A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

Acts I & II

PROLOGUE

1. What future event is anticipated in the very first lines of A Midsummer Night’s Dream?

     A: 1.1.01 "Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour / Draws on apace."

         The wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta, which is to take place in 4 days. 

 2. Who was Hippolyta before she was wooed by Theseus? How did Theseus win her over? 

     A:1.1.16 "Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword/ And won thy love doing thee injuries."

        She was the Queen of the Amazons. He "wins" her through military conquest; she's a war prize. 

 3. Egeus has a complaint that he brings to Theseus—what is it? Does Theseus sympathize with Egeus’s case? 

    A: His daughter will not marry the man he's chosen. Theseus does sympathize. (1.1.53-55.)

 4. What will Hermia’s punishment be if she refuses to adhere to her father’s will? 

     A: Egeus wants her dead (1.1.44) Theseus offers her either death or becoming a nun, which in Elizabethan England was tantamount to physical death because chastity means the end of the family line.  

 5. For what event are the artisans preparing to perform in 1.2? What will they perform, and does this seem an appropriate story for a wedding celebration? Who are these people? What do their names mean? (For help, take a look at the footnotes at the beginning of 1.2)

    A: Theseus's wedding (1.2.5-6). "The Most Lamentable Comedy & Most Cruel Death of Pyramus & Thisbe". It is absurdly inappropriate for a wedding since it chronicles the tragic death of two lovers. However, the ignorance/incompetence of the actors causes it to be amusing for the audience. Their names correspond to their occupations.  

6. What is the history behind Titania and Oberon’s argument? What effects do we learn it has had on the world? 

    A: They are a married couple; both have been unfaithful and both want the Indian boy, though for differing reasons. Their argument causes the fairies not to dance, which has devastating effects on the natural environment of the humans/wreaks havoc on seasons, etc. (2.1.81-117).

7. Take a careful look at the descriptions of the incident involving the Changeling boy as described by Puck (begins at 2.1.18), and Titania (2.1.23). Is there a contradiction between these stories?

    A: There is a contradiction: Puck says Titania stole the boy from an Indian King, while Titania maintains she is rasing the boy out of a feeling of duty for his mortal mother who was her devotee.

8. What do we learn is "unnatural" Helena's relation to Demetrius in 2.1? 

     A: She, the woman, is the one pursuing him, an inversion of nature.

9. What is the potion that Puck uses? What power does it have, and what mistake(s) does Puck make in using it?

     A: The juice of a Pansy, a flower enchanted by one of cupid's misshot arrows. It has the power to make a person fall in love with the first thing she/he sees. Puck gives it to Lysander instead of to Demetrius.  

MAIN ACT

1. The Title

  Midsummer:  the day of the summer solstice (June 20th or 21st) or the time period around this; corresponds with St. John’s day; the longest day of the year

     - towns all over England have festivals, which were integral parts of Elizabethan culture

     • games, play, celebration

     • mixing of classes and cultures; breach of the very strict boundaries of Elizabethan society

     • government offices meet, courts are open; mixture of authorities

2. Organization of the Play

 Athenians: associated with the city                                            Supernaturals: associated with the forest

    aristocrats:  Theseus, Hippolyta                                                                                     Oberon, Titania

                        Egeus, Hermia                                                                                   Various servant fairies

                        Helena, Lysander , Demetrius

   “rude mechanicals”:  Laborers & artisans        

                                    like Bottom and Flute

Crossovers/Intermediates

The lovers who escape into the forest (Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, Helena)

Puck/Robin Goodfellow: fairy who affects the human world

Bottom: human turned into a donkey, adored by Titania

The Indian boy

Titania

3. Gender Upheavals

Gender Norms: The Boundaries

Theseus  1.1.47    "To you your father should be as a god...

                               To whom you are but as a form in wax

                               By him imprinted and within his power."

• Theseus allows Egeus the power of a god in his relation to Hermia: he is the creator and she is the product, meaning that he has complete control over her and has the power to mold/shape/change her as is his will, a power which includes destruction. 

