A Midsummer Night's Dream - William Shakespeare

 A Midsummer Night’s Dream

                           -WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

 

            DRAMATIC PERSONAE

            Theseus-Duke of Athens

            Hippolyta – Duk’s wife to be

            Egeus-Father to Hermia

            Lysander is in love with Hermia.

            Demetrius

            Hermia-in love with Lysander

            Helena-in love with Demetrius

            Philostrate-master of the revels to Theseus\

            Quince-a carpenter

            Oberon-king of the fairies

            Pack or Robin Good fellow

            Snug-a tinker

            Bottom-a weaver

            Flute-a bellower mender

            Snout- a tinker

            Starveling-a tailor

            Peaseblossom

            Cobweb

            Moth                         Fairies

            Mustard Seed

 

           

PLOT ACCOUNT

               A Midsummer Night’s Dream is set in Athens, Greece.  There is a feeling of love, anxiety, prosperity, and rebellion in the air.  Theseus and Hippolyta, both noble and wealthy are preparing for their marriage celebration.  Hermia and Lysander is in love, but another Athenian named, Demetrius loves Hermia. Lysander and Hermia who are in love want to get married, but Hermia’s father, Egeus wants her to marry Demetrius.  Egeus goes to complain to force Hermia and Demetrius into marriage.  Theseus does not necessarily agree with Egeus’ logic, but he warns Hermia to follow his order. The implication is that Hermia either faces the death penalty or goes to a convent  (become a nun). Despite the aforementioned possible consequences, Hermia and Lysander plan to elope to a forest in order to have secret marriage at his aunt’s house where Athens’ laws will have little or no effect.

              Helena hears that Lysander and Hermia are running away and she informs Demetrius of the development with the hope that he will love her back.  To keep up with the plan, Demetrius decides to follow Hermia and Helena as well.  This infuriates Demetrius, who does not love Helena.  Instead of leaving him alone, Helena continues to follow him around and begs for his love.

            The couples further run into a nearby forest, where they encounter many fairies.  The fairy queen (Titania) and the fairy king (Oberon) are in a feud (serious quarrel) over an Indian boy whom Titania took from Oberon. Oberon orders another fairy, Puck to squeeze a love portion into Titania’s eyes which will cause her to fall in love with the first thing she sees after waking as an act of revenge so as to humiliate her.  Puck is also asked or ordered to put the portion into Demetrius’s eyes because Oberon sees Demetrius acting rudely towards Helena.

             Meanwhile, elsewhere in the forest, a group of peasants is rehearsing a performance of a play which they will perform at Theseus and Hippolyta’s marriage.  Puck decides to fool around and puts a donkey head on one of the peasants Bottom.  All of Bottom’s peasant friends run as soon as they see him.  Puck then embarks on his journey to put the potion in Demetrius’ eyes. Unfortunately, Puck mistakenly places the love potion into Lysander’s eyes.

Lysander wakes up, sees Helena as the first person present in the scene, and ends up falling in love with her.  Puck not aware of his mistake yet, carries on with his job and also puts the potion on Titania’s eyes.  She wakes up and falls in love with the donkey-headed bottom.

              Later that night, Puck learns of his mistake with Lysander.  He tries to correct it and fix the situation by putting the potion in Demetrius’ eyes. Meanwhile, Titania and Bottom continue in their newfound love fever.

              The play reaches the Climax when Puck accidentally places the love potion into the eyes of Demetrius, which causes him to fall in love with Helena.  These sudden change causes Helena to hesitate and question their true motives, as she believes that Demetrius and Lysander are only mocking her.  However, Hermia begins to argue with Helena, blaming Helena for stealing Lysander from her, not knowing what to think. Helena runs off into the wood, while Demetrius and Lysander also wander off to settle their quarrel.  As the young Athenian goes to sleep in the woods,  Puck squeezes the love potion into Lysander’s eyes and declares that in the morning, everything shall return back to normal.

             Also, Puck and Oberon enter into the glade to find Titania in love with Bottom, and celebrate the successes of their revenge.  Oberon orders the exchange of the Indian boy for the antidote for the love spell, and Titania complies.  Oberon and Titania leave before Puck returns Bottom’s head to that of a human.

