Piecing a Play Together: Example Final Project for a Midsummer Night's Dream

What Matters Most: Midsummer's Representation of Hermia and the Role of Beauty

1. The first theme that I chose was the representation of the character of Hermia and her obsession with beauty and her physical characteristics. In the play, we frequently see Hermia discussing her looks. She frequently compares herself to Helena, stating that she is not as beautiful as she and that she wishes that she was as tall as Helena. When the two men are no longer in love with Hermia, she instantly thinks that it must be because she is not as fair or because she is short. In Act 3 when she finds out that Lysander no longer her loves, she exclaims, “I am as fair now as I was erewhile. Since night you loved me; yet since night you left.” She assumes that it must be her beauty that has caused him to go astray. She cannot look to any other reason why a man would no longer love her. She interprets other people’s actions and ideas to be a direct commentary on her beauty.

2. Hermia’s obsession with her looks is interesting on two points. First off, it is an excellent commentary on the way that women view themselves and what they value as important. Shakespeare is playing with a universal theme as he addresses this point. This idea becomes even more significant because of the similarities that are drawn between Hermia and Helena. The two women are represented as being relatively similar in both looks and personality. However, the men clearly have opinions either way and the women see drastic differences between themselves. They see these differences based on which man loves the other woman. They assume that their beauty is their greatest asset and thus it must mean the difference between getting the man they want and not.

This connection between beauty and love puts into question whether or not love is truly blind. This is a theme that Shakespeare reintroduces throughout the play. For while, the men seem to see differences that are not there, illustrating that perhaps love is blind, the women have it stuck in their heads that beauty is what matters. This begs the question: do women create these ideas themselves or do they see it in the actions of men? Why do these women see their looks as being the key to finding love?

3. The media example that I chose to illustrate this theme is the movie Legally Blonde with Reese Witherspoon. In this movie, the main character Elle Woods is a dumb blonde who wants to go to Harvard to be with her boyfriend. She eventually makes it in and realizes that her boyfriend is a jerk. However, she works very hard and becomes a successful law student by the end of the movie. She uses her fashion and beauty ideas as a tool to help her make it in a business world. Her uniqueness and “ditziness” ends up being what saves the day for her in the end.



4. Legally Blond illustrates this idea of women and the significance of beauty because the main character is characterized as being the ultimate beauty queen. She is introduced as being the popular, rich girl who gets all the guys, because she is drop dead gorgeous. We see her going shopping, organizing her clothes, and wearing a wardrobe of pink. Her only real concerns seem to be clothes, makeup, and fashion accessories. Furthermore, the movie continues on this popular theme that love/attraction is only skin deep. Elle is very popular with the opposite sex, but as far as we can see, the only thing she has to offer is her beauty. At least, this is the only thing the men seem to see.

Elle uses her beauty to get ahead. She gets into Harvard due to her video application where she is wearing a bikini and prancing around in tight suits and cute purses. She shows no knowledge or ability to be a lawyer; however the judges are affected by her level of attractiveness. Their minds play no role in their decision. This again reinforces the idea that beauty is what matters most. Just like Hermia and Helena who constantly worried about their level of fairness, Elle uses her beauty to get ahead. She is concerned about her looks and rightly so, because it is eventually what helps her in the end.

5. Legally Blond, however, does not seem to be looking at this prominence of beauty in a negative light. For while beauty and sex appeal is what helps Elle get into Harvard and win out in the end, the movie works to show that there is more to Elle than meets the eye. Elle is able to use her beauty as a tool. The movie suggests that Elle also needs a certain amount of intellect to use fashion and beauty products to her advantage. She wins the case at the end because she knows about fashion and how perms work. Thus, this movie seems to be a direct criticism on the idea that all beautiful people are dumb. It seems to suggest that people can be concerned about how they look and still be able to use their minds for other useful things. It seems to say that women can indeed have it all.

