Who Plays The Moonshine In Midsummer Night’S Dream?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Robin Starveling as Moonshine (second from right), with thorn-bush and dog, in a 1907 student production Robin Starveling is a character in William Shakespeare ‘s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1596), one of the Rude Mechanicals of Athens who plays the part of Moonshine in their performance of Pyramus and Thisbe,

What is moonshine in Midsummer Night’s Dream?

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare Page 2 of 9 – Pyramus and Thisby is hilarious, but it is also cathartic. The passions and taboos released in the fairy world of our subconscious need to be identified and dispelled by the exorcism of laughter.

• Demetrius, Lysander, Helena and Hermia all need the healing of comedy, which is why they are made to watch their own extravagant passions being so brutally caricatured.
• Pyramus and Thisby is also much more closely related to the action of the rest of the play than may, at first, appear.
• This is revealed, particularly, by the dramatis personae that Peter Quince (played, it would be nice to think, by Shakespeare himself) finally settles upon.

Obviously, Pyramus and Thisby themselves are essential to what storyline there is, but otherwise (having presumably rejected the various mothers and fathers of the main characters mentioned in Act One, Scene Two) the roles Quince chooses all have a symbolic value.

• First on stage is Wall, who comically represents the many barriers to the ‘course of true love’ that have been met with in the play, most brutally in Egeus’ denial of his daughter Hermia’s love.
• Lion and Moonshine then enter together.
• Much comedy is made of the first (‘ This grisly beast ‘), but Lion also reminds the audience of the multitude of references to dangerous animals in the play.

Moonshine represents perhaps the most enduring symbol of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare’s moon could be said to represent everything and nothing, and that, perhaps, is his point is choosing such a changeable symbol. The moon is a constantly fluctuating reference point for so many of the characters.

1. In one place it represents an old ‘dowager,’ elsewhere a virgin, in another place a lover, in another lunacy, or fairy magic or romance or chastity or plague-inducing vapoursThe word ‘moonshine’ itself can mean ‘something unreal’ or ‘nonsense’ in this period.
2. Shakespeare’s use of the moon is designed to create some kind of over-arching, inclusive emblem for the play.

Perhaps, he merely worked every reference to the moon he could into the text to suggest his night time setting as vividly as he could to his audience. More likely, his purpose is to create a kind of ‘anti-symbol’: an emblem that does not unite ideas, but which creates a complex web of paradoxes and strange juxtapositions – the very contradictions of the moon as symbol come to stand for the unpredictable and unstable changeability of the Athenian wood itself.

Pyramus and Thisby therefore is a true conclusion to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Its laughter is healing (after all the madness of love endured in the wood), as is the social harmony that it represents, with commoners and nobility united in the celebration of a marriage. The play has a happy ending, and would be inconceivable without it, of course.

But Shakespeare knew enough of his craft to leave that moment of doubt and uncertainty for his audience to ponder. If you have found our critical notes helpful, why not try the first Tower Notes novel, a historical fantasy set in the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasions.

Who is the biggest role in A Midsummer Night’s Dream?

Though there is little character development in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and no true protagonist, critics generally point to Puck as the most important character in the play.

Who are the four main characters in A Midsummer Night’s Dream?

Characters overview – There are three main groups of characters in A Midsummer Night’s Dream :

The four human lovers : Demetrius, Helena, Hermia, and Lysander. The fairies, including Titania, the fairy queen; Oberon, the fairy king; and Puck, Oberon’s personal assistant fairy. The human actors, including Nick Bottom (aka Bottom) and Peter Quince; these characters are also known as “the mechanicals” in reference to their day jobs: carpenter, joiner, etc.

Who is the main male character in Midsummer Night’s Dream?

Lysander is a fictional character in William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A handsome young man of Athens, Lysander is in love with Egeus’s daughter Hermia.

What play do the mechanicals perform?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Robin Starveling as Moonshine (second from right), with thorn-bush and dog, in a 1907 student production The mechanicals are six characters in A Midsummer Night’s Dream who perform the play-within-a-play Pyramus and Thisbe, They are a group of amateur and mostly incompetent actors from around Athens, looking to make names for themselves by having their production chosen among several acts as the courtly entertainment for the royal wedding party of Theseus and Hippolyta,

What is the nickname moonshine?

Photo: Tennessee State Library and Archives Moonshine is a spirit that goes by a long list of nicknames: white lightning, corn liquor, stump water, skullcracker, wildcat, ruckus juice, and that is a short list. Moonshine, which is most often distilled from corn, has a deep connection to the history of the United States and is seeing a recent boom in popularity.

• John Schlimm is the author of Moonshine: A Celebration of America’s Original Rebel Spirit,
• His book is part history lesson and part recipe book for moonshine cocktails and infusions.
• Digital Producer Chip Walton talked with Schlimm about his boozy research and wrangled some recipes for The Moonrunner’s Manhattan, Smokey Mountain S’more, and Stockcar just in time for the holidays.

