Jenni Kantor; Illuminator; A MidSummer’s Night Dream
Here is a passage from the very beginning of the story:
Theseus:
Go, Philostrate, Stir up the Athenian youth to merriment’s;
Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth:
Turn melancholy forth to funerals;
The pale companion is not for our pomp. [Exit Philostrate]
Hippolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword,
And won thy love, doing thee injuries;
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph and with reveling. [enter Egeus, Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius]
Egeus:
Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke!
Theseus:
Thanks, good Egeus: what’s the news with thee?
Egeus:
Full of vexation come I, with complaint
Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord.
This man hath my consent to marry her.
Stand forth Lysander: My gracious duke,
This man hath bewich’d the bosom of my child:
Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,
And interchanged love-tokens with my child:
Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,
With feigning voice, verses of feigning love;
And stolen the impression of her fantasy
With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweet meats, messengers
Of strong prevailment in unharden’d youth:
With cunning hast thou filch’d my daughter’s heart;
Turn’d her obedience, which is due to me,
To stubborn harshness: and my gracious duke,
Be it so she will not here before your Grace
Consent to marry with Demetrius,
As she is mine, I may dispose of her:
Which shall be either to this gentleman
Or to her death, according to our law
Immediately provided in that case.
The questions for you are as follows:
1. Do you feel that the above conversation is an appropriate start for a comedy? Explain your reasoning please.
2. Why do you think Shakespeare started out with this conversation?
3. Can you relate this situation with any of the books that we have read in Mr. Shank’s class? Are there any connections that you found to Romeo and Juliet?
Category: Per 3 TBT I, Per 3 TBT Illum 3 comments »
May 10th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
1)I think that the conversation isn’t really an approptiate start for a comedy because it kind of makes you think that the play is serious when Hermia’s father accusses her of loving Lysander and not marrying Demetrius; who is of his choice.
2) I think that Shakespeare started out with this conversation because he probably wanted to give the reader a good idea of what the play is about and who the lovers are intertwined with and how the father feels about Hermia disobeying him and wanting to marry Lysander.
3) There are some connections that I found between Romeo and Juliet and a Midsummer Night’s Dream. One of them being that Demetrius (like Paris) is in love with Hermia (Juliet), but Hermia and Lysander (Romeo) love each other and want to run away and get married. Hermia’s father (just like Lord Capulet) is against Hermia loving Lysander and he wants her married to Demetrius.
-Kianat
May 10th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
I think that your first question is an opinion question, but my opinion is that I think it is a very good way to start a comedy! It is the opposite of what you expect a comedy to start out as! And then you keep reading and you think, wow!, this is a great book!
I think that Shakespeare started out with this conversation because he is a weird dude, and anything he writes is automatically godly. haha Just kidding Mr. Shank! He wrote this, agreeing with Kianat, becuase he wanted to introduce the characters and situation before the comedy started.
I can see the conections that Kianat made, but a connection I made is that the book started out as being horrible, but as I read it, I started to like it! His plays seem to be about love, and there is love, and like Romeo and Juliet there are people who do not want the love to work out.
-Dan Black
May 14th, 2009 at 8:48 am
1. Well, it doesn’t really fit a comedy. At first it seems more like a tragedy, because the situation is similar to Romeo and Juliet, which as everyone knows, is a tragedy. I don’t think there’s a whole lot that can be said here.
2. Well, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is that long of a play, and he probably did that on purpose. By introducing the problem right away, Shakespeare can spend more time creating obstacles for the characters instead of explaining the situation in several scenes.
3. Obviously Romeo and Juliet. The girl is supposed to marry someone she doesn’t want to marry. She wants to marry some other guy that her father doesn’t approve of.
-Brandon