Mr_Shank

Here are the last set of questions:

1. Puck is considered by many to be the most important character in the play. Do you agree with this? Why or why not?

2. Do you think that Demetrius is really in love with Helena? Explain.

3. What are some of the themes in A Midsummer Night’s Dream?

4. Which did you like better: A Midsummer Night’s Dream or Romeo and Juliet?

-That’s all folks!!!

Brandon

This is the last Blog, and even though we will not have to complete another one of this horrific devices of literary torture for a while, I still feel as if my last blog was sub-par in the whining/complaining section.  For old times sake, I will make this a good one.

I am going to start of by writing a poem about Blogging:

When we first heard of Blogs, we laughed and celebrated

How bad could it be?  The first due date was long belated.

We were two weeks past the first blog, but hadn’t begun

Because you Mr. Shank were having way to much fun.

Our backs were already broken by the weight of the “Night” assignment

And many students were beginning to question their “Honors” alignment

But Wo, the Blogs commenced anyway, and we were giving our first book

We opened “Return Of The Native” and cried at the very first look

The language was coarse, far to difficult for a mortal to comprehend

But the kind Mr. Shank had a helping hand to lend.

You gave use reading days, class time to get ahead.

But we all knew that it was a trick, to Lions our souls were being fed.

You knew darn well that in the classroom we could not read.

We would talk among friends and pay our books little to no heed.

But it offered a horridly convenient outlet for you

“I gave you reading time in class, what harm a can a little more work do?”

You laughed in your head, for it was sick twisted pact.

The Blogs were assigned; and free time your students lacked

What choice did we have?  If we did not Blog, our grades would crack

But it didn’t really matter because our GPA’s had already taken a solid whack.

We continued for weeks, slaves to the Monster named Blog

We fought bravely, like Gandalf battled the Balrog

We finished the fight, four weeks in

But the story is long from over, not nearly FIN

We had to Blog again, not once, but twice

Why would the first four weeks not suffice?

But Alas, it is nearly over, this is the final Post.

We all made it through, many of use, most

But a shocking realization has struck my head like a log

I wrote this long Poem, and darn it, I still have to Blog

Phew, that took like 10 minutes.  On to Bloggin’:

We see in this section of the book all of the interactions between characters finally coming to an end.  Everyone gets married and they have a jolly good time.  We see that the this play contrasts sharply from Romeo and Juliet, in that the scenery of the play does not often change.  The “meat” so to speak of this play is based entirely on the characters.  The play ends with all of the assumed marriages taking place, and everyone living happily ever after.  My question for you is do you think that this ending was appropriate?  There was no bitter sweat, like Romeo and Juliet.  Their is just pure happiness.  Do you think that this takes away from the play?  Does it weaken the play?  

Brian Wawrzyniak

Brian Wawrzyniak

 YEA IT’S THE LAST POST!!!!!!!!!!!

So we finished reading the last act of the play and overall I think it was a good play. As for a connection I have none. I have never heard or seen anything like this play, besides an episode of The Suite Life of Zach and Cody based on this play. There is nothing like Shakespeare’s plays that I know of. The closest thing I can come to connect it with again is Romeo and Juliet. The only reason it connects with that play is that the love situations in each don’t always work out the way they were planned. In Romeo and Juliet they are star-crossed lovers who end up dying for their love, and in A Midsummer Night’s Dream people are falling in love with the wrong person.

Questions:

1.       Now that we’re finished reading the play overall what did you think of it?

2.       Do you think that there I a possibility that some of the events that happened in this play could happen in real life today?

3. Do you think that this play is a good comedy?

This passage is going to be when Claudio basically trashes Hero at their wedding.

	CLAUDIO
20	Stand thee by, Friar.—Father, by your leave,
	Will you with free and unconstrainèd soul
	Give me this maid, your daughter?

LEONATO
	As freely, son, as God did give her me.

CLAUDIO
	And what have I to give you back whose worth
25	May counterpoise this rich and precious gift?

DON PEDRO
	Nothing, unless you render her again.

CLAUDIO
	Sweet Prince, you learn me noble thankfulness.—
	There, Leonato, take her back again.
	Give not this rotten orange to your friend.
30	She’s but the sign and semblance of her honor.
	Behold how like a maid she blushes here!
	Oh, what authority and show of truth
	Can cunning sin cover itself withal!
	Comes not that blood as modest evidence
35	To witness simple virtue? Would you not swear,
	All you that see her, that she were a maid
	By these exterior shows? But she is none.
	She knows the heat of a luxurious bed.

So in this quote, Caludio tells Leanato that Hero is lying and a whore, and that he doesn’t need her and she doesn’t deserve a good man like him.  I found this quote interesting because we have always seen Claudio as such a kind gentlemen and now he is somebody very different.

My questions:

1. Do you think Claudio handled the situation in the right manner, if not how should he have handled it?
2. What do you think got into Claudio to do such a horrible thing? (peer pressure, lies, etc.)
3. What do you thing Hero should do? (should she take him back after this or leave him) (your opinion)

~Lauren Gress~

Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty.