Chip Walton: Crazy nicknames aside, what exactly is moonshine? John Schlimm: It’s quite simple. It boils down to – literally – water, corn, yeast and a copper pot still. Those are the core ingredients of moonshine. Of course, these days there are all sort of flavorings and infusions, but it’s really a simple, natural recipe. John Schlimm Photo provided by John Schlimm CW: And it’s not the same thing as white whiskey, correct? JS: There are so many variations. You do see some distilleries calling it white whiskey, but moonshine is really its own separate thing, made of corn, not barley.

• I think of moonshine and whisky as close cousins, but they are not the same thing.
• CW: At certain times in history, the term or idea of moonshine has been seen as derogatory, similar to the way that homebrewed beer was presumed to be of an inferior quality or even dangerous.
• JS: It was only really derogatory for temperance activists and the authorities.

Certainly, anyone who enjoyed drinking didn’t find anything derogatory about it. But, to your point, in the past there were people who – once moonshine became a huge money maker – would skimp and use certain ingredients that would make it rather toxic.

• In the strictest of terms, that’s what might’ve given it a bad name.
• Today it’s regulated and legal, so distilleries have to follow rules and laws just like any other brewery or winery.
• CW: You tell us that the history of moonshine is a history of immigrants that revolves around distilling.
• JS: Absolutely.

The original moonshiners were among the first immigrants to the United States before the United States was even the United States – starting in the 1600s. Continuing into the 1800s moonshine was intertwined with this new and growing country, and right into modern day.

1. They were farmer-entrepreneurs, they were artisans, they were adventurers; these men and women embodied what it means to look towards the American dream and go after it.
2. After 250 years, they finally achieved the American dream; after everything they have gone through, today their moonshine is legitimate.

In the end, they won. Their legacy is a celebration and embodiment of America’s original rebel spirit. In that way of looking at it, the story of the moonshiners is quite inspirational. Did they break the law? Yes, they did. But that becomes part of what made them folk heroes and fantastic characters that we can look back upon and say that they are part of the roots of what shaped this country. John Schlimm writes that moonshiners also referred to themselves as blockaders, who believed it was their God-given right to produce their white lightning free of government control. The two women seen at right were photographed after being arrested by federal agents for making moonshine near Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1921.

1. Photo Courtesy – Left and Center: Tennessee State Library and Archives | Right: Minnesota Historical Society CW: It’s never been easy though, both physically and legally.
2. JS: They never had it easy.
3. Certainly in the beginning these were farmers and farm families living in the hollers and back hills of Appalachia and elsewhere in the country.

Times were tough. A lot of times they are characterized as hillbillies and rednecks; those are labels that I dare say they would wear with great pride. But they were smart and quite wise. They discovered that from their fields of corn they could distill moonshine, they could then transport it much easier than the corn itself, and they could make a whole lot more money.

1. They were berated by temperance activists almost from the beginning.
2. At times, it was illegal or they didn’t want to pay taxes, so the government came after them and tried to chase them down.
3. And, talk about the entrepreneurial spirit, moonshine paved the way for NASCAR.
4. Those same bootleggers that were outrunning the authorities on the weekdays would race their cars on the weekend.

There was a bit of ego involved. Everyone was trying to prove their car was the fastest, and they would race in old cow pastures. Eventually, they formulated that into a structure that became NASCAR, which is now a multi-billion dollar industry. Again, at almost every inch of the history of this country the moonshiners played some role.

CW: What effect did Prohibition have on their efforts? JS: True to their rebel spirit they did not back down. Instead, they mastered the concept of supply and demand. Because as soon as the government said people were not allowed to drink alcohol, guess what happened? People wanted to drink alcohol, and more than ever before.

The moonshiners were right there to give the people what they wanted and to take their money in exchange. It made a lot of moonshiners very rich. Law enforcement officers often documented their efforts to capture moonshine equipment including copper stills and tubing, barrels, jugs and tanks. John Schlimm explains, “One surefire way revenuers had for decommissioning a still was to hack holes in it with axes and other instruments.

Another, more dramatic, method for demolishing a moonshine operation was dynamite. They also turned over barrels of mash, flooding the countryside with white lightning.” Photos Courtesy: West Virginia State Archives CW: Prohibition nearly killed off the American brewing industry – at least as far as number of breweries that existed before and after Prohibition.

Did it affect moonshiners in the same way? JS: The laws have always been a bit tricky where the moonshiners are concerned. There were breweries and whiskey-specific distilleries dating back hundreds of years in the U.S. But, you didn’t see actual legit moonshine distilleries because moonshine was still being made in the backwoods and hollers up until the mid-20th century, when it slowly started coming out and became more legitimized.

• Now it seems every week you hear about a new functional moonshine distillery opening somewhere in the U.S.
• While the temperance activists may not have succeeded in the end, they certainly did their damage along the way in creating a stigma wrapped around alcohol in general, but specifically moonshine.

