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أكـاديـمـي نــشـط
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رد: third year english student second term
What are the medieval features in the play so far?
1-we talk about the theme of order and disorder and we talk about the Great Chain of Being.
We talk about Theseusand how we implement the Athenian law and who he is the figure of order. And also, we say how Oberon is a figure of order in the forest.
And we say that what happens in the microcosm is transferred to macrocosm.
2-The courtly love tradition.
When you discuss the courtly love tradition, you say that it is reversed. And there is gendermandering. And you say that at the end of act II, Lysander is chasing Helen and she rejects him. This is a courtly love tradition. Who is the courtly lover? Lysander. He keeps on telling Helena sweet words, using flowery language and begging her to accept him as a lover and she is rejecting him.
3 – magic
4- allegorical names
5-And we will talk about the new spirit of the age of the 16th century. What is the new spirit of the 16th century? Who initiated the new spirit of the age? The philosophers. Who are the philosophers?
-Sir Francis Bacon who promotes the inductive way of thinking.
-Desiderius Erasmus
-Niccolò Machiavelli
In the forest a fairy talks to PUCK. He is a mischievous spirit. He is like a fairy, but he is mischievous, like a naughty child. He does things that annoy people, but we cannot say that he is evil. A fairy talks to PUCK in scene one and she tells him ‘are you PUCK the mischievous spirit?’. So, he says yes, it is me. And PUCK tells her that he is the clown of the King Oberon. King Oberon is the king of the Fairies and he marries Queen Titania. So, we have the character of the fairy; Puck and we have King Oberon and Queen Titania.
Puck is an agent of mischief. Puck tells the fairy ‘yes, I am the mischievous spirit Puck’. And he tells her that he is the one who frighten the village girls. He is the one who misleads the night wanderers. And he is the one who laughs at people in troubles. The fairy talks to Puck about very important things happening in the forest. She says that there is a quarrel between King Oberon and Queen Titania. She says that Queen Titania took an Indian boy and made him her page or attendant. King Oberon is very jealous and he wants to make that boy for himself to make his servant. This is the reason of the fight. Because of this quarrel between the king and the queen, very bad things happen in the forest. The fairy expresses her worry because there is disorder in the forest. The weather has been upset. There are flood and fire in the forest. The Crops have failed. What kind of theme is this?Order versus disorder. So, according to the Great Chain of being, what happens in the macrocosm عالم الانسان transfers to the macrocosm عالم الطبيعة، عالم الكون . So, because of the quarrel between King Oberon and Queen Titania, the weather is upset and there are flood and fire and the crops have failed. This is the theme of order and disorder.
If you have a question: are there medieval features in the play? You say that the theme of order and disorder is one of the themes of the play.
King Oberon and Queen Titania enter. They come on the stage and they continue fighting together. Titania teases him and she tells him that she knows that he used to love Hippolyta . Now she will marry Duke Theseus. And he teases her also and tells her that he knows that she used to love Theseus and now he is marrying Hippolyta. The stories are interrelated. There is the story of Oberon and Titania and this story is interrelated with the other one (the story of Theseus and Hippolyta). They know characters from the other story (the story of Theseus and Hippolyta). They are interacting together. And of course there is interaction between those two people. The subplots are intermingled.
Titania tells Oberon that he should stop begging/ asking her for her boy. Titania knows that disorder is happening in the forest because of their quarrel together. She tells him that plague spreads in the country and kills many people because of their fight over that boy. She says also that the fairies do not dance anymore in circles. Fairs are cheerful and they dance in circles on the music of the whistling wind. So, they no more dance. She tells him also that summer gets the ice of winter and the winter gets the buds of summer. So, Titania talks again about the theme of order and disorder.
Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,
I’ll to my queen and beg her Indian boy;
And then I will her charmed eye release
From monster’s view, and all things shall be peace.
Oberon says now I will go to Titania and take the Indian boy. And then I take off the charm.
This quotation is related to the theme of order and disorder. Oberon is a figure of order. He wants to restore order and peace to this forest. He wants to correct the mistake which Puck had made.
There is something you have studies it. It is Courtly love tradition. Courtly love tradition is a tradition that goes back to the Middle-Ages. In southern France, this tradition appears. According to that tradition, a knight chases a married woman. A knight falls in love with a married woman in the court and he keeps begging her to accept his love, but she is always rejecting his love at the beginning and keeps him away. He writes love poetry to her and he humiliates and degrades himself. He stays under her balcony crying and begging and doing everything to show that he has no dignity even she swears/ even she scolds and chides him. He is just happy to hear her voice. So, he keeps on begging and following her until she accepts his life. And later he discovers that she betrays him with another man. This is the courtly love tradition.
