TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION (ACT 1)

Some reading is required. You may wish to print a copy for yourself.

*Disclaimer*
These are only suggested answers for questions under the "Topics for Discussion" after each separate Act in your novels. Some of the questions may have been addressed in passing, in class.

Act One (p56-57)

1. How does Act 1 serve as an effective opening to the play? Comment especially on the way Shakepspeare establishes main characters, important relationships and key elements of plot.

The 1st Act introduces all the main groups of characters.
- The 'older generation' at Theseus' court (Theseus, Hippolyta & Egeus)
- The 'Athenian youths /lovers' (Hermia, Lysander, Helena, Demetrius)
- The 'rude mechanicals / craftsmen' (Bottom, Quince, Snout, Snug, Starveling, Flute)

Shakespeare introduces all the main relationships and causes of conflict between characters. The elements of romance (between the lovers) and comedy (by the craftsmen) are established. Shakespeare has created a sense of anticipation / interest / curiosity- the audience now wants to know if Lysander and Hermia's plans to elope will come to fruition or if it will be thwarted by another party (Egeus? Theseus?)

The craftsmen on the other hand both complement the marriage preparations of Theseus to Hippolyta and also provide some much needed comic relief- recall the tensions of the first scene where Lysander and Hermia are confronted by Egeus, Theseus and Demetrius.


3. In what respects are the four young lovers in Act 1 different from their elders? Discuss in particular the different views of love and marriage that are expressed.

The youths come across as more impetuous / impulsive / reactionary / emotional / less mature than their elders.
Hermia, for one, believes that Egeus is not being reasonable and does not understand her.
There is also the seemingly romantic side of young love apparent in the relationship between Lysander and Hermia.
The audience is privy to (even if Demetrius is seemingly unaware of!) Helena’s misery at being a rejected lover and the unfathomable quality of egocentric obsession where Demetrius dotes /hankers after Hermia even as Helena is willing to be Demetrius’ ‘spaniel’.
In a marked contrast, the relationship that Theseus shares with Hippolyta seems to be more balanced and stable-their past animosity is over and their upcoming nuptials seem to be eagerly anticipated by both.
In contrast to the happy / calm / harmonious unity of the royal couple, change, conflict and confusion seem to typify or prevails the young lovers’ relationships for the most part of the play.
In general, the audience sees a ‘gap’ between the young (the lovers) and old (Theseus and Hippolyta). Lysander and Hermia are restless, rebellious and straining against parental rights and the governmental authority of the time.
Egeus too, demands furiously of his traditional rights (which has the support of Athenian law) and parental privileges and Theseus (at least for this Act) helps to uphold those rights.


4. What impression are we given of the craftsmen in Act 1? What is their role in the play? Do you find Bottom a lovable or irritating character?

In all respect, the craftsmen are comic characters that appear all the more comical and amusing because they take themselves and their planned performance so very seriously. Having said that however, we must admit that the craftsmen are all simple / simple-minded(?) / innocent / naïve and honest working men with good intentions (of entertaining the Duke on his nuptial day) and are all possessed of good hearts. They are basically good people.
Their general role in the play is to provide humor. More specifically, their play “The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe” serves as a comic parallel of the predicament of Hermia and Lysander (forbidden lovers) and their antics in the woods. Eventually, the craftsmen’s play serves as a fitting performance at Theseus’ wedding where they provide much comic-relief and entertainment for the courtiers and the audience alike.
Bottoms especially, provides the audience with ironic insights into the nature of (blind) infatuation and the world of the lovers when he is ‘translated’ into an ass and wooed most lovingly by no less than Titania, the Queen of Fairies.
Bottom is a lovable character because, for all his self-centered / over-confident banter, he is basically a well-meaning / good-intentioned / good-natured and innocuous character. We enjoy his exuberance and enthusiasm because for the most part, he is too laughable and ludicrous for us to find him offensive.

TERM 2 (18 APRIL 08) WEEKEND HOMEWORK

Hi everyone

My apologies for not posting more regularly the past weeks- there are alot of things I wanted to upload here now, look out for updates! :)

In any case, like Mr. Dava's To Kill A Mockingbird tests, the school also requires that 2 components of your CA marks come from A Midsummer Night's Dream and since it slipped my mind to brief you when I saw you this week (3MD/3RP) and since I didn't have time to brief you properly (3BN/3GR), I've had to resort to assigning work for the weekend *apologetic*

Instructions for weekend homework

1. Term 2 Test 1 & Group Work (Quiz) are to be completed (neatly) on fulscap paper. Each handout carries questions worth 25 marks in total. These two assignments will make up the 50 marks required for MSND CA component.

Deadline: Monday 21st April 2008 5pm.

Non-submission = ZERO marks for CA

2. Term 2 Test 2 is a PRACTICE paper- this is the format you can expect to get for MYE but for MYE there will be FEWER questions that carry the same amount of marks (25 marks). Answers for this practice paper will be uploaded after Monday.

Please continue to revise for the MYE on your own and post your questions, if any, using the comments function. I will answer them as soon as I can.

LSN 10: PREPARATION FOR TERM 2

In Act 2 Scene 2, we discussed briefly how Oberon uses the juice of the 'love-in-idleness' flower against Titania who is asleep in her bower. We talked about whether Oberon was intentionally malicious or playful when he administers the juice on Titania's eyelids. Many took into consideration the presence of the little changeling boy who upset the balance between the two fairies (Oberon and Titania). Some of you felt that Titania was rather obssessed with teh Indian boy while some thought that Oberon was not reasonable in his demand for the boy whose biologcal mother was a votress of Titania's order.