Because it came out of the backwoods, it had that stigma attached to it for a long time, unlike the wine, beer, and whiskey that emerged more victoriously post-Prohibition. CW: What’s the moonshine lifestyle and industry look like today? JS: This is the new golden age of the moonshiners. Moonshine by John Schlimm CW: What is the flavor and sensation of moonshine? How should we enjoy it? JS: Pure unflavored moonshine should go in smooth and transform into a very comforting burn – that beautiful burn that we all love in that very first sip of whiskey or vodka.

It’s extremely versatile in cocktails, much like a good quality vodka. And you can temper that burn pretty easily with the use of mixers, juices or other spirits. As far as flavored moonshine, what I tried to capture in this book is that there are a lot of directions it can go. Mostly what you’ll find in stores are the fruit-infused moonshine – strawberry, cherry, peach – which are a bit sweeter.

Those are the most popular with the most people because it tempers that burn. I have had a lot of fun in experimenting with moonshine infused with onion or leeks or garlic. It’s not so much that you’re going to drink those straight over rocks. They become great ingredients for cocktails.

What does the nickname moonshine mean?

Other forms: moonshining; moonshines; moonshined Moonshine is the glowing light that comes from the moon, and it’s also a common term meaning “homemade liquor.” In an old-timey bluegrass song, a character might drink moonshine in the moonshine, While moonshine can simply be a synonym for moonlight, it’s often used as slang for bootleg (or illicit) whiskey, as well as a colorful way to say “nonsense.” For example, you could say, “I listened to her speech, but I finally decided everything she said was nothing but moonshine,” This “without substance” meaning is actually the oldest figurative definition of moonshine, dating from the fifteenth century.

noun the light of the Moon noun whiskey illegally distilled from a corn mash verb distill (alcohol) illegally; produce moonshine

DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘moonshine’, Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors. Send us feedback EDITOR’S CHOICE

Is Puck male or female Midsummer Night’s Dream?

What Is Puck’s Gender? – Although Puck is usually played by a male actor, it’s worth noting that nowhere in the play is the audience told the character’s gender, and there are no gendered pronouns used to reference Puck. Even the character’s alternate name, Robin Goodfellow, is androgynous.

Is Puck a fairy?

puck puck, in medieval English folklore, a malicious fairy or demon, In Old and Middle English the word meant simply “demon.” In Elizabethan lore he was a mischievous, brownielike fairy also called Robin Goodfellow, or Hobgoblin. As one of the leading characters in William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, Puck boasts of his pranks of changing shapes, misleading travelers at night, spoiling milk, frightening young girls, and tripping venerable old dames.

What are the 3 main groups of characters in A Midsummer Night’s Dream?

If you’re familiar with Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, you’ll already be well acquainted with Britten’s, In 1959, Britten had given himself less than a year to compose a new opera in time for the reopening of the Jubilee Hall in Aldeburgh.

Because of this, there was no time for a brand new libretto to be prepared, meaning that Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream libretto sticks very closely to the play’s original script. Britten and his librettist, Peter Pears, reduced Shakespeare’s five acts to three, and over 2000 lines by half (Britten was more than comfortable cutting down the play, ‘the original Shakespeare will survive’).

Surprisingly, even with all this editing, Pears added only one new line to Britten’s libretto, and cut just two characters, Egeus and Philostrate). As in Shakespeare’s play, the characters are split into 3 groups; the Fairies, the Lovers and the ‘Rustics’ (as Britten liked to call them).

The character groupings are defined by the instruments: ethereal sounds of the harp and harpsichord are notable in the fairy realm; romantic music that uses woodwind and strings can be heard in the lovers’ scenes; and lower brass is prominent for the rustics. Oberon – king of the fairies Tytania – queen of the fairies Puck – Oberon’s jester Cobweb – fairy servant Mustardseed – fairy servant Moth – fairy servant Peaseblossom – fairy servant Lysander – loves Hermia Demetrius – engaged to Hermia Hermia – loves Lysander but is engaged to Demetrius Helena – previously engaged to Demetrius, still loves him Theseus – Duke of Athens Hippolyta – engaged to Theseus Bottom – the weaver Quince – the leader Flute – aspiring actor Snug – the joiner Snout – the tinker Starveling – the tailor With nearly 20 characters in the opera, familiarising yourself with them all will help you to enjoy the production even more! Unusually for an opera, A Midsummer Night’s Dream doesn’t have ‘dominant’ roles, instead all characters get their chance to shine (although Oberon, Titania and Bottom perhaps more so).

Now that you’re more familiar with the characters in the opera, find out the similarities between Britten’s Libretto and Shakespeare’s script,

Who speaks the final words of A Midsummer Night’s Dream?

