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https://padlet.com/t109/prj3r5qi3tz4

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Group 3 (Kylie Yeung, Wong Ka Yu, Kristie Sin)

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Group 3 (Kylie Yeung, Wong Ka Yu, Kristie Sin)

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Magic and theatre:

The theatre itself is a place for illusion as there is an invisible wall between the actors and the audience. Magic is used in the play, such as the love potion that was being used on the lovers, causing them to fall in and out of love.

The theatre adds support to the illusion of magic, or in other words, the fourth wall, and allows physical comedy along with stage directions in the theatre as Puck chases the lovers away by using magic and pretending to be Demetrius/Lysander, also resolving the conflict between the lovers with the help of the theatre.

By breaking the fourth wall, the actors are breaking the illusion of the play created by magic.

The magic in the play is a message to the audience that everything that happens within the play is just a dream and separates the illusion of the play from the reality of theatre.

In act five, the craftsmen break the fourth wall consistently to create comedic effect since the main conflict has already been resolved and magic is no longer needed. However, in the end, the fairies use the element of magic once again to give blessings to the new couple with the help of change in setting in the theatre.

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The mysticism of the forest functions as an illussion between actual and apparent reality; the forest is the place where magic happens; it is the realm of the fairies, who through the use of their magic create the illussion for anyone who enters.

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The mysticism of the forest functions as an illussion between actual and apparent reality; the forest is the place where magic happens; it is the realm of the fairies, who through the use of their magic create the illussion for anyone who enters.

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Ho Yue Kiu 3W (11), Queency Leung 3W (25), Charmaine Lau 3X (19)

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Ho Yue Kiu 3W (11), Queency Leung 3W (25), Charmaine Lau 3X (19)

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Titania, Demetrius and Lysander were all under the influence of a love potion, which made them experience illusion. The craftsmen were also in charge of creating their own illusion in the theatre.

Titania fell in love with bottom because of the illusion that the potion gives. This in the end made Titania and Oberon get back together, and allows a happy ending for the play.

Demetrius and Lysander were under influence of the love potion and both fell in love with Helena. The role of illusion here is to create a comical scene. Their confusion and anger in the scene allows some farcical moments and physical comedy. Illusion allows for complications and mixups which ultimately leads to comedy.

Illusion here also allows the audience to see that love is irrational. It reinforces the fact that love is blind, it may not be under our control and makes people do things they do not usually do, and afterwards be ashamed of it. Here, the male lovers were influenced by magic, and changed their love interest. The fact that they changed love interests so easily allows us to see how interchangeable these characters are.

Illusion and reality are being compared in this scene.

Both of these are often mixed up by the characters, for example, the lovers, Bottom and Titania all thought that the experience they had was a dream, but in reality it was not an illusion. The “dream” they had was reality.

In the play, the craftsmen were responsible for another play. They did not know how theatre works and basic theatre knowledge. Instead, they thought that the illusion they create in the play will be so literal it will be able to fool the nobles into believing that it was reality. To solve this “problem”, they wrote prologues to explain the roles and the context of the play, and also repeatedly steps out of their role to explain this illusion, destroying the illusion that a play is supposed to have.

The title of the play “A midsummer night’s dream” has the word “dream” in it, hinting that the play will deal with topics of dream and illusion. In the Elizabethan era, the midsummer nights are celebrated with dance and song, but this holiday also involves magic, illusion and even madness.

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In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare presents love as something highly correlated to illusions.

After being under the spell of the love potions, Titania, Demetrius and Lysander all had illusions, causing them to have infatuations and love someone that they didn’t love before, with Titania loving a disfigured mortal with an ass head, and the Athenian youths loving someone they don’t care about before.The illusions causes them to be irrational and act abnormal since they are blinded by the illusions of love. After literally waking up from a dream, clearing up the illusions, Titania and Lysander return to their normal selves, even horrified to deem the “illusions” a nightmare.

Although illusions can cause infatuations, love itself can also in turn confuse people, letting them see illusions. Almost all of the main characters in the play claim to know about how other people are blind in love, they themselves are also blinded by the illusions, not knowing that they have fallen into the same trap. For example in the play, Helena accuses Demetrius to be blinded by Hermia’s beautiful appearance, ignorant to her own efforts of pursuit and Hermia’s lack of passion, she herself is blinded by love’s illusion and could not see Demetrius has broken his promise and is actually not worthy of her love and frankly has no interest in her.

