A+Midsummer+Night's+Dream+Questions

**Theseus feels like the next four days are going to drag by really slowly because he can't wait til the wedding night to have sex, whereas Hippolyta feels like time is going by fast enough and is like whoa cowboy slow your horses** **Egeus is hoping that Theseus will help convince his daughter to marry Demetrius, even though Hermia is in love with Lysander.** **Women are supposed to do what their fathers say and marry who the father wants them to. Theseus rules that Hermia can either marry Demetrius, live in a nunnery, or die.**
 * __Act I, Scene 1__**
 * 1. How is Hippolyta’s reasoning concerning how quickly the next four days will pass different from that of Theseus?**
 * 2. Why has Egeus brought his daughter and her two suitors to Theseus? What does Egeus expect him to do?**
 * 3. What was the proper role for women/daughters in Athenian society according to Egeus and Theseus? What is Theseus’s ruling concerning Hermia?**

**Hermia's basic dilemma is either to marry someone she doesn't love, go live in a nunnery, or die. Lysander suggests they run away to his aunt's house outside of Athens and Athenian law.** **Nick Bottom wants to play all the parts because he thinks that he is the best actor and is just so amazing.** **This scene is funny because it basically focuses on a conceited actor trying to prove that he can do everything, that he can play almost every part even when both characters are on the stage. Also they are trying to decide which of them is gonna play Thisbe, and the director chooses a guy and he is not happy because he is growing a beard and do you know how long it takes to grow a beard?!** **The actors are meeting in the forest the following night. Lysander and Hermia are also meeting in the forest the following night to run away.**
 * 4. How does Lysander’s comment about Demetrius’s previous love affair with Helena complicate things?**
 * Lysander wants Demetrius to feel bad about originally falling in love with Helena and then forcing Hermia to marry him, when Hermia's father already loves Demetrius so why can't Lysander have Hermia's? **
 * 5. What do Lysander and Hermia plan to do about this seemingly impossible situation? Why do they tell Helena?**
 * Lysander and Hermia plan to run away together to Lysander's aunt's house outside of Athens. They tell Helena because Hermia doesn't want Helena mad at her anymore, and also once they leave Helena is free to try and win Demetrius' love back. **
 * 6. Even though Helena loves Demetrius and is Hermia’s best friend, why does she decide to tell Demetrius of Hermia and Lysander’s plans?**
 * Because in her twisted mind she thinks that if she tells Demetrius about their plans, he will thank her for being honest, forget about Hermia and fall back in love with Helena. **
 * 7. Identify Hermia’s basic dilemma. What are the choices outlined for her by Theseus and her father? What other choice does Lysander suggest? **
 * __Act I, Scene 2__**
 * 8. Why does Nick Bottom want to play all the parts?**
 * 9. In what way is this scene funny? Why do you suppose Shakespeare included this scene?**
 * 10. Where are the actors to meet the following night? Who else is meeting there at the same time?**
 * 11. How would you describe Bottom’s acting ability? What is Bottom’s own opinion of his acting ability? **
 * Bottom thinks he is an amazing actor that can do everything, but really he is just an average actor, no better than the rest of them. **
 * See Clayton's wiki for all podcas ** ** ts. **

