Download FirstHandoutAMND synopis and Eliz stage

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
“What fools these mortals be!” -Puck-III.ii.115-
Short Synopsis
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” William Shakespeare's most popular comedy, was written around 1594
or 95. It portrays the adventures of four young lovers and a group of amateur actors, their interactions
with woodland fairies and a duke and duchess. Taking place in a mythical Athens and an enchanted
forest, there is a handsome fairy king, a misguided parent, star-crossed lovers, a weaver who's
transformed into a half-donkey, wood sprites and elves. This work is widely performed around the
world, and no wonder - it's about the world's most popular pastime, falling in love. But as Puck knows,
falling in love can make fools of us all.
Medium Synopsis
"A Midsummer Night's Dream" deals with the universal theme of love and its complications: lust,
disappointment, confusion, marriage. The plot focuses on three parallel stories: the trials and
experiences of two sets of lovers camping in a magical forest, the world of the Fairy King and Queen
and their elves, and a group of rough craftsmen attempting to stage a production of "Pyramus and
Thisby" for the wedding of the Duke of Athens.
Hermia is in love with Lysander, but her father wants her to marry Demetrius. To escape the arranged
marriage, she and Lysander elope into the woods. Demetrius follows them, and he is pursued by Helena,
who nurses an unrequited passion for him. A love quadrangle develops among the young lovers when
mischievous Puck plays Cupid. "The course of true love never did run smooth" says Lysander.
Meanwhile, a group of amateur actors rehearses a badly-written play in the woods, and soon all find
their lives changed by the doings of Oberon and Titania, the warring king and queen of the fairies.
Magic, action, love and humor are the ingredients for this unforgettable spell.
This work is widely performed around the world, and no wonder - it's about the world's most popular
pastime, falling in love. But as Puck knows, falling in love can make fools of us all. Love is crazy, love
is mad. Will love win out in the end?
Long Synopsis
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” William Shakespeare's most popular comedy, was written around 1594
or 95. Dealing with the universal theme of love and its complications: lust, disappointment, confusion,
marriage, it features three interlocking plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of Theseus,
Duke of Athens and the Amazonian queen Hippolyta.
In the opening scene, Hermia refuses to comply with her father Egeus's wish for her to marry his chosen
man, Demetrius. In response, Egeus quotes to Theseus an ancient Athenian law whereby a daughter
must marry the suitor chosen by her father, or else face death or lifelong chastity as a nun. Hermia and
her lover Lysander therefore decide to elope by going camping in the forest.
[Long Synopis Continued]
Hermia informs her best friend Helena, but Helena has recently been rejected by Demetrius and decides
to win back his favor by revealing the plan to him. Demetrius, followed doggedly by Helena, chases
Hermia, who, in turn, pursues Lysander, from whom she becomes separated.
Meanwhile, Oberon, king of the fairies, and his queen, Titania, arrive in the same forest to attend
Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding. Oberon and Titania are estranged because Titania refuses to give her
Indian page-boy to Oberon for use as his henchman, since the child's mother was one of Titania's
worshippers. Oberon seeks to punish Titania's disobedience and recruits the mischievous Puck (also
called Robin Goodfellow) to help him apply a magical juice from a flower called love-in-idleness, which
makes the victim fall in love with the first living thing they see when they wake up. Oberon applies the
juice to Titania in order to distract her and force her to give up the page-boy.
Things become more complex when Oberon encounters the Athenian lovers and tells Puck to use the
magic to aid their love lives. Due to Puck's errors, Hermia's two lovers temporarily turn against her in
favor of Helena. The four pursue and quarrel with one another, losing themselves in a smog of Puck's
doing and in a maze of their romantic entanglements.
Meanwhile, a band of "rude mechanicals" (lower-class craftsmen) have arranged to perform a crude play
about Pyramus and Thisby for Theseus's wedding, and they venture into the forest to rehearse. Nick
Bottom, a stage-struck weaver, is spotted by Puck, who transforms his head into that of a donkey.
