Final thoughts

I enjoyed the play. I thought it was good. I liked how there was love, things that are and aren't apart of this world, like magic, the faires, the four lovers, and how there was a play with in a play. It was interesting to read, at some part reading about the love with the potion it was a little confusing and I had to read it a few times to understand it. It help having the notes on the left of the pages throughout the play, it helped me understand it more. I also liked how we got to watch the movie of the play while reading, it helped me even more to understand the book. I thought in act 5 scene 1 was very interesting. Basically when everyone and all the different stories are intertwined. The lovers are all having a three couple wedding, the actors are performing their play for Theseus and Hippolyta. And when the play started, later when Starveling, as the Moon, tries to explain his role, I thought that was funny. And at the end of the play within a play when Bottom as Pyramus continues to say Now die, die, die ,die... then he dies, I thought it was funny how he keps on saying it. I also liked the part when Bottom turns into an ass, I thought it was funny and clever how Shakespeare connected Bottom and the animal together. I thought it was a good play and book to read. I didn't dislike anything about this. But at first it was hard to understand things, like the charter  who is who, some of their names were some what confusing, and the language, the way it was written was hard to understand. But reading throughout the book it was easier to understand everything. A question I have for the book is what happened to the Indian boy, it isn't that important but it would have been nice to see what happened with him. One other thing I liked about the book was how and why Shakespeare wrote the play. I think it is because "The cours of true love never did run smooth;" act 1 scene 1 (line134) He is saying that in true love it can never run perfect or smoothly with out something happening to destroy it or make it hard. 

Viewing Activity: Act V

Viewing Activity: Act V

Shakespeare uses a number of different techniques to create humor in the play-within-a-play. Some techniques include:

•          Breaking the play's illusion of reality

•          Using the wrong word or name

-devoured 

•          Repeating a word excessively.

-die

--adieu 

--oh night

Make note of examples of these as you watch the play-within-a-play in Act V. 

Act 4 Dream Chart

Titania- disgust and disbelief at having loved Bottom
Lysander- He didn't know what was going on but told Theseus about his plan with Hermia.
Hermia- Egeus wants Theseus to punish Lysander for attempting to marry with Hermia.
Demetrius- He explains his new love Helena
Helena- Loves Demetrius
Bottom- wonders about his 'dream' and wants to make a poem and call is 'Bottom's Dream', and sing it at the end of the play for the Duke.

Portfolio: Act 4

Act IV Scene i:

1. Review your notes on the Act IV Active Reading Chart. How do most of the dreamers respond to the dream experience upon waking? Which dreamer is permanently changed by the dream experience?

Not knowing what is going on, or how everything happened. 

2. How does Theseus' current decision regarding Hermia and Lysander contradict his earlier statement?

He accepts it now, and wanting a massive wedding with Helena/Demetrius, Hermia/Lysander, Theseus/Hippolyta

Act IV Scene ii:

1. What opinion do the other artisans now have of Bottom since they think he is lost?
They were happy but someone said that they couldn't go on with the play without Bottom because he plays his part like no one else can.

2. What do they most regret losing by not being able to perform the play?
Money.

3. Why must the actors hurry to the Duke’s palace?

Because their play has been chosen. 

Bottom the Weaver worksheet

3. Some critics see Bottom as a fool. Others think he is wiser than he appears. Based on your findings in the above activities and reading the play, what is your opinion of Bottom? (How would you describe him to someone?) Use quotes from the play to support your opinion.

I think Bottom is "full of himself" or he thinks highly of himself. Bottom thinks he is from the high class group, but really all he is doing is making a 'fool' of himself. Like when he tries to speak, he tries to talk with more 'proper' words but really he is using the words in a wrong context or not the right word in that place. I think Shakespeare meant Bottom to be like this because to make his audience laugh, make the play of a comedy. He wants to play many different parts in the play that the armature actors are trying to prepare for the Duke and Duchess, "Let me play the lion too. I will roar that I will do any man's..." (act.1 sc. 2 lines 57-59). He is already playing Pyramus but wants to play more characters. "... let me play Thisbe too...." (act. 1 sc. 2 lines 42-44) He is then late in act 3 Bottom is changed into an 'ass'. I think he was changed into an ass and not another animal because an ass is a 'stupid', 'silly', 'dumb' animal. And Bottom is similar in a way to an ass, how he acts with things. 

4. Puck can transform Bottom into anything he pleases. Why did Puck choose a donkey?

Portfolio: Act 3

Act III Scene I Questions:

Choose one of the following questions to answer (in paragraph form) on your blog:

1. Like Helena in the previous scene, Bottom discovers that he is the object of someone's affection. How does his reaction to the discovery compare with Helena's? What does his reaction reveal (or confirm) about his character?

