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A Midsummer Night's Dream 32892 Views
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Description:
Aren't midsummer night dreams the worst? You wake up all sweaty and gross, and for a minute there, you can't even remember where you are. And also, your upper half is a donkey? Yep, that's what happens in Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream .
Transcript
- 00:04
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a la Shmoop. Based on the title, some of you may think
- 00:09
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a walk in the park. But we haven’t seen this much trouble
- 00:14
in Athens since the ides of March.
- 00:16
Laws being broken, forbidden love, fighting over a kidnapped kid, mishandled drugs, and
- 00:23
someone being an… ass. No, he really did get turned into a donkey.
Full Transcript
- 00:28
Someone must be to blame for all this trouble, right? Let's take a good look at the suspects.
- 00:33
First on the scene is Duke Theseus. He just pillaged a foreign country and kidnapped a
- 00:38
hot girl to marry.
- 00:39
Way to rule a kingdom, buddy. Next possible perpetrator? Egeus.
- 00:44
He's an angry dad who likes things the way they’ve always been and doesn’t like people
- 00:48
marrying who they want to marry. Namely… his daughter Hermia.
- 00:52
But instead of his usual routine of calling into Dr. Laura’s radio show, he decides
- 00:53
to ask the duke to kill his daughter for punishment.
- 00:56
The duke, feeling that her father’s reaction is a bit extreme, offers Hermia the alternative
- 01:02
of becoming a nun for the rest of her life.
- 01:04
Are we surprised his daughter runs away? Not convinced it's either of those guys? Well,
- 01:10
how about the lovers?
- 01:11
Sure, they look innocent, but these hooligans break the law in the name of love, and can’t
- 01:16
even decide who they’re in love with!
- 01:19
Exhibit A is a chart of their love. “Hermia loves Lysander but not Demetrius,
- 01:25
who loves Hermia.
- 01:26
Helena loves Detemtrius who doesn’t love her. Then he does… so does Lysander, which
- 01:32
makes Hermia furious with Helena.
- 01:35
Finally Hermia gets with Lysander and Helena with Demetrius and everyone’s in love.”
- 01:42
Could the trouble have been caused by these criminals who were hitting the love potion
- 01:45
a little too hard? Our fourth suspect is the fairy king Oberon.
- 01:49
He really wants to fight his ex-lover Titania for an Indian child they somehow acquired.
- 01:56
He’s so jealous that he makes her fall in love with a donkey. And he uses his minion
- 02:01
Puck to make the lovers fall in love with the wrong people. For fun.
- 02:05
Sounds like someone’s not comfortable with their masculinity.
- 02:06
We’re still wondering why nobody is concerned that he kidnapped a little kid? Could he be
- 02:07
the one to blame? Last on the list is Puck: professional trickster.
- 02:12
When the mob rejected his application, he went to work for Oberon.
- 02:16
Unfortunately, he’s not very good at following directions. Or shaving his legs.
- 02:21
Could he be the culprit… sneaking love potions into unsuspecting lovers and turning men into
- 02:26
donkeys? There are a lot of choices, but it’s hard
- 02:30
to nail this mess on just one criminal…
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