Name: _________________________

Midsummer Nights Dream Unit Test

Be confident in your knowledge!

1. "God speed fair Helena.

In this quote, how has the meaning of the word fair changed from Shakespeares time
to now?
a. Equal to beautiful
b. Beautiful to equal
c. Festival to equal
d. Equal to festival

2. Identify the meter in this quote:

Keep word, Lysander: We must starve our sight
From lovers food till morrow deep midnight.
a. Spondaic meter
b. Iambic Pentameter
c. Trochaic Feet
d. Stychomytia

3. True or False: Everyone has control over who they love in the play. Explain why this
statement is true or false.

4. Which of the following is NOT a theme from A Midsummer Nights Dream?

a. Love
b. Imagination
c. Dreams
d. Masculinity

5. Identify role is Puck playing in the play?

a. Messenger
b. Cupid
c. Actor
d. Leader of the fairies

6. What point is Bottom trying to make when he says:

Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for
That. And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little com-
pany together nowadaysthe more the pity that some honest
neighbours will not make them friends.
a. Love is often arbitrary
b. Bottom has no reasonable neighbors
c. Bottom does not want to be with Titania
d. Honesty is key in a good relationship

7. Draw a line between the lovers and their match at the END of the play.
Helena Lysander
Hermia Oberon
 Titania Demetrius

8. Helena and Hermia are essentially the same, but what is the one difference between
them?
a. Helena is much smarter than Hermia
b. Hermia is more beautiful than Helena
c. Helena is taller than Hermia
d. Helena is richer than Hermia

9. What does Egeus threaten if Hermia does not comply to his will?
a. She will be forced into slavery
b. She will spend the rest of her life in a nunnery
c. She will be arrested
d. She will die

10. In what act does Bottom turn into a donkey?

a. Act 1
b. Act 2
c. Act 3
d. Act 4

11. Duke Theseus says the lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact.
How does this quote relate to a greater theme in the play? (respond in 3-5
sentences).

12. Shakespeares plays are most often written in

a. rhyming couplets.
b. old English.
c. blank verse.
d. Prose.

13. In act 2 scene 2, what does Oberon ask Puck to do?

a. To give the Athenian a love potion
b. To kiss Hermia as she sleeps
c. To confuse all of the lovers in the forest
d. To pester Titania

14. Who does Helena tell of Hermia and Lysanders plan to flee Athens?
a. Duke Theseus
b. Egeus, Hermias father
c. Oberon, the fairy king
 d. Demetrius

15. What play are the Mechanicals rehearsing to perform at the wedding of Theseus and
Hippolyta?
a. The Taming of the Shrew
b. The Tragedy of Pyramus and Thysbe
c. The Murder of Gonzago
d. Bottoms Dream

16. HERMIA: O cross! too high to be enthralled to low

LYSANDER: Or else misgrafted in respect of years
HERMIA: O spite!too old to be engaged to young.
LYSANDER Or merit stood upon the choice of friends

In 3-4 sentences, write what meter is being used and what effect it has on stage?

17. In what ways is battle of the sexes portrayed through Oberon and Titania? Argue your
statement. (4-7sentences).

18. At the end of the play, Puck says:

If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended:
That you have but slumbered here,
While these visions did appear;

What is Puck saying here about imagination and dreams? What is their importance to
the final act of the play? (respond in 4-7 sentences)
19. Why does Helena tell Demetrius about Hermia and Lysanders plan? (respond in 3-5
sentences).

20. In what ways do you believe this play could have ended differently to make it a tragedy?
What is the importance of ending the play with a wedding and what would the effect
have been if the wedding did not conclude the play? (4-7 sentences).