              Furthermore, Theseus enters to find the Athenian lovers are asleep and as he wakes them, beckons on the youth to join him at his wedding feast.  After Theseus and Hippolyta is wedded, Demetrius and Helena and Lysander and Hermia are also joined together in Holy matrimony, before they demand to see the play Bottom and his friends have prepared.

             At Quince house, the craftsmen are all wandering where Bottom is and they are considering dropping their performance before Bottom triumphantly enters the house and declares that the play must continue.  To the amusement of Theseus and other royals present, the play is clumsily and comically performed which earn them praise for their performance.

             In the final scene, Puck enters the castle and exclaims that he is there to tie up or settle everything.  Titania enters the castle and blesses the lovers so that they all stay true to one another as no harm befalls Theseus and Hippolyta.  Puck then makes one final address to the audience, stating that if the play has offended anyone, they should remember it was all a dream.  Also, when the play-within-a-play is completed the lovers go to bed, the faires briefly emerge to bless the sleeping couples with a protective charm and then disappear.  Only Puck remains to ask the audience for forgiveness and approval.

 

SCENE SUMMARIES

 

Act One Scene One Athens:  A room in the palace of Theseus, Egeus demands justice of Theseus over his daughter’s disobedience.

 

             The scene opens in a room in the palace of Theseus, where the Duke of Athens is preparing for a large festival to mark his imminent marriage to Hippolyta.  Egeus, a nobleman enters the stage with his daughter.  Hermia, the man she loves named Lysander, and the man Egeus want her to marry is named Demetrius.  He accuses Lysander of using charms on her.  Egeus , therefore, begs Athenians and Duke to give him permission to either make his daughter marry Demetrius or have the power to kill her after four days. Theseus also offers Hermia another two options.  She must marry Demetrius or become a nun.  He then departs with the other man leaving Hermia and Lysander are behind on stage. Lysander quickly convinces Hermia to sneak into the wood (bush) the next night so that they must get married at his aunt’s house outside Athens.  She agrees to the plan.

             Helena, a lady who loves Demetrius but he does not reciprocate her love, arrives and laments the fact that Demetrius only has eyes on Hermia, even though she loves him far more than Hermia ever could.  Lysander tells her not to worry since he and Hermia has mapped out a plan to sneak away that night.  Helena, in a final soliloquy, shows that she will inform Demetrius about Hermia’s plan because that might make him start to love her again.

 

Act One, Scene Two: A-Play-within-a-Play Athens.  A Room in Quince’s House

 

             In the scene, a group of artisans gathers to act a play-within-a-play, and Peter Quince hand out several parts to the players.  They want to perform the play to mark the Duke’s wedding.  The play is the most lamentable comedy and the cruelest death of Pyramus and Thisby.  The play is based on Phramus and Thisby and is meant to be a comedy and a tragedy at the same time.  One of the actors, Nick Bottom is afraid that if they make the lion in the play too real, it might frighten the ladies.  They finally agree to meet in the woods outside the city, the next night to rehearse their parts of the play.

              Note that a remarkable aspect of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is that it contains a play within a play. The story of Pyramus and Thisby serves to show not only the tragedy that might have occurred if the fairies had not intervened but also to comment on the nature of reality versus theatre.  Nick Bottom who is afraid that the lion will frighten the ladies, get them to write a prologue in which the lion is explicitly revealed as only being an actor.

 

Act Two, Scene Two:  A Wood near Athens Oberon and his Waking and Sleeping Love Potion

 

              Robin Goodfellow, who is also known as Puck, meets with a fairy who serves Queen Titania. She informs him that Titania is coming to the woods, outside of Athens that night. Puck tells the fairy that it would be ideal if Titania and his master, Oberon, did not meet because it might lead to a further quarrels.  A few seconds later, both Oberon and Titania walk onto the stage, accompanied by their respective fairy followers.  An argument ensues between both of them immediately with both of them accusing each other of infidelity and jealously.  Titania has stolen a young boy whom she keeps with her and spends her time caring for.  Oberon who is jealous of the attention that the boy is receiving, demands that Titania return the boy to him and Titania refuses the request.  

             As soon as Titanus leaves, Oberon vows to seek revenge on her for causing him unnecessary embarrassment and he sends his Puck to fetch some pansies, the juice of which is supposed or meant to make someone falls in love with the first thing he or she sees upon waking up.  Oberon then hides while Puck leaves.