Summary: Act V, scene ii–epilogue – Think but this, and all is mended: That you have but slumbered here, While these visions did appear. See Important Quotations Explained Puck enters and says that, now that night has fallen, the fairies will come to the castle and that he has been “sent with broom before / To sweep the dust behind the door” (V.ii.19–20).

Oberon and Titania enter and bless the palace and its occupants with a fairy song, so that the lovers will always be true to one another, their children will be beautiful, and no harm will ever visit Theseus and Hippolyta. Oberon and Titania take their leave, and Puck makes a final address to the audience.

He says that if the play has offended, the audience should remember it simply as a dream. He wishes the audience members good night and asks them to give him their hands in applause if they are kind friends. Read a translation of Act V, scene ii–epilogue

Who is Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream?

Nick Bottom Character in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, (1851) Titania adoring Bottom, Oil on canvas by, c.1790 Nick Bottom is a character in ‘s who provides throughout the play. A weaver by trade, he is famously known for getting his head transformed into that of a donkey by the elusive,

Who is the main female character in A Midsummer Night’s Dream?

The Characters of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream In William Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, characters make countless failed attempts to control fate. Many of the male characters, including Egeus, Oberon, and Theseus, are insecure and characterized by a need for female obedience.

The female characters also display insecurity, but resist obeying their male counterparts. These differences emphasize the play’s central theme of order versus chaos. Hermia is a feisty, confident young woman from Athens. She is in love with a man named Lysander, but her father, Egeus, commands her to marry Demetrius instead.

Hermia refuses, confidently opposing her father. Despite her self-possession, Hermia is still affected by the whims of fate during the play. Notably, Hermia loses her confidence when Lysander, who is bewitched by a love potion, abandons her in favor of her friend Helena.

1. Hermia also has insecurities, particularly her short stature in contrast to the taller Helena.
2. At one point, she becomes so jealous that she challenges Helena to a fight.
3. Nevertheless, Hermia shows respect for the rules of propriety, as when she insists that her beloved, Lysander, sleep apart from her.

Helena is a young woman from Athens and a friend of Hermia. She was betrothed to Demetrius until he left her for Hermia, and she remains desperately in love with him. During the play, both Demetrius and Lysander fall in love with Helena as a result of the love potion.

• This event reveals the depth of Helena’s inferiority complex.
• Helena cannot believe both men are actually in love with her; instead, she assumes they are mocking her.
• When Hermia challenges Helena to a fight, Helena implies that her own fearfulness is an attractive maidenly attribute; however, she also admits that she inhabits a stereotypically masculine role by pursuing Demetrius.

Like Hermia, Helena is aware of propriety’s rules but willing to break them in order to achieve her romantic goals. Lysander is a young man from Athens who is in love with Hermia at the start of the play. Egeus, Hermia’s father, accuses Lysander of “bewitching the bosom of child” and ignoring that Hermia is betrothed to another man.

1. Despite Lysander’s alleged devotion to Hermia, he is no match for Puck’s magic love potion.
2. Puck accidentally applies the potion to Lysander’s eyes, and as a result Lysander abandons his original love and falls in love with Helena.
3. Lysander is eager to prove himself for Helena and is willing to duel Demetrius for her love.

Demetrius, a young man from Athens, was previously betrothed to Helena but abandoned her in order to pursue Hermia. He can be brash, rude, and even violent, as when he insults and threatens Helena and provokes Lysander into a duel. Demetrius did originally love Helena, and by the end of the play, he loves her once again, resulting in a harmonious ending.

However, it is notable that Demetrius’ love is rekindled only by magic. Puck is Oberon’s mischievous and merry jester. Technically, he is Oberon’s servant, but he is both unable and unwilling to obey his master. Puck represents the forces of chaos and disorder, challenging the ability of humans and fairies to enact their will.

Indeed, Puck himself is no match for the force of chaos. His attempt to use a magic love potion to help Hermia, Helena, Demetrius, and Lysander achieve romantic harmony leads to the central misunderstandings of the play. When he tries to undo his mistake, he causes even greater chaos.

Puck’s failed attempts to control fate bring about much of the action of the play. Oberon is the king of the fairies. After witnessing Demetrius’ poor treatment of Helena, Oberon orders Puck to repair the situation through the use of a love potion. In this way, Oberon shows kindness, but he is, He demands obedience from his wife, Titania, and he expresses furious jealousy over Titania’s adoption of and love for a young changeling boy.

When Titania refuses to give up the boy, Oberon orders Puck to make Titania fall in love with an animal—all because he wishes to embarrass Titania into obedience. Thus, Oberon shows himself to be vulnerable to the same insecurities that provoke the human characters into action.

Titania is the queen of the fairies. She recently returned from a trip to India, where she adopted a young changeling boy whose mother died in childbirth. Titania adores the boy and lavishes attention on him, which makes Oberon jealous. When Oberon orders Titania to give up the boy, she refuses, but she is no match for the magic love spell that makes her falls in love with the donkey-headed Bottom.