Shakespeare also subverts the boundaries of illusion and reality. After waking up from their “dream”, they are unsure about whether the “dream” they experienced is just illusion or reality.

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Lucy, Nicole, Agnes, Yanni

Illusion gives a deceptive impression to the audience

Illusion parallels with reality.

Illusion matches with the theme “dream” in the play

Illusion helps to carry out dramatic irony as the characters are blinded by illusions

Illusions creates a comical effect because the characters are unaware of the magic that was influencing them to fall in love.

The characters in the play are under illusion, they think that what actually is reality is their dream

The main object creating illusion in the play is the love potion

Illusions are often caused by magic which was used by the mystical creatures (Puck and Oberon) in the play

The role of illusion in the play reminds the audience that they are in a theatre, it is not reality that they are seeing

In the play, there is an illusion of love, suggesting that it doesn't last and its easy to fall out of love.

The forest is the setting for the entire illusion and its foundation.

Characters in the play move swiftly between illusion and reality without noticing

The supernatural element of the play, which is the fairies, plays a huge role in carrying out illusion

Bottom is the key bridge in between illusion and reality, he links the two worlds together.

Illusion plays a significant role or else the play would be a tragedy instead of a comedy as lovers won’t fall in love with each other without the magic potion

Examples

Bottom thinks that him being an asshead and Titania being in love with him is a vivid dream but actually it is reality

The ballad “Bottom’s Dream” summarizes his “dream”

Magic causes Titania to have the illusion that Bottom is wise and handsome so she falls in love with Bottom

Under the influence of the magic potion, Lysander hates Herima and becomes in love with Helena.

Demetrius who once hated Helena falls in love with Helena because of the love potion.

The lovers all assume the night in the forest is a dream

All the characters that experienced the magic spell were in the forest.

Many queer and silly things happening in the human world such as an aunt toppling as she sits down on a chair, are actually caused by Puck but nobody knows it’s him

In Act 1, Shakespeare creates an illusion that Hermia is more attractive than Helena, but it is revealed later on in the play that Hermia and Helena have the same attractiveness

Before Lysander shifts his love to Helena, Hermia has a dream of a serpent eating her heart, which is an illusion that in some way becomes the reality later(relationship with Helena and Lysander destroyed)

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Shakespeare uses illusion to show that humans believe in whatever they see without much thinking, and illusion of love to investigate the question about love

The forest is the changing point of reality and illusion

Characters move swiftly between these two ‘worlds’ without even knowing

-   the four lovers and Bottom interact with the fairies’ world there

When puck adds the magic potion on Demetrius and Lysander’s eyes, the worlds of reality and illusion intertwine, and nobody can differentiate whether they’re in a dream or reality

Demetrius and Lysander mistakenly fall in love with Helena, believing that what they see is reality. But actually, they are under the spell of the magic juice. Titania also falls in love with Bottom with an ass’ head as she also thinks that there is no reason not to believe what she sees.

The audience watches the characters struggle to see what is real and what is not and their irrational actions, and can see this as an element of comedy.

Illusion is also shown in Puck’s last lines of the play, reminding the audience that they’re in a theatrical world full of fairies and magic, unlike their regular world

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Group 7 (Zoe Chan, Janice Cheung, Natalie Leung)

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Group 7 (Zoe Chan, Janice Cheung, Natalie Leung)

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It creates the main conflict of the play. As suggested by the title, the whole play is about a dream. Without illusion, there will be no dream but reality. Making the whole drama a different story.

Illusion vs. Reality

The illusions are often funny, which adds to the comedy

Investigate on love

The illusions created by the play within the play allows the audience of AMND to enjoy another layer of comedy; the play also mirrors the reality which helps the audience of AMND to reflect on themselves while laughing at the ironic situations.

It leads to confusion

Allows things to happen beyond imagination which ensures a happy ending

Important to confuse the characters eg Demetrius falls in love with Helena when he wakes up and sees her.

