A Midsummer Nights Dream By William Shakespeare

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A Midsummer Nights Dream By William Shakespeare

• What You Need to Know Before We Read the Play

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Midsummer Night

• Shortest night of the year (June 23/24)
• Some people in Shakespeares time thought on this
  night
• sprites were especially powerful
• flowers gathered could work magic
• people dreamed of their true love
• people sometimes went insane

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Comedy

• This tale is of frustrated love and mistaken
  identity
• Lovers change the object of their affection,
  while still believing that their feelings are
  completely sincere
• Could easily have been a tragedy like Romeo and
  Juliet

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Setting

• Ancient Greece
• City of Athens
• Woods outside of Athens
• In the video, the setting is Athens but in the
  early 1800s.

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Character Pairs or Groups

• Theseus and Hippolyta
• Egeus
• Lysander and Hermia
• Demetrius and Helena
• Oberon and Titania
• Puck
• Quince, Bottom, Flute, Snout, Snug and Starveling

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Plots

• Marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta
• Mixed-up love affairs of Lysander, Hermia,
  Demetrius, and Helena
• Preparation and performance of the play by the
  Athenian tradesmen
• Quarrel between Oberon and Titania