I felt that in honor of our last blog, I would put the last spoken words of our last play. Here is the passage:

Puck:

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to ’scape the serpent’s tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

My questions are as follows:

1. Why did Shakespeare have Puck say these lines?

2. What does Puck mean by it?

3. How does this passage help complete the play?

4. Why did Shakespeare use this passage as the last words of the play?

5. Finally, what type of poem are these last lines? How are they a poem?

There is my final blog for you this year!!

-Jenni Kantor

Fin

The last two acts were filled with drama.  In act four we had Hero dying and friends being torn apart by love, when as in act 5 the friar and Hero’s friends help to unite the couple again and Beatrice and Benedick also get married.  Like in Romeo and Juliet the Friar helps to save the day in Much Ado About Nothing, too.  What do you guys think of this matter? 

Do you think this was one of Shakespeare’s signature details to put in a story, have a friar and let him help? 

 Or do you think that because friars are also monks that it is just their normal instinct to help people in need?

At the end of Act 4 scene 1 Beatrice and Benedick are left alone in the church.  Beatrice tells him how much she loves and, but also how he must kill Claudio to avenge Hero.  I have seen this happen before in movies, when the two lovers are finally together but the one wants the other to do something bad to their own friend.  Sometimes it didn’t turn out well and other times it, like in the musical WICKED.   Glinda is married to Prince Fiyero who is in love with Elpheba (Wicked Witch of the West).  Glinda and the rest of Oz want him to defeat her, while he wants to be with her.  This story does have a happy ending, Fiyero turns into the scarecrow and is with Elpheba in the end, while everyone else, including Glinda, thinks she is dead.

Can you guys think of any examples of where else you have seen this sort of thing happen?

I personally just want to say thank you, Leah, Alex, and Julian You guys have been an awesome blog group to work with this year and I will miss seeing you guys in English class next year. 

Thanks again: D

Rebecca Krick

Yay! Last post!

For this week’s quote, I choose the last line of the play in which Puck says:

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber’d here
While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend:
if you pardon, we will mend:
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to ’scape the serpent’s tongue,
We will make amends ere long;
Else the Puck a liar call;
So, good night unto you all.
Give me your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

So, what do you think Puck is telling us here? And how does this connect back to what happened in the rest of the play?

That’s All Folks!

~Sarah L.

Alright as you have read the ending to the book you see that a fairy tale ending has occurred.  Beatrice and Benedick actually get married, and Hero and Claudio mistake fixed itself.  Did you like the drama though?  I think Shakespeare used a great amount of drama and he kept the reader interested by playing these little kid games.  What I mean as a kid game is how he tricked Beatrice and Benedick and how he set up the plan for Claudio to marry Hero.

Much Ado About Nothing 2

That’s right we are continuing the book.  We know we can not write as good as Shakespeare, but I think the play should not end.  Let’s strat with Beatrice and Benedick.  Would they really stay together in your mind?  I think not because they don’t seem to be nice couple at all.  They seem to call each other names, and this could turn out to be a relationship where he gets mad because she asks him to do all this stuff.  In the story I would have her boss him around for a little bit.  Then out of nowhere I would have Benedick disguise himself as someone she may not know.  He would kidnap her where then he may be able to put some fright in her eyes and cause her to appreciate Benedick instead of taking advantage of him.  That is what I would do because that’s what would make me interested.  What would you do?

Next lets talk about the marriage of Claudio and Hero.  We see that they try to trick Claudio and say Hero is dead but she is really not.  I feel this is wrong, as faking death and making someone sad is not a good trick.  But we all know it turned for the best as they were married and go on to live a happily life after all.  In book 2 I think they would not be the main part of book 2.  They would fall off because they are a great couple.  They seem to me to be really happy, and I cannot see them fighting at all.  Do you guys have any ideas?

Lastly lets talk about Don Jon.  To me this guy played the spoiler role the whole entire play.  In the end he gets caught.  He did make the play exciting, but it was wrong.  Does this guy have a heart?  I think he is more jealous than anything.  So in book 2 we would find him a girl.  This will be great.  She will be a nice girl, who is really interested about his past.  To find out about his past she talks to the prince, Claudio, and Benedick.  She hears of him being a wedding crasher, but his plan had failed.  She is angered by this, so she repeats the plan with the two of them.  He shows him up at the weeding, and makes him feel very horrible.  The wedding ended, and they would be back to gether in another 2 months or so.  Then they would talk about how love is a very important thing, and not just an emotion you can toy around with.  He would learn his lesson and they would marry.  What is your guys idea?

Lastly the ending.  There willm not be a book 3 so it has to end.  Of course everybody is happy except for the Beatrice and Benedick, but they end up to be friends because they realize it was not a good idea to be together.  Anyways then together they should have a visit off into some place where they should all live, and they all could help rule that part.  It sounds like a picture perfect ending to me!  Any other things that you guys think is better?

Themes of this story:

1.  First I feel that love was a big part.  The author showed us that love is something more than emotion and it should not be messed with.  Also it showed us that some are in love but are afraid of admitting it.