         Bottom is all like, 'of course you are in love with me'. He just thinks he is better than everyone so he accepts that she loves him. But unlike Bottom, Helena is shocked that Lysander is in love with her, and thinking he is making fun of her. His reaction doesn't compare with Helena's because they think complete opposite of each other's situations. But both tried to run away from their situation. Bottom from the fairies and Helena from Lysander to find Demetrius. This confirms that he is what he has turned into, an ass, and it reveals that he is just a 'cocky' person, who think highly of himself. 

2. When Titania falls in "love" with Bottom in Act III Sc. I, he says: "Reason and love keep little company together." What does this mean and how is it an appropriate statement for the play?
like some people don't know the reason why they love the person that they have fallen for. Like what Titania has now done, she all of a sudden fell in love with Bottom, someone she hasn't see ever and she knows nothing about him. Because she was under the spell she had fallen for Bottom without finding out who he is, she needed to fall for someone because of the potion. 

Portfolio: Act 2

Act II Scene I:

1. What does the reader find out about the current relationship between Oberon, King of the Fairies, and Titania, Queen of the Fairies, from Puck and the first fairy?

The king and queen aren't in a great marriage, fighting over an indian boy. 

Puck is a trickster fairy. 

2. How have Oberon and Titania been involved in the past with Theseus and Hippolyta, and why have they come to Athens?

Because Theseus and Hippolyta are going to get married and they don't want to make a big problem.

3. What effect has their quarrel had on nature, on the seasons, on humans?

rivers flood, farmers crops wilt... 

4. Why won’t Titania give up the changeling to Oberon?

because Oberon wants the boy for his own use but she doesn't want him to do that and wants to keep the boy.

5. What does Oberon send Puck to find?

A magic potion, place it on the eyelid of them sleeping then when you wake up the first person you see you'll fall in love with them. (appearance and reality)

6. What are Oberon’s plans for Titania?

To use the magic potion when she is sleeping, to make her in love with a someone.

7. How does Helena react to Demetrius’s verbal abuse?

She still loves him and she doesn't care if he treats her like that.

8. What is her response to his threats of physical abuse?

She doesn't care either

9. In what way is Helena’s behavior inappropriate for Athenian women?

because the man is supposed to woo the women and not the women woo the men

10. What does Oberon tell Puck to do about Demetrius and Helena?

put the potion on Demetrius but make sure the next thing he sees is Helena.

Act II Scene II Questions:

1. In Act II, Helena must experience a range of emotions. Demetrius, whom she loves, wants nothing to do with her (Act II Sc I lines 188-244) and Lysander, under the "love-in-idleness" spell, is fawning over her (Act II Sc II lines 94-150)! Pretend that you are Helena. Write a diary entry to in response to one these two events. What must she be thinking? How is she feeling? Review the lines carefully and take note of what both she and Lysander or Demetrius say. How does she react? 

*Helena's P.O.V.*

Tonight after following Demetrius trying to get his love, but on a chase to find Lysander and Hermia, I had to stop from the mad chase. As stopping I had seen Lysander and Hermia. At first I thought Lysander was either sleeping or dead. As I checked for a heartbeat he was not dead. As waking he had said, "Who will not change a raven for a dove?" I think he was speaking of mockery.  I do not think he loves me, only trying to make me feel even worse than I already do. I am already hurt that Demetrius doesn't love me, but loves my best friend Hermia, who Lysander should love because she loves him dearly. But no Lysander has either started to love me the way I want Demetrius to or he is playing a trick against me. If he is trying to love me, I don't love him back, I have decided to run from him, not love him, until I know for sure that he loves me. But this still does not feel right that he loves me and not Hermia, I can't hurt Hermia. But she has taken the love that Demetrius should have with me and yet she doesn't love him back. 

2. Dramatic irony is when a character says something, but the audience knows more than the character does about other characters or events, so the statement comes across with a double meaning that the audience "gets" and the character doesn't. Find one example of dramatic irony in Act II Scene II.

An example of dramatic irony in Act II Scene II is how the love potion was put on Titania and Lysander. And another is how it was Lysander not Demetrius who has the potion on his eyes.  

3. When Hermia awakes at the end of Act II Scene II, she describes a dream that she had: "Lysander, look how I do quake with fear-/ Methought a serpent ate my heart away,/ And you sat smiling at his cruel pray" (Act II Sc. II lines 154-156). Is this only a dream? Explain.

 No, the dream was of Lysander and Demetrius. Demetrius is the serpent, and Lysander is "in love" with Helena that he doesn't love Hermia anymore, smiling at what Demetrius is doing.