A MIDSUMMER'S NIGHT DREAM

A MIDSUMMER'S NIGHT DREAM by William Shakespeare

Ahhhh Shakespeare. We can't complete our school year without turning our attention to The Bard! Annie and I read A Midsummer's Night Dream this year, and Callie's reading I'll share in a separate post. All truth be told my kids are NOT big fans of Shakespeare. It's because it takes work to understand what he is saying in the Old English wording. That doesn't stop me from putting it in our lineup! I definitely don't want all their reading to be difficult, but I do want them to dig in and learn how to use resources. I make sure they understand what is going on or we sit down and discuss it! After all our founding documents are written in Old English, and we need to be able to understand it, so we don't lose our freedoms! Okay off my podium and onto the book at hand!

Midsummer's Night Dream is the story of lots of love, rejection, a play (yes inside the play), and a rascal named Puck (whose master Oberon is the real rascal). King Theseus is about to marry Hippolyta. They are happily looking forward to their wedding. In the middle of the planning you have Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia, and Helena. The two guys love Hermia. Hermia only loves Lysander, and Helena loves Demetrius who can't stand her. Then throw in Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of fairies, who hate each other. Meanwhile you have another group who are trying to prepare a play for the upcoming wedding. They are seriously stupid but hilarious. When several of these different characters fall asleep in the woods for different reasons, Oberon commands his servant Puck to put a magical juice on certain ones' eyes that will cause them to fall in love with the first thing they wake up and see. This causes a complete rearranging of loves and hates and complete chaos!

So why is this called A Midsummer's Night Dream? When everything is finally righted it all seems like a dream!

Don't be afraid to goggle summaries or notes when you get hung up on a spot! It's not a fail! You will find yourself growing the more you familiarize yourself with Shakespeare. There is also a wonderful series by Folger that gives you the original text on one side and the explanation on the other. I would encourage you to read the original text first and then check yourself. Don't just read through the explanations.