AMSND

Photo: Bill Cooper

My first experience with A Midsummer Night's Dream was in high school, but I never read the play.  I can clearly remember watching a fellow member of the NFL (Speech Team) performing part of Act 5.  He was hilarious and entertaining, much like the Central Park movie clip (my favorite) from yesterday.  This young man's talents allowed him to play Pyramus, Thisbe, and the Wall with ease.  I believe he went on to be a national contender in the National Forensics League.  Now, I read Act 5 over and over, but I always hear the same voices and picture the same scene in my head thanks to the hilarious exposure from 13 years ago.  By doing so I have become somewhat boxed into my own mind and can't see past what I've already seen.  I feel as though I am a mechanical and think that I am doing a great job, but in all reality my performance is a laughing matter.


When asked what is the significance of Act 5 I wasn't sure, but assumed that the answer(s) could be found in a thorough rereading of the text.  I read, and read again, but couldn't quite find what I was looking for.  When I attempted to consult my fellow school of nighters it became quickly evident that we were all on a very different page and did not agree on the course of action to take.  At first I attempted to look at the act as a whole, and then I tried to break it down for different answers.  Both attempts proved to be futile; until I recognized that one sentence kept playing over and over in my head.
Theseus asks, "How shall we find the concord of this discord?"  Perhaps it was because at first I was not sure what Theseus was asking, but then I pieced together that he was questioning how harmony could be found in such discontent.  Shakespeare is showing the audience/the reader the "bigger picture" through a comedy that very easily could have ended as a tragedy.  The hilarity of the play within a play is found through potential tragedy that is eventually resolved.  The play of Pyramus and Thisbe is hilarious because of the very ideas that threatened the characters previously.  The effect of opposites is found in AMSND (as well as other Shakespeare plays) in the way that the comedy is intensified by the possibility of drama or tragedy.  


In a brief exchange of words with Roberto he pointed out that he believed that Act 5 was solidifying the idea that love in all of its many forms is deserved by all.  Basically, that all people deserve love.  I didn't disagree with his theory, but I couldn't quite accept its certainty either.  However, once recalling how Titania fell in love with the ass-headed weaver I began to understand where Roberto was coming from; as well as seeing again how Shakespeare juxtaposes such strong opposites to create an extreme emotion or feeling.


The fate of the four lovers easily could have turned out differently, as could have the fate of Pyramus and Thisbe.  Without the final act we would not be able to consider such extremes.  The "story" ended in the fourth act, but Shakespeare gives his audience time in the fifth act to determine why he was telling the story in the first place.  The idea that "it was all a dream" only further alludes to the possibilities that could have been in the character's fate.  A dream challenges the idea of what is reality and what is imagination; as does the fifth act in general.