Transcript Step 2: A closer look

Step 2: A closer
look
Working through the
text using the AOs as a
framework for detailed
analysis
Generations of school children have been introduced to the fairies,
laughter and magic of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
The key to success in this exam is not to underestimate this play. Although
there’s plenty in it to appeal to children, it is a sophisticated and multi-layered
text which, in recent years, has become the site of much discussion and
controversy about the nature, meaning and status of Shakespeare’s dramas.
We will be looking at the structure, character, themes and language of the
play, but will also be exploring what it says about the experience of theatre
itself. It is not the only Shakespearean play to feature a play-within-the-play
but does go the furthest, in that it shows the director assigning roles and
rehearsing the cast, as well as the end result. Many of the concerns of
modern scholars in performance studies – for example, the ideas of theatre as
a sign system and the role of the audience in creating meaning – are
addressed in MND.
Before we can explore these issues fully, we need to read the text closely.
Assessment Objectives
AO1: Articulate creative, informed and relevant responses to
literary texts, using appropriate terminology and concepts, and
coherent, accurate written expression.
AO2: Demonstrate detailed critical understanding in analysing
the ways in which structure, form and language shape
meanings in literary texts.
AO3: Explore connections and comparisons between different
literary texts informed by interpretations of other readers
AO4: Demonstrate understanding of the significance and
influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written and
received.
The Assessment Objectives become our framework for
interrogating the text. They should equip you with a way to
organise your ideas.
AO2 looking at dramatic, narrative, poetic means
• Shaping of the action
• Language of dialogue
• Verse? Prose?
• Language register, from formal to intimate
AO3 Views of the action
• within the text (characters on each other)
• critics
• productions
AO4 Looking at context
• Issues of the time (including language - overlaps with AO2)
• Reflections of the age - then
• Reflections of the age - now
• How the play works for modern audiences
A general note...
• What are these characters doing?
• What ideas are embodied in their language?
• How do you respond to what is going on?
Try to keep the idea of performance in mind: when a
character says something, think about whether the
language implied that a gesture or action goes with
it, and try to imagine the physical bodies speaking
those words or even not speaking at all. Don’t forget
that characters may be on stage, even when silent,
and may be making a significant non-verbal
contribution to the scene.
[AO3 – consideration of interpretation through
performance]
?
Act 1 Scene 1
SCENE I. Athens.
The palace of
THESEUS.
AO1: What are the
characters doing?
Look at your notes for
this scene and quickly
summarise.
AO4: Setting the scene...
Why midsummer?
Why Athens?
Act 1 Scene 1
“our nuptial
hour”
Love and marriage – sets
the scene for a comedy
(these often end with a
marriage)
AO3: How does our
expectation of
comedy affect our
reading of the
events which
follow?
AO2: What ideas are embodied in
their language?
“our nuptial hour”
Love and marriage – sets the scene for a comedy (these often end with a marriage)
AO3: How does our expectation of comedy affect our reading of the
events which follow?
In the same way you suspend your
compassion when Tom batters Jerry in
cartoons, it’s possible you disengage
yourself from an emotional response to
the seriousness of what follows because
subconsciously you expect that all the
obstacles will be somehow removed
by the end of the play.
Can everyone do this?
Could some people find this first
scene uncomfortable?
AO2
SCENE I. Athens. The palace of THESEUS.
Blank
verse;
iambic
pentameter
slow
old
wanes
lingers
quickly
‘silver bow’
new
heaven
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 revenue.
HIPPOLYTA
Long vowels
5
Repetition of his language
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.
Dream-like
quality
10
Like to a stepdame or a dowager
Long withering out a young man’s revenue
Does he feel the wait is
diminishing him? cf. his clear desire
‘silver bow’ links to Diana, goddess of
hunting, the moon, and chastity – which
also links to ‘the Virgin Queen’
A darker side of human
relationships – they
breed hatred and
resentment as well as
love
AO2
Is this also a daring joke at the
expense of the Queen, who would
not name her successor?
Elizabethan propaganda created
links between the Queen and
Diana
[...] the moon, like to a silver bow
New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night
It also reminds us of Hippolyta’s
former status as Queen of the
Amazons
Link to Cupid (and his arrows)
who is responsible for love
AO2
Sets the tone of
the play
THESEUS
Melancholy
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.
Phallic image
15
Love and pain
Love as powerful and
irrational
20
“I woo’d thee with my sword/ And won thy love, doing thee injuries”
Conflict:
Love and Pain:
Egeus and Hermia
Egeus and Lysander
Demetrius and
Lysander
Demetrius and Helena
Theseus and Hippolyta?
“Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,
Making it momentary as a sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!'
The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
So quick bright things come to confusion” (I.i.141-9)
~*~
“And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen,
When the false Troyan under sail was seen,
By all the vows that ever men have broke,
In number more than ever women spoke” (I.i.173-4)
AO2
AO3: How do you respond to what is going on?
