1. 4/24/2017 Welcome Back
Have out your notes or annotations on the excerpt from The Elements of Style…
On the piece of paper provided, write a grammatical concept that you still are unsure about.

2. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Complete the anticipation guide individually while I distribute books.
In 10 minutes, we will discuss…

3. Essential questions… How do we act when we are in love? Why?
Which emotions “from the heart” are the strongest? Which reveal our true selves?
How effectively does Shakespeare use humor to make his ideas known about human behavior?

4. Getting started on Midsummer…
There are five intertwined plots in the play:
The marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta
The teenagers in love
The marriage of Titania and Oberon
The adventure of the mechanicals
Pyramus and Thisbe
There are two settings for the play:
The City World (reason)
The Green World (emotion)

5. Was Shakespeare really funny?
Yes.
His humor appealed to people of all tastes and classes
Midsummer contains all kinds of humor – slapstick, wit, sight gags, puns…

6. Types of Comedy in MND Romantic Comedy
Farce—improbable and ludicrous situations that provoke belly laughs
High Comedy—intellectual humor; wit, puns

7. Need to know points: Midsummer
The play was first performed between 1595 and 1596
Like R&J it explores love, but is a comedy, not a tragedy
Shakespeare explores the complex nature of the human heart
Midsummer mocks many aspects of human behavior

8. Symbols, Motifs and Themes
City World and Green World Dichotomy
Moonlight
Dreaming
Imagination
Varieties of Love: Irrational (fickle, blind, sudden); Universal (affects all); Selfish; Sexual; Platonic; Tragic

9. What’s really happening in Midsummer?
Shakespeare uses different kinds of humor to mock people’s common assumptions about love
Shakespeare uses numerous examples of figurative language to explore the complexities of human emotions
Shakespeare uses dramatic irony to heighten the sense of comedy and humor in the play
Shakespeare uses soliloquies by major characters to draw the audience into central ideas and themes
Shakespeare portrays human relationships in several different lights in order to illustrate the changing and complex sides of human emotions

10. The Lovers’ Transformations
A Lover’s Triangle: Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius (Helena loves Demetrius)
Puck annoints Lysander by mistake
Lysander now loves Helena; Demetrius still loves Hermia, who loves Lysander
Oberon annoints Demetrius:
Now both men love Helena; Hermia is the castoff
Puck clears Lysander:
Couples rightfully paired

11. Famous Quotations “The course of true love never did run smooth.”
“Reason and love keep little company together nowadays.”
“Lord, what fools these mortals be.”
“Lovers and madmen have such seething brains.”
“If we imagine no worse of them than they of themselves, they may pass for excellent men.”

12. Let’s begin reading… 1.1 Theseus Hippolyta Egeus Hermia Demetrius
Lysander
Helena

13. HW
Finish reading Act 1 for HW (Due Wednesday, 4/26)