Reflection on Act 1, Scene 2 of A Midsummer's Night's Dream

Look over this scene.  In your opinion, can it be broken into different dramatic units or is it an entire unit in itself?  Explain your answer.

I think this scene is a bigger dramatic scene in itself. There is no change in scene, no individual entrances or exits, no dramatic change in speech and the mood is consistent throughout. I can imagine this scene as one dramatic unit on stage in the woods with all the Mechanicals on stage discussing their play. This scene is short and simple enough that there is no need for it to be broken up.

Look at the language spoken by the characters in this scene.  How does it contrast to that spoken by the characters in the first scene?  Give two specific examples from each scene to support your answer.

The Mechanical’s speech is of poor quality, ordinary and in other words, prose compared to the first scene’s characters who use a more complicated, formal and poetry style of speech. They often mess up their words and use simpler language. In scene two Bottom says, “You were best to call them generally, and by man, according to the script” 1. 2. 2-3 I think in this case he meant individually. Another example Is when he says, “I will aggravate my voice so that I will roar you as gently as my sucking dove;” 1. 2. 74-75 this doesn’t make much sense either, I think he means to compare his gentle voice to a sweet dove instead. Compared to the speech in the first act, "Call you me fair? that fair again unsay/ Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!/ Your eyes are lode-starts; and your tongue's sweet air/ More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear/ When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear." 1.2. 184-188. The speech in the first act is actually much more confusing because the tradesmen speak in a very simple way but the others speak formally and very fancy. 

Bottom and Peter Quince are key figures in this scene. One of them is supposedly in control:  how does the other one attempt to gain control of events? Give two examples to explain your answer.

Peter Quince is definitely supposed to be in charge; he tries to organize everyone with their parts and seems to be controlling this production. Nevertheless, Nick Bottom attempts to gain control by insisting on switching parts and interrupts him often. For example, he has a complete list of actors already picked out, “Here is the scroll of every man’s name, which is thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our interlude before the duke and duchess...” 1. 2. 4-6 Continually, Bottom interrupts him “And I may hide my face, let me play Thisbe too” 1. 2. 46. “Let me play the lion too” 1. 2. 63 Quince eventually puts him in his place by saying, “You can play no part but Pyramus” 1. 2. 77. 

Find a copy of the legend of Pyramus and Thisbe.  How does this legend connect with the theme of love? Is either of these mythological lovers in control in this relationship?  What is ironic about Peter Quince’s official title for this piece?

This legend connects with the theme of love because it tells the story of two lovers who cannot be together because of their family’s feud.  They speak to each other through a hole in the wall but once Thisbe’s mantle is ripped by a lion Pyramus assumes her death then kills himself needlessly. The irony of this story is that it related to Shakespeare’s other play, Romeo, and Juliet in which both lovers die because of a misunderstanding. The other irony in the original title, The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe is that if it is lamentable and cruel, how is it a comedy. It doesn’t sound like the Athenian tradesmen are going to pull this off very well.