Shakespeare

= = [|William Shakespeare]

=

= [|His Life]* [|Elizabethan England]* [|The Shakespearean Stage] * [|Tragedy and Comedy] * [|Plays] * [|Sonnets] - read and explained (warning some content is of a sexual nature) by [|some guy from New York] * [|Romeo And Juliet] -[| study guide] [|A Midsummers Night's Dream with Moderrn translation]

=**Shakespeare and language**=
 * Prose** - //Shakespeare would use prose for ordinary every day speech, and for characters of a lower social status (to show them as crude)//
 * 1) matter of fact, commonplace, or dull expression
 * 2) ordinary writing as distinguished from verse
 * Verse -** //Shakespeare would use verse for lovers, kings, and nobles to show their sophistication and knowledge. He would use specific forms such as sonnets to show ideas of love and beauty//
 * 1) Poetic writing, rhymes, etc

When true lovers meet -

= **A Midsummer Night's Dream** =



In A Midsummer Night's dream there are four main groups of characters, identifying these groups makes it much easier to follow the events in what can be a confusing play.
 * Characters **

**The Mechanicals**
The first group are referred to as the Mechanicals. They are a group of local Athenians who have decided to put on a play for the Duke's Wedding. They are ordinary labourers and workers from the town, and are mostly used for [|comic relief].

**Peter Quince** - A carpenter and the nominal leader of the craftsmen’s attempt to put on a play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. **Francis Flute** - The bellows-mender chosen to play Thisbe in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. **Robin Starveling** - The tailor chosen to play Thisbe’s mother in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. **Tom Snout** - The tinker chosen to play Pyramus’s father in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. He ends up playing the part of Wall, dividing the two lovers. **Snug** - The joiner chosen to play the lion in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. Snug worries that his roaring will frighten the ladies in the audience.
 * Nick Bottom** - The overconfident weaver chosen to play Pyramus in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage celebration.

**The lovers**
The four main characters in the play are the Lovers. These four youths are caught in a love triangle whereby Lysander and Hermia are in love, but Hermia is being forced to marry Demetrius, forcing them elope. Hoping to gain some affection, Helena (who is in love with Demetrius) tells him of the plan, and the four are led to into a night of magic in the woods.

**Demetrius** - A young man of Athens, initially in love with Hermia and ultimately in love with Helena. Demetrius’s obstinate pursuit of Hermia forces her to flee to the woods, where he follows. **Hermia** - Egeus’s daughter, a young woman of Athens. Hermia is in love with Lysander and is a childhood friend of Helena.She is self-conscious about her short stature, **Helena** - A young woman of Athens, in love with Demetrius. Demetrius and Helena were once betrothed, but when Demetrius met Helena’s friend Hermia, he fell in love with her and abandoned Helena. She lacks confidence in her looks..
 * Lysander** - A young man of Athens, in love with Hermia. He cannot marry her openly because Egeus, her father, wishes her to wed Demetrius.

**The Fairies**
The fairies live in the wood and minister to the animals and flowers. They also interfere in the realm of men. The king and queen of the fairies are at odds over the ownership of an Indian boy.

**Oberon** - The king of the fairies, Oberon is initially at odds with his wife, Titania, because she refuses to relinquish control of a young Indian prince whom he wants for a knight. Oberon’s desire for revenge on Titania leads him to send Puck to obtain the love-potion flower that creates so much of the play’s confusion and farce. **Titania** - The beautiful queen of the fairies, Titania resists the attempts of her husband, Oberon, to make a knight of the young Indian prince that she has been given. Titania has a brief, potion-induced love for Nick Bottom, whose head Puck has transformed into that of an ass.
 * Puck** - Also known as Robin Goodfellow, Puck is Oberon’s jester, a mischievous fairy who delights in playing pranks on mortals. His enchanting, mischievous spirit pervades the atmosphere, and his antics are responsible for many of the complications that propel the other main plots: he mistakes the young Athenians, applying the love potion to Lysander instead of Demetrius, thereby causing chaos within the group of young lovers; he also transforms Bottom’s head into that of an ass.
 * Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mote, and Mustardseed** - The fairies ordered by Titania to attend to Bottom after she falls in love with him.

**The Duke and his court**
The Duke is marrying the unwilling Hippolyta, an Amazon queen. He spends much of his time trying to impress her. Both Theseus and Hippolyta have had affairs with the king and queen of the fairies (respectively). They are also the ones who must pass judgement over the lover's situation.

