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Order in the Court!
A Midsummer Night's Dream begins in Duke Theseus's court in Ancient Athens. In many ways, this court is symbolic of our childhood homes—a place where order is enforced by parents, whose job it is to look out for our well-being. Each person's childhood home informs his or her worldview. It is in the court that we learn an idea of order that shapes our adult lives.
However, our idea of order is very different from that of Ancient Athens or Shakespeare's Elizabethan ideals.
Order in Athens:
Elizabethan Order:
Consider this: How have things changed from these two time periods to today? What hasn't changed?
think about the power dynamics in the quote below-what would your response be if you were hermia?
Egeus, Hermia's father, is talking about Hermia
“Be it so she will not here before your grace
Consent to marry with Demetrius,
I beg the ancient privilege of Athens:
As she is mine, I may dispose of her.”
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