Midsummer Night's Dream Study Guide

Objectives:

1. To solidify and demonstrate student understanding of plot and character elements;

2. To provide a creative writing exercise different from Elizabethan prose and poetry;

3. To investigate varying points of view in the play and various way to examine and understand the play.

Details:

    : For the purpose of this project, there are three plot lines in the play:

1. The Mechanicals - the planning of the play, the rehearsal (including Bottom's appearance as an ass), the chase in the woods, Bottom's experience, Bottom's return to normal

2. Oberon and Titania - the fight, the trickery, the false love, the making up (including the effects of all this on the mortal world)

3. The 4 lovers - the marriage problem, the elopement/flight, the enchantment/deceit, the return to normal

: For the purpose of this project, there are 5 fiction forms:

1. X-Mysteries - like the X files - a who-done-it with some science fiction mixed in

2. Realistic or "document based" fiction - like Nothing But the Truth

3. Romance - like the soaps

4. Fairy or folk tale - like Cinderella or Hansel and Gretel

5. Fables - like Aesop or James Thurber, stories with a moral

Have each student select one plot line from Plot and one fiction form from Form, then rewrite the story.  Set goals appropriate to the level and abilities of the class.

Least Tern

Elizabeth Sky-McIlvain