**Theseus** - The heroic duke of Athens, engaged to Hippolyta. Theseus represents power and order throughout the play. He appears only at the beginning and end of the story, removed from the dreamlike events of the forest. **Hippolyta** - The legendary queen of the Amazons, engaged to Theseus.
 * Egeus** - Hermia’s father, who brings a complaint against his daughter to Theseus: Egeus has given Demetrius permission to marry Hermia, but Hermia, in love with Lysander, refuses to marry Demetrius.
 * Philostrate** - Theseus’s Master of the Revels, responsible for organizing the entertainment for the duke’s marriage celebration.

=**A Helpful Summary of Scenes and Events**=

Opens at the palace of Theseus, the Duke of Athens. Theseus is anxiously awaiting his marriage to Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons, which is to be held in four days on the first night of the new moon. A commoner named Egeus arrives with his daughter, Hermia, and her two young suitors, Demetrius and Lysander. The furious Egeus lodges a complaint against Hermia because she is in love with Lysander and refuses to marry her father's choice, Demetrius. Although Theseus finds Lysander to be an upstanding young man, he advises Hermia to be a respectful child and marry Demetrius as her father commands. When she refuses, Theseus tells her to "take time to pause" and think over her decision more carefully. He gives her until the day of his own wedding to make her final choice. Lysander and Hermia decide to elope, agreeing to meet the following night in the woods near Athens. Meanwhile Helena appears, obsessed with thoughts of her beloved Demetrius. She begs Hermia to tell her with what charms she won Demetrius' heart. Hermia comforts Helena by revealing her plan to marry Lysander and leave Demetrius and Athens behind. Lysander and Hermia run off, and Helena, in a desperate attempt to regain Demetrius' attention, decides to expose Hermia's plan to Demetrius so that she can go with him to find the fleeing lovers.
 * Act 1, Scene 1:** //Athens. The palace of THESEUS.//

A carpenter named Quince and his fellow workmen, Snug the joiner, Bottom the weaver, Flute the bellows-mender, Snout the tinker, and Starveling the tailor gather in Quince's house. The group has heard that Theseus is to be wed and they want to produce a play in his honor. Quince, the director, announces that the play will be "The most lamentable comedy, and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby", and he announces who will play which part. It is decided thatBottom should play Pyramus, Flute play Thisby, Snug the lion, Starveling Thisby's mother, and Snout Thisby's father. Quince tells the men they must all know their lines by the next night when they will rehearse in secret in the woods near Athens.
 * Act 1, Scene 2:** //Athens. QUINCE'S house.//

The woods outside Athens are filled with fairies, presided over by their king and queen, Oberon and Titania. The two are in a feud over a changeling, whom Titania has made her personal attendant. Jealous Oberon desires to take the boy from Titania and make him "Knight of his train", but Titania refuses to let Oberon make the changeling his page. He orders Puck to pick a flower called love-in-idleness and, while Titania is sleeping, Oberon will squeeze drops of its juice onto her eyelids. The juice will cause Titania to fall in love with the first thing she sees when she opens her eyes. Puck rushes off to find the flower. While Oberon awaits Puck's return, he sees Demetrius, followed by Helena, begging to be taken back. Demetrius is cruel, telling Helena that he becomes sick when he looks at her, but nothing he can say or do will quell her consuming desire. Oberon is unhappy that Demetrius does not return Helena's love and decides Demetrius should have a dose of the magical juice also. When Puck returns, Oberon explains the change in plans.
 * Act 2, Scene 1**: //A wood near Athens.//

In another part of the forest Titania's fairies sing a lullaby to protect their queen from potentially dangerous woodland creatures. They leave her sleeping on the soft leaves, and Oberon quietly enters to put the magic drops on Titania's eyelids. The two lovers, Hermia and Lysander, weary and lost in the dense wood, decide to rest until morning. But, before they lie down, Hermia instructs Lysander to keep his distance because for propriety. As they sleep Puck arrives and naturally assumes that, since they are Athenian and sleeping apart from one another, they must be Demetrius and Helena. Thus Puck mistakenly sprinkles the juice onto Lysander's eyelids. Demetrius comes running through the forest pursued by Helena who cannot keep up the chase. Demetrius leaves Helena behind and when Lysander awakes, Helena is the first person he sees. The juice works -- Lysander falls madly in love with Helena. She is offended by his advances and runs away but Lysander follows her, leaving the sleeping Hermia alone. When Hermia wakes, terrified by a nightmare, she sees Lysander is gone, and sets off to find him.
 * Act 2, Scene 2**: //Another part of the wood//.

