Midsummer Night's Dream Study Guide

These questions can be used as homework or completed in class as the play is read aloud and/or viewed.
Many questions lend themselves to group discussion.

 

Scene 1:

1. What is the purpose of this night meeting of the Mechanicals?

2. Would you say Bottom's suggestions are practical or fanciful?   Explain your answer in a short paragraph, referring to specific suggestions.

3. What device does Shakespeare use to get Bottom offstage and alone after he speaks?  (l.71-74)  Why is this necessary?

4. Underline in the text examples of Bottom's malapropisms.

5. How, in a classroom play, can we suggest to the audience that Bottom is invisible?  Be specific.

6. To whom is Robin speaking in lines 106-113?  Is this the behavior you expect of him?  Explain.

7. What does Bottom think of the responses of his fellow actors to "ass head"?  Where in the play have we seen a similar response, in a very different circumstance?

8. What wakes Titania?  (l.139).

9. What is ironic and humorous about Titania's speech (ll. 139-143)?  Refer to specific phrases.

10. In what way is Bottom truly "wise" when he speaks line 146?   Refer to other incidents in the play, as well as to this one.

11. Read the notes carefully on p.80.  What can you learn from them about the knowledge which Bottom has of his world?  In your answer, refer to specifics.

12. :  Write a very short story in which a character who your teacher and classmates will recognize (real, from a TV show or movie) is magically changed by Robin while waiting to meet another character.  Set the stage carefully by describing the main character and the reason for the meeting.  Have the change (of head, of course) be in some way related to the personality of the character. Have the story end with the reaction of the 2nd character when he/she appears.

Scene 2:

1. We do not actually see Robin following the Mechanicals through the woods.  Write a paragraph in which you describe him playing with any one of the Mechanicals in a way which matches his own description:   lines 27-28.

2. Which character is used by Shakespeare to connect the two plots?   We see this working in the first 2 pages of this act.  Explain your choice.

3. What dream is echoed in the references by Hermia and Demetrius to "piercing through" the heart and the earth?

4. What does Hermia believe Demetrius has done?

5. Why is Robin delighted with Oberon's use of the flower on Demetrius? (ll. 120-124)

6. Locate in this scene examples of Shakespeare's "perfect dramatic timing".  Describe them.

7. To what does Demetrius compare his heart (ll. 172-176)?  Explain the comparison.

8. How has Hermia located Lysander in the dark wood?

9. What does Helena make of Lysander's love for her and Hermia's lack of understanding of what is going on?

10. What other situation and lines are echoed in Helena's words :   lines 248-249.

11. How does Shakespeare use the difference in "size" of the two women to make their fight more dramatic and interesting?

12. If you were a very creative director, how would you use props and costumes to exaggerate the differences between Helena and Hermia?  Answer this is in a detailed paragraph.

13. In what ways have the mortals been made fools by Robin?

14. What specific line tells us that Hermia still loves Lysander, even after all of his language of hate?

15. :  Think about all of the references to snakes that Shakespeare has made in this play.  You might even want to search Acts I, II and III for snake references (serpent, snake, worm, crawling, adder, forked tongue, split tongue) in the e-text version of the play. Think also about the use of flowers and nature and animals and light  in the love lines spoken by Helena and Titania (especially).  Write 2 love notes.  The first should be a "real" love note, sent to someone you pretend to really love.  Use modern references to tell how deep your devotion is.  The second is a "hate-love" note which you might send to someone who you pretend has deceived you or deserted you.  Use a modern version of the many images used by Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia and Helena to describe the pain and hate of love lost or denied.  You will send these notes to no one but the teacher!!! You will not, of course, use any actual names of actual students.

Least Tern

Elizabeth Sky-McIlvain