2.  Mixed identities also played a role in this.  They were always devising plans to switch roles and trick one another.  I think this is important because this is how the drama occurred.

Those are the only ones I can think, do you guys have any others?

-Alex

Act 4 starts off with Jaques and Rosalind, Ganymede, arguing about Jaques mood. Rosalind eventually wins and Jaques leaves. Orlando shows up late for his love meeting with Rosalind, Ganymede. They talk about there love and Orlando wonders what will happen if he tries to kiss his love and she rejects him. She says just to talk about it, but Orlando thinks that he will die if she rejects him. Rosalind says that that’s just silly. Orlando then requests to leave to go with Duke Senior. Rosalind then tells Celia that her love for Orlando has grown considerably. Then Jaques and some of Duke’s Senior men kill a deer and talk about its horns. In the next scene Orlando is 2 hours late from getting back to Rosalind and Celia. That’s when Silvius came with a letter from Phoebe to Ganymede, Rosalind. They thought the letter was first an angry one but then it started to compare Ganymede to a god. Rosalind sent back a letter saying that he will never love Phoebe until she loves Silvius. Oliver then enters and tells them a story about how Orlando saved him from a lion and a snake. He then says that he got bite by the lion and started to bleed heavily, he then went to the duke and that’s where he spent the last minutes of his life. Rosalind, hearing this, passed out. When she came to, she merely said that she was playing the part of the girl who Orlando has been “wooing”. (WWWHHATT?!?! that didn’t sense to me at all, why would he fall for that?!?) Act 5 starts up with Audrey and Touchstone walking through the forest, they are talking about there delayed marriage. Then William shows up, he exclaims that he indeed is in love with Audrey, Touchstone basically tells him to back off his women. The next scene starts off with Orlando and Oliver having a conversation about Oliver being in love with Aliena and Orlando’s love for Rosalind. (Soooo apparently that whole “Orlando’s dead thing” was just an act to see how Ganymede would react, there taking this stuff to seriously). Anyway, then Ganymede asks why he can’t take Rosalind’s place, Orlando admits he has helped but he just can’t wait until he has the chance to try and marry her. Phoebe and Silvius then enter, they have a conversation about Ganymede and how Phoebe wants to marry him. Ganymede promises to marry all of them if they all go to Oliver’s wedding, they agree. Then Touchstone is off with Audrey, they meet some of the Duke’s pages and they sing a song. Touchstone didn’t really like the song. The next day at the church Duke Senior really wonders if Ganymede can do everything that he promised. Celia and Rosalind disappear into the forest and come back out undisguised. Phoebe sees that the man she loves is actually a women, so she says that she’ll marry Silvius. Then all the couples get married; Orlando and Rosalind, Silvius and Phoebe, Oliver and Celia, and Audrey and Touchstone. They have a great wedding feast. Jaques returns and tells them that Duke Frederick has left to lead a solitary life at the monastery, everyone is happy and Jaques says that he too is going to live in the monastery. They all live happily ever after.
 

Question: How comes when everyone found out that Ganymede was actually Rosalind no one was really that surprised?

Words

prithee-pray thee

censure-strong expression of approval

emulation-effort or desire to excel others

entreaty-earnest request

videlicet-to introduce examples

Adam Lough

I thought this play was great throughout.  These tweo scenes added more drama with Claudio stopping the wedding, Lenarto saying that Claudio has killed Hero, and Beatrice and Benedick being married.   In the end every thing turned out how I wanted it to.  Hero, Claudio, Benedick, and Beatrice were all happily married.

“Tush, tush, man; never fleer and jest at me: I speak not like a dotard nor a fool, as under prilege of age to brag what I have done being young, or what would do were I not old.  Know, Claudio, to thy head, thou hast so wrong’d mine innocent child and me that I am forced to lay my reverence by and, with grey hairs and bruise of many days, do challenge thee to trial of a man.  I say thou hast belied mine innocent child; thy slander hath gone through and through her heart, and she lies buried with her ancestors; O, in a tomb where never scandal slept, save this of hers, framed by thy villlany!” (Act V, scene i)  This is said by Lenanato to Claudio.  I picked this quote because it shows Lenarto’splan in action.  In this plan Leonato wants Claudio to feel bad about killing Hero and change his mind about her.  To do this he says that Claudio has killed her from the grief that he caused her.  It also gives the reader how much he loves his daughter.  He loves her so much that he challenges Claudio, a much younger man to a dual to kill his daughter’s fake killer.  In the quote Leonato expresses his anger towards Claudio for accusing Hero of being unfaithful.  You can not blame Claudio for this.  He was mislead by Don John.  He than tells Claudio that Hero has died because what he has done to her.  This plan works great.  Claudio is upset at what he did to Hero.  Because of this Leonato gets Claudio to tell everybody that Hero was innocent.  Than he is told to marry Leonato’s nees in place of Hero, but it is actually Hero.  Do you guys think that it was right for Leonato to lie about Hero’s death? Why or why not?  I believe that it was reasonable because everything worked out in the end.  Claudio found out that Hero was not unfaithful and the two were happily married.

-Julian Garcia