05.08 Free Choice Blog

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Act IV

Summary:

          The scene opens up with Titania and Bottom who still has a Donkey's head and he proceeds with his bossy and jerkish personality into a conversation with his appointed fairies. Still madly in love, Titania has not the slightest clue that she is under the spell of the flower juice. With Bottom conversing with Titania, it makes for quite the humor as he refers to himself as an ass, when discussing the topic of him going to the barber, without realizing that he is wearing a Donkey's head. Another interesting thing that occurred was that coincidentally or not, the diet that Bottom wishes for resembles one of a donkey, and due to the fact that he is unaware of the fact that he is wearing a Donkey's head, it makes it humorous. This hunger for this certain diet (grass, dry oats, hay) may be because he is a dwarf but it really resembles one of a Donkey. Also, due to the fact that his personality is very rude, this may be alluding to something. 
          After taunting Titania, King Oberon convinced Titania of relinquishing the human boy to him. He then proceeded to undo the spell placed on Titania using a bud that belongs to Diana, the goddess of virginity, which has the power to undo the effects of Cupid’s flower. Once the spell is undone King Oberon and Titania managed to stay friendly. 
          After Robin removed the spell on the love triangle, the four are discovered by Theseus and the plot thickens as Hermia is reminded of the decision that she had to make on the day of the Duke's wedding. In the end, all is well as the four were allowed to marry whomever they chose at the Duke's wedding. 

What was your personal reaction to this reading selection?

          My reaction to this act was that it was astonishing. I was able to get angry in some parts of the act, and as everything was getting resolved I agreed with the choices of the author. For example, he could have decided to write Hermia becoming a nun or dying, however, he chose to give the story a happy ending, even to the play being restored as their lead actor was missing. 

What do you believe the author’s intent was, and what patterns of organization did you observe?     

          I believe that the authors intent in this act was to resolve as much of the problems in this story as possible, Shakespear made Titania and Oberon make-up, the love triangle was situated by Robin undoing the spell on everyone and by Hermia's father's wishes being overruled. In which she was able to marry the man she loves at the Duke's wedding, along with Helena and Demetrius. Despite, solving every problem in the story so far the author managed to keep the story interesting so that the readers would have something to look forward to in the final act. At last, one pattern of organization that I observed in this act was chronological order as everything was told/ every problem was solved in a first to last pattern.