In a Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare seems to playing with the idea of how much emphasis is placed on beauty and if that emphasis is rightly placed. Hermia and Helena begin to see themselves though how fair men see them. Their focus of beauty is extrinsic. Elle’s focus on beauty, however, seems to be more intrinsic. Elle wants to be beautiful for herself. It is a positive thing for her. While Helena and Hermia appear to lose their self worth and dignity in their looks, Elle is able to shine. She is presented as well-rounded individual.

6. I believe that the main difference between these two pieces is their intended audience and culture. Legally Blonde was created to be a fun loving comedy that made people believe that they too could be successful lawyers. It played with the idea that anyone, even Elle, can make it in this world. This illustrates what audiences are looking for. They are looking to feel good and to not have to think too hard. This movie is also a direct commentary on the current idea of “dumb blondes.” This is a more contemporary idea that was not as relevant to Shakespeare’s time.
Shakespeare on the other hand, has a more complicated theme in his play. His intent seems to make the audience question where they place the importance of beauty and how that relates to love. Rather than being a direct commentary on the importance we place on our physical appearances, Shakespeare seems to be shining the light on ideas that may be taken for granted by his audience. He does not attempt to make them feel good; instead he attempts to make them feel enlightened.

7. Legally Blonde. Dir. Robert Luketic. Perf. Reese Witherspoon, Luke Wilson, and Selma Blair. Universal Pictures, 2001. Film.


Unrequited Love and the Plight of Shakespeare's Lonely Helena

1. For my second adaptation, I chose to focus on the character Helena, with a focus on her unrequited love for Demetrius. In the play, Helen is introduced as being the ex-lover of Demetrius. They were supposedly madly in love and then Demetrius left her when he found Hermia. Helena, however, has not gotten over him. In the very beginning of the play, she participates in a monologue where she describes her love for Demetrius and how her entire self worth is dependent upon his feelings for her. She wants him back and she dedicates the rest of the play to achieving that goal.

We see her chase Demetrius across the forest, begging for him to be with her. She states that she wants to be with him, even if it means that she has be degraded to being treated like a dog. She proclaims, “I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius, /The more you beat me, I will fawn on you:/Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me, / Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave, /Unworthy as I am, to follow you” (Act II Scene 1). Through this quotation and her actions, it becomes clear that being anything to him is better than being nothing. It becomes clear that her entire being resides on Demetrius’ love.

2. This element is central to the play as a whole, because it is what creates the mismatch and asymmetrical relationships among the four nobles. There are two men and two women, so it would be natural to have two couples. Instead, both of the men love Hermia, leaving Helena out in the cold. This sets up the need for Puck and the magical fairies to use the love potion to create balance once again, which is the central conflict of the play.

This idea of unrequited love also has great implications in terms of gender roles and the effects of love. The main focus of the play is a commentary on love. This theme is an example of that because it looks at what love can do to a person. Helena has become defined by her love for Demetrius. She not only has dedicated her life to following him and degraded herself to be his dog, but she has also begun to see herself through his eyes. She no longer carries any intrinsic worth of her own, as she states that love can change the way you view yourself. She proclaims that even though the rest of Athens may believe that she is fair, she is ugly if Demetrius does not love her.

3. The media representation that I chose was the music video for Colbie Caillat’s song, “Realize.” This song became popular in 2007. Colbie Caillat has a large female fan base with many of her songs focusing on women in love and how that makes them feel.



4. In the song, “Realize” Caillat discusses how she has figured out that one man in particular is the man for her. She sings the song to him, using the second person. The main message of the song is that he too should realize that they would be perfect together and they should be a couple. This is similar to Helena’s situation, because both women desire men that are not theirs yet. Both women are in a position of seemingly unrequited love as we are left to watch them serenade their love interest. Both women are dedicated to winning over the man of their dreams. Both women believe that they have found the perfect man.

