Act V
Scene i-
Writing for Yourself:
I was wrong in thinking that Egeus would be mad about Hermia and Lysander, because everyone seems to be happy and content. I was correct in predicting that the audience would not like the play the craftsmen put on because, they did not. The duke gave the men the benefit of the doubt but everyone else made fun of them. Bottom continued mixing up words in this act, and substituted devoured with deflower. The ending was unexpected when Robin says to treat the play like a dream, and was confusing. Overall, I enjoyed the play but was confused at times.
Vocabulary:
“This lanthorn doth the hornèd moon present.”(V.i.258); lantern; noun
“Sing and dance it trippingly.”(V.i.413); in a nimble or lively manner; …show more content…
Not only are Hippolyta and Theseus mentioned again, but alternative things are being alluded to in the final act. “Helen’s beauty”, the Fates, and Pyramus and Thisbe are all mentioned in Act Five.
Duke Theseus proclaims, “The lover, all as frantic,/ Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt,” (V.i.10-11). In Greek mythology, Helen was “the most beautiful woman of Greece and the indirect cause of the Trojan War. She was daughter of Zeus, either by Leda or by Nemesis, and sister of the Dioscuri. As a young girl she was carried off by Theseus, but she was rescued by her brothers,” (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica). Theseus states in this quote that it is insane to love a dark-skinned woman, but since lovers are insane, they will love anyone. The audience could understand the allusion and reference being made to Helen while viewing the …show more content…
“O Sisters Three,/ Come, come to me/ With hands as pale as milk./ Lay them in gore,/ Since you have shore/ With shears his thread of silk,” (V.i.353-358). The fates are described as, “...three [women], Clotho, the Spinner, who spun the thread of life; Lachesis, the Disposer of Lots, who assigned to each man his destiny; Atropos, she who could not be turned, who carried ‘the abhorréd shears’ and cut the thread at death,” (Hamilton 44). Lastly, another allusion was to the tragedy, Pyramus and Thisbe in Metamorphoses by Ovid. The mechanicals produce this play, with Nick Bottom as Pyramus and Francis Flute as Thisbe. Edith Hamilton describes the story in her book, Mythology, “Our two young people discovered it and through it they were able to whisper sweetly back and forth. Thisbe on one side, Pyramus on the other. The hateful wall that separated them had become their means of reaching each other,” (105). The audience would know of the storyline, and could relate to it while the mechanicals were producing
Scene i-
Writing for Yourself:
I was wrong in thinking that Egeus would be mad about Hermia and Lysander, because everyone seems to be happy and content. I was correct in predicting that the audience would not like the play the craftsmen put on because, they did not. The duke gave the men the benefit of the doubt but everyone else made fun of them. Bottom continued mixing up words in this act, and substituted devoured with deflower. The ending was unexpected when Robin says to treat the play like a dream, and was confusing. Overall, I enjoyed the play but was confused at times.
Vocabulary:
“This lanthorn doth the hornèd moon present.”(V.i.258); lantern; noun
“Sing and dance it trippingly.”(V.i.413); in a nimble or lively manner; …show more content…
Not only are Hippolyta and Theseus mentioned again, but alternative things are being alluded to in the final act. “Helen’s beauty”, the Fates, and Pyramus and Thisbe are all mentioned in Act Five.
Duke Theseus proclaims, “The lover, all as frantic,/ Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt,” (V.i.10-11). In Greek mythology, Helen was “the most beautiful woman of Greece and the indirect cause of the Trojan War. She was daughter of Zeus, either by Leda or by Nemesis, and sister of the Dioscuri. As a young girl she was carried off by Theseus, but she was rescued by her brothers,” (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica). Theseus states in this quote that it is insane to love a dark-skinned woman, but since lovers are insane, they will love anyone. The audience could understand the allusion and reference being made to Helen while viewing the …show more content…
“O Sisters Three,/ Come, come to me/ With hands as pale as milk./ Lay them in gore,/ Since you have shore/ With shears his thread of silk,” (V.i.353-358). The fates are described as, “...three [women], Clotho, the Spinner, who spun the thread of life; Lachesis, the Disposer of Lots, who assigned to each man his destiny; Atropos, she who could not be turned, who carried ‘the abhorréd shears’ and cut the thread at death,” (Hamilton 44). Lastly, another allusion was to the tragedy, Pyramus and Thisbe in Metamorphoses by Ovid. The mechanicals produce this play, with Nick Bottom as Pyramus and Francis Flute as Thisbe. Edith Hamilton describes the story in her book, Mythology, “Our two young people discovered it and through it they were able to whisper sweetly back and forth. Thisbe on one side, Pyramus on the other. The hateful wall that separated them had become their means of reaching each other,” (105). The audience would know of the storyline, and could relate to it while the mechanicals were producing