| How now, my love! Why is your cheek so pale? How chance the roses there do fade so fast?Paraphrase and Explain | What is wrong now, my love? Why did you turn so pale?Why did your rosy cheeks fade so fast?Hermia just found out she might marry Demetrius or become a nun or be put to death. She gets pale and Lysander asks what has made her usually rosy cheeks turn so white, roses represents rosiness in her cheeks. |
| How happy some o’er other some can be! 1Through Athens I am thought as fair as she. 2But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so. 3He will not know what all but he do know. 4 | 1: How happy some people can be in comparison to others! Helena is referring to how sad she is while Hermia and Lysander are in love.2: This line describes that everyone in athens considers Helena to be as beautiful as Hermia, but she doesn’t feel this way because Demetrius doesn’t.3:This line says that although Athenians think of them equally, the only person she cares about, Demetrius, doesn’t think so. He only loves Hermia.4: Helena is saying that Demetrius doesn’t know what everyone else in Athens knows, which is that she is as fair as Hermia. |
| Where is Lysander and Hermia?The one I’ll slay, the other slayeth me. | Demetrius is talking about Lysander and then Hermia, The one Ill slay is demetrius saying he wants to stop or kill lysander for stealing demetrius’s love, hermia. The other slayeth me is refering to an emotional slay, demetrius is saying that hermia holds his heart because of how much he loves her. |
| And pour the liquor of it in her eyes. what does liquor mean here? | Liquor is referring to any liquid or juice which has the power to chance someones thinking or put them to sleep. Oberon will put it in her eyes in order to bewitch her into falling in love with the next creature she sees. |
| Dark night, that from the eye his function takes.The ear more quick of apprehension makes. | It’s hard to see clearly in the dark of night, but it’s easier to hear well.Hermia is describing the dark woods and is saying that she cannot see the other three who are insulting her. She says that not seeing has made her hearing better, so she is more able to hear the insults and follow the voices. |
| (oberon re-applying nectar to lysander says) May all to Athens back again repairAnd think no more of this night’s accidentsBut as the fierce vexation of a dream.Paraphrase and explain. also explain how this scene applies to the title of the play. Keep in mind that vexation means an annoyance or irritation (noun) | MAY EVERYTHING IN ATHENS BE RESTORED TO THE WAY IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE. AND MAY THEY NOT REMEMBER THE ACCIDENTS OF THIS MIGHT BUT ONLY AS AN IRRITATING DREAM.this means that oberon is fixing Puck’s mistakes with the love juice and his spell will put everyone right: Hermia and Lysander will be in love and Helena and Demetrius will be in love. Oberon’s spell also says that the lovers will only remember this as a dream, not as reality, which explains the title. |
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
August 26, 2019