After reading Midsummer Night's Dream, viewing at least one production, and reading the lecture, you are now ready to discuss elements of the play here in discussion board virtual space. Choose just 2 of the questions below to write a 100 word minimum response to each question, quoting at least once from the play, citing the Act, Scene, and Lines. Use standard formatting for this--for example: (2.3.44-47) means Act Two, Scene Three, Lines 45 to 47.
Once you have posted two responses, then respond with a substantive answer to two of your classmates (not a compliment or a criticism per se, but a response to the content of the play as viewed by a classmate).
- In a show of dramatic irony, Duke Theseus (a fictional character himself) denigrates theatre. In Shakespeare's time, theatrical activity had a great many detractors; just after his time, theatre came to be outlawed. Compare attitudes toward theatre in Shakespeare's time to other periods/places. (You might have to do a little bit of research for this.)
- Compare/contrast how Shakespeare employs outright magic in Midsummer Night's Dream to magic as it occurs in two other plays. (For example, Macbeth and The Tempest…)
- What effect does Shakespeare achieve by writing the play within the play?
- What does Midsummer Night's Dream imply about the nature of romantic love?