• Absent mothers - the family name and identity comes from the father.

• Death and chastity are the same because one is literally the end of life and the other is the end of the family line.

Insubordinate female characters: The Breaches

Helena:  2.1.240 “Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex.”

• She, the woman, who is not physically built for wooing, is the one who is pursuing Demetrius, the man, which is an inversion of nature (2.1.232 “The dove pursues the griffin”) 

• unperturbed, won’t take a hint

Hermia: 1.1.53 “So is Lysander.”

• defies her father, talks back to Theseus, asserts her right to be able to love Lysander

• voices her disobedience as well as acts upon it by running away

• rebels against the law of “ancient privilege” (1.1.41) and therefore against all the tenets of her society

• By voicing her opposition she challenges her status as Egeus’s property. This is a comment on Elizabethan society because although the play is set in Athens, the customs of the characters (gendered property, strict social stratification) mirror those of Shakespeare’s England

Hippolyta: • an Amazonian queen which means that she was the highest political authority in a military society that valued women above men

• in “wooing” her Theseus asserts domination over her and reaffirms his world order. However, they are not yet married, so she still stands in gender renunciation.

Titania:  2.1.62 “I have foresworn his bed and company.”

• has control over her own sexuality

• has an intense female relationship with a human, to whom she feels a sense of duty, which is a reversal of power relations            

• displays human emotion by taking care of the Indian boy    

Indian boy’s mother: • exists in a non-fairy world separate from the male world (“on Neptune’s yellow sands”)

• mocks the male merchants: an implicit challenge to the English/male value of gendered property

• In Athens it is the fathers who are the sole creators of their children, but she is the sole creator of the Indian boy (whose father is wholly absent.)

EPILOGUE

1. It could be argued that the Indian boy is the reason that chaos has broken out in the human world. If he is such a central character to the plot of the play, then why is he absent?  Or is he more a desired entity than an integral character? If so, consider his parallels of value in the Athenian Culture.

2. The play examines the constructions of gender identity, family structure, and ownership of property. Considering that it was written in the early modern era, to what extent do you think it helped to shape the discourses of the very subjects it considers? 

3.  We find in the city Hermia coming under the jurisdiction of the Athenian law and her father, and in the forest Oberon attempting to take the Indian boy away from Titania, in order to use him to his own gains.  Why do you think the idea of possession within the confines of love comes to be a conflict in this play?

4.  We can find fault in almost all of the major love relationships in this play so far; Hippolyta is with Theseus by means of force and can secure her safety with marriage, Helena seems to be in a one sided obsession with Demetrius, and there seems to be no trust between Titania and Oberon.  Lysander and Hermia, though, love each other unconditionally and only wish to be alone together. Why is it that everyone else wants to impede upon them by way of there own greed and desires?

5.  Notice the dramatic irony that has been weaved thus far, and the widely encompassing spheres of influence.  Does any character remain in sole control of their destiny?

6.  How are the moral codes of the Athenians and the Fairies similar? How do they differ? 

7.  Hermia chooses to uphold the Athenian rite of abstainance before marriage, but she openly opposed the king.  What is the significance of this inconsistancy?  What does it say about Hermia?   

A Midsummer Night's Dream Notes Acts III and IV

PROLOGUE

1. Whom does Titania fall for under the spell of the potion? What does she say she loves about him, in particular?

• Titania awakes and immediately sets eyes on Bottom.  She is enamored with his shape, though he was transfigured to have the head of an ass (3.1.114). 

     2. Why is Helena so annoyed with Demetrius and Lysander for the attention they pay her (she calls it “injury” at 3.2.149). What has caused this turn of events?

• Helena believe Demetrius and Lysander have allied to antagonize her in pitiful jest.  Really, they have fallen in love with her because of Robin Goodfellow's intervention with the magic potion.  

