homework help - midsummer night's dream

[mimsum]

Hi

ds has to find out what's unique about the plot of midsummer night's dream - any ideas? it's years since I read/saw it and my mind's gone all blurry

thanks

Play within a play?? Just guessing.

The workmen (Bottom etc) are seen rehearsing a play they are due to perform - Pyramus and Thisbe, and get involved in the fairy world.

Apparently it may have been written for a wealthy patron's wedding because it lends itself to outdoor performance and is fun - fairies, lights, tricks, mistaken identity etc. (Not useful just quite interesting).

looks like you are not teh only one asking!

it's not a play within a play cos that's Hamlet as well

SMS - that's ds actually! only he's not a 9th grade student (whatever that is) - no answers yet unfortunately

I asked my ex english teacher mum and she's not sure

personally I think it's a daft question for y7 kids as in order to answer it they'd have to have quite a broad range of knowledge about Shakespeare's work in general, which my ds certainly doesn't have and I'm sure he's not unique in that!

Is it that the storeyline is complete by Act 4 making act 5 obsolete as far as the plot is concerned:

"A Midsummer Night?s Dream fits into four acts all of the material that would normally occupy a five-act play; the main story, climax, and even a period of falling action are capped by a happy turn of events that would seem to mark the play?s end. It is somewhat strange, then, that Shakespeare includes a fifth act. Since he has already resolved the tensions of the main plot, he treats Act V as a joyful comic epilogue. Except for a short closing scene, the act is committed wholly to the craftsmen?s performance of Pyramus and Thisbe. In wrapping up the conflict before the last act, Shakespeare affords himself the opportunity to give the audience one act of pure, uncomplicated comedy. He offers a play-within-a-play whose comical rendition caps the cheerful mood of the Athenians watching the play."

From answer to question 3

There is also a play within a play in Hamlet though.

What is unique? What a strange question - they're all unique really aren't they?

Could it be the way Theseus and Hippolyta mirror Oberon and Titania? I'm just guessing - maybe it's something simpler.

SMS's sounds right!

A Yr7 pupil could be expected to spot that Act V is obsolete....though probbaly wouldn't notie it as a unique feature.

thinking about it there's also the interaction between fairies, nobles and mechanicals and the fact that apart from the prologue and epilogue all the main action takes place in the space of one night and in the same place .. but I think that the answer the teacher's looking for could well be SMS's - thanks