Exercises for A Midsummer Night's Dream
by Patsy Worrall
(While these questions are intended for Word Cruncher, many of them will work with any electronic text. To open an excellent search engine, press here. To see a Christy Desmet's set of exercise and paper topics, press here.)
1. Egeus tells Theseus that Lysander has "bewitch'd" his daughter. Locate the line, and read through Egeus' speech to find out what else he accuses Lysander of doing to win Hermia's love.
2. What alternatives does Theseus give Hermia if she refuses her "father's choice" of Demetrius? Go into the text, and read Theseus' speech to find out the consequences of disobeying her father.
3. Who turns a heaven to hell; who will turn a hell into a heaven, and why?
4. Lysander says that "The course of true love never did run smooth." Read Lysander and Hermia's discussion to find out some reasons why?
5. Who wants to be a "spaniel" and why?
6. Find the word "goddess" and you'll locate a speech that shows the effect of the love juice on Demetrius. What is Helena's reaction? Why does she react this way?
7. Monsters and serpents in a comedy? Locate all the singular forms of these nouns in the play. Find out who and what they are.
8. We have two different versions about the little changeling boy. Use the word "Indian" to locate them. What are the two accounts about the boy; who tells each version, and why the different accounts?
9. What are the consequences of Oberon and Titania's "debate" over the little changeling boy? Find the word "debate."
10. What is "love-in-idleness" and what does it do? What is "Dian's bud" and what does it do?
11. To find out about Hermia and Helena's friendship, find the phrase "sisters vows"; in many systems you'll do that if you type in "sisters" and then hit the space bar. Type in "vows" and hit the space bar. Activate the search.
12. Enter "puppet" to see what happens to their friendship. What causes their quarrel? How do they insult each other?
13. Find the word "woo" and its variant "woo'd." What's wrong or goes wrong with courting in this play? And is there any punning going on that you can identify?
14. According to Theseus, what do a lunatic, a lover, and a poet have in common? Find the word "lunatic" to see. Read through his speech to find out his attitude toward the lovers' adventures.
15. Type in "Cupid" and note some of the different ways Cupid is characterized. If your search engine permits wild cards, search for Cupid*; does that alter the count significantly? Do the nature of the references alter?
16. Consider the setting of the play by typing in "night" and "night's." (If you have Word Cruncher, press F4 and then 1 to look at the frequency distribution of the words.) Is the title appropriate? Where do the words occur in the play. Which scene has no night references and why? Go back to the passages, read through them, and note several of the images associated with night.
17. The moon is an important part of the setting. Find all the examples of "moon" (or "moon*" if you have a wild card feature). Is MND unusual in the number of references? Where do the references occur in the play? Read through the passages, noting some of the different kinds of moons and examples of imagery associated with the moon. You might try related words, like luna or Dian or even Phoebe as well.
18. The word "love" is used frequently in this play, but so is the word "dote," meaning to be infatuatedly fond of; to bestow excessive love or fondness on or upon; to be foolishly in love. Insert the words: "dotage" "dote" "dotes" and "doting" and then ENTER after you have completed the word list. Consider the characters who dote, the objects of their doting, and how doting differs from the definition of love in Sonnet 116.
19. Lots of references to dreams and visions. Type in "dream*" and "vision*" to find all the references. Press SHIFT and DELETE to eliminate prefaces and duplicate references. Who dreams or has visions? What different types of dreams and visions are found in the play? What are some attitudes about dreams and visions?