Hi everyone, my name is Mr. Chandrapala and I'm really looking forward to working with you today.

We're gonna be focusing on the plot of Midsummer Nights Dream, which is one of my favourite and one of the world's favourites Shakespearean comedies.

It's one where we look at social class, we look at incredible stories involving sort of mystical creatures and the interplay between the real and the fantastical.

Let's dive in.

So our outline for today's lesson, or our outcome rather, is to be able to explain the plot and main themes of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Nights Dream.

Our keywords for today's lesson are Midsummer, which is in the middle of summer, a theme is the main idea in a text, which is explored in a number of different ways.

Plays are split up into acts rather than chapters.

An act is just the way in which a play's therefore divided, in the same way that a book is divided into chapters.

And all of Shakespeare's plays have five acts.

As I mentioned earlier, we're looking at a Shakespearean comedy, which is just a play designed to make you laugh and it often involves misunderstandings and it usually ends in marriage.

This is like a really key genre convention.

And finally, we're going to be having a look at the adjective, Athenian, which is just something that is from Athens or someone from Athens, if it's used as a noun.

So we are going to be starting off with understanding Act One of a Midsummer Night's Dream.

So a Midsummer Night's Dream, it's a play written by William Shakespeare, which means it's a Shakespearean comedy.

It has three sets of characters, which are the rich nobles who live in Athens, the poor actors who live in the city of Athens and finally, fairies who live in a forest outside of Athens.

And some of the play is set in a magical wood.

This is quite convention for Shakespearean comedy.

There's a concept called the Green World, where often like fantastical things happen and the play often exists in the green world before moving back into the real world and the real world as well, we have like the reestablishment of the status quo, the norm.

So what predictions can we make about the play so far? We know a little bit about Shakespearian comedy because we know that as we saw in the key words, it often ends in marriages, it often relies on misunderstandings.

And we know that some of the play is set in the magical wood.

What do you think is going to happen over the course of the play, bearing in mind the three sets of characters that we already have and those initial ideas? Hit pause, maybe jot some ideas down, maybe talk to the person next to you, when you're ready, hit play.

Really interesting predictions, everyone.

I appreciate that maybe it may be a little bit difficult, but I loved how so many of you are going back to the title of Midsummer Night.

So thinking about actually when it occurs and also thinking about that final word, dream.

Lovely stuff.

Let's keep moving.

So the play begins in the world of the rich nobles and like all of Shakespeare's comedies, it begins with a problem.

A father, Egeus, brings his daughter, Hermia, before Duke Theseus, saying, full of vexation come I with complaint against my child, my daughter, Hermia.

So this is from act one, scene one, lines 22 and 23.

Egeus is angry here with Hermia because she wants to marry Lysander.

Do we think that's gonna be the case for Egeus though? Does Egeus want Hermia to marry Lysander? No.

Egeus wants Hermia instead to marry Demetrius.

So immediately we have these key characters being set out, a real world problem of Athens being set out.

We're just gonna go back to that line from Act One, Scene One, lines 22 and 23.

And I want you to think, how is Egeus going to say this line? You may want to practise it saying it out loud to the person next to you, or maybe try doing it by yourself in different tones.

Have a look at that line.

Full of vexation come I, with complaint against my child, my daughter Hermia.

Think about that word vexation.

If someone is vexed, they're often angry.

And that idea that if you're complaining, how are you going to feel? Pause the video now and practise saying that in a couple of different ways.

When you're ready, hit play.

Oh, such a wonderful range of thespians we've got here.

Loads of different ways of reading that.

I personally read it in quite an angry way, full of vexation come I with complaint against my child, my daughter, Hermia.

But you may have gone for something more quiet, more sort of reserved.

Theseus advises Hermia to do as her father says, and tells her to marry Demetrius.

If she doesn't, she will be killed or forced to be a nun.

So Hermia is in a real bind here, she's in a really difficult spot.

Hermia and Lysander decide to run away from Athens and the sharp Athenian law to get married.

So Hermia refuses still and decides, you know what? If I'm not gonna be able to live in Athens because I'm gonna become a nun or because I'm going to be killed, I will just leave Athens with my love, Lysander.