              Demetrius and Helena arrive in the wood close to where Oberon is hiding Demetrius informs Helena that she needs to go away since he does not love her even though she has told him about Hermia and Lysander’s escape plan or elopement.  Helena then threatens to chase him down, if he tries to leave her behind the woods.

             However, Oberon, having listened and overheard the full conversation decides to make Demetrius fall in love with Helena.  He tells Robin Goodfellow to take some of the juice and administer (put) it in the eyes of the Athenian man in the woods.  This should be done only when it is certain that the woman by his side will be the first person he sees.  The Puck agrees and carries on with the plan.

 

Act Two, Scene Two:  Another Part of the Wood Lysander Falls in Love with Helena in the Wood

 

              Titania organizes a quick dance In the wood with her faires, after which they sing her to sleep.  Oberon uses the opportunity to sneak in and drop the pansy juice into her closed eyelids.  Later on, Lysander and Hermia who are also tired of walking in the wood and having lost their way decide to sleep off as well.  Hermia demands that Lysander should sleep a short distance away in order to maintain a sense of modesty since she is not yet married to him.

             Helena who closely follows Demetrius runs into where Lysander is lying asleep.  Helena becomes the first woman Lysander sees as soon as he wakes up according to the love charms.  Lysander immediately falls in love with Helena and Lysander in turn confesses that he deeply loves Helena. She thinks it is a cruel joke and tells him to stop abusing her.  Lysander soon decides to forget about Hermia and follows Helena instead.

            In conclusion, Hermia wakes up because she is scared about a dream she has had in which a serpent eats her heart.  He then calls for Lysander, but he is not in any way close to her.  She then leaves in search of him.

 

Act Three, Scene One:  The Wood, Titania Lying Asleep

 

 While Titania is asleep on stage, the clowns-Bottom, Quince, Flute, Song Snout and Starveling enter.

These rustics and artisans arrive in the woods to discuss and rehearse their play, Pyramus and Thisbe.  Bottom is afraid that there might be a the problem if Pyramus commits suicide on stage with his sword, it might seem to be real and can cause the ladies in the audience to be scared and won’t be able to stand it.   Bottom suggests that he has already got a plan to fix everything, as he asks starveling to write a prologue that he can recite to the audience that they won’t hurt anyone with their swords and that Pyramus is not really dead to make them not be afraid.

              Another problem springs up which has to do with Snug’s role.  Snout is afraid that Snug’s role as the Lion will cause a similar fear.  To solve the problem, they also agree to write another prologue to tell the audience that it is not a lion, but only Snout the Joiner.  They further reach a compromise that snug should speak to the audience directly as an aside that half his head should be visible through the costume.  There is also another urgent need for moonlight, a calendar, and a wall.  Bottom suggests that they need to leave the window on stage open to let in the moonlight.  Quince is also of the opinion that someone should play the role of a wall and Bottom seconds the opinion.

              Finally, the rehearsal begins with the Puck eavesdropping in the background.  Each of the actors makes several word mistakes thereby giving the phrases a completely different meanings, the Puck leaves when Bottom goes off-stage and reappeared with Bottom who now wears an ass’ head which Puck put on him.  Bottom is completely unaware that he is transformed into an ass, and humorously asks others why they run away from him.

             At this point, Titania who has been sleeping in the wood wakes up and sees Bottom, with his ass’ head and falls in love with him.  She pleads with him to continue singing and making jokes for her.  She also begs him to remain in the forest with her before she calls four fairies - Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustard Seed in to take care of Bottom and lead him to her garden.

 

Act Three, Scene Two:  Another Part of the Wood

 

             Oberon, the fairy king enters and wonders what must have happened to Titania and the first person she sees when she wakes up from her sleep. Rabin explains to Oberon that she falls in love with a monster, Bottom.  Oberon is excited that Titania is being humiliated in this way.  He then inquires about the Athenian he wanted to fall in love with Helena at this point, Demetrius and Hermia enter the stage. 

Meanwhile, Hermia is convinced that Demetrius has killed Lysander in his sleep, and in her fury she curses Demetrius for what he did.  Hermia leaves immediately leaving Demetrius to fall asleep in front of Oberon, who is angry that Robin has spoils his plan to make Demetrius love Helena.  He, therefore, sends him away. Then the puck soon returns with both Helena and Lysander.

