Amy’s lesson on Act II, I think, was very effective. I’m all about any exercise that allows me to tear up magazines. More than that, though, I like the idea of having students compare their concepts of fairies to Early Modern England’s concepts. Since we’re really thinking about teaching high school or early college age students, having them think about how their lives operate in relation to the life, the reality, the society, from which the texts comes is great. So, what did I cut out of my magazine? My concept of fairies is intrinsically tied to nature. I think it’s interesting that we’ve been talking about natural vs. supernatural, because I see fairies as very much a part of nature, rather than being beyond the bonds of nature. In some ways, I think they represent the boundary between “civilization” and nature. For sure, when society and culture were more closely tied to nature, when humans were more so tied to the earth, fairies would have been easier to believe in. Anyway, back to what I cut from my magazine: a picture of two small girls in tutus dancing barefoot on green grass, two pictures of cats, a picture of some red spice, the word herbal, and some other stuff that I can’t really remember. What do we get from that? Like we talked about, for some reason we associate fairies with children, especially girls, so that’s the picture of the two barefoot dancers. The cats to me represent a crossing of the boundary between domesticated and wild, as they are house pets that never seem to loose their hunting and killing instincts. I don’t really know why I picked the red spice picture. Maybe it goes hand-in-hand with “herbal,” since the play depicts all these flowers and their medicinal value in the fairy world. Oh, yeah, and I ripped out a picture of some yarn, because it represents the domesticated, house life. Like we talked about, fairies sometimes crossed into the world most commonly through older women of the household. Anyway, I think the exercise really facilitated a conversation on fairies, and then using the concordance, we were really able to get a better idea of how the mythical creatures operate in Shakespeare’s play.
Then, we had acting class. We’ve all really been going for it with our lines, which is great. I like seeing Amy run through the forest—funny! It seems like we’ve been having so much fun with it. I know I’ve been having fun with it. I also REALLY liked the a-b-a-b exercises. That’s one that I’d really love to use if I were teaching this play. It gives the students a chance to interact with the text, and possibly come to see the humor in it. More than anything, though, especially if they haven’t read the play, performing this simple exercise gives them ownership over part of the play. As a young student, I think I would have been very excited, while reading the play, to come to a portion that I had performed for my class. If you can create a feeling of ownership, or cause students to feel investing in what they’re reading or writing, I think it really takes their work to the next level.
Katelyn’s exercise, I think, really excelled in the area of layers. Like she said, there are so many layers to Shakespeare’s play, and figuring out how to teach to the students who are on layer one and to those students on layer three or four is a daunting task. Her exercise did a great job of providing an easy way to teach those layers. Knowing Ovid’s story can only expand a student’s understanding of the play. While we were doing the exercise, I starting thinking about this: What if you had students read the Ovid story before they even started reading the play? Then, as you discuss Act I, you could talk about the two scenes and how the work. You could ask, too, what if Scene one and two were switched? I personal think this would be a really interesting adaptation of the first act. Having an understanding of Ovid’s story, the second scene could act as a framing story. Playing it that way, the story between Hermia and Lysander would be more striking. As the audience, when they are forbid to marry, we’d be suspended in a realm of fear, fear that they, too, would kill themselves. It adds tension, causing the audience to question whether or not this truly is a comedy. Framing it that way, tragedy looms in the air.
Acts IV & V:
A Midsummer Night’s Dream seems to come to a very quick end in Acts IV and V. We open with Bottom bossing Peaseblossom, Cobweb and Mustardseed abroud: Scratch my head; get me some honey; I need to get to a barber (IV.i.5-22). But then we just get Oberon, who says,
When I had at my pleasure taunted her,
And she in mild terms begged my patience,
I then did ask of her her changeling child,
Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent
To bear him to my bower in Fairyland.
And, now I have the boy, I will undo
This hateful imperfection of her eyes. (IV.i.52-8)
These lines are really disenchanting. For one, Oberon labels his trick as “this hateful imperfection,” which causes me to question to humor of it all. More than that, though, it seems too quick, and it pulls me out of the world of the play. OK, so this was really just about you getting your way and getting Titania’s changeling? That makes it sound like you’re just a child in want of his toy. And later on in Act IV, everything is simply undone again. Theseus says,
Fiar lover, you are fortunately met.
Of this discourse we more will her anon.
Egeus, I will overbear your will;
For in the temple, by and by, with us
These couples shall eternally be knit. (IV.i.72-6)
This is just too easy. If this were a movie that I was watching, I’d say, “Yeah, it was entertaining, but the plot really fell apart there at the end.” There is this one shinning moment to my in Act IV. I really like that Dememtrius, Hermia, Helena, and to a lesser extent, Lysander, come to question whether they are back in reality or sleeping: “Are you sure / That we are awake? It seems to me / That yet we sleep, we dream” (IV.i.87-9). If nothing else, this causes us, the audience, to question—which is more unrealistic, all the Fairyland adventures or the idea that Theseus would simply “overbear” Egeus’ will because he’s so happy he’s getting married?
As for Act V, I don’t know. I honestly don’t see why they would choose to see Pyramus and Thisbe after just being married. Is it as simple as the fact that it is “brief” (V.i.58)? There seems to be a constant eye on the time, like we’re just trying to kill a little bit of time before we can hit the sack. They’re such in a hurry to get to bed, they won’t hear Bottom’s epilogue. I’m convinced: they just want sex. That’s all. The staging of Pyramus and Thisbe could be pretty funny, though. I saw a production in high school that made it hilarious by really playing up the use of a person as a wall and another as the moon.
And then Puck comes on at the end and says,
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumbered here
While these visions did appear. (V.i.399-402)
In the 1999 film production of this scene, I remember thinking Puck was such a nice, jolly fairy at this point. Reading it this time, and thinking about the background of Robin Goodfellow, I really got the sense that Puck, here, is trying to trick the audience. For some reason, I kind of see him saying this while simultaneously pick pocketing an audience member.
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