5. In the song, Caillat states that the man needs to “take time” to realize that they were meant to be together. In the music video we even see the man. He is portrayed as being just as much in love with Caillat as she is with him. Presumably then, he has just been too afraid to admit his true feelings. This song gives the impression that Caillat is not singing in vain. While her love may appear unrequited, there seem to be other obstacles that are keeping the couple apart. The song portrays the couple as being the elusive soul mates who are meant to be together. They are just not there yet.

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, however, Helena is represented as a fool. It is clear that Demetrius wants to be with Hermia and he shows no interest in being with Helena. He ignores her as she follows him around in the forest. It is not until the love potion is put on him that he begins to return Helena’s love. Therefore, Shakespeare seems to use this unrequited love as a commentary on the fickleness of love and how foolish one can be when they are in love. Caillat on the other hand, seems to be embracing the idea of love. She seems to be asking people to take time from their busy lives and realize that love is what matters most.

6. The differences clearly exist due to the intentions of the two authors. Caillat is writing for her large female fan base who revels in singing about the giddiness of love. She has a very positive and dreamy message. Shakespeare on the other hand, has a more expansive audience. He is providing a more complicated look at love. He is certainly not casting it off as unnecessary or foolish. However, he forces his readers to take a more introspective look at how they view love. Because Shakespeare is using a play format, he does have more room to create these complicated messages and ideas. Caillat is restricted to a few stanzas of a song, and thus she has to be simpler in her message.

7. Caillat, Colbie. “Realize.” Coco. Universal, 2008.


The Teaching Moment of Duality: The Nobles and the Craftsmen

1. The last theme that I chose to address is the idea of duality. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream there are several storylines there are intertwined throughout the play. We see the king and his bride to be, the story of the nobles, the magical forest with Oberon and Tinania, and finally the world of the young nobles. Although these storylines are treated as separate entities, there are several running themes that are addressed through all of them. One of the central themes is the idea of love and foolishness. In the storyline of the young nobles, they act very seriously. They are searching for their loved ones and when chaos occurs, they treat the problem as a grave concern. Even when their actions are dictated by magic, they still believe that they are acting by reason. For them, love is a serious and profound part of life. It is to be treated with the utmost importance and sincerity. As a direct opposite of these nobles, are the craftsmen. Unlike the nobles who speak with eloquent monologues, the craftsmen often have short banters between them. They are a comic relief in the play filled with misunderstandings and humor. However, they too, discuss the idea of love. The craftsmen put on the play Pyramus and Thisbe that was written with a very serious tone. However, the craftsmen butcher the play and make a mockery of the entire theme. They treat love as if it were foolish or inconsequential.

These two very different portrayals of how to approach love work together to teach the audience about love as a whole. These two sets of characters gain meaning through their comparison to the other. As readers, we begin to see how serious the nobles are because we have that link of difference. As these different representations become evident, the questions that they bring about become unavoidable.

2. An overarching theme that runs through the play is the idea of love and foolishness. We see several examples of how love changes a person, including in Helena’s speech where she directly says that she sees herself through the eyes of love which has no basis on reality. She proclaims, “Through Athens I am thought as fair as she./But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;/He will not know what all but he do know:” (Act 1 Scene 1). Thus, Helena no longer sees with reason. She does not see what is actually there. Instead, she sees with love, which thus cannot be linked to reason.

One of the significant quotations from the play comes in the final act: “The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact” (Act 5 Scene 3). This quote illustrates the connection that is being made between imagination, lunacy and love. A common thread surrounding the play is this idea that love does not belong with reason. Love cannot be treated with a serious rational mind, as is part of the world of magic. I think that this dualism between these two sets of characters allows the readers to begin to address this idea as they see how serious the nobles are and yet they are engaging in foolish, unexplainable behavior. Because the readers become aware of their heightened level of seriousness through comparison, they begin to see how love is often unexplainable and has to be separated from rationality. They begin to see how foolish it is to pretend that lovers act by reason.