     3. Look at Helena’s speech at 3.2.199-220—how does she describe her relationship with Hermia in the past? What angers her about Hermia’s behavior? What do we imagine Hermia doing at line 3.2.299?

• Helena recounts her relationship with Hermia as one of sisterhood.  She says they were two cherry's from the same stem, and as maiden's they formed a bound she thought was unbreakable.  She is furious with Hermia because she believes that not only has Hermia won the love of both men, but she is participating in their mean charade as well. (Really, Hermia is suffering from the loss of her love Lysander.  The confusion exists because the fairies involvement is unknown to all of the lovers).   At line 3.2.299, we imagine Hermia menacing her hands as if to show she can still claw Helena's eyes out, despite her own preoccupation with their height difference.

     4.What prevents Lysander and Demetrius from being able to fight?

• Robin Goodfellow's nifty fairy work diverts the two men.  First, he beckons Lysander in a circle until he tires.  When using the same ploy on the other man,  Demetrius feels mocked and vows to do battle the next day.  

     5.How does Hermia describe her condition 3.3.30-34. Do we feel sorry for her?

• Hermia falls to the ground in exhaustion. Though she is restless with emotion, her "legs can keep no pace with her desires (3.2.34)."  We do feel sorry for her, seeing how the fairies mischief caused her so much anguish.  We do, however, take solace in knowing Goodfellow is actively 'correcting' the situation. 

     6.Why is the scene at the opening of 4.1 so shocking (and funny!)? How is the humor of this scene working on the audience? 

• At the beginning of act 4, Bottom has assumed command of Titania's fairies, since she is his beloved.  He applies his grand and swinging inadequacy to the fleet of servants in a very enjoyable exchange.  Notably, Bottom commanding the fairies is an inversion of the play's caste system, something Shakespeare's audiences would be very aware of. 

     7.Why does Oberon decide to release the spell from Titania (4.1.43-67)? 

• Oberon decides he has begun to pity Titania's manic state of adoration for Bottom.  He is also pleased with her from giving him the changeling boy.  

     8.In 4.1, Egeus once again asks Theseus to intervene on his behalf. How does Theseus respond this time? What has changed since Act I?

• Theseus this time decides to grant the lovers' their wishes, and declares Helena and Demetrius; Hermia and Lysander to be wed.  Since Demetrius now loves Helena, Egeus's choice for Hermia's suitor has dissolved, and Theseus is very happy as an Athenian king to validate the two couples instead of one.  

MAIN ACT 

1. A Question of Form

2. Gender Upheavals Continued

Helena: 3.2.209 "So we grew together/Like a double cherry: seeming parted/

                            But yet an union in partition/ Two lovely berries moulded on one stem."

• The third demonstration of female homosocial bonding: 

- Hippolyta, former Queen of the Amazons, the leader of an entire community of women who formed an alternative form of government

- Titania (2.1.122)  had a strong relationship with a mortal human woman, with which she established an "us vs. them" mentality

• Language: - "And you will rend our ancient love asunder/ To join with men..." speaking of not just herself and Hermia, but of womankind as a whole

  - "ancient love" parallels Egeus's speech about "ancient privilege": both of these need to be severed in order for the heterosexual relationship to blossom  

  - 3.2.214 "like coats in heraldry" a coat of arms representing a family, meaning they had their own family identity and did not need men/had an unbroken community

• This relationship that she cultivated with Hermia is disrupted/ made obsolete by heterosexual desire

  - Their relationship is not sustainable: the world she speaks of has already been destroyed by her own love for Demetrius and Hermia's love for Lysander.

  - Heterosexuality in Shakespeare's time was regarded as a necessary condition in the world, a purely functional constraint that was perhaps not as meaningful or satisfactory as the homosocial bonds that were severed in order for it to exist

  - Homosexual was not a word in Elizabethan England. Foucault suggests that the word, in the binary understanding it occupies today, had to be invented. First used in 1900, according to the OED. 

