The Master Puppeteer
I’ll be honest, I’ve never been particularly fond of Shakespeare. For the most part, I find my mind overworking to rearrange the convoluted language into something somewhat comprehensible, and end up mindlessly drifting away from the subject matter hidden within. I have no doubt that so much of our understanding of the play comes the actual performance; the emotions, gestures, tone and phrasing the actors put into their lines all serve to provide clues to what the words are actually saying. The grief stricken wails and the maniacal laughter suddenly integrate with the characters heartfelt or diabolical monologues to create the performance. When we began reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I was fretting about how in the world I would be able to dissect the text thoroughly enough to come to the “better understanding” needed for this blog. I wasn’t looking to it, but having carefully gone through each act as a class and seeing some of them in film, I’ve found a remarkable contrast in the