She has a complicated relationship with Hermia – she is supposed to be her best friend, but Helena tells Hermia’s secret to Demetrius to try to get his gratitude. During the years of the Puritan Interregnum when the theatres were closed (1642–1660), the comic subplot of Bottom and his compatriots was performed as a droll. Drolls were comical playlets, often adapted from the subplots of Shakespearean and other plays, that could be attached to the acts of acrobats and jugglers and other allowed performances, thus circumventing the ban against drama. When the theatres re-opened in 1660, A Midsummer Night's Dream was acted in adapted form, like many other Shakespearean plays. Samuel Pepys saw it on 29 September 1662 and thought it " the most insipid, ridiculous play that ever I saw..." [55] Helena - her best friend, but Helena betrays her by telling Demetrius that she is eloping with Lysander I also think this series continuously does a good job with the topic of divorce and combining the two families. It is a lot for any child to take in. Honey’s character truly comes to the forefront. While this book is not the one focused on her, we can see how it is warming up to when we get her story. She is definitely struggling with accepting her mother’s divorce and Paddy’s new role as a stepdad in her family. Even more so than the previous two books, this one showed me how hard it can be for children to process a divorce sometimes. It also focused on how hurt the children feel even if they know it may have been for the best. Marshall, David (1982). "Exchanging Visions: Reading A Midsummer Night's Dream". ELH. The Johns Hopkins University Press. 49 (3): 543–75. doi: 10.2307/2872755. eISSN 1080-6547. ISSN 0013-8304. JSTOR 2872755. S2CID 163807169.

Fine, i'faith!Have you no modesty, no maiden shame,No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tearImpatient answers from my gentle tongue?Fie, fie you counterfeit, you puppet, you! Presenter: Oberon does say they are ‘ill met by moonlight’, so Geraldine might be into something here.

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Walter: Well that’s correct, just a fairy glow about the stage. This whole play could be a dream, so why not let the audience use their imagination. Hermia starts out by being loved by both Lysander and Demetrius, but when they both fall in love with Helena because of the spell, she reacts badly and falls out with her best friend Helena.

In 1872, Henry N. Hudson, an American clergyman and editor of Shakespeare, also wrote comments on this play. Kehler pays little attention to his writings, as they were largely derivative of previous works. She notes, however, that Hudson too believed that the play should be viewed as a dream. He cited the lightness of the characterisation as supporting of his view. [39] In 1881, Edward Dowden argued that Theseus and his reflections on art are central to the play. He also argued that Theseus was one of the "heroic men of action" [39] so central to Shakespeare's theatrical works. [39] Horace Howard Furness defended A Midsummer Night's Dream from claims of inconsistency, and felt this did not detract from the quality of the play. [30] In 1975, Ronald F. Miller expresses his view that the play is a study in the epistemology of imagination. He focused on the role of the fairies, who have a mysterious aura of evanescence and ambiguity. [49] Also in 1975, David Bevington offered his own reading of the play. He in part refuted the ideas of Jan Kott concerning the sexuality of Oberon and the fairies. He pointed that Oberon may be bisexual and his desire for the changeling boy may be sexual in nature, as Kott suggested. But there is little textual evidence to support this, as the writer left ambiguous clues concerning the idea of love among the fairies. He concluded that therefore their love life is "unknowable and incomprehensible". [49] According to Bevington, the main theme of the play is the conflict between sexual desire and rational restraint, an essential tension reflected throughout the play. It is the tension between the dark and benevolent sides of love, which are reconciled in the end. [49] Both David Wiles of the University of London and Harold Bloom of Yale University have strongly endorsed the reading of this play under the themes of Carnivalesque, Bacchanalia, and Saturnalia. [10] Writing in 1998, David Wiles stated that: "The starting point for my own analysis will be the proposition that although we encounter A Midsummer Night's Dream as a text, it was historically part of an aristocratic carnival. It was written for a wedding, and part of the festive structure of the wedding night. The audience who saw the play in the public theatre in the months that followed became vicarious participants in an aristocratic festival from which they were physically excluded. My purpose will be to demonstrate how closely the play is integrated with a historically specific upper-class celebration." [11] Wiles argued in 1993 that the play was written to celebrate the Carey-Berkeley wedding. The date of the wedding was fixed to coincide with a conjunction of Venus and the new moon, highly propitious for conceiving an heir. [12] Love [ edit ] Hermia and Lysander by John Simmons (1870)

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In 1971, James L. Calderwood offered a new view on the role of Oberon. He viewed the king as specialising in the arts of illusion. Oberon, in his view, is the interior dramatist of the play, orchestrating events. He is responsible for the play's happy ending, when he influences Theseus to overrule Egeus and allow the lovers to marry. Oberon and Theseus bring harmony out of discord. He also suggested that the lovers' identities, which are blurred and lost in the forest, recall the unstable identities of the actors who constantly change roles. In fact the failure of the artisans' play is based on their chief flaw as actors: they can not lose their own identities to even temporarily replace them with those of their fictional roles. [46] Independent - she knows her own mind and defies her father. She stands up for herself when Duke Theseus suggests that she marries Demetrius. Levenson, Jill L.; Ormsby, Robert (2017). The Shakespearean World. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-69619-3. Singh, Jyotsna G. (2019). Shakespeare and Postcolonial Theory. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4081-8526-1 . Retrieved 14 April 2020. Between 1917 and 1939 Carl Orff also wrote incidental music for a German version of the play, Ein Sommernachtstraum (performed in 1939). Given that Mendelssohn's parents had been Jews (and despite the fact that they converted to Lutheranism), his music had been banned by the Nazi regime, and the Nazi cultural officials put out a call for new music for the play: Orff was one of the musicians who responded. He later reworked the music for a final version, completed in 1964. [ citation needed]

