Monday, February 10, 2014

How did Lysander react when he woke up in Act 4 of A Midsummer Night's Dream?

When the four Athenian lovers are discovered asleep on the
edge of the forest and then woken up by Theseus and his hunting party, it is Lysander
who first responds to the inevitable questions about why they are there all together and
what happened to them. Note how he replies to his Duke's
question:



My
lord, I shall reply amazedly,


Half sleep, half waking; but
as yet, I swear,


I cannot truly say how I came
here.


But, as I think--for truly would I
speak,


And now I do bethink me, so it
is--


I came with Hermia hither. Our
intent


Was to be gone from Athens, where we
might,


Without the peril of the Athenian
law--



Note the way that
Lysander gives rise to the "dream" of the title of the play as he tries to recall what
has happened to both him and to them all during their night in the forest. His response
is very vague as he struggles to remember what seems to be nothing more than a dream or
a fantasy, and he is only able to remember, after thinking about it, the definite reason
that led him to the forest in the first place. He is thus startled, confused and
distracted.

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