Discussion questions (week 2)

N.b.: Beginning this week, I will call on students to begin our discussion of posted topics. Your answers need not be formal disquisitions, but I expect you to be prepared with a thoughtful and interesting response.

For this reason, I strongly recommend typing up notes -- not only your answers to these questions but also questions of your own or thoughts you have had à propos of Heather's lectures.

1. Spend ten minutes thinking about the word green. Make three lists:
   1. What are its denotations? (You might want to consult the Oxford English Dictionary definition. Focus on meanings current in 1595.) 
   2. Just as importantly, what are its connotations? 
   3. What might green symbolize?


2. How do the meanings you've developed open up new ways of reading MSND? For example, does the meaning of the word depend on where it is spoken? Is a green in the court the same thing as a green in the woods?

   This is a fairly broad question, which you should go about answering by concentrating on one or two specific instances of the word in the text. By my count, Shakespeare uses green nine times:

   • I.i.185 (Helena)
   • II.i.9 (fairy)
   • II.i.28 (Puck)
   • II.i.94 & 99 (Titania)
   • III.i.3 (Quince)
     
   • III.i.167 (Titania)
   • III.ii.393 (Oberon)
   • V.i.335 (Thisby)


3. Pick two mirrored events in MSND -- that is, whole scenes or parts of scenes that seem to echo each other. (Example: Oberon applying the love potion to Titania's eyelids and Puck applying the love potion to Lysander's. You can't use this example, of course, but have to find your own.) Now think about these mirrored events structurally: how are they similar and how are they dissimilar? Why is Shakespeare intentionally paralleling these two events?