Redaktionelle Leitung Sommernachtstraum - Sabine Haag - Text ...

Love & Reason
...reason and love keep little company together now-a-days.
III,1,131
Here are two extracts from Shakespeare's play, each showing a
lovesick woman's words to her beloved:
Helena is desperately trying to make Demetrius love her (which
he says he does not) ...
to fawn on so.: (of a dog) jump on so.,
as an expression of love
to spurn so.: send away with angry pride
to strike so.: hit sharply or forcefully
leave: permission ('Erlaubnis')
worser: (double comparative as a
means of emphasis)
I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,
The more you beat me, I will fawn on you.
Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
What worser place can I beg in your love,
And yet a place of high respect with me,
Than to be used as you use your dog?
II,1,203-210
Puck has put an ass's head on foolish Bottom, whose singing
wakes Titania. Under the influence of Oberon's love juice, she
immediately falls in love with this creature...
flow'ry: = flowery
I pray thee: ≈ please
mortal: human, man
enamoured of: very fond of
note: melody
enthralled to: fascinated by
virtue: goodness, nobleness
perforce: necessarily
What angel wakes me from my flow'ry bed?
...
I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again.
Mine ear is much enamoured of thy note;
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;
And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me,
On the first view, to say, to swear, I love thee.
III,1,118-129
■ Identify the underlying concepts of love and the various violations of the laws of
reason in these two declarations of love.
■ Experiment with reading/acting out these two declarations of love, each time varying
your voice and manner of speaking (desperate, devoted, slavish, ironic, foolish,
forceful, imploring, etc.). Try to identify the comical and/or serious aspects of these
two love situations.
■ For the four young Athenian lovers, the conflict of love and reason is solved with a
magical "dream" experience. Imagine you are Helena's best friend, wanting to make
her see reason. Write a dialogue between Helena and yourself. Then compare your
dialogues in class and discuss your strategies of how to convince someone who is
desperately in love. Now comment on the appropriateness of Shakespeare's magical
solution to the lovers' conflict.
■ In each of the two above love situations, one of the 'lovers' is likened to an animal:
Helena to a dog, a spaniel, and Bottom to an ass. Collect any associations with
these two animals and comment on this choice of animals. Then think of animals
which would fit other love situations in the play.
Love makes fools of us all.
Tagline on the film poster
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