At the end of Plato’s Symposium, a dialogue about the dialogue between poetry and philosophy, Socrates’s companion reports a conversation among Socrates, Aristophanes, the greatest comic poet in Athens at the time, and Antiphon, the greatest tragedian. Socrates compelled them to agree that the same human being “should know how to make comedy and tragedy,” to which they apparently agreed.
The complication in this story is that Aristophanes could not write tragedy, and nor could Antiphon write comic plays. In fact, the only great playwright who could write both tragedy and comedy (not to mention history) at the highest level was William Shakespeare.
In this course, we will read together two plays, Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which are often considered companion plays, and are often performed at festivals side by side. Both plays involve young lovers, thwarted by the conventions and demands of their parents, against which the lovers rebel. Romeo and Juliet begins lightly with the love at first sight of the eponymous lovers, and ends tragically. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by contrast, begins with tragic potential and the possibility of violence mid play, but it concludes with a high degree of happiness and satisfaction among the four young lovers. Why do these two plays, both ostensibly about young love, end so differently? How does Shakespeare write two plays apparently on the same subject but infuse one with comic contentment in the end, while the other ends in tears? Shakespeare’s two stories of young love, their similarities and differences, is the subject of this discussion course.
While Brightspace is the hub where all course materials can be found, learners will also receive an Outlook invitation to the live Zoom seminars. The seminars can be accessed via the Outlook invitation or by clicking the corresponding link in Brightspace.
Text: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare – Penguin Edition, ISBN: 978-0743477116; A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare – Penguin Edition, ISBN: 978-1501146213
Schedule: June 2nd, 4th, 9th, and 11th, at 9:00 AM (AZ time)
Facilitator: Carol McNamara
GH employees (and affiliate school employees): use voucher code ghemployee (case sensitive) at checkout.
