Be sure to finish the play if you haven't, and we'll talk more about Act V specifically and the play within the play--and what it's like to see that on-stage. Also read Chapter 3, "Love" from Shakespeare's Comedies so we can figure out what Shakespeare is doing with the idea of love, coupling, and marriage in this play--and if we have a bona fide happy ending.
Some ideas to consider:
* Do Titania and Oberon live "happily ever after?" Does she forgive his trick? Do we?
* How is Act 5 a commentary on the act of performing and writing a play? Why does Shakespeare give us so much behind the scenes chatter?
* What is it like to be in the audience watching another audience? What does the audience laugh at and object to? The same things we do? Does laughing at the play's own jokes ruin the joke?
* Why is Pyramus and Thisbe a bad play? Does Shakespeare use any of these techniques (flaws) in his own play? Is he showing us one bad play to help us 'see' the bad 'acting' in his own?
* Why end with a play rather than a marriage? Is it anti-climactic? Or does it take away from the "comedy" of a Romantic Comedy?
* How does Shakespeare subvert the comic norms from Roman and Renaissance drama in his Romantic Comedies? (according to van Es)
* Why do women generally get a larger role in Shakespeare's comedies (or in the Renaissance in general)?
* What do we learn about Shakespeare's ethos and ideas from an adaptation like She's the Man? What has to be changed or updated? And what is lost?
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