They choose to leave Athens via the forest, where as we know, there are magical creatures, there are fairies.

Hermia does tell her best friend though, Helena.

Helena is very unhappy because funnily enough, she's in love with Demetrius.

Demetrius being the same man that Hermia's father, Egeus wants her to marry.

So this is already a little bit of a love triangle or a love rectangle depending on how you want read it.

But crucially, Demetrius who is told that or Hermia is told to marry, loves Hermia.

Hermia is genuinely loved by Demetrius.

It's just that Hermia doesn't love Demetrius back because she loves Lysander.

Hell of a plot twist.

Helena decides to tell Demetrius that Hermia and Lysander are running away.

So Helena has been told by Hermia that she's leaving and Helena decides, I'll go and tell my love, Demetrius.

Can we guess what Demetrius is going to do, bearing in mind that he also loves Hermia? Well, Helena knows that Demetrius will follow Hermia into the forest and Helena will therefore follow Demetrius and this at least means that she will get to spend time with him.

She shows this because in Act one, scene one, the lines 250 to lines 251, she says, but herein mean I to enrich my pain, to have his sight thither back again.

What do you think about Helena's decision? Do you agree? Is she doing the right thing in being Hermia's friend by telling Demetrius who Hermia is trying to reject, that Hermia is going into the forest? Do you think that Helena is doing the right thing for herself by telling Demetrius that Hermia is leaving? Do you think that Helena's making the right decision for her? Pause the video now.

So many ways of interpreting this.

What do you think about Helena's decision to tell Demetrius and to go with him into the forest, following Hermia and Lysander? Yeah, when I've talked through this with other classes, there have been so many ways of cutting this up because there are.

It's a really complicated issue and quite a funny one.

It very much depends on each of our own feelings.

I personally think that obviously it works for a plot for Helena to tell Demetrius because it means that we have this incredibly funny play to come where actually there's gonna be a lot of confusions.

So we're just gonna check our understanding here, and we're just gonna match each problem to the character.

So we've got the characters on the left hand side.

So Egeus, Hermia, Lysander, Helena, and Demetrius.

And then we've got the problems. The woman he loves is in love with someone else, the man she loves is in love with someone else, isn't allowed to marry Hermia, his daughter won't obey him and isn't allowed to marry Lysander.

We need to figure out which problem matches which character.

Pause the video now and just quickly match those up.

You may just want to put down A, B, C, D, E for the characters and the one, two, three, four, five for the problems, or you may want to write them out in full because that may be something that's helpful for your notes later.

Once you're ready, hit play.

Really good work.

Checking back, it's difficult getting all of this straight when you're looking at a new text, but let's go through it now really carefully.

So we know that Egeus' daughter won't obey him.

Egeus' daughter is Hermia and Hermia isn't allowed to marry Lysander.

Lysander's issue is that he isn't allowed to marry Hermia.

He loves Hermia as well as Hermia loving him.

We then have Helena who is told by Hermia that she's going to run away into the forest.

Helena's issue is the fact that the man she loves is in love with someone else.

And the man she loves, of course, is Demetrius.

Demetrius loves Hermia, but crucially, Hermia is in love with someone else.

Hermia is in love with Lysander.

Oh, so much to think about there.

Take a pause now and just make sure, just maybe write down each of those key characters under problem in a full sentence, just so that you're really clear on it for later in the text.

Well done, everyone.

That's really gonna put you in good stead as we keep on moving, let's go.

So we're just going to practise, using the model to guide us, I want you to explain how each character could be feeling and why at the end of act one.

So you may want to set up this table where we've got the characters on one side, so Egeus, Hermia, Helena, Lysander and Demetrius.

And then their feelings.

So almost add into that sentence of like what their problem was, so how are they going to feel because of that? So for example, for Egeus, I've said Egeus is gonna feel angry.

We said that he feels vexed, he makes a complaint against Hermia because Hermia isn't obeying him.

So we're using that plot device to justify how he is feeling.

I'm gonna ask you to pause the video now and work through for Hermia, Helena, Lysander and Demetrius.

