Act V Questions

1. Is Theseus's reaction to the lover's adventure something you would expect of him?
Theseus's reaction to the lover's adventure is not something you would expect of him. This is because he gave Hermia the options of a nunnery and death, which both seems very harsh on her for just wanting to have the man her heart desires. Because of the ultimatum he gave her, the readers or audience would not expect Theseus to be empathetic of them.
2. Why does Hippolyta initially seem hesitant to watch the play?
Hippolyta initially seemed hesitant to watch the play because of the description Philostrate gives her. She wishes not to see the wretchedness and goriness of the 'happily tragical serious comedy'.
3. Why does Snug, who plays the Lion, make a fuss about proclaiming his true identity?
Snug makes a fuss about proclaiming his identity. He does this so as not to scare the sensitive ladies in the audience.
4. In reading the play-within-a-play, we become the audience for the drama played out by Theseus, Hippolyta, and the others. These performers, in turn, form the audience for the reenactment of Pyramus and Thisbe. How does observing another audience help you understand the relationship between audience and performers?
While watching the audience watch a play, we notice many things about the audience and the performers through their actions. Of Theseus we note that, though he did his noble deed of letting the lovers stay together and getting married with him and Hippolyta, he often cuts in during the dialect of the play, furthur showing the reader/audience his arrogance-the fact that he just assumes that everything will halt at his wish. Of the rude mechanicals, we notice their skittishness- how they act in the play and how they answer to Theseus's commentary shows us all this. And of the lovers and Hippolyta, we see their subservientness to Theseus- he often interrupts the play, but they do not speak unto he does, or until spoken to, especially the women, who do not speak until their significant other speaks to them.
5. How does the theme of love's difficulty occur throughout the play? Explain.
In Act I Lysander said, "the course of true love never did run smooth". This we know now, was a foreshadow for the play later on. Most of the conflict in the play stems from romantic troubles and though the play involves many romantic elements, it is not exactly a true love story. The theme of love's difficulty quite often shown through the motif of love out of balance or a distraction in a romantic relationship. The most prevalent people we see this happen to are the four young adults: Hermia, Helena, Lysander, and Demetrius- Hermia loves Lysander and Lysander loves Hermia, but Demetrius also loves Hermia, and Hermia does not love Demetrius, but Helena loves Demetrius though his love is not returned. Throughout the play, these relationships become skewed, from love-juice placed upon some of the character's eyes, until things are set right with Hermia and Lysander loving each other and Helena and Demetrius loving each other. Something similar happens to Oberon and Titania in the fact that Oberon places the love-juice on Titania's eyes so that any love she has for him will diminish and in turn she will fall in love with a beast so that he can aquire the changeling boy they had previously argued about. This shows the imbalance of Oberon's love for Titania- his want of the Indian boy outweighed his love of his wife. The matter of Titania loving the ass-headed Bottom also represents an imbalance of apperance and nature in the fact that she is beautiful, graceful and immortal, and Bottom is grotesque, clumsy and mortal.