Flashcards on A Midsummer Night's Dream: Textual Analysis
A Midsummer Night's Dream: Textual Analysis for Students
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Shakespeare's Plays
106 cards
Card 1
Question: Which Shakespeare play contains the passage with characters Theseus, Hippolyta, Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena in Act 5, Scene 1?
Answer: A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Card 2
Question: Which characters enter as "Lovers" in Act 5, Scene 1 of the passage?
Answer: Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena (the lovers).
Card 3
Question: What question does Theseus ask upon seeing the lovers in the scene?
Answer: He wishes them "Joy, gentle friends!" and asks what masques or dances there will be to pass the time between supper and bedtime; he asks the Master of
Card 4
Question: How does Philostrate respond when Theseus asks him for entertainment options for the evening?
Answer: He hands him a paper with a brief summary of the available entertainments and says there are several mature sports/plays to choose from; he specifical
Card 5
Question: According to Philostrate, how does he describe the play about Pyramus and Thisbe?
Answer: He calls it "A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus And his love Thisbe, very tragical mirth" — it is brief, tedious, and tragicomic; he adds that by
Card 6
Question: What opinion does Philostrate express about the actors performing the play of Pyramus and Thisbe?
Answer: That they are hard-handed men who never used their minds in theater and who have strained their untrained memories to rehearse the play for the nuptia
Card 7
Question: Mention two examples of pieces that Philostrate lists as options and that Theseus rejects.
Answer: "The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung by an Athenian eunuch to the harp" and "The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals, tearing the Thracian singer in the
Card 8
Question: What reaction does Philostrate describe having when he saw the play of Pyramus and Thisbe rehearsed?
Answer: He confesses that it made his eyes water when he saw it rehearsed, though they were tears more of laughter than of tragic passion.
Card 9
Question: What paradox of adjectives do Theseus/Philostrate use to describe the play of Pyramus and Thisbe?
Answer: They describe it with contradictory terms: "Merry and tragical? 'Tedious' and 'brief'? 'Hot ice' and 'wondrous strange snow'" — pointing out the incon
Card 10
Question: Which Shakespeare play corresponds to the excerpt presented in the text?
Answer: A Midsummer Night’s Dream.