3."Rude Mechanicals" & Class

• A hierarchy: Supernatural men > Supernatural women > Human men > Human women > "rude mechanicals" 

• 3.2.06 Robin "My mistress with a monster is in love...

                          While she was in her dull and sleeping hour

                          A crew of patches and rude mechanicals..."

 - patches: tattered patches, used, patched up old things

 - "rude mechanicals":

 1) rough workmen

 2) dehumanized; they are being used as tools by Oberon with which to punish Titania, and by Robin as a source of amusement; they are                    functions

 3) their names being so closely associated to their crafts reduces their identities to the boundaries of those professions. Realistic because in             Elizabethan England people were recognized by what they did, i.e. Smith, Bookbinder, etc. 

 4) They act like machines: Bottom reacts to being turned into an ass the same way he reacted to putting on a play; reactions are predictable

 5) Our classist English language: when you say someone is "rude" you mean they are ignorant and uneducated because they are from a lower class 

• 3.02.10 "That work for bread upon Athenian stall" They are working to earn their food/livelihood

   - they are putting the play on for Theseus so that they may emancipate themselves, so that they can stop being paid as laborers and instead be paid as artists; they want to be creative instead of predictable; they are trying to change their positions within the society (social climbing)

EPILOGUE  

1. By the end of Act IV, Titania has "given" Oberon the Indian boy, Hippolyta is off to marry Theseus, and the younger Athenians are all in their appropriate heterosexual pairings. Is this resolution satisfactory? Why or why not?

2. Examine the established pairings at the closing of the play. What  relationship between force and consent do they illustrate?

3.  Love and relationships are the main theme of this play and the cause of every conflict.  The humans in the play treat love as the most sacred thing in life, whereas the fairies seem to treat it more as a game.  Why do you think this is?

4.  What do you think of Bottom as a character?  Take a look at his speech at the end of the first scene in act 4, around line 205.  Would you seperate him from the other "rude mechanicals"?

5.  What do you expect from the performance of the traders' play?  What is to take place in act 5 now that the four lovers have resolved?

A Midsummer Night's Dream Act V

1. Take notice of Egeus’s speeches in Act V. Do they seem different from the speeches he gives in Act IV? How? Have a look at note 1 on the bottom of p. 851 for an explanation (we’ll talk more about this in class!) Egeus starts out preaching about owning this daughter and how she should respect his choice for her and in act V he behaves like a servant in Theseus presence and is shut up by Theseus' decision to let the lovers marry as they choose. 

2. How much time is to pass before the marriage at the beginning of Act I? How much time is there yet to pass in Act V? At the beginning of the play we know there are 4 days until the wedding. In Act V it is around 9pm and the couples are awaiting midnight to consummate their unions!

3. What choices is Theseus given for his entertainment in Act V? Have a look at the notes in the Norton, which will explain these stories. Do you have any ideas why these might be appropriate entertainment for his wedding? The choices are the death of Orpheus which is morbid and somewhat disturbing, the battle of Herc and the Centaurs, the 9 muses mourning the death of writing, and finally Paramus and Thisbe. All these plays are about some kind of death or tragedy which is hardly appropriate for a wedding. 

4. How does Egeus describe the artisan players at 5.1.72-3? What do you think this tells us about the attitude he and his fellow audience members have toward the players? Overall, how would you characterize the court's response to the "Pyramus and Thisbe" play?. The artisans are hard working simple men. the court has a lovely time poking fun at the attempted theatrical performance. 

5. At the opening of Act V, we learn who is present at this performance. Look at the characters listed in stage directions on 851 and then figure out who in this group remains silent throughout the scene. Hermia and Helena both remain silent in Act V. Possibly because they got what they wanted and are content, or possibly because they are now married women with less rights and freedom than they had before. Is this a happy reward or a punishment for rebelling?

6. The title of the play is, of course, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Robin, in his Epilogue, tells the audience to imagine that they have just been in a dream. What other “dreams” do we find in this play? The play is full of dreams of class equality and social climbing. Dreams of love and gender equality.But it seems that these dreams get the characters into trouble therefore discouraging this dreamers mindset that challenges society.

