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3rd year, English

Seminar conductor: Lect.dr. Oana-Alis Zaharia

A Midsummer Night’s Dream


Study Questions

DETAILED STUDY QUESTIONS

ACT I, SCENE I
1. How is Hippolyta’s reasoning concerning how quickly the next four days will pass different from that of Theseus?
Note how Shakespeare portrays the patience and calmness of Hippolyta in contrast to the impatience and need for
action 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?
4. What is Theseus’s ruling concerning Hermia?
5. How does Lysander’s comment about Demetrius’s previous love affair with Helena complicate things?
6. What do Lysander and Hermia plan to do about this seemingly impossible situation?
7. Why do they tell Helena what they plan to do?
8. Even though Helena loves Demetrius and is Hermia’s best friend, why does she decide to tell Demetrius of
Hermia and Lysander’s plans?
ACT I, SCENE II
1. Why does Nick Bottom want to play all the parts?
2. How do you suppose the threat of being handed if they scare the ladies will affect the artisans’ interpretation of
the tragedy of Pyramus and Thisby?
3. In what way is this scene funny? Why do you suppose Shakespeare included this scene?
4. Where are the actors to meet the following night? Who else is meeting in these same woods at the same time?
ACT II, SCENE I
1. 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?
2. How have Oberon and Titania been involved in the past with Theseus and Hippolyta, and why have they come to
Athens?
3. What effect has their quarrel had on nature, on the seasons, on humans?
4. Why won’t Titania give up the changeling to Oberon?
5. What does Oberon send Puck to find?
6. What are Oberon’s plans for Titania?
7. How does Helena react to Demetrius’s verbal abuse?
8. What is her response to his threats of physical abuse?
9. In what way is Helena’s behavior inappropriate for Athenian women?
10. What does Oberon tell Puck to do about Demetrius and Helena?
ACT II, SCENE II
1. Why does Oberon want Titania to wake and fall in love with some vile thing?
2. Why does Puck anoint Lysander’s eyes?
3. How does Helena react to Lysander’s sudden love for her when he awakens?
4. How is Hermia’s dream a reflection of reality?
ACT III, SCENE I
1. How are the actors going to manage the setting/scenery such as the moonlight and the wall?
2. Why do the rest of the actors run off when Bottom reappears?

ACT III, SCENE II


1. What does Hermia accuse Demetrius of doing?

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2. How are Puck and Oberon going to correct Puck’s earlier mistake?
3. Why is Helena upset when Demetrius says he loves her? Isn’t this what she had wanted all along?
4. Of what does Helena accuse Hermia?
5. How close had Hermia and Helena been in the past?
6. How does Lysander treat Hermia? Why can’t she believe what he says?
7. Of what does Hermia accuse Helena?
8. Why is Helena afraid of Hermia?
9. What are Lysander and Demetrius going off to do?
10. What does Oberon tell Puck to do about the two young men?
11. What is Oberon going to do about Titania?
12. Why doesn’t Oberon fear the coming of day?
13. How well does Puck’s trickery work?

ACT IV, SCENE I

4. Why are Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and the others out in the woods so early in the morning?
5. What is Theseus’s first explanation of why the young people are asleep in the woods?
6. What explanation does Demetrius make? Why does he compare his love for Hermia to an illness?
7. What is Theseus’s decision concerning the four young people?
8. Why can’t the young people be sure whether they are awake or dreaming?

ACT V

1. Why does Theseus dismiss the stories of the four young people?
2. Why does Theseus choose to see the play about Pyramus and Thisbe rather than the other entertainments?
3. What is the purpose of Puck’s final speech?
AFTER READING THE PLAY
QUESTIONS FOR DEEPER UNDERSTANDING

Plot
1. Create a diagram of flow chart of the four pairs of lovers—Theseus/Hippolyta, Oberon/Titania,
Lysander/Hermia, andDemetrius/Helena—and explain how it changes throughout the play to the final
pairings. For example, in Act I, scene i,Helena loves Demetrius who loves Hermia who loves Lysander
who loves Hermia.Hermia —> Demetrius —> Hermia <—> Lysander
2. How does Puck’s interference affect what happens in the play?
3. How does Oberon’s interference in the affairs of man further complicate matters?
4. How does Shakespeare use the night, the woods, and the fairies to move the plot forward?