Important in fixing the problem: Puck and Oberon doses Lysander and Titania, with the help of illusion, the characters think that all is just a dream, a strange dream, but no one except Titania, given the insight of truth, doubts it is reality.

Waking from illusions cause characters to question their well-being. Causing confusion and misbelief, which often leads to conflict

Puck often misuses his power to create illusion, making fun of characters, causing trouble and conflict

Mainly caused by the magic potion called “love in idleness” in the play

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Illusion:

The illusion creates a comedic effect as the potion causes both Demetrius and Lysander to fall in love with Helena, and Titania also falls in love with bottom, who was an ass. This creates complications between characters which makes the scene comical. The illusion also lightens the mood of the play so it doesn’t create a heavy drama. It also brings out the theme of dream and reality as characters swiftly move between illusion and reality under the effect of the love potion. The play within a play blurs the line between illusion and reality, as the characters watching Pyramus and Thisbe are ignorant of the fact that an audience is watching them. This creates a comedic effect as the craftsmen are being judged by the characters ( the lovers ), while they are being judged by the audience

To explore the theme of love:

Shakespeare uses illusion, such as the work of the love potion, to investigate the question of how humans fall in and out of love. Shakespeare shows the inconstancy of love through the effect of the love potion as the characters immediately fall in love with another person. The play also suggests the blindness of love through the comparison of Helena with Hermia, and Demetrius with Lysander. They are equally good in the eyes of other people, but with the illusion of love, the lovers see the one whom they love above another.

The illusion creates plot development. The love potion makes an illusion for the lovers to fall in love with another character, thus creating drama and allowing Shakespeare to make connections and contrasts to the lovers without the effect of the love potion, showing the interchangeability of lovers. Shakespeare also uses illusion to solve the drama by using the potion again to bring the lovers back to peace. This gives the audience and explanation for how the conflict is resolved since the lovers are mere mortals and young  and may not have the ability to resolve the conflict they have made.

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Group 4 (Miao Hoi Ching, Eleanor, Bertha)

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Group 4 (Miao Hoi Ching, Eleanor, Bertha)

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There is illusion when Puck mistakenly doses Lysander and Demetrius with the love potion.  Both of them, when they wake up, think that what they are feeling is reality, and they fall in love with Helena.

Lysander is under an illusion that he loves Helena, while Demetrius is under an illusion that he loves Helena too. Titania is also under the illusion of love as she fell in love with Bottom who has an ass head.

Bottom, under the illusion of Titania loving him, wakes up from his most absurd dream, wakes up feeling confused, and decides to ask Quince to write a ballad, naming it as Bottom’s dream. Even though Bottom wasn’t under the spell, he was still influenced by the after-effects of it.

Illusion has allowed the characters to do things that are out of their own nature and do things that they too would not do in real life. After waking up, Titania screams,’ what visions have I seen! Methought I was enamour’d of an ass.’ Bottom wakes up, feeling that he has experienced the rarest vision which is past the wit of man, the vision that is so profound, it causes Bottom to mismatch all the sensory organs and their senses ‘the eye of man hath not heard’. The Athenians may not have as surprised reactions to their dream; however, they still have questioned the reality of their experiences, they do not know whether they are in reality or illusion. Illusion provides a platform for the characters to experience life’s absurdities and experience things that they will never do in reality.

What they have experienced in the illusion helps them grow and become mature. Before they went into the woods, they were not sure about what they wanted. However, after the experience of the illusions, they were clear about what they wanted - Lysander loves Hermia; Demetrius loves Helena. The illusions are like a stage of maturation for the young lovers.

Although the story has a happy ending, Demetrius is still under the illusion after they leave the woods as his original disgust towards Helena turned into utmost adoration under the influence of the love spell.

The illusion of Titania loving Bottom also helps resolve the bad relationship between Titania and Oberon. Oberon got the page boy and Titania now speaks to Oberon gently. (“My Oberon!’)

The illusions are the key to resolving all the problems in the play, ensuring a happy ending and that the play is a comedy.

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1. Creates a link between Illusion and supernatural forces

2. -Once the play meets the forest, it starts to become unrealistic, and the element of supernatural is brought out when the fairies are introduced. The humans interact with the fairies, and the story moves from realism to fantasy, making the scene more of an illusion rather than reality.