You may want to use the notes that you've just taken in terms of plot to help us understand how each of those characters are going to feel.

Once you're ready, hit play.

Lovely stuff there, everyone.

Let's take some feedback.

So Alex wrote down that Helena is unhappy because Demetrius doesn't love her.

That's a fair idea.

From Jacob's table, Jacob has written that Helena feels happy because she can follow Demetrius into the wood.

Now, these are two very different ideas.

Which one do we think is accurate? They have different ideas but they've both justified them with a plot point.

Check you have a clear idea, justified with a plot point, because both of these are valid.

Helena loves Demetrius but the love is unrequited, but she is pleased that she can follow him into the wood and actually they'll be able to spend that time together.

Just check now, have you got a key feeling that you've identified? Have you been able to justify with the plot point? If you want to, you could structure yourself a little bit and maybe consider what other ways a character may feel.

Once you've done that, hit play.

Some lovely reflective practise there.

People going back and checking their work, just making sure that they had all of the details that they needed.

Let's keep moving.

We're now going to understand acts two and three of the play.

So by this point, the action has moved to the magical forest and the world of the fairies.

But there is also conflict here.

It's not a perfect world.

Oberon who is king of the fairies, is angry with Titania, queen of the fairies.

Titania is the guardian of a young boy who Oberon wants to be his servant.

When Oberon demands, give me that boy, Titania replies, not for thy fairy kingdom and leaves.

That's in act two, scene one, 143 to 144.

So let's just think, how might Titania and Oberon say these lines? Again, just like we did earlier with Egeus, what do we think they're going to want to sound like? What feeling are they trying to communicate to their audience? Pause the video now, practising saying these lines in a couple of different ways and once you've done that, hit play.

Some people really getting into the language here.

People thinking about the imperative of Oberon and trying to do a really commanding voice.

Give me that boy, while Titania, some people have gone for something more sort of mocking.

So not for like fairy kingdom and some of you went for something a little bit more demanding in itself and more angry, sardonic, not (indistinct) fairy kingdom, which I think both of those are really interesting reads.

Well done.

So Oberon is angry and wants her to torment Titania for this insult.

He therefore asks his servant, Puck, to get a magical potion.

This potion will make to Titania fall in love with the next thing that she sees.

So whilst she dotes on her new love, Oberon will make her render up her page to me.

Oberon sees Helena in the forest too.

He feels sorry for her because Demetrius is so horrible to her.

I do not, nor cannot love you.

So Demetrius says that to her, Helena, and Oberon is so moved and feels sorry for Helena.

Oberon therefore asks Puck to put the magical potion on Demetrius' eyes so that he will fall in love with Helena.

We've got a lot happening here and a lot of it seems to be involved with Oberon.

In Act Two, Scene One alone, he has argued with Titania, decided he wants to take revenge on her, decided he wants her to fall in love with the next thing she sees, ordered someone to make a potion, Puck to make that potion, taken sympathy on Helena, and ordered Puck to get involved in those matters as well.

What are our impressions of Oberon? Pause the video now.

See what we think of him initially.

You know what, so many of you were saying things like intrusive or meddling.

Some people were talking about the fact that he's sympathetic.

Some people were saying that actually he's overly controlling.

All of these are really good ideas.

Puck though makes a mistake.

Can't trust anyone these days.

He puts the magical potion on Lysander's eyes who wakes up and immediately sees Helena.

So we're just gonna check now, I said earlier, we've got a love rectangle or love square.

Let's just make sure who is in love with who now.

Bear in mind that we're thinking about this after the magical potion as well.

So we've got Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena.

What are the connections between these in terms of who loves each other? Pause the video and see if you can draw this out.

So let's check through.

We know that Lysander loves Helena and Hermia loves Lysander.

And then we know that Demetrius loves Hermia, Hermia who has been told that she cannot marry Lysander (indistinct) because she's meant to marry Demetrius, but also Helena loves Demetrius.

So we've got this horrible situation where after the magical potion all of these characters, no one seems to love the right one.

All of them are experiencing unrequited love, love that is not returned to them.

So act two ends with the confusion and chaos for the noble Athenians as well.

