locating themes in A Midsummer Night’s Dream Identifying Themes locating themes in A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Defining theme A theme is: a generalization about life/society Specific dates, locations, characters, etc. are unnecessary a central and unifying concept of a story It must account for all major details in the literature and not be contradicted by any details in the literature Defining theme

Expressing theme A theme should be expressed as a statement A subject and predicate is needed There is no one way to state a theme: variety is the spice of theme The stated theme should not be larger than what is justified by the terms of the story Avoid statements that reduce the theme to familiar sayings or clichés (“money is the root of all evil” or “bad news travels fast”) Expressing theme

Main Ideas all themes begin with a main idea

MSND Theme Ideas The struggles of love Dreams Magic (and its misuse) Marriage Others? MSND Theme Ideas Divide the class into 4 groups (more if they came up with additional ideas): assign each group a theme main idea from above.

With your group, think about how your theme main idea pertains to A Midsummer Night’s Dream Come up with a few general, true overall statements about your theme main idea For each statement, find 3-4 direct quotes that supports it The theme main ideas were: The struggles of love Dreams Magic (and its misuse) Marriage Others… Support Main Ideas

Main Ideas Turn into Theme Statements On your own, take a look at your group’s theme main idea, the overall statements created, and the quotes found as support: analyze this information and create your own theme statement. Remember to use the guidelines we talked about. Your theme statement will likely be different from others in your group. That is a good thing. Main Ideas Turn into Theme Statements