__**Act II, Scene 1**__

**We find out that Oberon and Titania are currently arguing over the child that Titania wants to keep and take care of.** **Oberon and Titania accuse each other of being unfaithful. Oberon accuses Titania of cheating on him with Theseus, and Titania accuses Oberon of being involved with Hippolyta.** **Their emotions control the weather and both of them are angry so they create chaos with the weather.** **Because Titania promised to take care of the changeling.** **Oberon sends Puck to find the flowers to drip onto Titania's eyes.** **Oberon plans to drip the juice from the flower onto Titania's eyes and when she opens her eyes, she will fall in love with whatever beast she sees first. While she's busy fawning over the beast, Oberon will take the changeling.** **Helena responds to Demetrius's abuse with just more love. Nothing fazes her.** **She wants him to beat her/neglect her as much as he wants.** **Athenian women should be wooed, not trying to woo.** **Oberon tells Puck to put some of the flower juice onto Demetrius's eyes so he will fall in love with Helena.** __**Act II, Scene 2**__ **So that while she's fawning over the beast, he can take the child and make him a soldier.** **Because she doesn't want him to try anything with her.** **Because Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius.** **Helena is upset and thinks he is mocking her, so she runs away.** **With a snake eating her heart and Lysander just sitting by watching, it's ironic because Lysander had just fallen in love with Helena, and doesn't care about Hermia anymore.**
 * 10. What does the reader find out about the current relationship between Oberon, King of the Fairies, and Titania, Queen of the Fairies, from Puck and the first fairy?**
 * 11. How have Oberon and Titania been involved in the past with Theseus and Hippolyta; why have they come to Athens?**
 * 12. What effect has their quarrel had on nature, on the seasons, on humans?**
 * 13. Why won’t Titania give up the changeling to Oberon?**
 * 14. What does Oberon send Puck to find?**
 * 15. What are Oberon's plans for Titania?**
 * 16. How does Helena react to Demetrius’s verbal abuse?**
 * 17. What is her response to his threats of physical abuse?**
 * 18. In what way is Helena’s behaviour inappropriate for Athenian women?**
 * 19. What does Oberon tell Puck to do about Demetrius and Helena?**
 * 20. Why does Oberon want Titania to wake and fall in love with some vile thing?**
 * 21. Why does Hermia insist Lysander sleep a little ways from her?**
 * 22. Why does Puck anoint Lysander’s eyes?**
 * 23. How does Helena react to Lysander’s sudden love for her when he awakens?**
 * 24. How is Hermia’s dream a reflection of reality?**

__**Act III, Scene 1**__ **For the wall they are going to have one person standing with plaster around him, with his fingers shaped into an "o" to represent the crack in the wall. For moonlight, they are going to leave a casement of the chamber window open to allow natural moonlight to shine through.** **Because he has an ass's head!** **He plans to transform them all into different animals such as a horse, a dog, a pig, and a headless bear.** **Bottom is surprised at first, but he quickly adjusts and begins to enjoy having them there to do whatever he wishes.** **Because everyone's love lives are being jumbled, and also he's not entirely sure why this beautiful faerie is in love with him.**
 * 25. How are the actors going to keep from scaring the ladies when Pyramus kills himself or when the lion roars?**
 * They are going to write a prologue explaining these things to the audience before the play. **
 * 26. How are the actors going to manage the setting/scenery such as the moonlight and the wall?**
 * 27. Why do the rest of the actors run off when Bottom reappears?**
 * 28. What does Puck plan to do when he follows after the other actors?**
 * 29. How does Bottom react to Titania and the other fairies?**
 * 30. Bottom says, "…reason and love keep little company together nowadays." Why is this such an apt statement at this point in the play?**