Act three only adds to that confusion and chaos.

The act begins with the poor actors from Athens meeting in the magical forest to rehearse a play.

Puck who is Oberon's servant watches and makes fun of them.

He focuses his attention on a man called Bottom.

Puck transforms his head into the head of an ass.

An ass is another way of saying donkey.

Nowadays it's used to say something slightly ruder, often meaning bottom.

So that's where that sort of word play comes through.

What do we think are our first impressions of Puck? We know he's Oberon's servant but we also know he's made a mistake and yet here he is almost sort of relaxing and making fun of all of these poor Athenians who have come to perform a play.

What do we make of them? Pause the video.

See if we can get any first impressions.

Yeah, some of us saying mischievous, some of us saying mean-spirited, some of us saying careless.

I think all of these sort of come through for Puck and we're going to dive a little bit further into his character over the next couple of lessons.

Bottom's friends are all terrified of his new appearance.

He's got the head of an ass, the head of a donkey.

Quince, one of his friends says, oh monstrous, oh strange.

And this moment Titania who Puck has put the magical potion on, which means that she falls in love with the first person that she sees, wakes up and sees Bottom who has got the head of a donkey.

She says, what angel wakes me from my flowery bed? What are the differences between how Titania and Quince, who's Bottoms friend react to Bottom? Why are their reactions quite so different? Think about the plot that's happened already.

Why are they gonna be quite so different? Who do we think were more likely to react like Quince or Titania? Pause the video and see if you can work it out.

Yeah, personally I think I'm going to have more of a reaction like Quince than like Titania.

And Titania is reacting in this way because she has had the potion put on her, that she means that she falls in love really quickly with whoever she sees.

Meanwhile, Oberon tells Puck off, making Lysander rather than Demetrius fall in love with Helena, which causes this incredible confusion in terms of love.

Puck does try to sort out this mistake.

He puts the magical potion on Demetrius, but this means second round of magical potions.

So Demetrius loves Helena, Lysander loves Helena, Helena loves Demetrius, Hermia loves Lysander, but now, Lysander still loves Helena and does not love Hermia.

So we've got this awful situation where Helena is being fought over by several people and Hermia, experiencing unrequited love and cannot change anything.

How might Hermia feel at this point in the play? Pause the video and see if you can think about that.

Even bear in mind that Helena is her best friend and now as she is being chased by multiple people and Hermia is left alone.

How do you think she's gonna feel? Pause the video, have that conversation.

Yeah, loads of people using that word, unrequited.

She doesn't feel like her love is being returned.

She may feel quite jealous, quite upset.

She may feel quite lonely now in the forest.

So we're just gonna check our understanding here.

I want you to match the sentence sums to the endings.

So we've got at the end of act three, Oberon on is angry because.

At the end of act three, Oberon is angry but.

And at the end of Act Three, Oberon is angry, so.

So each of those conjunctions are different and they result in different endings.

So is it because he makes Puck put the magical potion on Demetrius too? He is pleased that Bottom.

That, sorry, Titania is in love with Bottom, or Puck put the magical potion on Lysander by mistake? So we need to match the first part of the sentence on the left hand side with the correct part on the right hand side.

Pause the video now, do that, write it out in full so you can have a record of it for later.

And when you're ready, hit play.

Great work.

Checking back, everyone, let's have a look.

So at the end of act three, Oberon is angry because Puck put the magical potion on Lysander by mistake.

At the end of act three, Oberon is angry but he is also pleased that Titania is in love with bottom who has got the head of a donkey.

And at the end of act three, Oberon is angry, so he makes Puck put the magical potion on Demetrius too, but that hasn't gone right either.

So we're just gonna practise our knowledge here.

We're gonna practise applying our knowledge.

At the end of act three, Hermia and Helena fight.

Hermia thinks Helena has stolen Lysander from her.

Helena thinks the men are pretending to love her as a joke and so they argue.

Hermia says, oh me, you juggler, you canker blossom, you thief of love, my nails can reach onto thine eyes.

Quite a violent threat, that.

Helena replies, she, Hermia, was a vixen when she went to school and though she be but little, she is fierce.

