3 romantic comedy

end of the play (msd)

three couples getting married

Theseus rejecting satire

not a satiric but a romantic comedy

Shakespeare: Fan of multiple plots

variation of the same theme, thematic Connection between plots

3 level of fiction, actually plot of the play performed by bottom an his tradesmen

_ parental opposition, wall between them

_ both killed (manner of romeo and juliet)

thinks thisbe was killed by a Lion, kills himself, she kills herself when she found out

tragedy inside/ transformed to a comedy

4 marriage crisis (rare in Shakespeare, more romantic)

fight about a boy they both want as attendant but seems too insignificant

underlined tension in relationship, jealousy, not really about the boy

boy = pretense for the quarrel

love is not idealized although it’s a romantic comedy

potential of conflict is pointed out

‘O brawling love, o loving hate’ (R&J)

opening scene:

he fought a war and won, took her home

political motivation but shows love brings conflict

Lateron in first scene:

there is true love but also obstacles (external factors)

social barriers

differences in rank

friends and family

love remains and becomes even more conflictual without those factors

background: tradition in european love poetry in the Renaissance

example

love = conflictual emotion

male speaker in isolation, Woman almost always absent, love from afar (unrequited)

pleasure and pain

Shakespeare takes the tradition and translates it in dramatic terms

>

motif of death (caused by love)

end of scene:

love tragedy

Othello= african general

hired by venice

marrief white woman

Jago (officer) said Destimona was unfaithful

O kills D

cosmic disorder/ uncivilized stage of the world when love is absent

speach from titania, first interaction with oberon

they are quarreling with each other, love is gone

talks about cosmic disorder being triggered by that

seasons are messed up/ disordered

Later the pattern of this scene is reversed:

same theme of order and confusion/chaos but now order and music emerge from chaos instead of chaos taking over

Talking about previous experiences

oxymora

harmony emerges

pattern of love relationships

women don’t change but the men do

4: climax of escalation

Speech: theseus in the Morning after night in the forest

He is a sceptical realist

He ennumerates 3 forms of imaginative perception, of things he himself is not willing to see

1 lunatic: madman, lunar = moon

2 love: heightened perception of person you are in love with

3 poetry: imagination as ingredient of

Shakespeare uses imagination, creating mental images and filling a bare stage

they see things others don’t, maybe the lover has the true perception

maybe seeing with the mind opens your perception for truth

moon is/was associated with madness

ancient/medieval universe

moon as closest heavenly sphere

outer more perfect, inner more flawed

most inconsistency, change, lack of perfection, irregularity

magic: faries, make peoplesee things they normally can’t/don’t

Dream: motif of sleeping and dreaming in the play

theatre: poetry and the performance of it

Why we should not believe Theseus dismissive view of the imagination

this nightmare is metaphorically true

Shakespeare points out that the modes of imaginative experience may be dismissed by a realistic pov but that they should be tanken seriously

he compares the modes

Titania:

lovers experience compared to a play/ audiences experience

after Theseus speech on imagination she contradicts him:

she is describing the experience of the audience

reason the play comes along as comic: tradesman are not capable of performimg a tragedy convincingly

involuntary/ unintended parody of the genre of tragedy

confusion of genres (Shakespeare likesto mix)

play is trying to be a tragedy but collapses into comedy

Shakespeare adresses theme of imagination

rehearsal scene:

old theatre (Globe Theatre)

moon = activating audiences imagination by showing through speech and not actual

Shakespeare at the beginning of a Long history of the european theatre era, everything about creating Illusion

Brecht has all that Tradition behind him, already perfected

structually same thing but historically different point

Tradesman are not ridiculed by shakespeare, no affectation (Fielding)

role reversal, theseus now believes in the imagination

Shakespeare expresses sympathy for the tradesman

asks audience to lend their imagination or else they will look like fools