A Midsummer Night's Dream Critics

Question 1

What was Regina Buccola’ feminist view on the play?

Answer 1

“the play sympathies with rebellious women,”

Question 2

How does Ryan note on parallels in the play?

Answer 2

“the Athenian scenes frame the scenes of erotic mayhem in the woods

Question 3

How does Hopkins note on marriage within the play?

Answer 3

“single or multiple marriages provide a sense of comic closure,”

Question 4

How does Kriegar note on the fact the play is a conservative genre?

Answer 4

“The lovers flee Athens to win autonomy, but their actions remain systematic and codified,”

Question 5

What is Dent’s comment on love?

Answer 5

“The origin of love never lies in reason,”

Question 6

How does Garber comment on love?

Answer 6

“AMND is throughout a celebration of the irrationality of love, not a criticism of the failure of reason,”

Question 7

How did Laroque comment on the woods in the play?

Answer 7

“[The Greenworld is] a place of escape from the constraints of the law and everyday life,”

Question 8

How does Denise Waterman: BBC online news magazine compares Bottom to Miranda?

Answer 8

“Bottom is silly and bossy but ultimately very lovable. He makes a fool if himself but his stupidity is endearing, innocent and never malicious.”

Question 9

How does Fender comment on metatheatre in play?

Answer 9

“The mechanical’s performance of Pyramus and Thisbe is a parody of the lovers,”

Question 10

How does Synder comment on the conservative genre?

Answer 10

“Shakespeare’s women on top speciality has its own relevance in the comic mode, which rejoices like the seasonal festivals that animate it in temporary placing servants over masters and women over men, dislocating the hierarchies sanctioned but it’s society only to reassert them at the end of the play,”

Question 11

What was Kerr’ comments on marriage?

Answer 11

“To be comic, the ending must forcefully call into question the issues of happiness and forever after

Question 12

How did Carlson comment on the conservative genre?

Answer 12

“Women are allowed their brilliance, freedom and power in comedy only because the genre has built - in safe - guards against such behaviour

Question 13

How did Gay comment on unacceptable behaviour in the play?

Answer 13

“indecorous,”

Question 14

What did Frye call the woods?

Answer 14

“Greenworld,”

Question 15

How did Gay comment on the conservative genre?

Answer 15

“Comedy, while delighting in the events of a briefly topsy turvy world it is ultimately conservative,”

Question 16

What does Gay believe comedy inhabits?

Answer 16

“a liminal space,”

Question 17

What is Wilson’s Marxist view on the play?

Answer 17

“sees the play as supporting the ruling class,”

Question 18

What does Hazlitt say about Puck?

Answer 18

The description of puck as not pitting but laughing at those whom he deceives

Question 19

What does Maslen say about articulating concern?

Answer 19

The comedy genre itself gave actors a voice and allowed them to articulate their concerns in a time of high political tensions

Question 20

What is C.L. Barber’s opinion about festive comedies?

Answer 20

He used his knowledge of Elizabethan rituals and festivals to argue that the subversive inversion in the central section of the play. During the period, rules were suspended and normal hierarchies were inverted.