             Helena who is unaware of the effect of the pansy juice (love charm) feels that Lysander is only flattery or mocking her with his words of love, and she tells him that his phrases lack substance.  Indirectly, Helena wakes up Demetrius, on whose eyes Oberon also applied this pansy juice (love charm).  Demetrius automatically falls in love with Helena.  In the middle of their argument over which man loves Helena more, Hermia arrives, she is shocked by Lysander’s words and does not believe that he could possibly love Helena.  Helena assumes that Hermia is part of the mockery and chastises her for violating the close friendship which they have enjoyed since childhood.

             In the same vein, a quarrel ensues between Demetrius and Lysander are even more intensely that Hermia breaks in and tries to stop Lysander.  He spurns her, calling her a serpent and a dwarf, and finally leaves with Demetrius to fight over which man should win over Helena.

             Oberon and Robin step forward, having watched the entire spectacle.  Oberon is furious about Robin’s mistakes and he then orders him to undo the charm in order to separate Demetrius and Lysander.  Robin then tells the Puck to make the man fall asleep and rub the juice on Lysander’s eyes and make him see Hermia when he wakes up.  Robin mimics the men’s voices, thereby making them follow shadows and sounds before he eventually separates them.

              Finally, Robin leads both men until they fall asleep on the ground and he brings them to their lovers before letting them fall asleep as well.  He then sprinkles the juice into Lysander’s eyes so that he will fall in love with Hermia when he eventually wakes up and sees her.

 

Act Four, Scene One: The Wood

 

            Demetrius, Helena, Hermia, and Lysander are still sleeping on the stage.  Titania enters with Bottom, who still has a donkey’s head, and the fairies Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustardseed.  Oberon enters behind them, unseen by those on stage.

              Bottom asks the fairies to scratch his head, and is hungry for some way,  Titania, who is completely in love with him, orders the fairies to find him food.  They soon fall asleep.

             Oberon enters and looks at his sleeping queen.  He discloses to the Puck that Titania gave him the young boy earlier in the woods, and so it is time for him to remove the spell from her eyes.  He orders Robin to change Bottom back to normal, but he should first wake Titania up as she thinks she dreamt about being in love with Bottom.  Oberon helps her off the ground and reveals to her that tomorrow they will dance at the wedding of Theseus and the other couples.

             Theseus, Hippolyta, and Egeus arrive where the lovers are sleeping, for they are in the woods to celebrate the May morning.  The lovers in question disclose to Theseus what they remember from the night before and Lysander declares his love for Hermia while Demetrius speaks of his love for Helena.  Theseus decides to override Egeus’ opinion and judgment and have all three of them got married in Athens that day, before they eventually depart for Athens.

             Bottom later wakes up and realizes that he has been abandoned in the woods by his friends.  He recalls what happened to him, only as a dream; a dream about what he says, “I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream.  It shall be called “Bottom Dream” (4:1208).

 

Act Four, Scene Two: Athens. A Room in Quince’s House

 

            The artisans – Quince, Flute, Snout, and Starveling are lamenting the fact that the Duke Theseus is already married, as well as the other noblemen, which means they missed their chance to perform Pyramus and Thisbe at the wedding. They lament the absence of Bottom which could ruin their chance to perform the play before Bottom finally arrives and tells the men to hurry to the festival since there is still enough time to perform the play.

 

Act Five, Scene One: Athens. An Apartment in the Palace of Theseus

 

             In the palace, Theseus and Hippolyta are waiting for some forms of after-dinner entertainment.  Theseus asks Egeus to read out a list of possible performance and Theseus finally settles on a tedious brief scene of young Pyramus and his love, Thisbe: Egeus tries to dissuade him by telling him that the actors are working men without talent, but Theseus is adamant that he watches them perform.

             Quince delivers the prologue, a masterpiece of writing filled with sentence fragments that serve to reverse the meaning of the actual phrases.  The play is then performed, with numerous linguistic errors and incorrect sentences making it a complete farce.  Hippolyta then condemns the play as being “silly” while Theseus defends it as being nothing more than imagination.  During the performance, Theseus, Lysander, Demetrius, and Hippolyta and commentary which criticizes the action, and makes fun of the antics of the laymen (Artisans).

