COMPARISON AND CONTRAST OF THE ATHENS IN MND’s ACT 1 & ACT 5

ACT 1 ACT 5

Daytime Night-time – image of the moon in the play

[Pyramus and Thisbe] - moonshine and starlight

and the fairies

“give glimmering light by the dead and drowsy

fire”

Image of the dream

Lay out of conflict Resolution/conclusion of conflict [???] – stable

relationship

Separated world Connection of the three worlds [Upper class,

Craftsmen/players and the fairies]

Starts with the Theseus [as the image of a Ends with Oberon

mentor-characters for denouement] *variation upon the beginning

Movement (Athens to wood) Movement (Woods to Athens)

Reason (governed by the law) Filled with Magic, love as Oberon blest the

hearth of these mortals

The women articulated their arguments The women never spoke in Act 5 (marriage are

not for women; stunning silence – how feisty

they are: the price of UNITY; Hippolyta and

Theseus are still at odds; Titania

 References to Elizabeth/ performed for the wedding of one of Elizabeth’s colleague

 The play within a play is funny coz they break the fourth wall, the players are naive (drives
the humor of the play) – they insist that what they are doing is real
 Questioning: What is real?
 Who’s the shadows? That Puck refers to... It could be the real fairies. “This is just a dream...”
 PUCK – told the audience that they are also in a dream
 The character that encapsulates all the themes of MND – Bottom [as seen in the last part of Act IV,
Scene I] – incommensurability of Bottom’s lines – the play’s true artist. The only who understands
that for one to understand this dream one must put it into art. You can’t fathom art.
 Bottom have such great faith in the play.
 In the end, it is Bottom’s dream and it has no bottom.
 A play that champions lunacy, lovers and poet. Champions art. Profundity of real and imagination.
Gender of politics. IT IS NOT A SIMPLE PLAY ABOUT FAIRIES.