Charles, Gerard (2000). "A Midsummer Night's Dream". BalletMet. Archived from the original on 1 May 2011 . Retrieved 29 January 2010. William Duff, writing in the 1770s, also recommended this play. He felt the depiction of the supernatural was among Shakespeare's strengths, not weaknesses. He especially praised the poetry and wit of the fairies, and the quality of the verse involved. [30] His contemporary Francis Gentleman, an admirer of Shakespeare, was much less appreciative of this play. He felt that the poetry, the characterisation, and the originality of the play were its strengths, but that its major weaknesses were a "puerile" plot and that it consists of an odd mixture of incidents. The connection of the incidents to each other seemed rather forced to Gentleman. [31] Kilian, Michael. "No holds Bard! This Shakespeare worth giving hoot". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved 14 October 2019.

A Midsummer Night's Dream Summary

According to Kehler, significant 19th-century criticism began in 1808 with August Wilhelm Schlegel. Schlegel perceived unity in the multiple plot lines. He noted that the donkey's head is not a random transformation, but reflects Bottom's true nature. He identified the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe as a burlesque of the Athenian lovers. [32] In 1817, William Hazlitt found the play to be better as a written work than a staged production. He found the work to be "a delightful fiction" [32] but when staged, it is reduced to a dull pantomime. He concluded that poetry and the stage do not fit together. [32] Kehler finds the comment to be more of an indication of the quality of the theatrical productions available to Hazlitt, rather than a true indication of the play's supposed unsuitability to the stage. She notes that prior to the 1840s, all stage productions of this play were adaptations unfaithful to the original text. [32] The play was adapted into an opera, with music by Benjamin Britten and libretto by Britten and Peter Pears. This was first performed on 11 June 1960 at Aldeburgh. [90] Jodie finds out about Summer's extreme dieting; Summer believes her reaction to be fuelled by jealousy and stops talking to her. However she grows closer to Alfie, who has also become aware of her not eating properly. Summer's weight loss is noticed by Skye and Miss Elise, who tells her she is pushing herself too hard. Despite this, Summer performs well at her audition and is told by Sylvie Rochelle to expect good news when getting a reply.

Time • 5: Divine Foretelling • 6: King of Light • 7: Goddess Reunion • 8: Seeing the Present • 2: World of the Past • 3: Within Wheels • 4: Ouroboros • 9: The Innocent • 10: Light's Fading • 11: Without Limits • 12: Seer of the Past • 1: Golden Seer There is a dispute over the scenario of the play as it is cited at first by Theseus that "four happy days bring in another moon". [15] The wood episode then takes place at a night of no Moon, but Lysander asserts that there will be so much light in the very night they will escape that dew on the grass will be shining like liquid pearls. [16] Also, in the next scene, Quince states that they will rehearse in moonlight, [17] which creates a real confusion. It is possible that the Moon set during the night allowing Lysander to escape in the moonlight and for the actors to rehearse, then for the wood episode to occur without moonlight. Theseus's statement can also be interpreted to mean "four days until the next month". Another possibility is that, since each month there are roughly four consecutive nights that the Moon is not seen due to its closeness to the Sun in the sky (the two nights before the moment of new moon, followed by the two following it), it may in this fashion indicate a liminal "dark of the moon" period full of magical possibilities. This is further supported by Hippolyta's opening lines exclaiming "And then the moon, like to a silver bow New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night of our solemnities."; the thin crescent-shaped moon being the hallmark of the new moon's return to the skies each month. The play also intertwines the Midsummer Eve of the title with May Day, furthering the idea of a confusion of time and the seasons. This is evidenced by Theseus commenting on some slumbering youths, that they "observe The rite of May". [18] Loss of individual identity [ edit ] Edwin Landseer, Scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Titania and Bottom (1848) Bernard Cornwell's novel Fools and Mortals (2017) is about the creation and first performance of the play, as seen by the young actor, Richard Shakespeare, brother of the playwright. [86] Musical versions [ edit ] Anankos • Arete • Arthur • Azama • Azura • Benny • Beruka • Caeldori • Camilla • Charlotte • Corrin • Dwyer • Effie • Elise • Felicia • Flora • Forrest • Fuga • Garon • Gunter • Hana • Hans • Hinata • Hinoka • Iago • Jakob • Kaden • Kagero • Kana • Kaze • Keaton • Kiragi • Laslow • Leo • Lilith • Midori • Mikoto • Niles • Nina • Nyx • Oboro • Odin • Ophelia • Orochi • Peri • Reina • Rhajat • Rinkah • Ryoma • Sakura • Saizo • Selena • Selkie • Setsuna • Shigure • Shiro • Siegbert • Silas • Soleil • Subaki • Takumi • Velouria • XanderBarnes, Clive (18 April 1967). "Midsummer Night's Dream: Balanchine Helps Turn Classic into Film". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. OCLC 1645522 . Retrieved 31 March 2017.