             At the end of the performance, both Bottom and flute rise up from where they are lying supposedly dead and offer to perform an epilogue or a bergu-mask (a type of dance).  Theseus quickly intervenes and tells them they need no epilogue and he urges them to perform the dance.  Lastly, Oberon and Titania enter with their servants and followers.  Oberon and Titania lead the fairies in song and dance.  They all exit except for Robin apologizes to the audience not to get upset with the play, for that this silly and pathetic story is no more real than a dream.

              Significantly, this final, act at first seems completely unnecessary to the overall plot of the play.  The lovers get married in Act four which shows that there is a happy resolution of the conflict.  The final act also serves to challenge the audience’s notion about reality and imagination.  Without imagination, it would be much more difficult to enjoy a play, as evident by the farce of Pyramus and Thisbe, which Hippolyta describes in her word.  “This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard”.

 

CHARACTERIZATION

 

Theseus:  He is the heroic Duke of Athens who is engaged to Hippolyta. Theseus represents power and order throughout the play.  He appears only at the beginning and ends the play-removed from the dream-like events of the forest.

 

Hippolyta: She is the legendary queen of Amazon who is engaged to Theseus and symbolizes order like Theseus.

 

Egeus:  He is Hermia’s father who lays a complaint a couple against his daughter to Theseus.  Egeus has given Demetrius permission to marry Hermia, but Hermia is in love with Lysander and refuses to marry Demetrius, Egeus severe insistence that Hermia either respect his wishes or be held accountable to Athenian law places him squarely outside the whimsical dream realm of the forest.

 

Helena: She is a young woman of Athens who is in love with Demetrius When Demetrius met Helena’s friend Hermia, he fell in love with her and abandoned Helena.  Lacking confidence in her looks, Helena thinks that Demetrius and Lysander are mocking her when the fairies’ mischief causes them to fall in love with her.

 

Nick Bottom:  He is the over-confident and overzealous weaver chosen to play Pyramus in the craftsman’s play for ‘Theseus’ marriage celebration.  He is full of confidence but frequently makes silly mistakes and misuses language.  His sudden non-challant disposition about the beautiful Titania’s love for him and the fact that he is unaware that Puck has transformed his head into that of an ass mark the height of his foolishness and arrogance.

 

Puck:  He is also known as Goodfellow.  Puck is Oberon’s jester, a mischievous fairy who derives joy in playing pranks on human beings.  The full actions in A Midsummer Night’s Dream revolves around him.  His mischievous deeds and antic are responsible for many of the conflicts that push the other main plots; he mistakes the young Athenian thereby applying the love potion to Lysander instead of Demetrius.  He also engineers the chaos within the group of young lovers.  He also transforms Bottom’s head into that of an ass.

 

Oberon:  He is the king of the fairies, whom his wife, Titania is initially at loggerhead with, because she refuses to hand over the full control of a young Indian prince whom he wants for a Knight.  In order to seek vengeance on Titania, Oberon sends Puck to obtain the love-potion flowers which creates so much of the play’s confusion and farce.

 

Titania:  She is the beautiful Queen of the fairies.  She resists her husband Oberon’s intention to make a Knight of the young, Indian prince handed over to her.  Titania’s brief, potion-induced love for Nick Bottom, whose head Puck has transformed into that of an ass, serves as the play’s foremost example of the contrast notif.

 

Lysander:  He is a young man of Athens who falls in love with Hermia, but her father Egeus is against such potential union.  Lysander’s relationship with Hermia invokes the theme of love’s difficulty, He cannot marry Hermia openly because Egeus, her father, wishes her to marry Demetrius. When Lysander and Hermia plan to elope into the forest, Lysander becomes the victim of mistaken identity and misapplied magic, as he wakes up and falls in love with Helena instead of Hermia.

 

Hermia: She is a young woman of Athens and Egeus’ lovely daughter Hermia who is in love with Lysander is also a childhood friend of Helena. As a result of the fairies’s mischief with Oberon’s love potion, both Lysander and Demetrius suddenly fall in love with Helena.  By morning, Puck sorts the matter out with the love potion, before Lysander’s love for Hermia is restored.

 

Demetrius:  He is a young man of Athens who initially falls in love with Hermia and is ultimately loved by Helena.  Demetrius’ stubborn pursuits of Hermia leads to a double wedding arrangement.

 

Peter Quince:  He is a carpenter and the nominal leader of the craftsman’s attempt to put on a play for Theseus’ marriage celebration.  He is often controlled and dominated by Nick Bottom.  During the craftsmen’s play, Quince plays the prologue.