In this play, we see the opposite. So, the situation is reversed. And this is the technique of gendermandering.
Shakespeare employs the technique of gendermandering in ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream’. It is affiliated with the courtly love tradition, but it highlights a gender role reversed. It is a non-traditional technique (experimental/modern technique).
Helena takes the role of the courtly love who is supposed to be a man. She is chasing Demetrius in the forest, and Demetrius plays the role of the lady who rejects and chides/ scolds. So, the last story is reversed.
Oberon overhears all what happened. He says something.
There are two courtly lovers for Helena. They are Lysander and Demetrius. And she rejects them. So, according to the courtly love tradition, the courtly lover courts the lady but the lady rejects him. So, Helena does not care about being showered with flowery words and she thinks that both men are scorning and mocking her.
Puck is very much amused to see them fighting because he is a mischievous spirit. He is interested in that.
Lysander tells Helena that he loves her and he does not love Hermia. And Demetrius assures her that Lysander is a liar and he loves Hermia. And he tells Helena that he loves her more. So, Helena still she does not love any of them. Hermia comes and she is jealous of Helena. So, Helena again tells Hermia that she joins then in the conspiracy. They are all playing a game on her; Lysander, Demetrius and Hermia are playing a game on Helena. That is what she thinks. Helena reminds Hermia of their childhood friendship and she tells her that they used to be very close together like two cherries in one stem. So, she should consider this all friendship and should not do this to her. On the other hand, Hermia believes that Helena is scorning and mocking her. So, there is misunderstanding between the two girls; Helena and Hermia. Both think that the other mocks and scorns her. This misunderstanding is a traditional technique. It is a traditional technique which is common to all comedies.
Lysander is assuring Helena that he loves her and Demetrius is doing the same thing. So, the two men decide to look for a place off stage to fight together/ to fight for Helena’s love. And the winner in the fight will win Helena. They do not say dueling. I imagine that they will fight with the hands. Hermia clings to Demetrius. She tries to hold him back. She wants him to stay with her and not to go fight for Helena. So, he pushes her away and he curses her. He calls her ‘Ethiopian’, ‘serpent’, ‘Tartar’, ‘loathedmedicine’ and ‘hatedpotion’. This is a verbal fight. We neverfind a fight that is more humorous than violence. This is a surrealism technique.
Helena is talking about the traditional love triangles. She talks about two traditional love triangles. First, she says that she (Helena) used to love Demetrius. The other love triangle: Hermia loves Lysander.
What is the grotesquery in‘A Midsummer Night's Dream’? Bottom changes into a donkey. In literature, this changing is called metamorphoses. Are metamorphoses real or not real? For the western critics who are not Muslims do not believe that metamorphoses can happen in real life. So, they say that it is not real. It is part of imagination.
Grotesquery in the play here happens and occurs in the accident of Bottom when he metamorphoses into a donkey. Another thing is magic. King Oberon practices magic. And we consider this Grotesquery. King Oberon; the king of the fairies, will employ or practice magic. How does he practice magic? Oberon orders Puck to go and bring for him a magic flower called the pansyزهرة الثالوث. In reality it is not a magical flower, but in the play they say that it is a magical one. In the play, they say that one of Cupid’s arrows by mistake fell on this flower, so it makes this flower magical. Oberon explains to Puck why he wants this flower. King Oberon tells Puck that f you take this flower and squeeze, the juice of this flower it if it falls on the eyelids of somebody sleeping when that person wakes up and opens his eyes, he fall in love with the first living thing that comes across him by the power of magic.
First living thing= human or non-human.
Puck leaves to fetch the magic flower and then King Oberon soliloquizes.
Shakespeare uses allegorical names for his characters. Their names reflect their professions.
- Quince. Quince is a name of a tree. This person works as a carpenter.
-Snugis a tight fitting which gives warmth. He is a joiner.
Bottom is the base of a thread that is wound at the end. He is a weaver نساج.
-Flute is a musical instrument that works by blowing. He is a bellows-mender مصلح منافيخ.
-Snoutis the nose of a kettle which is shaped by a tinker. He is a tinker.
-Starvelingmeans a starving man. He is a tailor because tailors are supposed to be thin. There is a stereotype of tailors.
using allegorical is a traditional technique. It is even there in the morality plays in the Middle Ages.
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