MAIN TOPICS: Is Act V necessary?, Class & Gender, Dreams

1.) Is Act V necessary?

• At the end of Act IV, we already know:

  • Oberon & Titania have already ended their feud

  • Demetrius/Helena and Hermia/Lysander are lovers and are going to be married.

  • Bottom is restored to human form

• Despite these "knitting up of plot" points, there is still uneasiness at the end of Act IV:

  • Egeus has been rebuked. 

    • Told off by Theseus (pg. 884 of the Norton Shakespeare), who tells Egeus that he will "overbear his well". The law has been upended.

    • Two versions of the play change Egeus' role in this act:

      1. Quarto- single play edition. Egeus is not in Act V. Philostrate speaks lines lines attributed to Egeus. *Reflect: Is there more unease without Egeus? Is it uncomfortable having the lovers married without his consent?*

      2. Folio- collection of plays. Egeus is more submissive and servant-like, and his presence suggests his blessing is given to his daughter's marriage. *Reflection- Despite Egeus' strange role change, does his accepting attitude lend toward a more harmonious ending?

  • Problems with relationship resolutions.

    • Those under spells:

• • • • Demetrius is under the spell for good.

      • Titania still is unaware she was put under a spell and tricked.

        • Memories of injury: memory is characterized early in the play as nostalgia (ex. Titania remembering her dear votress friend.) Later, memories are characterized by injury (ex. Helena remembering the insanity of the previous night.)

      • Reflection: Comedy = restoration of order: Disorder --> order.  Does AMD fit this pattern? Is order restored? What kind of order does the "rude mechanic's" play bring?

                                          **How does the play put everything (class standards, gender standards) back into place?** 

 2.) Class & Gender

• Class

  • Mechanics put on their play in hopes of earning $$ and move out of the bottom-rung working class.

  • Theseus mentions nobility (pg. 888 of the Norton Shakespeare, line 90) and how making those below them fearful is the proper order of things. He says that it is normal, respectful and desirable for someone of the lower class to be nervous while talking to nobility.

  • Quince reads the prologue with incorrect emphasis and grammar, and the court's response is very condescending. (ex. Hippolyta saying "he hath played on his prologue like a child on a recorder.")

  • Speech = marker of class and education.

  • *The condescending attitude of the nobility towards the bumbling players puts class standards back into place.*

  • Reflection: Do we sympathize with the laborers who want to move up in class? Is it a question of morality or just an invisible statement of truth?

  • Actors are unaware that they're the butt of the joke; we're let in on the commentary of the nobility.

  • Theseus' speech at the beginning of Act V:

    • The poet has real power, makes "airy nothings" into reality: has power with language. 

    • The poet's power with language contrasts with the artisans, who are controlled by language rather than controllers. 

      • Shakespeare creates fantasies and effects through language while the actors are very literal.

• Gender

  • The tradition-defying gender roles that we saw earlier in the play have been eliminated:

    • Hippolyta has been tamed.

    • Titania has been tamed.

    • The pairs have been married off and Helena and Hermia don't speak anymore.

  • Marriage = relinquishment of rights in Shakespeare's time.

  • Reflection: was this ending necessary to be comical for an audience of the time?

    • To end with the sense of order that comedy creates, re-establishment of traditional gender roles is necessary.

  • Perhaps the ending is the "genius of Shakespeare:"

    • Men are happy that the play's women are now obedient

    • Women are happy that the play's women got what they wanted

  • While it may have been more interesting by today's standards to leave the play questionable and controversial, back then it wouldn't have been appropriate or accepted unless it was conservative.

 3.) Dreams

• The play is full of dreams: dreams of class equality, gender equality

• Puck's epilogue suggests that if the play offends the audience, to think of it as only a dream of a world separate from the real world.

• Dream= dangerous, challenges society. Not exactly a "safe way out."