Hippolyta has a more positive view of the moon than Theseus, in the context of
the passage of time before the wedding. He believes it is delaying the marriage,
she that it is moving quickly. When we consider this alongside the references to
conflict and pain in this scene, does it point to the key theme of perception
being unreliable or...
...is Hippolyta a reluctant bride?
• First step: What does our AO4 knowledge add to this?
• Second step: What evidence is contained within the language of the opening scene?
• Third step: how could this be performed on stage?
Key moments to consider: Theseus must respond to Hippolyta’s speech before he
orders Philostrate to leave. How would you direct him?
Hippolyta’s tone when she speaks her lines and non-verbal reactions to Theseus
when he speaks his.
What about Egeus’ speech suggests he is keen to complain?
EGEUS
Stage direction
built in – allows
audience to
identify
characters by
name
AO4: arranged
marriage typical
in Eliz. England
but this seems
harsh even to
them. Athens as
setting adds to
believability.
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,
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.
vexation
complaint
bewitch’d
feigning
stolen
cunning
filch’d
harshness
AO2
25
30
‘me’/’my’ etc
= selfcentred;
concerned
with own self;
Hermia =
possession
35
40
45
AO3/4: Would an Elizabethan audience respond differently to
Hermia’s plight than a modern audience?
It’s likely.
For many modern audiences the idea of a father having the power to ‘leave the
figure or disfigure it’ is abhorrent, if not incredible, whereas in Shakespeare’s
time the father’s power over the family was seen, by the dominant class at
least, as one of the main props of social order. In this case, though, the father is
going beyond what most sixteenth-century thinkers would sanction.
Perhaps we are meant to see Athens as unreasonably rigorous and legalistic?
How/where could you set the play
in order to affect the audience’s
view of this situation and
sympathies?
e.g. Tim Supple’s 2006 production was set in
India.
AO2
THESEUS
Either to die the death or to abjure
For ever the society of men.
Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires;
Know of your youth, examine well your blood, 70
Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,
You can endure the livery of a nun,
For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd,
To live a barren sister all your life,
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. 75
Thrice-blessed they that master so their blood,
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;
But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd,
Than that which withering on the virgin thorn
Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness. 80
shady
barren
faint
Cold
fruitless
withering
thorn
Another negative reference
to the moon
Maternity (cf. ‘thorn’ of
virginity)
Thrice-blessed they that master so their blood,
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;
AO4: possible reference to the ‘elected’
chastity of Queen Elizabeth
(and, of course, Diana the goddess of chastity)
AO3: Theseus gives Hermia “time to pause” until his wedding day –
the ‘next new moon’. How does this affect our view of him?
AO3: Theseus gives Hermia “time to pause” until his wedding day –
the ‘next new moon’. How does this affect our view of him?
He seems sympathetic and diplomatic.
He has given Hermia time, rather than judging immediately.
He seems to represent reason versus Egeus’ anger and irrationality.
After this, he acknowledges that he has heard poor report of Demetrius,
and he invites Egeus and Demetrius to leave the stage with him (knowing
they cannot refuse) for some “private schooling” (schooling can either be
interpreted as ‘advice’ or ‘admonition’ – either reflects well on him, but it
does change our understanding of his intent).
He turns a judgement into a trial and sets our expectations of plot.
AO2
LYSANDER
‘courted’
I am, my lord, as well derived as he,
As well possess'd; my love is more than his;
My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd,
If not with vantage, as Demetrius';
And, which is more than all these boasts can be,
105
I am beloved of beauteous Hermia:
Why should not I then prosecute my right?
Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,
Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,
And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,
110
Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,
Upon this spotted and inconstant man.
‘dotes’ = religious in tone;
repetition/alliteration
emphasises Helena’s
obsession and prepares us
for later events
“Come, my Hippolyta. What cheer, my love?”
AO3: Add to your ideas from earlier: how would you direct Hippolyta throughout this scene?
How would she leave the stage? What effect would you aim to have on your audience?
AO3: Add to your ideas from earlier: how would you direct Hippolyta throughout this scene?
How would she leave the stage? What effect would you aim to have on your audience?
• What reactions has she had?
• Is she disturbed by what she sees or does she remain indifferent?
• Whose side is she on?
• Is she sympathetic to Hermia? Lysander? Demetrius? Egeus?
• How does she react to each of these characters?
• Does she see parallels between herself and Hermia?
• Does she resent her wedding day being linked to a day of judgement?
• Does she think her happy day will be ruined by the stubbornness of
another?
• How does she react to Theseus’ judgement and handling of the
situation?
• How does she respond to his question?
AO4:
conventional
verbal equivalent
of sighs
AO2
LYSANDER: How now, my love! why is your cheek so pale?
How chance the roses there do fade so fast?
130
HERMIA: Belike for want of rain, which I could well
Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.