Using these lines, maybe with your partner, maybe just by yourself, I want you to act out the argument.

If you're doing this by yourself, maybe pick a particular character and see how they would perform the lines.

If you're doing this with another person, you may want to each assign yourselves a character.

If you're working in a three, maybe one of you is the director, watching, giving notes to the others on how they could perform.

Rotate it round till you're each trying each character and seeing how each are delivering those lines.

Pause now, have a go at that performance.

It's really important that we do this because actually, even though we may feel uncomfortable, plays are all about performance.

They're meant to be performed, they're not just meant to be read, and it really helps us to understand the language.

Pause the video now, have a go at that and when you're ready, hit play.

I said earlier, some incredible thespians.

I love the way some of you were hitting that.

My nails can reach into thine eyes, that threat.

I said, I really like the fact that this is a really famous line from Shakespeare, she be but little, she is fierce.

Some of you were delivering that in a really quiet, reserved way.

Some of you were almost saying this as if it's a realisation for Helena.

Some lovely work.

So I want us now to reflect on our performances and I want us to explain why Hermia and Helena are so angry with each other at the end of act three.

How are you sort of communicating that through your deliveries? Pause the video now.

Start seeing how you are doing that and explaining how you are communicating that through your performances.

Fantastic work there, everyone.

Some really thoughtful, reflective ideas.

We're moving now to the final part.

So we're looking at the play's conclusion and it's main themes.

So at the end of act three, at the very end, Puck removes the magical potion from Lysander's eyes and that means that Lysander loves Hermia and Hermia loves Lysander.

So we've got a restoration of how things are meant to be.

We also now have Demetrius loving Helena and Helena loving Demetrius.

The love square, the love rectangle, whatever you want to call it, the love a mess as I refer to it is sorted.

We have things as they should be.

No one is feeling hurt, no one's love is unrequited.

People love who they wanted to initially or not quite in the case of Demetrius.

He no longer loves Hermia, he now loves Helena but people are in happier relationships.

But quick ethical question.

Should Puck have removed the magical potion from Demetrius' eyes? We knew earlier that Demetrius loved Hermia, not Helena.

Is it right for Puck to have removed that potion and for Hermia and no longer to be the sort of recipient of Demetrius' love and for him instead to love Helena? Pause the video now.

Have that discussion with your partner, maybe just jot down some notes and when you're ready, hit play.

Yeah, some really interesting ideas.

It definitely is still meddling and definitely not how things started, but it does mean that people get to experience happiness, which bearing in mind that Shakespearian comedies are meant to end a marriage, which means that we need to have in this world, we have quite conventional marriages, but that means that actually there is some form of security, some form of actually things going as they should.

At the start of act four, Oberon after getting the boy from Titania removes the magical potion from her eyes.

Bottom is therefore transformed back into a human and returns to Athens.

Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena are found by Theseus and Egeus in the forest.

And Theseus, seeing Demetrius is now in love with Helena allows the lovers to marry who they wish.

They would therefore return to Athens, and in act five, they watched the play put on by the poor actors.

So is this a happy ending? Apparently Shakespearean comedies end with happy endings and marriages.

Is this a happy ending? Pause the video, have that conversation and when you're ready, hit play.

Yeah, I think we can definitely see it both ways because people didn't love who they naturally did, but also we do get a easier ending, maybe.

It may be a happy ending for the audience but maybe not a happy ending ethically.

But really, this is meant to inspire joy, it's meant to inspire.

It's inspired some comedy.

We've seen how all these misunderstandings have come together and actually we see how actually this links maybe to our key themes.

We're just gonna check our understanding here.

I want you to match the act to each of the plot points.

So we've got act one, two, three, four and five on the left hand side and at the plot points, Titania falls in love with Bottom, Demetrius falls in love with Helena, the Athenian nobles return to Athens along with Bottom, the Athenian nobles watch her play, Hermia and Lysander run away from Athens and Lysander falls in love with Helena.

All I want you to do is match the act to it's plot points.

When you're ready, hit play.

Well done, everyone.

Some fantastic checking back to make sure that we understood.