Characterization

1. From Hippolyta’s speeches make a list of what the reader finds out about her. For example, form her first
speech we findout she is not as anxious for time to pass as Theseus is. Write a character sketch of
Hippolyta using that list.
2. How is Helena to blame for the confusion in the woods?
3. Compare and contrast Hermia and Helena; Hippolyta and Titania.
4. Compare and contrast Lysander and Demetrius; Theseus and Oberon.
5. Which of the four women is more like a modern-day woman? In what ways is each of them modern?
6. Why are the artisans willing to perform for the Duke?
7. How does Theseus prove himself to be a wise leader?
8. How does Oberon prove himself to be a wise king?
9. How does Bottom react to the fairies? What does this reflect about his character?
10. Explain Demetrius’s return to Helena. Was it only because of Oberon’s antidote?

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Themes

1. What kind of marriage do Oberon and Titania have? What will the married life of Theseus and Hippolyta
be like?
2. How does the play about Pyramus and Thisby serve as a model for love?
3. Compare and contrast the difficulties of Hermia and Lysander with those of Pyramus and Thisby.
4. What is the importance of dreams in this play? How do they affect the outcome?
5. What part does friendship play? Is loyalty of importance? How?
6. Explain how Lysander’s statement. “The course of true love never did run smooth” (I, i, 134) fits each of
the four pairs of lovers.
Essay topics

1. Write an essay on friendship as it is exhibited in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.


2. Make a list of Puck’s activities. Write a character sketch of Puck using that list.
Homework

Pair up or make groups of four or five students. Each group should choose a scene (or portion) to present to the
class. The following scenes can be used effectively:
• I, i, 20-126 (Egueus, Theseus, Hermia, etc.)
• I, i, 127-178 (Lysander and Hermia)
• I, ii, all (Bottom, etc., casting the play)
• II, i, 60-146 (Oberon and Titania)
• II, i, 188-244 (Demetrius and Helena)
• III, i, 125-202 (Titania and Bottom)
• II, ii 177-344 (Hermia, Lysander, Helena, Demetrius)
• IV, i, 107-202 (Theseus, lovers, etc.)
• V, i, 108-372 (Pyramus and Thisby)

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A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
ACT 1, SCENE 1

[Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and Attendants]

THESEUS.

Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour


Draws on apace; four happy days bring in
Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slow
This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,
Like to a step-dame or a dowager
Long withering out a young man's revenue.
HIPPOLYTA
Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;
Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
And then the moon, like to a silver bow
New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night
Of our solemnities.
THESEUS
Go, Philostrate,
Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;
Turn melancholy forth to funerals;
The pale companion is not for our pomp.
[Exit PHILOSTRATE]
Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword,
And won thy love, doing thee injuries;
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph and with revelling.
[Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEMETRIUS]

EGEUS
Full of vexation come I, with complaint
Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,
This man hath my consent to marry her.
Stand forth, Lysander: and my gracious duke,
This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child;
Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,
And interchanged love-tokens with my child:
Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,
With feigning voice verses of feigning love,
And stolen the impression of her fantasy
With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
Knacks, trifles, nosegays , sweetmeats, messengers
Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth:
With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart,
Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,
To stubborn harshness: and, my gracious duke,

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Be it so she; will not here before your grace
Consent to marry with Demetrius,
I beg the ancient privilege of Athens,
As she is mine, I may dispose of her:
Which shall be either to this gentleman
Or to her death, according to our law
Immediately provided in that case.
THESEUS
What say you, Hermia? be advised fair maid:
To you your father should be as a god;
One that composed your beauties, yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax
By him imprinted and within his power
To leave the figure or disfigure it.
Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.

…………………………………………………………………………………….

THESEUS
In himself he is;
But in this kind, wanting your father's voice,
The other must be held the worthier.
HERMIA
I would my father look'd but with my eyes.
THESEUS
Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.

HERMIA
I do entreat your grace to pardon me.
I know not by what power I am made bold,
Nor how it may concern my modesty,
In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;
But I beseech your grace that I may know
The worst that may befall me in this case,
If I refuse to wed Demetrius.