3. The media example that I chose was the movie The Breakfast Club. This movie was created in the 1980’s. It is a movie about 5 teenagers who have to go to Saturday detention. These 5 teenagers come from completely different social circles; there is the geek, the popular girl, the jock, the rebel, and the social outcast. By the end of the movie, these 5 people begin to get to know each other and see beyond their differences. They begin to respect one another even if they cannot hang out within school grounds.


4. This movie illustrates this idea of duality and learning through the other because it relies on the idea of definition through comparison. As readers of the text, we cannot define the popular girl in isolation. Her significance only becomes revealed to us when we see how she compares to the other characters. The movie attempts to put these characters in identical situations: coming to school, eating lunch, etc, as it works to highlight the fundamental differences that exist between them. As we see these differences, we begin to learn more about the characters themselves. We begin to see who they are by seeing who they are not. This is similar to Shakespeare’s attempt to highlight the seriousness of the nobles through their direct contrast.

5. The Breakfast Club works to break down these differences. It introduces the 5 characters as separate identities, but by the end of the movie, these characters are able to come together in unity. They are able to see beyond their differences and understand each other.

This idea of unity is very different from that of Shakespeare. In Shakespeare, these differences are posing questions. They are fundamental to the characters and the characters do not realize how the other is different from them. In Act 5, when the nobles watch the play, they comment on how ridiculous the craftsmen are. However, they do not realize how different these men are from themselves. They do not begin to question their own level of seriousness. Instead they remain naïve. They remain unaware of their attempts to apply logic to the inexplicable idea of love.

6. Shakespeare uses duality to create these questions regarding how love is thought to behave versus how it functions n reality. At the same time that he does this, he is creating a commentary on how people foolishly enter love with a guise of reason. Thus, the noblemen do not learn about themselves through the craftsmen because they are representative of the foolish members of societies who naively go on believing that they are living by reason. Shakespeare wishes to raise these questions and to use this duality as a way to emphasize differences and possibilities.

In The Breakfast Club however, the teaching opportunity of duality is not just for the audience, it is for the characters in the movie as well. The Breakfast Club uses this idea of duality to do more than teach a lesson or raise a question, it is central to the plotline as a whole. Thus, the characters are forced to recognize this duality and to learn about their differences in order to advance the plotline. The Breakfast Club uses this literary technique for a completely different aim and thus a completely different result becomes the consequence. The Breakfast Club finds a happy, resolved ending to keep its audience content. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, however, does not let the audience off the hook. It forces them to question a theme that remains unresolved in naivety.

7. The Breakfast Club. Dir. John Hughes. Perf. Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, and Molly Ringwald. Universal Pictures, 1985. Film.

Piecing a Play Together: Final Project for A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Congratulations! You have made it through Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. You have officially been blown away by his marvelous vernacular and his profound thematic developments. But wait… the ride is not over yet. For once you have entered the world of Shakespeare, there is no turning back. In fact, there was never really a time when you hadn’t been immersed into the works of Shakespeare. You just didn’t know it.

Over the past few weeks, we have discussed why we still read Shakespeare today. We have gone over in great detail, the universal and important themes and elements that are depicted in his works. Now, it is your job to prove it. The characters, plot devices, themes, and storylines of Shakespeare have been reworked and adapted for centuries in different media forms throughout the years. For your final assignment in this unit, you are to find 3 works that introduce similar themes or ideas that we saw in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and you are to discuss how they relate and the meaning and significance behind any changes that you notice.

Task One: Find 3 different media examples such as television shows, music videos, video games, movies, etc. that reflect similar themes or ideas that we saw in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Each example must reflect a different idea or theme. Examples of possible topics to choose from include:
1. A character from the play (Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, Bottom)
2. A theme from the play (the fickleness of love, naivety, lunacy and love, love is blind, lack of control in one’s life
3. A scene or storyline from the play (fight between Hermia and Helena, Hermia being forced to marry someone because of her father)
The possibilities are really endless for the idea that you pull from the text. Just make sure that you are able to justify why that particular idea is important to the play as a whole.

