A Midsummer Night's Dream Open-Ended Response (Sorry it's late!)

My favorite scene in A Midsummer Night’s Dream was Scene ii of Act III. In this scene, both Demetrius and Lysander fall in love with Helena, but she thinks that they have banded together with Hermia to play a mean joke on her. I thought this scene was hilarious because none of them believed each other. Hermia was shocked when Lysander said he loved Helena instead of her, but Helena still was under the impression that nobody loved her, and thought that Hermia wasn’t even her friend anymore. They had  a huge fight, and I thought that all of them sounded really stupid, because their stories were unbelievable. This was also the scene where I realized how malicious Puck was. He was entertained by all the trouble and misery he caused everyone.

My least favorite character in the play was Puck. Although he was a central character to the play, and nothing interesting would happen without him, I still thought that he was a nasty person. He seems to think that his purpose in life is to cause everyone pain, discomfort, and confusion. And if that isn’t enough, he essentially sits back and laughs as others are tormented. If it weren’t for Oberon, he probably would have let Demetrius and Lysander tear each other to pieces over his own stupid mistake. I’m glad that Puck is a fictional character, for if he really existed, I’d make it my life’s mission to hunt him down and annoy him as much as he annoys everyone else.

 

Act V, Scene ii

Enter QUINCE, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, STARVELING, and SNUG, walking down a street lined with market stalls.

 

QUINCE

Aaahhh, it’s so refreshing to know that our epic play is over and done with.

 

FLUTE

Yes, it was so inspiring. I knew that the duke would love it.

 

BOTTOM

Well, though I was limited to play only the role of Pyramus, I feel that it was a great success. I still think I would have a made a top-notch lion, though.

 

SNOUT

Bottom, didn’t you say you had something to tell us?

 

BOTTOM

Oh, yes, I had the most peculiar dream. If I speak of it, I’ll sound like a lunatic. But I suppose I should tell you, it would make a very inspiring storyline for our next play. You see, I dreamt that—

 

They pass a stall selling donkeys, all facing away from them.

 

STARVELING

Excuse me, but do you see something strange about that donkey?

 

SNUG

Oh, it’s nothing, the hair around its head just looks a little… thicker. If I weren’t such a reasonable person, I’d say it had human hair.

 

PUCK appears by the donkey, and it turns around, revealing that it has BOTTOM’s head.

 

QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING

(Scream)

 

BOTTOM

(Screams louder than all of them combined, then faints)

 

PUCK

(Laughs) Ah, I made a tiny mistake, but who cares? All’s well that ends well!

 

QUINCE, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, STARVELING, and SNUG faint.

 

Exit PUCK.

 

 

 

A Midsummer Night's Dream Movie

I missed the first two days of watching "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in class, but there were some things in the movie that confused me. 

The play was set in Ancient Greece, yet I saw that the clothes the people were wearing looked more like something from turn-of-the-century (or sometime before that) England. 

Also some of the characters were riding bicycles with electric lights on them, and in Ancient Greece they had no bicycles or electricity. The decor of the buildings also did not fit in with it very well. 

Who else noticed this, and why do you think they did this?

A Midsummer Night's Dream: Act V

When Act V starts, Theseus is asking Philostrate, the director of the entertainment for his wedding, what different acts there are to watch. The only one he seems interested in is the play about Pyramus and Thisbe, performed by the craftsmen. Philostrate is trying to discourage him from seeing it, saying it's a waste of time and all the actors are talentless, but Theseus wants to watch it anyway. 

Through the show, Theseus and everyone else watching are commenting on the poor grammar and bad acting. Everyone feels the need to announce what character they play and what they are going to do as soon as they come on stage. Though the play is bad, they seem to find it amusing anyway, while they're pointing out all of its stupid mistakes. After the play is over, Robin, Oberon, Titania, and their servants come to the palace to bless it and make it peaceful.

They leave, and Robin is the last one on stage. He tells the audience that if they did not like the play, they should pretend that they saw it all when they were asleep, it was just a dream.