Let's go through.

So act one, Hermia and Lysander run away from Athens because they are told that they cannot get married to each other.

In act two, Lysander falls in love with Helena.

In act three Titania falls in love with Bottom who has the head of a donkey.

Demetrius falls in love with Helena, creating the love triangle.

Sorry, the love rectangle.

In act four the Athenian nobles return to Athens alongside Bottom.

Bottom has had his head returned to normal.

The Athenian nobles love who they want to at the start.

And then in act five, the Athenian nobles watch a play.

A lot happens in a very short amount of time, doesn't it? So A Midsummer Nights Dream explores a number of key themes.

We've got love and marriage, order and disorder, and finally, appearance versus reality.

All of these are quite common themes in Shakespearian comedies, particularly order and disorder.

Remember what I said, the forest is often this green world where sort of like magical, almost kind of (indistinct) moments occur, but actually, when we return to the real world, we get the return of the status quo, the norm.

Jacob said that I'm interested in the way Shakespeare explores love and marriage.

Act two and act three are quite confusing because so many people fall in and out of love, but maybe Shakespeare wants to think about what it means to fall in love with someone.

And that's a really interesting reflection from Jacob because Titania falls in love with Bottom, almost ignoring his appearance, but do we assume it's quite a deep love or do we think it's just sort of like that love, just that head over heels love that she's not really thinking about? Alex has a different point of view.

He's interested in the way that Shakespeare orders.

Sorry, Shakespeare explores order and disorder.

Act two introduces the character of Puck and he seems to create a lot of chaos and disorder.

Maybe Shakespeare wants to consider if he is a good or bad character.

Again, a really interesting way of looking at the play.

What theme interests you? So we have love and marriage, order and disorder, appearance and reality.

Which one are you most interested in from what we've seen in the play? Why? Once you've had that discussion, maybe made some notes, un-pause the video.

Some really thoughtful reflections there from all of you.

I love the way some of you are going into that appearance and reality discussion.

Well done, everyone.

Let's keep moving.

So we're just gonna practise and we're going to explain what we're interested in.

So we're gonna explain which theme interests us using the sentence after, I'm interested in the way Shakespeare explores.

We're going to specify which part of the play we're interested in, so which act we see this theme being explored in act one, two, three, four or five or multiple.

And what we might think Shakespeare is trying to get us to think about.

And we're gonna do that by having a look at the sentence, maybe Shakespeare wants us to consider.

So I want you to complete those sentence starters, having a look at the theme to part of the play, which explores that theme and also what Shakespeare is trying to get us to think about.

And once you've done that, written it into your notes, pause the video and we'll go through it.

Fantastic ideas there, everyone.

Really building on those discussions that we had earlier.

Let's take some feedback.

So Alex's answer is, I'm interested in the way Shakespeare explores order and disorder.

Act two introduces the character of Puck and he seems to create a lot of chaos and disorder.

Maybe Shakespeare wants us to consider if Puck is a good or bad character.

Using the questions, I would like you to assess your own response.

You may want to start off with considering Alex's and how Alex has done it and then move to your own.

So have you identified a theme as Alex has in it of bespoke focusing on order and disorder? Have you focused on a specific act? Alex has because he's talked about act two in a specific moment, focusing on Puck.

And have you considered what Shakespeare wants us to reflect on? Pause the video now and see if you have done each of those things.

When you have corrected it in another colour pen, come back and we'll keep moving.

Lovely reflection there, everyone.

I'm really impressed by the way that you've worked through those questions.

So we're just going to summarise our knowledge of the plot of A Midsummer Nights Dream.

Midsummer Nights Dream is a Shakespearian comedy and there are three sets of characters on the play.

The play starts and ends in Athens whilst in the middle of the play, the play is set in the magical forest.

Ultimately, the play ends with a number of marriages and the summary of the plot helps us to understand some of the play's main themes, which include love and marriage, disorder and order, appearance and reality.

You've all done fantastically well to understand a really complicated but really fun play.

I'm really looking forward to moving into really getting into the text over the next couple of lessons.

Well done on today.

I hope to see you again very soon.

Bye for now.