Although we do not witness Titania’s eventual decision to hand over the boy, Oberon reports that Titania did so. Theseus is the king of Athens and a force of order and justice. At the beginning of the play, Theseus recalls his defeat of the Amazons, a society of warlike women who traditionally represent a threat to patriarchal society.

• Theseus takes pride in his strength.
• He tells Queen Hippolyta of the Amazons that he “woo’d with the sword,” erasing Hippolyta’s claim to masculine power.
• Theseus only appears at the beginning and end of the play; however, as king of Athens, he is the counterpart of Oberon, reinforcing the contrast between human and fairy, reason and emotion, and ultimately, order and chaos.

This balance is investigated and critiqued throughout the play. Hippolyta is the queen of the Amazons and Theseus’ bride. The Amazons are a powerful tribe led by fearsome women warriors, and as their queen, Hippolyta represents a threat to the patriarchal society of Athens.

When we first meet Hippolyta, the Amazons have been defeated by Theseus, and the play begins with the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta, an event that represents the victory of “order” (patriarchal society) over “chaos” (the Amazons). However, that sense of order is immediately challenged by Hermia’s subsequent disobedience to her father.

Egeus is Hermia’s father. At the start of the play, Egeus is enraged that his daughter will not obey his wishes to marry Demetrius. He turns to King Theseus, encouraging Theseus to invoke the law that a daughter must marry her father’s choice of husband, at penalty of death.

1. Egeus is a demanding father who prioritizes his daughter’s obedience over his own life.
2. Like many of the play’s other characters, Egeus’ insecurities drive the action of the play.
3. He attempts to connect his perhaps uncontrollable emotions with the orderliness of law, but this reliance on law makes him an inhumane father.

Perhaps the most foolish of the players, Nick Bottom gets wrapped up in the drama between Oberon and Titania. Puck chooses Bottom as the object of Titania’s magic-induced love, as per Oberon’s order that she fall in love with an animal of the forest to embarrass her into obedience.

1. Puck mischievously turns his head into that of a donkey, as he decides Bottom’s name alludes to an ass.
2. The group of traveling players includes Peter Quince, Nick Bottom, Francis Flute, Robin Starveling, Tom Snout, and Snug.
3. They rehearse the play Pyramus and Thisbe in the woods outside Athens, hoping to perform it for the king’s upcoming wedding.

At the end of the play, they give the performance, but they are so foolish and their performance so absurd that the tragedy ends up coming off as a comedy. : The Characters of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

What is Puck’s real name in Midsummer Night’s Dream?

Puck, also called Robin Goodfellow, the vivacious fairy, henchman for Oberon, and narrator in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Notorious for his mischievous deeds, Puck makes witty, fanciful asides that serve to guide the play and its outrageous action. Britannica Quiz Pop Culture Quiz

Why is Puck the most important character?

Puck is an important character for two reasons. First, he is important to the plot, advancing it in several different scenes. Second, he connects the play to the folklore stories that would have been familiar to Elizabethan audiences.

Is Puck the antagonist?

Puck is an antagonist insofar as he bungles Oberon’s potion-giving instructions and finds the ensuing misadventures comical. This sets him in opposition to Oberon’s intent as well as the lovers’. After enchanting Demetrius, he says, ‘Then will two at once woo one; That must needs be sport alone.

Who is true love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream?

Power vs. Love – The first concept presented of love is its powerlessness, represented by the “true” lovers. Lysander and Hermia are the only characters in the play who are really in love. Yet their love is forbidden, by Hermia’s father and Duke Theseus.

Hermia’s father Egeus speaks of Lysander’s love as witchcraft, saying of Lysander, “this man hath bewitched the bosom of my child” and “with feigning voice verses of feigning love, stol’n the impression of her fantasy.” These lines maintain that true love is an illusion, a false ideal. Egeus goes on to say that Hermia belongs to him, proclaiming, “she is mine, and all my right of her / I do estate unto Demetrius.” These lines demonstrate the lack of power that Hermia and Lysander’s love holds in the presence of familial law.

Furthermore, Demetrius tells Lysander to “yield / Thy crazéd title to my certain right,” which means that a father must give his daughter only to the worthiest suitor, regardless of love. Finally, Hermia and Lysander’s eventual wedlock is due to two things: fairy intervention and noble decree.

1. The fairies enchant Demetrius to fall in love with Helena, freeing Theseus to allow Hermia and Lysander’s union.
2. With his words, “Egeus, I will overbear your will, / For in the temple, by and by, with us / These couples shall eternally be knit,” the duke is proving that it is not love that is responsible for joining two people, but the will of those in power.

Even for true lovers, it isn’t love that conquers, but power in the form of royal decree.

Does Demetrius really love Helena?