A Midsummer Night's Dream: Act IV

Act IV starts while Demetrius, Helena, Hermia, and Lysander are still sleeping and Titania comes in with Bottom. Bottom is ordering the fairies Titania assigned to be his servants around, and Titania is madly in love with him. She goes to sleep next to him, and Oberon puts a potion on her eyes that will cause her to stop loving Bottom. He wakes her up after that, and they go off together. Robin then removes the donkey's head from Bottom. 

Then, Theseus comes in with Egeus, Hippolyta, and his servants. They come across Helena, Demetrius, Hermia, and Lysander all asleep, and wake them up. Demetrius explains to Theseus that he no longer loves Hermia, he loves Helena. Theseus, after hearing all their explanations, decides to let the two couples, Demetrius and Helena and Hermia and Lysander, get married at the same time as him and Hippolyta, later that day. They all leave to go to the temple.

After this, Bottom wakes up. He thinks that he just had a crazy dream that he had a donkey's head and Titania was in love with him. Meanwhile, the rest of the craftsmen are looking for Bottom, saying how their play will be a complete failure without him. They are very sad that they can't show it. Then, Bottom comes along, and tells them to get ready to perform the play for the duke.  

Demetrius and Mel

I think that Demetrius from A Midsummer Night's Dream is a lot like Mel from Flight Of the Conchords (A TV show.)

Mel is madly in love with the two main characters and is always following them without their consent. She waits for hours by the bus-stop or the stairway to their apartment just to see them. Also, she is completely oblivious to how much they don't like her and are scared of her. She is also married to Doug who actually loves her, but she just brushes him off.

In a similar way, Demetrius chases after Hermia, not caring that she has no interest in him. No matter how many times she says she doesn't love him, he still follows her. Helena, like Doug in Mel's case, is also in love with him, but he doens't care about her, only Hermia. 

Image from: http://bigscreenlittlescreen.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/mel.jpg

A Midsummer Night's Dream: Act III

In Act III of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Puck runs into the craftsmen practicing their play. When Bottom is waiting to go on stage, Puck sees how annoying he is and takes the opportunity to give him a donkey's head. When the other men see Bottom, they run screaming. Bottom is wandering in the woods, and is right by Titania when she wakes up. She falls madly in love with him and orders four fairies to be his servants. Oddly, Bottom is not at all surprised by Titania's strange love for him. 

Later, Oberon realizes that Puck put the love juice on the wrong man, Lysander's, eyes, causing him to fall in love with Helena. Puck then makes Demetrius fall in love with Helena, so both Lysander and Demetrius are following her. Helena thinks they are both playing a mean trick on her and lying about their love. When Hermia runs into them, shocked to see her faithful boyfriend suddenly hates her, Helena thinks Hermia is in on the joke too. 

However, Lysander and Demtrius are very serious and plan to fight. Oberon does not want them to fight, so he has Puck trick them into going far away from each other then falling asleep. He then puts a different potion on Lysander's eyes to have him in love with Hermia again. 

A Midsummer Night's Dream: Act III

Act 2 opens with Titania and Oberon, the Queen and King of the fairies, in an argument. Titania has kidnapped a young boy who she intends to raise as a son, but Oberon wants the boy to be his own personal soldier. He makes Titania even angrier by interrupting her and her followers' fairy dances. Oberon sends Robin Goodfellow (AKA Puck) to fetch a magic love potion flower. When the flower's juice is squirted on the eyelids of a sleeping person, hey fall in love with the first thing they see when they wake up.  He plans to use it to make Titania fall in love with something very nasty. 

While Puck is gone, Oberon observes Helena and Demetrius in the woods. He sees how much Helena loves Demetrius, and how mean Demetrius is to Helena. When Puck returns, he send him to use the flower to make Demetrius fall in love with Helena. However, Puck accidentally puts the potion on Lysander's eyes, when he is asleep next to Hermia. When Demetrius abandons Helena, she sees Lysander and wakes him up. He then falls madly in love with her, but when he tells her this she thinks he is taunting her. 

She goes off to follow Demetrius, and Lysander runs after her. Hermia wakes up and Lysander is gone, so she goes to find him.

I think Act 2 was very funny because now there's a "love square," Hermia loves Lysander, Lysander loves Helena, Helena loves Demetrius, and Demetrius loves Hermia, but none of them love the person who loves them.