However, Titania appears in this scene and so does a fairy who is probably female. The biggest problem for the audience would be Titania, who is supposed to be beautiful and wise, which helps the audience understand why Oberon is so obsessed with gaining her love. If Titania is not believable, the play will not work. This scene also needs to show Oberon's weak will, but not turn him into a buffoon. This scene would need special handling from the director to make sure Titania seems right to the audience. Too strong a male presence will ruin the mood, so the actor must show a hint of femaleness and a hint of seduction to indicate just why Oberon wants her so badly. Too much femaleness would again take away from the entire scene. These characters make poor choices and are emotional, and that needs to come through to the audience, too. A good actor, no matter what gender, can certainly get those things across. Critic Harold Bloom writes, "Not surprisingly, a preoccupation with the idea of imagination, and with some of its products -- dreams, the illusions of love, poetry and plays -- is central to this comedy" (Bloom 8). Therefore, imagination could also be key to a play with only men. If the audience can use their imaginations to believe in fairies and frolic in the woods, then they can imagine a man is a woman in this play. The final scene takes place in Act III, Scene ii when Demetrius and Lysander fight over Helena. Demetrius says to Lysander, "Follow? Nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jowl" (Shakespeare 1427), and they head off into the woods to fight. At first, this scene also seems to be only about...
However, Hermia declares her undying love for Lysander in this scene, and so it is pivotal to the action and her character is pivotal to the scene. Whoever plays Hermia must be believable and passionate, and Helena, who also appears, must be angry and jealous. This scene calls for important staging and acting. The actors should not appear too feminine, but feminine enough to warrant fighting over. The lines should be believable and emotional, but not so much that the characters appear like caricatures of themselves. This is another very emotional part of the play, and if the emotions are played too over the top, then the characters will simply be laughable. The men must deliver the lines as if they really believe them, and so get the audience to believe them, too.
Midsummer's Night Dream Acting: Were the actors believable in their roles? I did not find all of the actors particularly believable in their roles. I could not help noticing that several of the members of the cast forgot their lines or misspoke their lines, sometimes saying a line in the wrong place. Knowing the play well, this really threw me off and took me out of the moment of the performance. I
Midsummer and Elizabeth A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedic drama that centers on marriage. Indeed, it is traditionally held that Shakespeare penned the play for a friend's wedding; therefore, it should be no surprise to find that the theme of marriage runs through and through Midsummer, from the young adults to the nobility (and even to the fairy world, where marital strife is encountered). Yet, being penned in an age
Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare's play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was written in 1595. A woman's role in her family and community were determined by a patriarchal society. It was during this time, after all, that women were being burned at the stake all across Europe. The play begins in an Athenian palace just before the wedding of Theseus, Duke of Athens, to Hippolyta, "Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour /
The soul of girl/woman Jenna is returned to normal at the end of the film, and the girl's knowledge about working as an adult editor on a magazine, the true nature of her chief junior high school tormenter, and Matt's worth as an older man make her a more mature thirteen-year-old, thus the delving into fantasy make the real world 'better,' as in "Midsummer," and more moral and thus more
2) Although this may seem prudish, Hermia is wise -- she has just eloped with Lysander, and she needs to make sure that he marries her, to preserve her position in society. And when she mistakenly believes that her beloved, for whom she has risked everything, including her father's affection and her good name, is taken away by her best friend, she is even willing to defend herself physically: Puppet? why so?
Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream is ostensibly concerned with heterosexual marriage, but it is seldom noted just how disturbing the play's picture of marriage seems. The subject is seldom raised without mention of death or conquest: even the farcical drama enacted in the play's final act by the rude mechanicals is a story of two lovers who die violently, except the story is played for laughs.
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