Things others say about them: – ‘With cunning hast thou filched my daughter’s heart.’ (Egeus, 1:1) Lysander is loved by Hermia, but Egeus thinks it was a cunning plan. Helena in the 2011 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Diana Wynyard as Helena in the 1949 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Helena in the 2005 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Helena in the 2016 ‘A Play for the Nation’ production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Lysander, Helena and Demetrius in the 2008 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Helena is a young woman in Athens. She is in love with Demetrius but he is not in love with her. Instead, he loves her best friend Hermia. As a way of convincing Demetrius to love her, Helena tells him about Hermia’s plan to run away with Lysander and together they go into the forest to find her.

She is desperate for Demetrius’ love and would follow him anywhere. She betrays her best friend’s secret to make Demetrius happy. She is well-regarded throughout Athens as being Hermia’s equal.

Why is it called A Midsummer Night’s Dream?

The title of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream has both literary and social significance. The title tells the audience right away that the play is going to deal in some way with a sort of dream on a summer night. To dream, a person must be asleep; however, most of the characters are awake throughout the play.

What mistake has Puck made?

What mistake does Puck make? He squirts the juice on the wrong man.

Who are the six mechanicals in Midsummer Night’s Dream?

Lesson Summary The rude mechanicals are six skilled laborers who come together to put on a play for the royalty of Athens. The members of the group are Quince, the carpenter; Snug, the joiner; Bottom, the weaver; Flute, the bellows-mender; Snout, the tinker; and Starveling the tailor.

Why did Shakespeare include the mechanicals?

Pyramus and Thisbe By Jennifer Kearley A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare is full of drama, love, magic, humor, and complex plot lines. This play is set in Athens, Greece and focuses on the upcoming marriage of Theseus, a duke, and Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons.

• Four young lovers, a group of six men called the mechanicals, and magical, manipulative fairies endure most of their journey in the forest of Athens.
• The main goal of the mechanicals is to put on a tragic play, Pyramus and Thisbe, for the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta.
• Pyramus and Thisbe is significant because it reveals major influences on Shakespeare’s writing and is an essential element of the humor and success of A Midsummer Night’s Dream,

Shakespeare’s version of Pyramus and Thisbe, the play-within-a-play, follows two young lovers whose families have forbidden them from being together. As a result, they must communicate through a hole in the wall between their neighboring homes. Pyramus and Thisbe eventually plan to meet up by moonlight at the tomb of Ninus, however, Thisbe arrives first and sees a lion.

1. She flees in fear, leaving her cloak behind.
2. The lion ruins her cloak, and when Pyramus arrives and sees the tattered garment, he assumes the lion has killed his lover.
3. Pyramus commits suicide because of his grief, and when Thisbe returns to find her lover dead, she kills herself as well (Shakespeare 5.1.122-24).

The story of Pyramus and Thisbe was made well known by the book Metamorphoses, which was written by a Roman poet, Ovid. He adapted this classical myth into his own version of a tragic love story in 8 AD (Keith 309). It is similar, although not identical, to Shakespeare’s version described above.

• Arthur Golding then translated this Latin text into English in 1567, although many scholars have argued that this translation is clumsy and does not capture the spirit of Ovid’s original version (Muir, The Sources of Shakespeare’s Plays 3).
• A multitude of sources have influenced Shakespeare’s writing in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, however, Ovid and Golding have most directly affected the plot and language of this particular play.

In fact, Madeleine Forey states that, “Few characters remain untouched by Metamorphoses, and in many instances Golding’s translation appears to be Shakespeare’s immediate source” (322). Shakespeare borrows the language and even strings of phrases from Ovid’s original version and Golding’s English version of Metamorphoses (Muir, “Pyramus and Thisbe” 143),

1. Enneth Muir has pointed out that Golding uses the word “cranny” to describe the wall that separates Pyramus and Thisbe.
2. Snout, one of the six mechanicals who plays the Wall, also uses “cranny” to describe himself.
3. Shakespeare and Golding’s versions are the only two out of many that use this word.
4. This similarity, along with many others, suggest that Golding was a direct influence on A Midsummer Night’s Dream (“Pyramus and Thisbe” 143).

Pieces of the story of Pyramus and Thisbe from Metamorphoses can be found in other plotlines within A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Like Pyramus and Thisbe, Hermia and Lysander decide to flee Athens and run away into the forest at night because Hermia’s father, Egeus, disapproves of their relationship (Shakespeare 1.2.163-68).

Both of these instances, as well as the mechanicals’ decision to act out the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, suggest that Ovid and Golding were two of the most influential sources on this play (Forey 322). The mechanicals attempt to act out Ovid’s version of Pyramus and Thisbe, but they ultimately fail due to their ignorance and misinterpretation of it.

It is this failure that has ironically contributed to the comedic success of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Forey argues that Shakespeare’s characterization of the mechanicals was his way of mocking Golding’s rather clumsy and unsophisticated translation of Metamorphoses.