Titania is awakened by Bottom's singing, and she immediately falls in love with him. She treats him as
if he were a nobleman and lavishes attention upon him. While in this state of devotion, she encounters
Oberon and, during a dance with Oberon, gives him the Indian boy.
Having achieved his goal, Oberon releases Titania and orders Puck to remove the ass's head from
Bottom. The magical enchantment is removed from Lysander but it is allowed to remain on Demetrius,
so that he may reciprocate Helena's love. The fairies then disappear, and Theseus and Hippolyta arrive
on the scene during an early morning hunt. They wake the lovers and, since Demetrius no longer loves
Hermia, Theseus overrules Egeus's demands and permits the two couples to marry. The lovers decide
that the night's events must have been a dream. After they exit, Bottom awakes, and he too decides that
he must have experienced a dream "past the wit of man to say what dream it was."
In the ruins of Athens, Theseus, Hippolyta, and the lovers watch the craftsmen-players perform the
badly-written play "Pyramus and Thisby." It is badly performed and ridiculous but gives everyone
pleasure regardless, and after the mechanicals dance a Bergomask (rustic dance), everyone retires to
bed. Finally, as night falls, Oberon and Titania bless the house, its occupants, and the future children of
the newlyweds, and Puck delivers an epilogue to the audience asking for applause.
This work is widely performed around the world, and no wonder - it's about the world's most popular
pastime, falling in love. But as Puck knows, falling in love can make fools of us all. Love is crazy, love
is mad. Will love win out in the end?
Conventions of the Elizabethan Stage
a. The play-within-a-play—A play performed as part of the story for some dramatic purpose. For example, in Hamlet,
Hamlet asks a group of players to perform a play with a plot similar to what he suspects are the actual events of his
father’s murder. Much of A Midsummer Night’s Dream revolves around characters developing a play-within-the-play.
b. The use of disguises or transformation—A character puts on a disguise to hide, trick, or spy on others or is changed by magic
into another form. Shakespeare’s audience accepted the fact that none of the other characters ever recognized the person
disguised. A Midsummer Night’s Dream has an obvious example when Puck transforms Bottom into the likeness of an ass (the
animal).
c. Love at first sight—This is a common device in romantic comedies. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, many characters fall in
love at first sight due to the effects of magic or “love juice”. Can you think of another famous play by Shakespeare where love at
first sight occurs?
d. Fluid action—Shakespeare’s stage used little in the way of set or props; everything was portable. Modern critics called
Shakespeare’s plays filmic, since the action can move quickly from one locale to another in much the same way a movie script
can. The action of this play shifts between Athens and various locations in the woods.
e. Asides—Shakespeare’s characters often make comments to each other or to the audience the other characters never
hear. These asides usually comment on the action. An example from The Taming of the Shrew:
• Hortensio. I promised we would be contributors and bear his charge of wooing, whatsoe’er.
• Gremio. And so we will, provided that he win her.
• Grumio. [Aside] I would I were as sure of a good dinner.—(I, ii, 214-217) [p. 74]
f. Soliloquy—Speeches in which characters think out loud, alone on stage, for the benefit of the audience. Sometimes
they are talking directly to the audience, sometimes not. In AMND, Puck has several great soliloquies:
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.—(II, i, 43-57)
g. Active Characters – Remember, these are not just words as in a novel. These are lines to be delivered by living people as
characters moving about a stage. Visualize what they are doing. Shakespeare helps by suggesting their action in the dialogue.
Here is an example. Read it aloud. Think what actions are happening as these characters speak.
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. .—(II, i, 202-213)
h. Writing Style - Most of the time, Shakespeare’s dialogue is written in blank verse, unrhymed iambic pentameter. The rhythm
of iambic pentameter (unstressed syllable, stressed syllable) is considered to be closest to conversational speech. Occasionally
the characters speak in rhymed verse or couplets. A couplet often ends an act or a scene:
But herein mean I to enrich my pain, To have his sight thither and back again.—(Helena I.i. 250-251)