Expectation of
the plot ahead
Stichomythia
(speaking
alternate lines) =
heightens
emotion
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,--
135
HERMIA: O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low.
LYSANDER: Or else misgraffed in respect of years,--
HERMIA: O spite! too old to be engaged to young.
LYSANDER: Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,--
Repetition of “O!” could
HERMIA: O hell! to choose love by another's eyes.
be comic if not so
passionate. Overwrought
emotions cf. Pyramus and
Thisbe
140
During Hermia’s “My good Lysander!” speech, she switches to rhyming couplets.
This would be familiar to Elizabethan audiences as a rhetorical device of courtly
love. How does this add to the vow she is making?
AO2
My good Lysander!
I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow,
By his best arrow with the golden head,
By the simplicity of Venus' doves,
By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,
And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen,
When the false Troyan under sail was seen,
By all the vows that ever men have broke,
In number more than ever women spoke,
In that same place thou hast appointed me,
To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.
AO4: Because the audience would recognise the convention, it would add
to their impression of Hermia and Lysander’s love as true and ‘meant to
be’.
AO3: Would a modern audience have the same reaction?
AO2
HERMIA
God speed fair Helena! whither away?
HELENA
Pun on light skin/
beauty (AO4:
Elizabethans
valued light skin
over dark)
Call you me fair? that fair again unsay.
Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!
Your eyes are lode-stars; and your tongue's sweet air
More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,
When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
Sickness is catching: O, were favour so,
Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;
My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,
My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.
Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,
The rest I'd give to be to you translated.
O, teach me how you look, and with what art
You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart.
AO3: Helena rejects the idea that she is ‘fair’ because Demetrius is not attracted to her.
Helena is often presented as tall and blonde, usually as attractive as Hermia, suggesting
these feelings are caused by his rejection and not reality (theme: perception and
unreliability). In the 1981 BBC production, however, the actress playing Helena was made
to look ‘distinctly frumpy’. Do you think that one of these approaches is more effective
than the other? How would you cast Helena? Is she ‘fair’?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/a-midsummer-nights-dream-helena-andhermia/8280.html
AO3: Helena rejects the idea that she is ‘fair’ because Demetrius is not attracted to her.
Helena is often presented as tall and blonde, usually as attractive as Hermia, suggesting
these feelings are caused by his rejection and not reality (theme: perception and
unreliability). In the 1981 BBC production, however, the actress playing Helena was made
to look ‘distinctly frumpy’. Do you think that one of these approaches is more effective
than the other? How would you cast Helena? Is she ‘fair’?
BBC, Shakespeare ReTold, 2005
Brigham Young University,
2008 http://blog.cfac.byu.edu/2008/01/byusmidsummer-nights-dream-jan-25-feb-9has-carnival-flavor/
Tim Supple,
2006
Duke Energy
Theatre, 2008
“I won't call Depta's casting colorblind, but Wilson
must be when she declares she's every bit as fair
as Paula Schmitt's Hermia.”
http://clclt.com/charlotte/what-the-puck-sympathy-for-thejobless/Content?oid=2147677
AO2
Stichomythia: emphasises frustration
and heightened emotion of Helena
HERMIA: I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.
HELENA: O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!
HERMIA: I give him curses, yet he gives me love.
HELENA: O that my prayers could such affection move!
HERMIA: The more I hate, the more he follows me.
HELENA: The more I love, the more he hateth me.
HERMIA: His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.
HELENA : None, but your beauty: would that fault were mine!
It also highlights her jealousy of Hermia.
Hermia’s situation is mirrored by Helena’s own.
200
The images here create a deeply romantic atmosphere. This suggests Lysander’s
optimism about his plan, and his idealised view of his and Hermia’s love for one
another.
Helen, to you our minds we will unfold:
To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold
Her silver visage in the watery glass,
Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,
A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal,
Through Athens' gates have we devised to steal.
AO2
215
AO3: Look at Hermia and Lysander’s exits. How would you direct
them to leave the stage and what effect would you aim to have on
the audience?
AO3: Look at Hermia and Lysander’s exits. How would you direct
them to leave the stage and what effect would you aim to have on
the audience?
Note that Hermia leaves the stage
before Lysander does. Why don’t they
leave together? What does this say
about their characters?
As they leave are they...
• Fearful?
• Excited?
• Something else?
Lysander -
Nancy Meckler,
2011
Love makes
lowly, ugly
things
beautiful and
worthy
Love is about
imagination
not reality
Love is easily
fooled
AO2
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;
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.
‘beauty is in the eye of the
beholder’
Love transforms but it also
robs the lover of reason
Perception does not always
match reality
The imagination of love
Cupid is blind
because he does
not see, he feels
She values his sight/perception even though it is
unfavourable
Essay question:
How effective an introduction to the play is
Act 1 Scene 1?
At least 500 words.
Think about:
• plot
• character
• theme
• what we know
• what we can expect
• use of language to express this
• possibility for interpretation