Based on the information provided, A Midsummer Night's Dream appears to follow several patterns and engage with key ideas about Shakespearean comedy: - The title and forest settings suggest it will involve the contrast between the everyday world and the magical, chaotic "other" world of the forest that allows characters to escape normal restraints. - The inclusion of fairy characters like Oberon, Titania and Puck implies it will involve the supernatural/unearthly interfering in human affairs. - The opening speeches establish a mood of celebration, revelry and merriment surrounding a wedding, aligned with ideas of festive comedy and holiday from normal order. - The casting of both aristocratic and working-class characters indicates it may

1. A Midsummer Night’s Dream
An Introduction

2. Starter
What were the three ways of thinking about
Shakespearean comedy we looked at last lesson?
• Northrop Frye can help us to understand
Shakespearean comedy through the concept of “green
worlds” in the play, which reinvigorate the old world
and allow a new world to emerge
• Barber can help us through the idea of “festive
comedy,” and the saturnalian pattern which these
comedies follow
• Bahktin offers us the concept of “carnival” –
celebration outside the bounds of the conventional
culture

3. It may also help to understand the plays
through these opposites:
• Everyday • Holiday
• Stricture • Freedom
• Restraint • Liberty
• Inhibition • Release
• Civilisation • Nature
• Rule • Misrule
• Order • Chaos
• Court • Country
• The Urban • The Rural
• Age • Youth

4. Look at the following images, painted in response to A
Midsummer Night’s Dream by famous artists..
Thinking about both these paintings and the title of the play:
• What can we guess about the play from these
images?
• What is the mood in these paintings?
• What themes or ideas might be raised by the
play?

10. Look at the following cast of
characters in the play…
• What might this list suggest about the action,
mood, themes or ideas in the play?

11. Dramatis Personae
Theseus, Duke of Athens
Hipployta, Queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus
Lysander, a young courtier
Demetrius, another young courtier
Hermia, in love with Lysander
Helena, in love with Demetrius
Egeus, Hermia's father
Philostrate, Master of Revels
Oberon, King of the Fairies
Titania, Queen of the Fairies
A fairy, in service to Titania
Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, Oberon's jester and lieutenant
Peaseblossom, a fairy in Titania's service
Cobweb, a fairy in Titania's service
Moth, a fairy in Titania's service
Mustardseed, a fairy in Titania's service
Peter Quince, a carpenter
Nick Bottom, a weaver
Francis Flute, a bellows-mender
Tom Snout, a tinker
Snug, a joiner
Robin Starveling, a tailor
Other fairies attending on Oberon and Titania
Lords and attendants to Theseus and Hippolyta

12. Look at the following settings for each scene of the play. What
might they tell us about the action or ideas in the play?
Act 1, Scene 1: Athens. The palace of Theseus.
Act 1, scene 2: Athens. Quince’s house.
Act 2, scene 1: A wood near Athens.
Act 2, scene 2: Another part of the wood.
Act 3, scene 1: The wood. Titania lying asleep.
Act 3, scene 2: Another part of the wood.
Act 4, scene 1: The same.
Act 4, scene2 : Athens. Quince’s house.
Act 5, scene 1: Athens. The palace of Theseus.

13. Read the opening speeches of the play:
THESEUS
Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour • What is happening in four days’
Draws on apace; four happy days bring in time?
Another moon: but, O, methinks, how slow
This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires,
Like to a step-dame or a dowager • How does Theseus feel about those
Long withering out a young man revenue. four days?
HIPPOLYTA
Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;
Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
And then the moon, like to a silver bow
• What kind of imagery does Hippolyta
New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night
use?
Of our solemnities.
THESEUS • What mood does it create?
Go, Philostrate,
Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;
• What does Theseus command
Turn melancholy forth to funerals;
Philostrate to do?
The pale companion is not for our pomp.
Exit PHILOSTRATE • What mood does he want to create
Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword, throughout Athens?
And won thy love, doing thee injuries;
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph and with revelling.
• What mood does the last line create?

14. Task:
Thinking about the title of the play, the cast of
characters, the settings and the opening
speeches, how far do you think A Midsummer
Night’s Dream is going to follow the patterns
and engage with the ideas about Shakespearean
comedy that we looked at last lesson?