Task Two: For each media example you choose, you must:
1. Describe how the element or theme that you chose is illustrated in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Please use specific examples from the text.
2. Explain why the element that you chose is important to the play as a whole and to the “real world.” What are its universal implications?
3. Provide a brief background about the media example that you chose. What type of media form is it from? What is the basic concept of the show? Who is the author? When did it air? Was it popular? Please provide any information that you feel is relevant to introduce the media example that you chose, so that your audience has enough information to understand the context of the example.
4. Explain how the media example you chose illustrates the element that you picked from the play.
5. Describe how the element functions differently in the media example in comparison to the play. How has the theme or character changed? Is it viewed under the same connotation?
6. Provide reasoning for why you think the differences exist between the two representations. What role does the genre, format, audience, or culture play?
7. Provide a bibliographic citation of the media example that you discuss in MLA format.

Task Three: Presentation
You must be able to present your 3 media examples to your classmates in some way. You can play a song, show a clip, create a VoiceThread, etc. You can either decide to explain your theme and how it relates in your presentation (i.e. through video annotations, in a Vlog, etc) or you can discuss them to the class as you present.




Rubric

Description of Theme
(assessed for each media example individually)
2 X 3 = 6 possible points

2 = The student thoroughly describes the theme pulled from the play, using specific examples from the text
1 = The student describes the theme pulled from the play so that the reader can understand it, but it is not clear how it is referred to in the text.
0 = The student fails to provide a thorough explanation and application of the theme pulled from the play.


Explanation of the Significance of Theme
(assessed for each media example individually)
2 X 3 = 6 possible points

2 = The student explains the significance of the theme to the text as a whole and to the more generalized real world.
1 = The student explains the significance of the text in terms of how it is important to the text or its real world implications but not both.
0 = The student fails to provide an overarching context of the theme pulled from the play.


Background Information of Media Example
(assessed for each media example individually)
2 X 3 = 6 possible points

2 = The student provides a brief background of the text, giving information needed to get a feel for the genre and media type used.
1 = The student provides a background of the text, but fails to provide information that is needed to get to know the text as a whole.
0 = The student does not provide background information on the media example.


Explanation of Media Example’s Representation of Theme
(assessed for each media example individually)
2 X 3 = 6 possible points

2 = The student clearly describes how the media example develops a theme that relates to the theme introduced for the play.
1 = The student addresses a theme of the media example but it is unclear how it is similar to the theme of the play.
0 = The student does not address the media example’s development of theme.


Comparison and Contrast of Play and Media Example
(assessed for each media example individually)
2 X 3 = 6 possible points

2 = The student takes both representations of the theme and provides clear differences between them, illustrating how they are depicted in both texts.
1 = The student addresses differences in the text, but it is unclear how they relate to the theme or how they are depicted in either example.
0 = The student fails to contrast the two representations of theme.


Explanation of Differences
(assessed for each media example individually)
2 X 3 = 6 possible points

2 = The student provides an explanation for why the differences in representations of theme may exist, listing examples of author intent, context, etc.
1 = The student provides an explanation, but it is unclear as to why the reasons are specific to the individual texts and how these specific differences affected the theme.
0 = The student does not provide an explanation for the differences of representation of theme in the texts.


Bibliographic Citation on MLA format
(assessed for each media example individually)
2 X 3 = 6 possible points

2 = The student provides a citation for the media example in correct MLA format.
1 = The student provides a citation, but it is not in correct MLA format.
0 = The student fails to provide a citation for the media example.


Presentation
2 X 1= 2 possible points

2 = The student presents his or her findings to the class, showing both the media examples and giving a background on the findings.
1 = The student fails to either show the media examples or to give an explanation of his or her findings.
0 = The student does not present his or her work.


Total: _____ out of 44 possible points