 

Frances:  Flute in the bellows-mender chosen to play Thisbe in the craftsmen's play for Theseus's marriage celebration.  He is forced to play a young girl in love, the bearded craftsman pronounces words in a high and squeaky manner.

 

Robin Starveling:  He is the tailor chosen to play Thisbe’s mother in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus's marriage celebration.  He later plays the part of moonshine.

 

Tom Snout:  He is the tinker appointed to play Pyramus's father in the craftsmen's play but ends up playing the part of the wall, dividing the two lovers.

 

Snug He is also the joiner chosen to play the lion in the craftsmen's play for the celebration.  Snug becomes worried that his roaring will frighten the ladies in the audience.

 

Philostrate: He is Theseus’ mast of the Revel (like our modern-day MC), responsible for organizing the entertainment for the Duke’s marriage celebration.

 

Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mute and Mustardseed.  They are the fairies ordered by Titania to attend to Bottom after she falls in love with him.

 

Themes:

 

  Love is unpredictable

  Revenge

  Celebration of love

  Love’s difficulty

  Mistaken identity

  Humiliation

  Romantic confusion

  Mischief-making

  Transformation and reversal

  Magic and dreams

   

 Symbolism and Styles

             Symbols are objects, characters, figures and colors used in a play to represent abstract ideas or concepts.  Some of the symbols used in A Midsummer Night Dream include:

 

1.      The Love Potion:  The love potion is made from the juice of the flower that was struck with one of cupid’s misfired arrows.  It is used by the fairies to wreak romantic havoc throughout Acts II,  III and IV.  The love potion becomes a symbol of the unreasoning, fickle erratic, and undeniably powerful nature of love, which can lead to inexplicable and  bizarre behavior that cannot be resisted, as it forced Demetrius and Lysander to magically transfer their love from Hermia to Helena.

 

2.      The Craftsmen’s Play:  The play-within-a-play in Act V Scene I is used to represent ideas and themes of the main plot because their performance satirizes the melodramatic Athenian kind of love and gives the play a purely joyous and funny ending.  Pyramus and Thisbe are experiencing parental disapproval in the play-within-a-play, the same thing applicable to Hermia and Lysander:  As Pyramus mistakenly believes that Thisbe has been killed by the lion so does the Athenian lovers because of the mix-up caused by the fairies meddling.

 

 

3.      Theseus and Hippolyta:  Shakespare used Theseus and Hippolyta, the ruler of Athens and his warrior bride, to represent order and stability to contrast with the uncertainty, instability, and darkness of most of the play, whereas an important element of the dream reason is that one is not in control of one’s environment, Theseus and Hippolyta are always in control of theirs.

 

4.      Use of Irony:  The playwright makes use of two irony – situational irony and dramatic irony.

 

Situation Irony:  This is a type of irony in which the reader or audience is surprised by the outcome of the storyline. For instance despite Bottom’s ugliness.  We see Titania transfer her affections from the Indian boy to Bottom, which is why she becomes willing to give the boy to Oberon.  We also witness an occasion that Titania has fully transferred her attentions when we see Oberon describe how she is treating Bottom affectionately.

 

Dramatic Irony: This is when the reader or audience knows far more about a character’s situation or the unfolding action than the character actually does.  Such irony is seen when Puck administers the magical juice into Lysander and Demetrius' eyes, and we see the lovers awake feeling disorganized and disoriented.  Some persons believe that was a mere dream and other thought it was real.  Basically, the audience knows that what happened during the night was a result of fairy magic and their belief that it was a dream is also a result of fairy magic.  Demetrius has this to say:

      Are you sure

       That we are awake?  It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream (IV, I, 195-197).

 Therefore, Shakespeare actually uses irony in order to develop humor throughout the play because irony is the most useful tool for developing humor within a comedy.

 

LIKELY WAEC, NECO, AND UTME 2021-2025 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

 

CONTEXT AND OBJECT QUESTIONS

 

Full of vexation, come I with a complaint

Against my child, my daughter

Stand forth, Demetrius-my noble Lord,

This man hath my consent to marry her…

This man hath bewitched the bosom of my child.