……………………………………………………………………………………….
LYSANDER
Ay me! for aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth;
But, either it was different in blood,-- [...]
HERMIA
If then true lovers have been ever cross'd,
It stands as an edict in destiny:
Then let us teach our trial patience,
Because it is a customary cross,
As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,
Wishes and tears, poor fancy's followers.
........................................................................................................................

HELENA

How happy some o'er other some can be!


Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;

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He will not know what all but he do know:
And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,
So I, admiring of his qualities:
Things base and vile, folding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity:
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:
And therefore is Love said to be a child,
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
So the boy Love is perjured every where:
For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,
He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;
And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.
I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:
Then to the wood will he to-morrow night
Pursue her; and for this intelligence
If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:
But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
To have his sight thither and back again.

ACT II SCENE I. A wood near Athens. Enter, from opposite sides, a Fairy, and PUCK

PUCK
The king doth keep his revels here to-night:
Take heed the queen come not within his sight;
For Oberon is passing fell and wrath
Because that she as her attendant hath
A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king;
She never had so sweet a changeling;
And jealous Oberon would have the child
Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;
But she perforce withholds the loved boy,
Crowns him with flowers and makes him all her joy:
And now they never meet in grove or green,
By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,
But, they do square, that all their elves for fear
Creep into acorn-cups and hide them there.

FAIRY
Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
Call'd Robin Goodfellow: are not you he
That frights the maidens of the villagery;
Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn;
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm;
Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and they shall have good luck:
Are not you he?

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PUCK
Thou speak'st aright;
I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jest to Oberon and make him smile
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal:
And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crab,
And when she drinks, against her lips I bob
And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.
The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;
And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,
And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear
A merrier hour was never wasted there.
But, room, fairy! here comes Oberon.
Fairy
And here my mistress. Would that he were gone!
[Enter, from one side, OBERON, with his train; from the other, TITANIA, with hers]
OBERON
Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.
TITANIA
What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence:
I have forsworn his bed and company.
OBERON
Tarry, rash wanton: am not I thy lord?
TITANIA
Then I must be thy lady: but I know
When thou hast stolen away from fairy land,
And in the shape of Corin sat all day,
Playing on pipes of corn and versing love
To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,
Come from the farthest steep of India?
But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,
Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love,
To Theseus must be wedded, and you come
To give their bed joy and prosperity.

OBERON
How canst thou thus for shame, Titania,
Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,
Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
Didst thou not lead him through the glimmering night
From Perigenia, whom he ravished?
And make him with fair Aegle break his faith,
With Ariadne and Antiopa?

TITANIA
These are the forgeries of jealousy:
And never, since the middle summer's spring,
Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
By paved fountain or by rushy brook,
Or in the beached margent of the sea,

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To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind
But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.[....]
And thorough this distemperature we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which:
And this same progeny of evils comes
From our debate, from our dissension;
We are their parents and original.
OBERON
Do you amend it then; it lies in you:
Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
I do but beg a little changeling boy,
To be my henchman.
TITANIA
Set your heart at rest:
The fairy land buys not the child of me.
His mother was a votaress of my order:
And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,
Full often hath she gossip'd by my side,
And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,
Marking the embarked traders on the flood,
When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive
And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind;
Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait
Following,--her womb then rich with my young squire,--
Would imitate, and sail upon the land,
To fetch me trifles, and return again,
As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;
And for her sake do I rear up her boy,
And for her sake I will not part with him.
OBERON
How long within this wood intend you stay?
TITANIA
Perchance till after Theseus' wedding-day.
If you will patiently dance in our round
And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.
OBERON
Give me that boy, and I will go with thee.
TITANIA
Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away!
We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.
[Exit TITANIA with her train]
OBERON
Well, go thy way: thou shalt not from this grove
Till I torment thee for this injury.
My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememberest
Since once I sat upon a promontory,
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back

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Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
That the rude sea grew civil at her song
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres,
To hear the sea-maid's music.
PUCK
I remember.
OBERON
That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,
Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took
At a fair vestal throned by the west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;
But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
Quench'd in the chaste beams of the watery moon,
And the imperial votaress passed on,
In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little western flower,
Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,
And maidens call it love-in-idleness.
Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once:
The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.
Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again
Ere the leviathan can swim a league

PUCK
I'll put a girdle round about the earth
In forty minutes.
[Exit]
OBERON
Having once this juice,
I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,
And drop the liquor of it in her eyes.
The next thing then she waking looks upon,
Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,
She shall pursue it with the soul of love:
And ere I take this charm from off her sight,
As I can take it with another herb,
I'll make her render up her page to me.
But who comes here? I am invisible;
And I will overhear their conference.

[Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA, following him]

DEMETRIUS
I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?
The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me. 190
Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood;
And here am I, and wode within this wood,

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Because I cannot meet my Hermia.
Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
HELENA
You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;
But yet you draw not iron, for my heart
Is true as steel: leave you your power to draw,
And I shall have no power to follow you.
DEMETRIUS
Do I entice you? do I speak you fair?
Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth
Tell you, I do not, nor I cannot love you?
HELENA
And even for that do I love you the more.
I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
What worser place can I beg in your love, —
And yet a place of high respect with me, —
Than to be used as you use your dog?
DEMETRIUS
Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;
For I am sick when I do look on thee.
HELENA
And I am sick when I look not on you.
DEMETRIUS
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.
HELENA
Your virtue is my privilege: for that
It is not night when I do see your face,
Therefore I think I am not in the night;
Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,
For you in my respect are all the world:
Then how can it be said I am alone,
When all the world is here to look on me?
DEMETRIUS
I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,
And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.
HELENA
The wildest hath not such a heart as you.
Run when you will, the story shall be changed:
Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;
The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind
Makes speed to catch the tiger; bootless speed,
When cowardice pursues and valour flies.
DEMETRIUS
I will not stay thy questions; let me go:
Or, if thou follow me, do not believe
But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.
HELENA

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Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!
Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex:
We cannot fight for love, as men may do;
We should be wood and were not made to woo.
[Exit DEMETRIUS]
I'll follow thee and make a heaven of hell,
To die upon the hand I love so well.

ACT III

SCENE I. The wood. TITANIA lying asleep.

Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING


BOTTOM
Why do they run away? this is a knavery of themto
make me afeard.
[Re-enter SNOUT]
SNOUT
O Bottom, thou art changed! what do I see on thee?
BOTTOM
What do you see? You see an asshead of your own, do you?
[Exit SNOUT]
[Re-enter QUINCE]
QUINCE
Bless thee, Bottom! bless thee! thou art
translated.
[Exit]
BOTTOM
I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me;
to fright me, if they could. But I will not stir
from this place, do what they can: I will walk up
and down here, and I will sing, that they shall hear
I am not afraid.
[Sings]
The ousel cock so black of hue,
With orange-tawny bill,
The throstle with his note so true,
TITANIA [Awaking]
What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?
BOTTOM [Sings]
The finch, the sparrow and the lark,
The plain-song cuckoo gray,
Whose note full many a man doth mark,
And dares not answer nay;-- for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a bird? who would give a bird
the lie, though he cry 'cuckoo' never so?
TITANIA
I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:
Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note;
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;
And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.
BOTTOM
Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason
for that: and yet, to say the truth, reason and

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love keep little company together now-a-days; the
more the pity that some honest neighbours will not
make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon occasion.
Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.
BOTTOM
Not so, neither: but if I had wit enough to get out
of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn.
TITANIA
Out of this wood do not desire to go:
Thou shalt remain here, whether thou wilt or no.
I am a spirit of no common rate;
The summer still doth tend upon my state;
And I do love thee: therefore, go with me;
I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee,
And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
And sing while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep;
And I will purge thy mortal grossness so
That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.
Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed!

ACT V, SCENE I.

HIPPOLYTA

'Tis strange my Theseus, that these lovers speak of.

THESEUS

More strange than true: I never may believe


These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend 5
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover and the poet
Are of imagination all compact:
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic,
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination,
That if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy:
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush supposed a bear!

HIPPOLYTA

But all the story of the night told over,


And all their minds transfigured so together,

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More witnesseth than fancy's images
And grows to something of great constancy;
But, howsoever, strange and admirable.

PUCK

If we shadows have offended,


Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

[Exit]

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