Act 3 Bottom and the laborers continue to practice and rehearse for their play they will perform at Theseus and Hippolyta’s wedding. Here is when I think the reader finally sees the “comedy” part coming out of the novel…when Puck turns Bottom’s head into a donkey head. Bottom reenters the scene the other men become terrified and run away. Puck has. Fun with this and chases after them. Then the sleeping Titania wakes up (remember she has love potion on her eyes) she sees Bottom and she falls deeply and instantly in love with the ass-headed weaver. Bottom says, “Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that, and yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep
Deletelittle company together nowadays” (III.i.). Even without knowing that he has the head of a donkey, Bottom has enough self-awareness to recognize how odd the situation is. To answer your question Kelsey, I think Oberon is responsible for everyone’s happiness at the end of the day because he is the King of the woods and it seems like the real life characters and the fairies come in contact and conversation with one another alot. Its the mixing and matching of 2 realms that makes this story interesting, one being realistic and one mythical with fairies and “magic potions”.
Wrapping up the novel, the play that Bottom and the laborers put on was one of the most hideous plays ever to be put on but the audience seemed to love it. Puck's final words (also the final words of the play) lead us to infer two main points: one we can infer Puck is trying to apologize for any potential offenses in the play, and second we can assume that Puck is advancing the theme of dreams, leading us to question exactly where the boundary between reality and mythical life lies. I think the reason Shakespeare wrote this was to show what silly and strange things love can make you do, and that love is not so smooth lol. I agree I also think that most of the action happened within the first three-ish acts of the play. In the end I thought it was a really interesting play but it was probably one of the most confusing stories I’ve had to read, especially at the beginning when there was some sort of love “square” if you will, around the 4 friends Demetrius, Lysander, Helena, and Hermia. That was confusing keeping up with all the names, and who was in love with who, and who had magic potion on their eyes. I think Shakespeare did a great job of combining the real world with mythical features like the fairies, and he showed how confusing young love can be and how foolish people can be. Overall I give this 7/10, probably wouldn’t read it again haha but it was good to challenge myself as I would never read this sort of style on my own time!
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