#Classic: Midsummer Night’s Dream
- Author: W. Shakespeare
- Title: Midsummer Night’s Dream
- Performed at court: 1605
- List of Challenges
- Monthly plan
- Classic Club Master list
Quickscan:
- Love triangles:
- Demetrius and Lysander both want Hermia
- Demetrius and Lysander both want Helena (love potion working!)
- Plot twists:
- love potion, star-crossed lovers, unrequited love, mischievous fairies
- …magic and tangled web of love.
- Family issue: Egeus makes arranged marrige for Hermia with Demetrius
- Unrequited love: Helena’s love burns hot for Demetrius.
- Elopement: Hermia and Lysander flee to marry
- Forest: Lovers end up in the forest…now the FUN begins!
- Puck: “night wanderer”/narrator/mischief maker
- Queen of the fairies Titania : falls in love with an ‘ass’.
- Four lovers….live happily ever after.
- Act 5: Play-within-a-play: “Pyramus and Thisbe”
- The Mechanicals (amateur actors) provide comical ending
- Setting: Act 1-2 Athens — Act 3-4 enchanted forest — Act 5 Athens
Conclusion:
- Round characters:
- 4 lovers ( Hermia, Lysander, Helena, Demetrius) Puck, Bottom
- Flat characters:
- Theseus, Hippolyte, Egeus, Mechanicals, Oberon and Titania
- Major theme: male power and oppression of women
- ….in patriarchal society (women are property).
- Shakespeare:
- creates empathy for female characters and
- ….feels they need more voice!
- Minor theme: love is unpredictable!
- Best quote that sums up the play:
- “Lord, what fools these mortals be!”
- #Classic #MustRead
Last thoughts:
- BBC radio 3 – Good audio
- Note: Act 4,1
- ….some dialogue is placed in a different order!
NancyElin 
You listened to it on audio?
Happy New Year Nancy! I look forward to following your reading paths of many in 2019. What will you be focusing on this year? Oh ignore that, I see you have a plan, I’ll go and read that!
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Claire, my most important change….not joining official challenges but making my own plans. (monthly plan, challenge pages). It relieves the presssure. I have one challenge to finish 2018 (Candian Book Challenge) the ends 30 June 2019. I want to read more Shakespeare this year. I find some great fiction reads in Australia #AWW2019…and read some plays (modern and classic) That’s about it! Do you have any plans or areas you want to concentrate on?
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I read it while listening to the audio. It was a perfect combinnation! BBC Radio 3 has an excellent broadcast….great voices, diction and of course the comial actors (The Mechanicals) come alive with there malapropisms to amuse the audience: “”Rainy weather can be hard on the sciences.” … instead of the word ”sinuses.” Great reading!
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The closest I’ve come to seeing, reading or hearing this play is via the scenes in Dead Poets Society 😌
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I put off reading this play because it looked so confusing with all those people/fairies prancing around in the enchanted forest. You really have to have it straight in your head which lover is falling in or out of love with whom…before you start! Best part were the comical bumbling actors. Info: I did not write a ‘wrap-up’ this year but I will tell you where you can find the books that left a lasting impression:
Travel: review 16 June
Memoir: review 13 October
Biography: review 30 September
Classic: review 21 October
Play: review 29 November
🙂
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