(Act 1 Scene 1)

 

1.   Who is the speaker of the above excerpt?  (a) Theseus  (b) Egeus  (c) Hippolyta 

      (d) Lysander

2.    The addressee is ­­­­­­­­­_____   (a) Theseus  (b) Lysander  (c) Egeus  (d) Puck

3.    ,My daughter” in the above passage refers to ____  (a) Titnia  (b) Hippolyta

       (c) Indian Youth  (d) Hermia

4    The speaker accuses _____ of _____  (a) Puck using charms on Hermia

       (b) Lysander, being magic spell on Hermia  (c) Demetrius abandoning Hermia  

       (d) Lysander, abandoning Helena

5.    What is the figure of speech in the underlined expression?  (a) Metaphor 

       (b) Personification  (c) Inversion  (d) Antithesis

 

Read the excerpt below and answer question 6-10

 

That will ask some tears or the true performing of it

If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes.

I will move storms.  I will condole in some measure-

To the rest-yet, my chief humor is for a tyrant.

 

5.      Who is the speaker?  (a) Quince  (b) Bottom  (c) Puck  (d) Snug

 

7.   Mention another character present in the scene  (a) Quince  (b) Bottom

      (c) Starveling  (d) Snout

 

8.   The speaker tries to make his performance ___  (a) fantastic  (b) interesting

      (c) shine   (d) believable

 

3.     Where is the statement made?  (a) A room in the palace  (b) Athens, a room in Quince’s house  (a) A wood near Athens  (d) Another part of the wood

 

4.     The underlined figure of speech is an example of ____  (a) Hyperbole  (b) Personification  (c) Synecdoche  (d) Metaphor

 

 

Read the excerpt below and answer question 11-15

 

Set your heart at rest

The fairyland buys not the child of me

His mother was votaress of my order,

And in the spiced Indian air by night.

Full often hat she gossiped by my side

(Act 2 Scene 1)

 

1.     Demetrius is speaking to (a) Lysander  (b) Hermia  (c0 Theseus  (d) Helena

 

27.  The speaker’s newfound love is (a) Titania  (b) Helena  (c) Hermia

        (d)  Lysander

 

28.  The underlined litrary devices is _____  (a) Metaphor  (b) Hyperbole

        (c) Simile  (d) Personification

 

29.  The expression “idle gaud” refers to  (a) cheap labour  (b) cheap toy  (c) cheap

        commodity  (d) cheap love

 

30.  The speech illustrates the use of ____  (a) flashback  (b) suspense

        (c) foreshadow  (d) dramatic irony.

 

Read the extract below and answer questions 31-35

 

Come now, what mosques, what dances shall we have?

To wear away this long age of three hours

Between our after-supper and bedtime?

Where is our usual manager of mirth?

To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?

(Act 5, Scene I)

 

31.  The speakers is ____  (a) Philostrate   (b) Theseus  (c) Egeus  (d) Hippolyta

 

32.   The speaker is still in the mood of ___ celebration  (a) family  (b) marriage  

        (c) evening  (d) party

 

33.   After the speech Philostrate hands over  ___ to the speaker   (a)a child  (b) gift

        (a) parcel  (d) document.

 

34.  “Manager of Mirth” refers to ____   (a) choreography leader  (b) entertainment director  (c) music director   (d) play director

 

35.  Theseus decides to _____  (a) watch the play  (b) rest  (c) sleep   (d) walk

        around

36.   ____ is Oberon’s dog of war in the play  (a) Egeus  (b) Titania  (c) Puck 

        (d) snug.

 

37.  ____ tries to carry out revenge in the play  (a) puck  (b) Oberon  (c) Duke

        (d) Helena

 

38.  Hermia is in love with ____  (a) Demetrius  (b) Egeus  (c) Puck  (d) Lysander

 

39.  One of Hermia’s punishments for her refusal to marry Demetrius is ____ 

        (a) hanging  (b) beating  (c) death  (d) suicide

 

40.   The main conflict in the play is engineered by ____  (a) Theseus  (b) Puck

        (c) Snug  (d) snout.

 

                                                            ANSWERS

 

1.        B          6.        B          11. D      16. B     21.  C     26. C          31.  B          36. C

2.        A         7.        A         12. B      17. B     22.  A     27. B      32.  B        37. B

3.        D         8.        D         13. B      18. A    23.  B      28. C      33.  D       38. D

4.        B          9.        B          14. A      19. A    24.  D      29. B      34.  B       39. C

5.        C      10.         A         15. C       20. D    25.  A      30  D      35. A       40. B