Title: Mastery Task Date: Wednesday 13th May 2020
Learning Objective: To analyse an unseen extract in an exam-style format.
Read through thePowerPointcarefully and use the glossary to help you. Do not panic if you don't understand everything in this extract. Just pick 2 quotes that you understand and aim to write 2 SEIZE paragraphs in30 minutes.
If you are stuck you should analyse the quotes that have been underlined for you.
Q1: Starting with this moment in the play, explore how Shakespeare presents the theme of order and disorder?
Write about:
how Shakespeare presents order
how Shakespeare presents disorder
you should use two quotes from the extract and one from a different part of the play
Read the following extract from Act 3 Scene 2 of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and then answer the question that follows. At this point in the play, Oberon tells Robin how they will solve the problems they have created with the mortals.
OBERON
[To ROBIN]This is thy negligence.
Still thou mistakest,
Or else committ’st thy knaveries willfully.
ROBIN
Believe me, King of Shadows, I mistook.
Did not you tell me I should know the man
By the Athenian garment he had on?
And so far blameless proves my enterprise,
That I have 'nointed an Athenian’s eyes.
And so far am I glad it so did sort, As this their jangling I esteem a sport.
OBERON
Thou seest these lovers seek a place to fight.
Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night.
The starry welkin cover thou anon
Withdrooping fog as black as Acheron,
And lead these testy rivals so astray
As one come not within another’s way.
Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue,
Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong.
And sometime rail thou like Demetrius.
And from each other look thou lead them thus,
Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep
With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep.[Gives ROBIN another flower]Then crush this herb into Lysander’s eye,
Whose liquor hath this virtuous property
To take from thence all error with his might
And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.
When they next wake, all this derision
Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision.
And back to Athens shall the lovers wend,
With league whose date till death shall never end.
Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,
I’ll to my queen and beg her Indian boy.
And thenI will her charmèd eye release
From monster’s view, and all things shall be peace.
ROBIN
My fairy lord, this must be done with haste.
For night’s swift dragons cut the clouds full fast,
And yonder shines Aurora’s harbinger,
At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there,
Troop home to churchyards. Damnèd spirits all,
That in crossways and floods have burial,
Already to their wormy beds are gone.
For fear lest day should look their shames upon,
They willfully themselves exile from light
And must for aye consort with black-browed night.
Optional sentence starters
In this scene, Shakespeare explores the theme of order and disorder as Oberon attempts to restore the peace.
In this scene, Shakespeare presents Oberon as confident that he will overcome the chaos and disorder by....
Shakespeare uses the simile "drooping fog as black as Acheron" to convey.....This could also suggest...….The imagery of nature highlights...…
The noun / adjective / verb "....." connotes..... This presents Oberon as...….
Shakespeare could be trying to convey how love is...….
Shakespeare may have been criticising the patriarchal Elizabethan society for.....
Order being restored could symbolise Shakespeare's belief that while love is hectic and uncontrollable, it ultimately will survive and win against obstacles.