She points out that Golding “naively” writes a preface for his translation of Metamorphoses which explains in detail that the characters in the story are not real. She parallels this with the rehearsals for Pyramus and Thisbe, where Bottom, one of the mechanicals, naively suggests that they create a prologue to explain that the lion and deaths of the lovers are not actually real so that they will not frighten their audience (326).

Both the stage audience and real audience are more than likely aware of the differences between real life and play acting. According to Forey, this makes the mechanicals’ explanations “superfluous” and “heightens the comedy of the mechanicals’ efforts” (328).

1. The mechanicals’ explanations therefore transform the story of Pyramus and Thisbe from a tragedy into a comedy.
2. The mechanicals’ decision to leave out pertinent aspects of the original story of Pyramus and Thisbe from their performance also adds humor to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
3. In the earliest known version of this story, Pyramus and Thisbe “die tragically and are metamorphosed into the Cilician river and spring” (Keith 309).

Ovid altered the original myth, but unlike the mechanicals, he still includes a transformation or metamorphosis in his version. In Ovid’s story and the subsequent translations, it is explained that Pyramus’ blood stains the white mulberry tree he is sitting under when he kills himself.

1. When his lover, Thisbe, finds him, she asks the gods to let the mulberries remain the color of blood in remembrance of their love.
2. Since then, mulberries transform to dark red when they fully ripen (Ovid 4.128-66).
3. Although the mechanicals mention that a mulberry tree is present in their play, they fail to include the significance of it.

The title of Ovid’s book, Metamorphoses, meant “to change in form; to turn into or to something else by supernatural means” (“metamorphose, v.” Oxford English Dictionary ). Thus, the transformation of the color of the mulberry tree highlights one of the most obvious themes of this book and of the original myth.

According to Forey, the onstage audience and real audience at the time A Midsummer Night’s Dream was first performed were likely aware of Ovid’s version of the story (329). Both audiences were thus likely aware of the mechanicals’ ignorance in regard to their omission. Along with the mechanicals’ superfluous explanations that parallel Golding’s translation, this omission possibly shows that Shakespeare was, “sharing with the more cultured of his audience the rather exclusive humour of self-conscious literary play” (Forey 329).

Ironically, the decision to exclude the transformation of the mulberries ends up transforming the genre of Pyramus and Thisbe from a tragedy to a comedy. Although the metamorphosis of the mulberry tree is not included in the mechanicals’ performance, transformation is still a common theme throughout the rest of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

1. For example, Puck administers a love potion to Demetrius and Lysander that alters their desires and makes them fall in love with Helena rather than Hermia (Shakespeare 3.2.345-53).
2. Also, the head of Bottom, one of the mechanicals, is metamorphosed into a donkey head.
3. Titania, queen of the fairies, then falls in love with the changed Bottom as a result of the same love potion (Shakespeare 3.1.99-108).

According to Mandy Busse, all of these mental and physical transformations further suggest that Ovid’s Metamorphoses was a major influence on the formation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1), Overall, a large part of A Midsummer Night’s Dream ‘s comedic success can be attributed to the play-within-a-play, Pyramus and Thisbe.

1. The origins of this story, as well as the mechanicals’ interpretation of it, reveal important influences on Shakespeare’s language, plot lines, and character development in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
2. Works Cited Busse, Mandy.
3. The play within the play: Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ and Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.” University of Erfurt, GRIN, 2013, p.1, www.grin.com/en/e-book/75890/the-play-within-the-play-ovid-s-metamorphoses-and-shannnnnnkespeare-s-a-midsummer Forey, Madeleine.

“‘Bless Thee, Bottom, Bless Thee! Thou Art Translated!”: Ovid, Golding, and ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.'” The Modern Language Review, vol.93, no.2, 1998, pp.321–329. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3735350, Keith, A.M. “Etymological Wordplay in Ovid’s ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ (Met.4.55-166).” The Classical Quarterly, vol.51, no.1, 2001, pp.309-312.

• JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3556355,
• Eller, Tim.
• Midsummer Wall.” Tim Keller Photography, 2015, http://www.timkellerphotography.com/Images/Blog/2015/July/MidsummerWall.jpg “metamorphose, v.” Oxford English Dictionary.3rd ed., 2001.
• Muir, Kenneth.
• Pyramus and Thisbe: A Study in Shakespeare’s Method.” Shakespeare Quarterly, vol.5, no.2, 1954, pp.141–153.

JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2866583, Muir, Kenneth. The Sources of Shakespeare’s Plays. Methuen, 1977. Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso). Metamorphoses. Translated by A.S. Kline, 1st ed., Borders Classics, 2004, 4.128-66. Shakespeare. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Edited by Linda Buckle, 5th ed., Cambridge University Press, 2016.

What is the old meaning of moonshine?

The History of Moonshine in the United States Inspection of Homemade Moonshine Moonshine has played an important role in American history. In fact, moonshine wouldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for American history. Mankind has produced alcohol for thousands of years. However, the American government was one of the first major governments in the world to tax and control the alcohol industry.