__**Act III, Scene 2**__ **Hermia accuses Demetrius of killing Lysander.** **They are going to put the magical juice onto Lysander's eyes and make him fall back in love with Hermia.** **Because she thinks Demetrius and Lysander are just mocking her.** **Helena accuses Hermia of planning this whole thing with the guys to make fun of her.** **Hermia and Helena had been best friends their whole lives.** **Lysander is really mean to Hermia, he claims that he hates her and cannot stand to see her. After all they have been through and how much he used to love her, she simply cannot believe that Lysander would be so repulsed by her overnight.** **Hermia accuses Helena of seducing Lysander because she was jealous.** **Helena is afraid of Hermia because she knows that Hermia is much stronger than her.** **He tells Puck to confuse them by pretending to be Lysander for Demetrius and vice-versa. This way, both of them will get tired of running around and fall asleep.** **Oberon is going to make Titania fall back in love with him.** **Because he is able to do things 24/7, he says.** **It works well enough to get the two men tired, and they fall asleep.** ====**Review Question: The climax, or turning point, of //A Midsummer Night’s Dream// comes at the end of Act 3. In point form describe the major plot points of Act Three starting from when Titania falls in love with Bottom leading to the climax or turning point of the play near the end of act three.**====
 * 31. What does Hermia accuse Demetrius of doing?**
 * 32. How are Puck and Oberon going to correct Puck’s earlier mistake?**
 * 33. Why is Helena upset when Demetrius says he loves her? Isn’t this what she had wanted all along?**
 * 34. Of what does Helena accuse Hermia?**
 * 35. How close had Hermia and Helena been in the past?**
 * 36. How does Lysander treat Hermia? Why can’t she believe what he says?**
 * 37. Of what does Hermia accuse Helena?**
 * 38. Why is Helena afraid of Hermia?**
 * 39. What are Lysander and Demetrius going off to do?**
 * Fight each other over Helena. **
 * 40. What does Oberon tell Puck to do about the two young men?**
 * 41. What is Oberon going to do about Titania?**
 * 42. Why doesn’t Oberon fear the coming of day?**
 * 43. How well does Puck’s trickery work?**
 * ** The actors plan out their stage and how to make a wall and add moonlight. **
 * **Bottom leaves for a while and comes back with an ass's head instead of his normal head.**
 * **Titania wakes up from Bottom's awful singing and sees him (with his ass's head) and she falls in love with him instantly.**
 * **Titania tells all of her faeries to do whatever Bottom asks.**
 * **Oberon realizes that Puck has anointed the wrong Athenian's eyes with the juice and has created chaos.**
 * **Oberon squeezes the love-juice onto Demetrius's eyes to make him fall in love with Helena too.**
 * **Helena does not believe that both men are in love with her and instead thinks they are mocking her.**
 * **Helena and Hermia get into a fight, followed by both men who get into a fight.**
 * ** Oberon and Puck observe this whole thing, and then Oberon orders Puck to get both men to fall asleep. **
 * **Once asleep, he anoints Lysander's eyes with love-juice so he will fall back in love with Hermia.**

__**Act IV, Scene 1**__ **By just accepting it and enjoying it.** **Oberon gets jealous and upset to see the woman he loves fawning over someone else.** **Oberon just changes the subject and avoids answering.** **They were on a fox hunt.** **That they rose up early to observe the rite of May and went there to join the celebration.** **His explanation is that Helena told him about Lysander and Hermia running off together into the woods. He explains that his love for Hermia had melted like snow, and he didn't love her anymore, instead he loves Helena.** **They all should marry whom they please and they shall join Theseus and Hippolyta for a triple wedding.** **Because Helena is shocked to hear that Demetrius actually loves her, and the other three are stunned that Theseus is allowing them to marry who they want.** **Bottom wants to get Quince to write a ballad about this "dream" and perform it in front of the Duke at the wedding.** __**Act IV, Scene 2**__ **They love him, because they'd realized that the play needed Bottom in it.** **Their lives and their fortune/fame.**
 * 44. How has Bottom adjusted to the attention of Titania and her fairies?**
 * 45. What is Oberon’s reaction to Titania’s infatuation with Bottom?**
 * 46. What sort of explanation will Oberon make to Titania’s question about what happened to her?**
 * 47. Why are Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and the others out in the woods so early in the morning?**
 * 48. What is Theseus’s first explanation of why the young people are asleep in the woods?**
 * 49. What explanation does Demetrius make? Why does he compare his love for Hermia to an illness?**
 * 50. What is Theseus’s decision concerning the four young people?**
 * 51. Why can’t the young people be sure whether they are awake or dreaming?**
 * 52. Bottom believes he too has had a dream. How is he going to use that to entertain the Duke?**
 * 53. What opinion do the other artisans now have of Bottom since they think he is lost?**
 * 54. What do they most regret losing by not being able to perform the play?**
 * 55. Why must the artisans hurry to the Duke’s palace?**
 * When Bottom gets back, he tells them that the Duke wants them to perform the play, and they have to set up and practice before they actually perform. **

**Extending the thought process.**
====**a) The fourth act opens and ends with Bottom at center stage. What is your opinion of Bottom’s character? How might he be the antithesis, or opposite, of Theseus’s character?**====

