1. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Shakespearean Comedy

2. Shakespearean Comedy
Gender roles are mixed and often involve crossdressing women—women tend to be the movers and the shakers of the action within the play (think of Queen Elizabeth in the audience)
Class order gets blurred
By the end of the play, young people get married to create a happy ending and keep societal regeneration intact.
Must be 2 people of appropriate age and station.
Equality and trust between the sexes brings happiness and harmony

3. Setting Nighttime In the woods On the eve of a royal wedding
Move from civilization nature
Then from nature back to civilization
Chaos/turmoil order/renewal

4. Stock Characters in Shakespeare
Blocking father: blocks an obvious match, causing lovers to move around it
The Wise Fool: always notices more than anyone else, but plays it off comically
Clown: Acts as a comic relief, uses puns and malapropisms, babbles and is silly

5. Key Words Inversions: order is upside down
Surfeit: too much of something
Malapropisms: mispronouncing words for comic effect
Puns: play on words that sound the same, but have different meanings

6. Themes Fairytale vs. Reality—What is real?
Madness/insanity—Types and causes

7. Images
Moon/moonlight
Flower
bird