• The moment the government started to tax and control alcohol was also the moment the moonshine industry began.
• The term “moonshine” comes from the fact that illegal spirits were made under the light of the moon.
• In every part of America, early moonshiners worked their stills at night to avoid detection from authorities.

The United States started taxing liquors and spirits shortly after the American Revolution. In the years following the Revolution, the United States was struggling to pay the bills of the long war. Taxing liquors and spirits was an effective way to generate revenue for the government.

In the early frontier days of American history, moonshine wasn’t a hobby: it was a part-time job, Many farmers relied on moonshine manufacturing to survive bad years. Low-value corn crops could be turned into high-value whisky. Back in those days, Americans hated paying liquor taxes. They hated taxes so much that revenuers, the government agents who came to collect taxes, were often attacked, tarred, and feathered when they came to visit.

The tension between the government and its citizens eventually boiled over into a conflict called the Whisky Rebellion, which began in 1791 during George Washington’s presidency. Although the Whisky Rebellion was a violent resistance movement, fewer than 15 people were killed throughout the entire conflict. To suppress the rebellion, George Washington led a coalition of 13,000 militia troops into western Pennsylvania – which was the center of the rebellion and America’s frontier country at the time.

1. Washington successfully suppressed the Whisky Rebellion.
2. This marked an important point in U.S.
3. History because it proved that the newly formed country could suppress violent uprisings within its own territory.
4. But, ultimately, the rebels were successful because in 1801 Thomas Jefferson and his Republican Party repealed the tax to widespread public support.

During the Civil War, the American government once again imposed excise taxes on its citizens to fund the war. Revenuers and IRS officials cracked down harshly on moonshiners, leading to many violent conflicts throughout the country. During the Whisky Rebellion, moonshiners were portrayed as heroes standing against an oppressive government.

After the Civil War, that attitude shifted. Many now saw moonshiners as violent criminals. In 1920, moonshiners across the country rejoiced: Prohibition was passed across the nation. Legal alcohol was no longer available anywhere. Overnight, illegal liquor became one of the most profitable businesses in America.

Organized crime took over the moonshine business and distillers sprung up across the country to keep up with demand. Producers began to sell watered-down moonshine based on sugar instead of corn. Speakeasies – complete with hidden doors, passwords, and secret escape routes – could be found in every city in America.

• The good times couldn’t last forever for moonshiners.
• In 1933, Prohibition was repealed and the moonshine market dwindled to a shadow of its former self.
• Today, moonshine is viewed much differently than it was a few decades ago.
• Only a few developed countries in the world let residents legally produce their own home-brewed spirits.

New Zealand, for example, allows home distillation for personal consumption but not for private sale. Whether producing or running a clandestine distillery, you’re sipping on American history every time you pour yourself a glass of moonshine. : The History of Moonshine in the United States

What was moonshine original meaning?

England Circa 18th Century – The origin of the word as we know it today comes from England in the 18 th century. It’s meaning derives from the notion of light without heat, or light from the moon. It meant illicit or smuggled liquor. Moonshiner was a term that described any persons doing illegal activities under the cover of darkness. It could mean anything – robbery, burglary, grave robbing.

What is the story of moonshine?

Moonshine’s Not Just a Southern Thing – Courtesy Zenith Press While moonshine is deeply rooted in Southern culture and heritage, its origins, in fact, can be traced to Pennsylvania. Farmer-distillers in the western part of the state protested when the federal government passed the distilled-spirits tax in 1791.

1. They tarred and feathered tax collectors and fired upon their homes.
2. These actions sparked the Whiskey Rebellion and nearly set off America’s first civil war.
3. Moonshine production later took hold in big cities.
4. In Brooklyn, the waterfront neighborhood known today as Vinegar Hill was a hotbed of illegal whiskey making.

In 1869, law enforcement went hard and fast against the Irish immigrants who’d set up hidden distilleries there and refused to pay government taxes on their product. In a predawn raid they hacked up stills, confiscated whiskey, and hauled it back to the nearby Brooklyn Navy Yard.

• Of course, this didn’t stop people from making booze.
• By the early 1900s, more moonshine was produced in New York City than in all the South combined.
• During Prohibition, a one-day sweep in Chicago, in June, 1925, resulted in 50 raids, 320 arrests, and 10,000 gallons of seized liquor.
• According to the Chicago Daily Tribune, the Genna crime family had brought laborers over from Italy “to distill moonshine.” Meanwhile, Prohibition agents in Los Angeles found inside a five-room ranch house a 250-gallon still and 800 gallons of mash, the soupy, fermented grain that’s used to make the liquor.

A story in the New York Times reported moonshine being made in San Francisco, Oregon, and Washington State.

What does moonshine have to do with the moon?

Moonshine is the term for sunlight reflected by the Moon and illuminating portions of the Earth. Earthshine is the reciprocal, being that portion of sunlight reflected by the Earth and illuminating the Moon.