**Bottom's character is very obnoxious and self-centered whereas Theseus is just trying to look out for everyone else.**
====**b) How do most of the dreamers respond to the dream experience upon waking? Which character is changed permanently by the dream experience?**==== ==== **They all think it was a dream but it actually wasn't. Demetrius is permanently changed by the "dream" experience because at the beginning of the story he is in love with Hermia but at the end he realizes he is actually in love with Helena.** ==== ====**c) In this act, several characters look back at prior infatuations with disbelief. What do you think Shakespeare is saying about love and infatuation?**==== ====** He is trying to describe how quickly love can change and how also sometimes if you're in love with someone, if you wait a while and fall for someone else you will look back and ask yourself why you loved them in the first place. **====
 * Forever is a long time, and time has a way of changing things.**

Act V 56. Why does Theseus dismiss the stories of the four young people? **Because he just wants to get to the wedding and have everyone happy, and not to waste any more time.** 57. Why does Theseus choose to see the play about Pyramus and Thisbe rather than the other entertainments? **Because he wants to let them have their 15 minutes of fame and he might also think that they will be good.** 58. Why does Philostrate try to keep Theseus from seeing the play? What does he say is wrong with it? **Philostrate knows that the play will not be good, and he knows that the actors have not worked very hard on it.** 59. What does Theseus mean by the lines, "For never anything can be amiss, when simpleness and duty tender it"? 60. What is accomplished by having the Prologue tell the whole story that the actors are then going to enact? **Nothing is really accomplished, but the actors think it makes the ladies less afraid of the lion and the deaths that occur are not real.** 61. How does Shakespeare use comments from the audience to enhance the humour of the play that they are watching? **Seeing the reaction of the audience adds to the humour of the play because the snarky little remarks are quite comical.** 62. What is Hippolyta’s reaction to the play? **Hippolyta's reaction is first that the play is going on way too long, but after the sentimental part she gets all teary eyed.** 63. In what way is Thisbe’s final speech humorous? **Because it's a straight guy dressed up in drag proclaiming his love to another man.** 64. What does Oberon tell the fairies to do? **to bless the marriage beds!** 65. What is the purpose of Puck’s final speech? **He apologizes for everything he has screwed up, and if you liked the play to tell your friends, but if you didn't pretend it was all a dream.** Extending the thought process:
 * Theseus is saying that even though Philostrate thinks that the play is worthless that it can still be good when they actors in it have dutifully performed their simple roles. **

FInd at least one example of each of the following that occurs during the play within the play. Write down the quote that illustrates example. excessive alliteration: breaking the play’s illusion of reality **When the lion takes off his mask and explains that he is not in fact a real lion, and he does not mean to scare the ladies.** using the wrong word or name repeating a word excessively **"Now die, die, die... die, die....."** ridiculous metaphor
 * "Whereat, with blade, with bloody blameful blade,**
 * He bravely broach'd is boiling bloody breast " **
 * " Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true."**
 * all of them...**

===a) In reading the play-within-a-play, we become the audience for the drama played out by Theseus, Hippolyta, and the others. These performers, in turn, form the audience for the reenactment of Pyramus and Thisbe. How does observing another audience help you understand the relationship between audience and performers?===
 * You get a sense of how bad the play and acting really is, and you also notice how the shift in the play affects the audience. In a way similar to reading a review on the internet, you get a sense of how bad or good something is by seeing what other people think of it. By reading the script, you wouldn't realise exactly how bad the acting is or how it affects the audience when the guy playing Thisbe actually starts acting well. But when you watch it, you get to see all this stuff. **

===b) Modern television shows often create comic effects by having a silly, innocent, or “clueless” character and a sarcastic, knowing, clever character play off of each other. What examples can you think of?=== **- two and a half men** **- desperate housewives** **- grey's anatomy** **- bridesmaids** **- suburgatory** **- phineas and ferb**

===c) Identify ways in which Pyramus and Thisbe might be unsuitable for a wedding celebration. Are there any ways in which the play might be appropriate? In what ways is the play-within-a-play an ironic commentary on what the two pairs of young lovers (Demetrius and Helena, Lysander and Hermia) have gone through earlier?=== **The play is about death and sorrow, which is not exactly appropriate for a celebration. It is sort of appropriate as it is about two lovers who would rather die than live without one another. It's ironic because earlier the two men were ready to kill eachother for Helena's love, but if one of them died the other would've killed themselves.**