A Midsummer’s Night Dream-Illuminator Post 1
The first quote I chose was from Act 1 Scene 1:
“My good Lysander!
I swear to thee, by Cupid’s strongest bow,
By his best arrow with the golden head,
By the simplicity of Venus’ doves,
By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,
And by that fire which burn’d the Carthage queen,
When the false Troyan under sail was seen,
By all the vows that ever men have broke,
In number more than ever women spoke,
In that same place thou hast appointed me,
To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.”
I chose this quote because it is when Hermia and Lysander plan to run away to get married and will meet in the forest. Since this is a writing of Shakespeare’s, how is this play similar to the play we all read, Romeo and Juliet?
The second quote I chose is from Act 2 Scene 2:
“Through the forest have I gone.
But Athenian found I none,
On whose eyes I might approve
This flower’s force in stirring love.
Night and silence.–Who is here?
Weeds of Athens he doth wear:
This is he, my master said,
Despised the Athenian maid;
And here the maiden, sleeping sound,
On the dank and dirty ground.
Pretty soul! she durst not lie
Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.
Churl, upon thy eyes I throw
All the power this charm doth owe.
When thou wakest, let love forbid
Sleep his seat on thy eyelid:
So awake when I am gone;
For I must now to Oberon.”
I chose this quote because this is when Puck throws the magic herbs onto Hermia and Lysander’s eyes so that they will fall in love with whoever the see first when they wake up. This is the start of all the trouble between Hermia, Lysander, Helena, and Demetrius. Of what we’ve seen of Puck, do you think that he is all to blame for what he does? Or is it someone else? Why?
~Sarah L.
Category: Illuminator One comment »
May 10th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
I think I asked the same question as you did. So, I would say that this is similar to Romeo and Juliet in the idea of the two star-crossed lovers. Lysander and Hermia are in love, but her father does not approve of the pairing and instead wants her to marry someone else. This is like Romeo and Juliet in which Capulet would never approve of Romeo because he is a Montague. Also, Capulet wants Juliet to marry Paris, even though she does not want to. Plus, in both plays, the two leads come from wealthy families in the city. In the quote you chose, Hermia is swearing that she will run away with Lysander, just like Juliet swears to Romeo. But there are also some differences between the two plays. For one, A Midsummer Night’s Dream takes place in Athens, Greece while Romeo and Juliet is at a later date in Verona, Italy. Another thing to note is that Hermia’s father doesn’t really have anything against Lysander, unlike the Capulet/Montague feud in Romeo and Juliet. I would also like to say that there is a slight similarity between Demetrius and Romeo. In the beginning of the play, it is revealed that Demetrius was once in love with Helena, but now he is in love with Hermia. This is like Romeo at first being in love with Rosaline but later falling in love with Juliet.
Some things I’d like to say about the quote: This quote has a lot of references to Greek mythology/history. “I swear to thee, by Cupid’s strongest bow” is the first reference, with Cupid being the god of love in Roman mythology and his bow that he used to shoot love arrows. However, I’m a little bit confused by this because (as already mentioned) Cupid is the name in Roman mythology; in Greek mythology he was called Eros. Maybe this was supposed to be taking place during the Roman Empire. That is the only logical conclusion I can think of right now. The same confusion occurs with the next reference to Venus, the goddess of love. Once again, in Greek mythology her name was Aphrodite. This is a random fact, but I believe that Cupid was her son. Next comes the line “And by that fire which burn’d the Carthage queen”. This is a reference to Queen Dido, who founded the city-state Carthage (obviously). I’m not one hundred percent sure of legend, but I think the story goes that Dido’s lover was banned from Carthage by the gods so she built a fire, killed herself with a sword, and then let the fire burn her body (again – not sure if that’s right).
For the second question, I’d have to say that he isn’t totally to blame for what’s going on. He is just the “messenger” between the fairies and the humans. I would place the blame either on Oberon or Helena and Demetrius. Oberon was the one that ordered Puck to place the juice on the Athenian man’s eyes, so it wasn’t really Puck’s idea at all. He did think he was putting it on the right person’s eyes, as seen in the above quote. As for Demetrius and Helena, I think that they might be to blame because Helena was the one that got Demetrius to come into the forest in the first place. There she followed him around and he continually rebuffed her. This is what brings them to Oberon’s attention and leads to the juice getting put on the eyes. So I would not say that the whole mess is Puck’s fault.
Erin B.