Task 1
Please answer the questions below on a piece of fulscap paper:
1. How does Act 2 serve as a contrast to Act 1?
and
2. How does Act 2 serve a a complement to Act 1?

3. What has Shakespeare achieved by the end of Act 2?


Task2
Focus: Act 3 Scene 1 & 2
Please answer all the key questions below on a piece of fulscap paper:


1) Act 3 Scene 1 (A-S)
and
2) Act 3 Scene 2 (A-Z)


before our first Literature session for A Midsummer Night's Dream in Term 2.



Have a good week long holiday! See you guys soon! :)

LSN 8: 22 FEBRUARY 2008

Weekend Assignment

Individual
1. Please complete handout given to you in class
4 BN/GR- Handout on Oberon and Titania's fight scene
4 MD/RP- Handout on Egeus's complaints agiainst Hermia

Date due: Thursday 28 Feb 2008



Group
1. Please prepare a Powerpoint presentation for the whole of ACT 3
In your presentation, please include the following:
- Summary of events
- Setting
- Characterization
- Themes

Date due: Thursday 28 Feb 2008

Note:
Please work within the same group that you worked with previously for TKAMB and AMSND Powerpoint presentations.

AND

2. Please prepare a Powerpoint presentation for the whole of ACT 4
In your presentation, please include the following:
- Summary of events
- Setting
- Characterization
- Themes

Date due: Final Lit lesson for Term 1
3MD/RP: 6 March 2008
3 BN/GR: 7 March 2008




Other matters

1. Just a heads' up- there will be a classroom visitation of 3MD/RP's lesson by HODs from 2 other schools on Thurs 28 February 2008.
We will proceed as per normal with checking of today's test and re-cap/revision of what has been covered. I hope to get a quiz done,if time permits :)
If we cannot get the MRL, we might use the Literature Room, if it is available.


Please check back regularly to this blog for updates. Have a restful weekend, everyone! :)

NOTES & ANALYSIS (ACT 2, SCENE 1)

Act Two, Scene One
Robin Goodfellow, also called Puck, meets with a fairy who serves Queen Titania. She tells him that Titania is coming to the woods outside of Athens that night. Puck informs the fairy that it would be better if Titania and his master, Oberon, did not meet since they only quarrel when they do so.

Seconds later both Oberon and Titania arrive onstage, both accompanied by their respective fairy followers. Immediately they begin an argument, with both of them accusing each other of infidelity and jealousy. Titania has stolen a young boy whom she keeps with her and spends her time caring for. Oberon, jealous of the attention the boy is receiving, demands that Titania give the boy to him, a request she refuses.

After Titania departs, Oberon vows to get revenge on her for causing him embarrassment. He sends his puck to fetch some pansies, the juice of which is supposed to make a person love the first thing he or she sees upon waking up. Oberon's plan is to put the juice onto Titania's eyes while she sleeps, so that she will fall in love with the first animal she sees after waking up. Puck leaves him and Oberon hides himself.

Demetrius and Helena arrive in the woods right next to where Oberon is hidden. Demetrius tells Helena to go away, and that he does not love her even though she has told him about Hermia and Lysander trying to run away. She threatens to chase him down if he should try to leave her in the woods.

Oberon, having overheard the entire conversation, decides to make Demetrius fall in love with Helena. He tells Robin Goodfellow to take some of the juice and go anoint the eyes of the Athenian man in the woods, but doing so only when it is certain that the woman by his side will be the first person he sees. The puck agrees, and goes off to carry out his errand.

Act Two, Scene Two
Titania calls for a quick dance in the woods with her fairies, after which they sing her to sleep. Oberon takes the opportunity to sneak up and drop the pansy juice onto her closed eyelids. Soon thereafter Lysander and Hermia, tired of walking and having lost their way, decide to go to sleep as well. They lie down, but Hermia demands that Lysander sleep a short distance away in order to keep up her sense of modesty since she is not married to him yet.

Then Puck enters, having vainly searched the woods for an Athenian. He spies Lysander lying apart from Hermia and deduces that this must be the hard-hearted Athenian which Oberon spoke about. Robin Goodfellow quickly drops some of the juice onto Lysander's eyes.

Demetrius, followed closely by Helena, runs into the clearing where Lysander is lying asleep. She begs him to stop running away from her, but he refuses and leaves her there alone. Helena finally sees Lysander on the ground and shakes him awake, unwittingly becoming the first woman he sees when he opens his eyes. Lysander immediately falls in love with Helena, and tells her that he deeply loves her. She thinks it is a cruel joke and tells him to stop abusing her.

Helena leaves, and Lysander decides to forget about Hermia and follow Helena instead. Hermia wakes up because she is scared about a dream she has had in which a serpent eats her heart. She calls for Lysander, but he is no longer near her. She then leaves her bed to go search for him.

Analysis
The aspect of the woods as a place for the characters to reach adulthood is made even more explicit in this scene. In the dialogue between Helena and Demetrius, the woods are a place to be feared, and also are a place to lose virginity.

As Demetrius warns, "You do impeach your modesty too much, / To leave the city and commit yourself / Into the hands of one that loves you not; / To trust the opportunity of night / And the ill counsel of a desert place, / With the rich worth of your virginity" (2.1.214-219). Thus the forest can be allegorically read as a sort of trial for the characters, a phase they must pass through in order to reach maturity.

Hermia's serpent serves as a sign of the monsters which are in the woods. This plays into the fact that the woods are not only a place which the characters must escape from, but are also a place of imagination. Hermia's fear of her dream, in which the monster and the danger are only imagined, is meant to show the audience that the danger in a play is only imagined by the audience; neither the play nor Hermia's dream are real.