8-4Pyramus&Thisbe

What is the history behind A Midsummer Night's Dream, and "Pyramus and Thisbe?" //Answer prepared by Annelise G.//
The Green Room 47. A __Midsummer Night’s Dream__ is one of Shakespeare’s most widely known and supreme plays he wrote. Within the play he has another play. This is __Pyramus and Thisbe.__ This is performed by The Rude Mechanicals. A __Midsummer Night’s Dream,__ was written between 1594 and 1596. He wrote it then because people believe that he was celebrating a wedding in an aristocratic family. The play was based on using different parts of classical myths and British folklores to create his play. The characters Pyramus and Thisbe were based off of Ovid, a Latin writer. The play itself is supposed to be a comedy. In the book __Shakespeare made Easy: A Midsummer Night’s Dream,__ they describe the comedies of Shakespeare as, “following a U-shaped form. It begins with events that descend into potential tragedy, but rises again into a happy ending, usually a marriage.” This describes the play perfectly because in the beginning Hermia and Lysander are in love but when the love flower gets dropped into their eyes, Lysander loves Helena. Helena is Hermia’s best friend who really loves Demetrius. This creates a giant tragedy but in the end everything works out Hippolyta and Theseus work out their problems and get married. Theseus and Hippolyta are the queen and king of Athens. More information on the creating of the play and background information can be found on the webpage “More on A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” from the website Royal Shakespeare Company.” __Midsummer Night’s Dream__ is mythical and mysterious. The majority of the play is acted in an imaginary fairy world. The fairy world is also called the Green World. The Green World is an imaginary world where fairies become real and love flowers make people fall in love with all the wrong people… In the Green World is where the audience meets Titania, Oberon, Puck, and Titania’s fairies. Also, this is where The Rude Mechanicals practice there play. The Rude Mechanicals are putting on a play for the Duke (Theseus) on his wedding day. The Rude Mechanicals are a very motley crew and extremely disorganized. They are silly and like to have fun. The play is terrible but everyone seems to enjoy it in some way! In the forest is where everyone meets, and everything gets out of order, and eventually everyone unravels their story.

The history of Pyramus and Thisbe is based primarily on Ovid. He was a Latin writer who created and wrote about Pyramus and Thisbe. Pyramus was a handsome boy and Thisbe was a beautiful maiden they were more than friends, but their parents forbade them from getting married. Their houses were connected by a wall, and the wall had a crack in it and that’s how they would communicate. They talked and finally one night kissed each other through the wall! Then the next night they slipped off to the woods where they would meet. Sort of like Hermia and Lysander… Thisbe was the first one to head out of her house, but once she waited in the forest a lion came causing her to flee. When Pyramus arrives he has no idea what to do and he doesn’t know where his beloved Thisbe went. When Thisbe was running from the lion, the beast caught a piece of Thisbe’s clothing Pyramus saw the lion with the piece of Thisbe’s clothing and killed himself, because he thought that Thisbe was eaten, but she really wasn’t. Thisbe found Pyramus’s dead body and killed herself too. That is what the story is based upon. To find out more information on the background of Pyramus and Thisbe look at the webpage “Pyramus and Thisbe,” from the website The Shakespeare Society. www.shakespearesociety.com, also read the book Shakespeare made easy: A Midsummer Nights dream by Tanya Grosz. (6)

Works Cited:
Boyd, Michael. "Royal Shakespeare Company." 14 Apr 2009 &lt;http://www.rsc.org.uk/aboutthersc/46.aspx>. Grosz, Tanya. Shakespeare Made Easy. Walch Publishing, 2003. Zaslow, Rachel. "Pyramus and Thisbe." The Shakespeare Society. 14 Apr 2009 &lt;http://www.shakespearesociety.org/>.