Bottom and his associates arrive in the wood to begin rehearsing the play. Quince is ready to start at once but Bottom insists that the script needs changes. Puck happens upon the rehersal and decides to play a trick on the tradesmen. He gives Bottom the head of an ass, which everyone can see but Bottom. The men are horrified by Bottom's transformation and they run off, screaming. Bottom thinks that his friends are trying to frighten him and, to prove his courage, he sings a song. Bottom's booming voice awakens Titania, who, under the spell of the flower, falls instantly in love with him..
 * Act 3, Scene 1:** //The wood. TITANIA lying asleep.//

In another part of the forest, Puck reports to Oberon that Titania has fallen in love with an ass, and Oberon is delighted by the news. Puck also tells Oberon that he has successfully bewitched the mortal Athenian, but when Demetrius enters, arguing with Hermia, Oberon is baffled. Hermia demands to know what Demetrius has done with Lysander, and when Demetrius insists he knows nothing about what happened to Lysander, Hermia rages off into the wood. Exhausted, Demetrius goes to sleep on the forest floor. Oberon chides Puck for placing the wrong Athenian under the spell, and he commands him to find Helena, while he himself puts the magical juice on Demetrius' eyes. When Helena returns, Lysander is following behind, begging her to accept his love. Demetrius wakes and he too falls in love with Helena. Helena believes both men are mocking her and outraged she screams. Hermia enters, searching for Lysander, and is astounded by Lysander's behaviour toward Helena. Helena assumes Hermia must be involved in the malicious mockery, and a verbal battle ensues amongst the four. Lysander and Demetrius storm away to fight a duel and Oberon sends Puck to straighten out the situation once and for all. When with Lysander, Puck pretends to be Demetrius, and when with Demetrius, Puck pretends to be Lysander, sending them running throughout the forest in order to prevent the deadly confrontation. When Lysander falls asleep, Puck applies an antidote to the magical juice to Lysander's eyelids.
 * Act 3, Scene 2**: //Another part of the wood.//

Titania, her fairies, and Bottom arrive and Titania wants to place musk-roses around Bottom's hairy head and kiss his floppy ears, but all Bottom can think about is oats and hay. When Bottom grows tired, Titania curls up in his arms and they take a nap together. Oberon and Puck enter and Oberon tells Puck that he will release Titania from the spell because she has consented to give him the changeling. Oberon orders Puck to change Bottom's head back to its original form and he awakens his queen, who is astonished by the dreams she has had. The reconciled royal fairies can now prepare to celebrate at Theseus' wedding the next day and Oberon vows that all the pairs of faithful lovers will be wed.
 * Act 4, Scene 1:** //The same. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA//

The next morning, Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and the duke's entourage are in the wood hunting. Theseus sees the four sleeping lovers and orders the huntsmen to wake them with their horns. Lysander immediately tells Theseus of his plan to elope with Hermia, and Egeus demands that Theseus execute Lysander for his treachery. But Demetrius quickly interjects that he no longer has any desire to wed Hermia, now that Helena is the sole object and pleasure of his eyes. Theseus is overjoyed and graciously insists that the two reunited couples should marry on the same day that he marries Hippolyta. They all return to Athens, except for Bottom who wakes up in the forest, puzzled by the strange dream he has had.

Quince, Flute, Snout, and Starveling meet at Quince's house. They are troubled by the disappearance of Bottom. Snug arrives with news that the duke is coming and he brings with him two other couples who are to be married the same day. Snug believes that if they could only perform the play for all three couples they would become wealthy men. Just when the men are about to give up hope, Bottom enters, ready to take center stage.
 * Act 4, Scene 2**: //Athens. QUINCE'S house//.

The hour of Theseus' wedding has come, and he discusses the planned festivities with the four lovers and his master of revels, Philostrate. Philostrate hands him a list of activities, on which is 'a tedious brief scene of young Pyramus/And his love Thisbe". And so the play is performed, and the audience finds the performances of Bottom and his colleagues very amusing. By the time the performance is over it is midnight, and the newlyweds, performers, and guests retire for the evening. When all is quiet, Puck and the fairies come out of the shadows to bless the marriages.
 * Act 5, Scene 1:** //Athens. The palace of THESEUS.//

See the film: [|A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)]
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