3. The moon is often present in the play. Moons signify craziness and sometimes even illusion.

4. Creates a link between Illusion and love

5. The complications and mix-ups in the play causes Lysander to mistakenly fall in love with Helena under the influence of the love potion, leading to a series of comedic scenes such as the “fight scene” between the four lovers.

6. The lovers are also interchangeable as they do not have distinct personalities, which further suggests that as the lovers are not behaving rationally, love itself, even without magic is capable of creating illusions as well since all the lovers disregard the fatal flaws of their respective lover and picture them as “the perfect lover”. Love is capable of causing illusions too.

7. Because the lovers are under the influence of magic or love, they can’t think or see rationally. Hermia and lysander elope from Athens without planning thoroughly, which leads to them getting lost in the forest.  Titania falls in love with Bottom as she is under the influence of the magic potion puck anointed in her eyes.

8. Illusion vs reality: what he is seeing and feeling is his reality world, line between reality and illusion, they have no reason to not believe in what they are seeing

9. It creates comedy by creating confusion

10. Shakespeare introduces the love of the lovers to be very illusory, yet they do nothing that is really impossible in real life.

11. Creates parallelism between illusion and reality

1. The play never really states whether the sequence of events in the midsummers night had truly occured bc of magic or it is simply a fragment of imagination of the lovers  (evidence: puck “that you have but slumbered here while these visions did appear”)

2. Theatre/ reality and illusions are often parallel. The craftsmen, the fairies and also the lovers can be played by the same actors. This would create a link between the fairy world and the real world of the lovers. This would blur the line between reality and illusion. Whether the whole play is an illusion of the lovers cannot be truly solved as they coexist in some form even in reality.  Shakespeare tells us that sometimes it is impossible to distinguish reality from illusions, but we have no reason to do so.

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Shakespeare presents love as illusory and elusive; the characters are misled to believe that they are under the influence of a force greater than themselves and are willing to sacrifice/risk their lives for love. The audience of the play, however, quickly realizes they are under a spell of whimsical fairies who often entertain themselves at their expense.

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Shakespeare presents love as illusory and elusive; the characters are misled to believe that they are under the influence of a force greater than themselves and are willing to sacrifice/risk their lives for love. The audience of the play, however, quickly realizes they are under a spell of whimsical fairies who often entertain themselves at their expense.

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Theme of Illusion

the love juice by Oberon

Two-fold: 1.to punish Titania and make her believe that she is in love with Bottom, who has the head of an ass 2. to help Helena, who thinks herself inferior, to win Demetrius’ love

Love

The lovers feeling easily change once outside forces interfere, showing that the love they had was not strong and in some cases were purely attraction not love

Under the power of love, the characters cannot see clearly

Titania does not find Bottom horrifying

Demetrius suddenly begins to appreciate Helena’s beauty

O Helena, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!

To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne?

Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show

Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!

That pure congealed white, high Taurus snow,

Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow

When thou hold'st up thy hand: O, let me kiss

This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!

Lysander leaving Hermia for Helena when he just confessed his love for Hermia

Reality VS Dream

Titania is the only one who knows what has happened is real

The lovers are confused by last night’s events but has renewed feelings

Bottom figures it was a dream and decided to write a ballad

Example of illusion-Bottom’s Dream

“I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was. Man is but an ass, if he go about to expound this dream. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen; man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was.”

Bottom, who awakens from his romance with Titania restored to his natural form, says this while in deep confusion and he thinks that it is too surreal to be a dream

Example of illusion and dream- Puck’s epilogue

“If we shadows have offended, Think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumbr'ed here While these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding than a dream, Gentles, do not reprehend.”

Puck reinforces the power of dream and illusion in this epilogue, that the blessings of nature can be brought about with mankind and marriage.

Theatre

Gender: during shakespearean times, female characters were played by male actors

We are required to believe the things on stage is happening

The audience at the wedding needs to believe Pyramus and Thisbe is real

The actors are like “shadows” because they are only a representation of the characters

At the end we the audience is told “this weak and idle theme, no more yielding but a dream” reinforcing the theme of illusion