A Midsummer Night's Dream

Act Five scene one

Quiz Questions:

  1. Why does Theseus dismiss the lovers' strange story about the strange dream they shared the night before?
  2. What does Hippolyta think? What does she men when she says,

But all the story of the night told over,
And all their minds transfigured so together,
More witnesseth than fancy's images
And grows to something of great constancy;
But, howsoever, strange and admirable.

  1. Describe the four different entertainments that Philostrate has planned for the evening:
  2. Shakespeare is fond of oxymorona rhetorical device in which opposite ideaas are yoked together.
    Describe the antitheses in the following speech:
'A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus
And his love Thisbe; very tragical mirth.'
Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!
That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow.
How shall we find the concord of this discord?
  1. How is the whole action of the play "an oxymoron"?
  2. Why does Theseus say he must see Pyramus and Thisbe?!
  3. What has happened to Peter Quince's Prologue? How has he messed it up?
  4. Who are playing:
  • Wall:
  • Moonshine:
  • Pyramus:
  • Thisbe:
  • Lion:
  1. What is so funny about Pyramus and Thisbe's attempts to communicate throught the Wall's 'crannied chink'?
  2. What is funny about the Lion's Prologue?
  3. What does Moonshine finally do after the nobles interrupt his speech time and time again?
  4. How many times does Pyramus have to die before he is finally dead?
  5. What Freudian slip pops out of Theseus' mouth just after Pyramus finally kicks the bucket?
  6. What is absoulutely miraculous about Thisbe's final speech?
  7. What happens when Bottom jumps up and starts to recite "Bottom's Dream"? (Hint: this answer s not in the text.)
  8. Just as the evening ends, who take over the palace?
  9. What blessing does Oberon bestow on the newlyweds?
  10. From whom does Puck ask forgiveness in his epilogue?