Midsummer Night’s Dream-Act 5

In Act 5, we finally get to see the play within the play that will be observed by the Athenian lovers. This final Act led me to believe that Shakespeare requires us readers to contemplate the emotions and audacity of acting and the critical perceptions from the everyday theatre goer. While reading this, I kept thinking of society as a whole and how people perceive art. There are some who appreciate the arts and some who do not. Theseus defines what sounds like his duty as a viewer:
“Our sport shall be to take what they mistake:
And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect
Takes it in might, not merit.
Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
Make periods in the midst of sentences,
Throttle their practiced accent in their fears…”(73).

As we read, Theseus and the Athenian lovers cease to stop their harsh criticism of the actors. This criticism of art is inevitable in society as well as things other than art. Every person is entitled to their own opinion about a title of work. Also in these lines, the word “rattling” appears and sounds to me like the abrupt conversation that happens after a play is finished. The snake is the audience. Before even appreciating the story’s morals, acting, or elements of the play, Shakespeare uses his characters as examples of the real people that criticize the fictional lives in plays instead of their own real lives.

Little do these once enchanted Athenian lovers know, they have been under the spotlight and have been tampered with, just as easy as a criticism could be made, by the fairies. In Puck’s final speech, we hear from the actor’s point of view, or in a way, the “art’s” response to the viewer’s criticism:
“While these visions did appear.
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gengles, do not reprehend:
If you pardon, we will mend.
And, as I am an honest Puck,
If we have unearned luck
Now to scape the serpent’s tongue….”(86)

I think that Puck is saying that this play within a play is just a distraction for the audience to mingle over. It also provides us hope for our next distraction in art whether it is a success or a failure. Whatever form of art it may be, it will have to endure the criticism of the common people.

During Shakespeare’s lifetime, England experienced war, outbreaks of plague, terrorist attacks, unprecedented prosperity and the growth of conspicuous consumption, religious conflict, and—for the very first time—contact with the New World. These events vitally shaped Shakespeare’s plays. Reading a selection of his comedies, histories, tragedies, and tragicomedies, we will consider these works within their historical and theatrical contexts. Who went to which playhouses, and why? What did the stages look like? What sort of sound-effects did they use? We will also ask questions about Shakespeare’s continued cultural relevance, focusing on the topics of globalization, sex and gender, and race. Readings will be supplemented with film.