William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream ends with the seemingly happy resolution of a number of intersecting romantic and political struggles and confusions. However, if one considers these resolutions from the perspective of Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe or Apollo and Daphne, these happy resolutions may instead simply mask some troubling inconsistencies, ironies, or contradictions inherent to the romantic and political relationships depicted in the play.

Your paper does not simply document or trace through the play the presence of an idea or concept from Ovid. This is just the beginning, however, because texts borrow concepts or ideas from other texts, and examine and alter them. Consequently, you are investigating the play’s treatment—usage, manipulation, interrogation, modification—of such a concept borrowed from Ovid.

Write a 5-Page essay in which you use a specific concept, idea, problem or issue depicted in either Pyramus and Thisbe or Apollo and Daphne to explore one of the relationships depicted in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Requirements: 5 pages typed, double-spaced, Microsoft Word, Times New Roman, pitch 12, using standard 1-inch side, top and bottom margins. Include a separate cover sheet with your name and the paper’s title. Due: Thursday 10th March, Hard copy in Class

Format:

Paragraph 1–Introduction
Introduce your play—identify your author and state briefly your topic of interest
State that you’re using a specific concept from Ovid’s tale—identify the tale
Give the specific concept that you’re using, and state the relationship from the play that you’re going to examine
State your thesis
Paragraph 2—Concept or idea from Ovid
Identify the concept or idea
Give the quotation from the tale in which the concept occurs
Explain how you interpret this concept using textual evidence from the quotation
Similarity Paragraphs
Explore specific quotations in the play that shows similarities with Ovid’s concept
You must use quotations from the play and work through textual evidence to support your argument.
Difference Paragraphs
In these paragraphs, you explore through specific quotations the ways in which the play differs from your understanding of Ovid’s concept or idea.
You must use quotations from the play and work through textual evidence to support your argument.
Conclusion

What do you understand differently about the play or about Ovid because of this essay that you’ve written?