U2A5: Visual-Verbal Presentation A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Symbols: The Moon “four happy days bring in Another moon – but O, methinks, how slow This old moon wanes!” (I.i.3-4) “And then the moon, like to a silver bow” (I.i.9) “Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung” (I.i.30) “Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.” (I.i.73) “Take time to pause, and by the next moon” (I.i.83) “A mile without the town, by moonlight” (I.i.87-88) The play revolves around the moon. It creates the atmosphere of night and a dreamlike feeling. The moon is a reminder of the passage of time.

Figurative Imagery - Personification “ Turn melancholy forth to funerals; The pale companion is not for our pomp.” (I.i.14-15) “Or, if there were a sympathy in choice. War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it” (I.i.141-142) Melancholy is described as a pale companion, being sent away to a funeral. War, death, and sickness are personified as people.

Figurative Imagery - Simile “Swift as a shadow, short as any dream, Brief as the lightning in the collied night” (I.i.144-145)

Figurative Imagery - Metaphor “For, ere Demetrius looked 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 dissolv’d, and showers of oaths did melt.” (I.i.242- 245) Demetrius’ promises to Helena are compared to hail, because there are so many. Hermia’s beauty is compared to heat that melted Demetrius’ promises. Hailstones end up being rain showers, melted ice that disappears, refer to the disappearance of Demetrius’s promises.

Dramatic Irony “Helena, to you our minds we will unfold:” (I.i.208) “I will go to tell him of fair Hermia’s flight:” (I.i.246) Act I: Love Chart Lysander Demetrius Lysander and Hermia tell Helena about their secret plan to run away, so that they can be together. Only the audience knows Helena’s plan to tell Demetrius about Lysander and Hermia’s plan to run away. *The love chart is not an example of dramatic irony. Hermia Helena

Allusions “Upon that day either prepare to die For disobedience to your father’s will, Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would, Or on Diana’s altar to protest For aye austerity and single life.” (I.i.86-90) “I swear to thee by Cupid’s strongest bow, By his best arrow with the golden head, By the simplicity of Venus’ doves,” (I.i.169-171) “Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.” (I.i.73) Diana, the goddess of moon and virginity, reinforces Theseus’ point that if she does not obey her father, she will forever be a virgin. Cupid, the Roman god of love, makes people fall in love by shooting them with his arrow. Venus, the goddess of love, is Cupid’s mother. “Cold fruitless moon” is a reference to Diana.

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, the roles of men and women are very different. Males are the dominant gender of the two, while the females are objectified. When Egeus says, “As she is mine, I may dispose of her;/Which shall be either to this gentleman/Or to her death to our law/Immediately provided in that case.” (I.i.42-45), this clearly solidifies the idea that women are seen as objects. A woman’s entire life is controlled by dominant male figures. When Theseus wins the battle between the Amazons, he claims his prize, by marrying the Amazon Queen. Feminist Theory

Feminist Theory Helena is not mad at Demetrius for leaving her; instead she blames herself for not being pretty enough for him. Demetrius promised his love is only for Helena, but it was only temporary. Even though he was the one that left her, she thinks that it was her fault. Women should not be seen as objects. Women are seen as the weaker sex. In the quote ,”And you should do it too terribly, you would fright the/duchess and the ladies that they would shriek; and that/ were enough to hang us all.” (I.ii.64-66), the men think that if Snug roars to ferociously, he will scare all the women. The duchess is the Queen of the Amazons; she is a warrior and would not be afraid of a man roaring.