Kent-Drury
English 312 Midsummer Night's Dream, Acts III-V Questions for the entire play

1. What aspects of the Elizabethan world view are played out in MND?
2. Compare the film with the play itself.  What does the director change?  Are they good changes? Are any of the changes unexpected?
3. This play provides you with an opportunity to see a number of characters behaving badly according to Renaissance/Elizabethan norms. If the purpose of Renaissance comedy is to correct bad behavior, whose behavior is he trying to correct and what's wrong with it? What were the norms for appropriate behavior?  Who is violating those norms? How?
4. What views of courtship and marriage does the play present?  Do you believe the resolutions were satisfactory?

Questions for Acts III-V

1. Who is the "straight man" among the rustics/clowns/mechanicals?
2. Identify the techniques of comedy/humor in the scenes involving
• Bottom and the other players.
• The four mortal lovers.
• Theseus and Hippolyta
• The fairies
3. What practical joke does Oberon play on Titania?  How does she respond when she finds out?
4. What function does the Pyramus and Thisbe play serve in the larger play?