A Midsummer Night's Dream - State Theatre

9
One Play, Many Stories
A Midsummer Night’s Dream has many
different stories in one play, among them:
• The wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta
• The two mixed-up Athenian couples
• The conflict between Oberon and Titania
• The mechanicals preparing their play
• The play-within-the-play, Pyramus and
Thisbe.
From these many different threads,
Shakespeare wove a colorful tapestry
combining elements of comedy, tragedy,
history, mythology, and the supernatural. He
borrowed characters and plots from a wide
range of sources, including Greek and Roman
mythology, medieval and Renaissance literature,
and English folklore. The play contains
references to London actors, Indian kings,
Tartars, French and English coins, centaurs,
mermaids, the Man in the Moon, Jack and Jill,
magic herbs, swords, guns, and the Antipodes.
Are there any similarities among the various storylines
in this play? Differences?
Most of the plot threads have something to do with
love. How does love affect the different characters?
Does class or social stature seem to make a difference
in the way they be have under the influence of love?
Try writing your own story ‘mashup.’ Pick three sources
from the menu below. Combine them into one story,
making sure the plots and characters intersect.
• your family
• a nursery rhyme or children’s song
• a work of fiction you read for school
• a reality-tv show
• ancient mythology (any civilization)
• a famous (real-life) scientist or inventor
• a song lyric
• a real-life animal (or animals) that lives in the
ocean
Pyramus and Thisbe
“This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.”
—Hippolyta: Act 5, Scene 1
The story of Pyramus and Thisbe (PEER-a-miss and THIZ-bee) is an
ancient Greek myth. Shakespeare would have known it from reading The
Metamorphoses, a long poem in 15 books by the Roman author Ovid (43
BC - AD 17). The poem is a collection of mythological and legendary
stories in which metamorphosis (transformation) plays some part.
Like Hermia and Lysander—and Romeo and Juliet, too—Pyramus and
Thisbe are young lovers who are kept apart by their parents. Through a
crack in the wall that separates their two houses, they arrange to meet
by moonlight at the tomb of Ninus (a character from Greek mythology).
Thisbe is the first to arrive at the meeting-place. She sees a lion, its
mouth still bloody from a recent kill. She flees in terror, accidentally
dropping her cloak. The lion grabs the cloak and rips it apart.
Pyramus arrives and finds the blood-stained cloak. He assumes that
Thisbe has been killed. Grief stricken, he draws his sword and kills
himself. A short time later, Thisbe returns to the tomb and finds Pyramus’
body. She kills herself with Pyramus’ sword. Her parents answer her dying
prayer and bury her in the same tomb with her beloved Pyramus.
The transformation in Ovid’s story has to do with a mulberry tree that
grows near Ninus’ tomb. The white fruit of the tree becomes stained by
Pyramus’s blood when he stabs himself. Before she kills herself, Thisbe
prays to the gods to forever change the color of the mulberry fruit. Her
wish is granted, and to this day, mulberry trees bear purple-red fruit.