Getting to the Bottom of Things The Fifth Act In the middle of MND the lovers act out the irrationality confusion passion and aggression of love and then they all fall asleep exhausted ID: 649380
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Slide1
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
:
Getting to the Bottom of ThingsSlide2
The Fifth Act
In the middle of
MND
, the lovers act out the irrationality, confusion, passion, and aggression of love, and then they all fall asleep, exhausted.
By the end of the 4th Act, all the lovers (including Bottom) awaken, and all the conflicts
between the lovers are
resolved
.Slide3
Why
,
Then
, is There a Fifth Act?
Shakespeare has to complete the “inside-out” pattern of the play and get everyone back to Athens.
Shakespeare wants to offer some perspective on what’s happened in the Woods.
The Mechanicals’ play has yet to be performed.
Shakespeare still needs to get the Faeries into Athens, just as he got all the other characters into the Woods.
All I know is that I feel really dissatisfied and confused at the end of Act 4.Slide4
Theseus’s evaluation of the lovers’ experience in the woods:
pp. 70-72 (5.1.1-27)
Theseus is here back in the role of spokesman for the rational versus imagination
.
But why, then, did he reverse his verdict at the end of Act 4?
A. He’s inconsistent
B. He’s putting on a show of the
“logical”
authority figure
C. He says one thing here but really represents and means the oppositeSlide5
The Lovers’ Evaluation of their Experience in the Woods:
At the end of beginning of Act 4, the lovers
are awakened by the hunter’s horn:
Peter Hall Clip of
4.1.142-202 (1:25:45 – 1:29:35)
Have
the lovers been significantly altered by their experience in the
Wood
, or is everything really the same as if the experience
was just a dream?
They are just the same
I have no clue
They are significantly alteredSlide6
Bottom’s evaluation of his Experience in the Woods (4.1.203-22
), pp. 66-67:
Three
film versions:
by James Cagney (Max Reinhardt film, 1935
), 1:50:50 – 1:56-05
by
Paul Rogers (Peter
Hall film, 1968
), 1:29:38 – 1:31:40
by Kevin Kline (Michael Hoffman film, 1999
), 1:26:22 – 2:29:03
Which actor’s interpretation do you like best?
A.
Cagney’s
B. Paul Roger’s
C. Kline’sSlide7
The Play-Within-the-Play:
Bottom, in mentioning the poet Quince, and Theseus in next talking about the poet, together look forward to the play put on by the Mechanicals for the lovers at Theseus's court:
Surprise: We’re Up!Slide8
The
Lovers Respond
to the
Play with Laughter
that
Speaks
:
Their
sense of superiority over the lowly tradesmen
Their
kindly sympathy for the lowly tradesmen
Their
new-found perspective on themselves that allows them to see themselves in the
Mechanicals
T
heir
active engagement in the performance
as audience
, which has transforming powers to make something out of nothing (as must the actor
)
All of the above.Slide9
The Mechanicals' play all along has commented on the theme of authority and love:
The
lovers' experience in the wood has been a kind of rehearsal for marriage
Bottom mimics the wild passions driving the lovers into and within the
Wood
The
confusions in the
Mechanicals
' efforts to read their parts and understand their roles mirror the confusion and lack of communication that occurs between the lovers in the forest
The
plot of the
Pyramus
and Thisbe play is about the way passion becomes confusion
It
is also about the easy
reversability
of comedy and tragedy, characteristic of the experience in the
WoodSlide10
Summary:
The last part of
A Midsummer Night's Dream
is about the poet's (and actors') powers and the role of the audience
we are finally the ones who must "find the concord of this discord" (5.1.60)
our imaginations, added to Shakespeare's and the performers, transform "airy nothings" into something of "great constancy" (
5.1.16
, 26)
together, we can make an
ass
B O T
T
O M L E S
SSlide11
THE TAIL/TALE-END