Gaiman's A Midsummer Night's Dream

I found the story enjoyable. However, it was only mildly enjoyable to me. While I quite enjoyed the interplay between the faeries and the way Puck was portrayed in this story, the plot was too vague for me. The story lost a lot of its potential because the deal between Will and Shaper was never truly explained. The character of Shaper, which I was waiting to understand and connect with, also remained vague and unexplained.
The faeries get the opportunity to watch an imitation of themselves in the play. Peaseblossom is offended by his character. Puck seems to enjoy the character, but feels he is a better player of himself. He changes from the roll of observer to observed when he decides to play himself in the second act.
In the story the two worlds, real and fantasy, are separated. The fantasy invades the real when Wendel opens a rift in between the two. The faeries step into the real world and make (or try to make) some interesting changes to it. Titania wishes to take Hamnet with them, and Puck actually stays to create mischief and havoc for the humans.
In this adaptation, Shakespeare's genius plays are contributed to being taken from his own real life experiences. This offers a fine explanation of how he could come up with such fascinating works. However, I find it very difficult to believe that one man could have so many things interesting things happen to them in one lifetime.

In class writing 4/6

Most revere Shakespeare's works as marvelous and great pieces of literature. Many of these believe that the works should be left alone and not tampered with. They gawk at the ways people have taken the plays and changed, adapted, and spun off. They claim that this wonderful literature should not be marred by such foolishness as these adaptations. What these people fail to realize is that many have difficulty understanding the original Shakespearean language. The adaptations allow Shakespeare's works to reach into places it would not have been able to penetrate before. Also, the fact that Shakespeare's works have been adapted this much is a sign of how great they are. The adaptations are the medals around the necks of his works, showing off his achievement.

Part 2:
In Macbeth Manga, the panels showing Lady Macbeth when she is going insane portray the scene well. As she is walking to wash the "blood" off of her hands, she has a sallow, crazed look about her. This image gives life to the words and gives a very good impression of what she must be feeling and look like. The look on her face as she examines her hands is perfect for showing her fear and guilt over the murder.

Part 3:
The relationship between Puck and Oberon is quite dynamic. Oberon is Puck's master. Puck his servant, messenger, but also his jester. Puck finds a merry jest in others' misfortunes, and often he uses these to entertain his master and the rest of his master's company. However, Oberon is not always amused by Puck's jests. When Puck screws up and drips the flower into Lysander's eyes instead of Demetrius' eyes, Puck finds the interaction between the lovers funny, while Oberon is upset with Puck. Puck is always very faithful to Oberon and never purposefully crosses him. Oberon, though occasionally upset with Puck's actions, still never seems very angry with Puck himself.

A Midsummer Night's Dream Adaptations

I couldn't find a video of this, but Disney made a short adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Language in "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

How happy some o'er other some can be!
Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;
He will not know what all but he do know:
And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,
So I, admiring of his qualities:
Things base and vile, folding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity:
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste;
Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:
And therefore is Love said to be a child,
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled.
As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
So the boy Love is perjured every where:
For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,
He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;
And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
So he dissolved, and showers of oaths did melt.
I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight:
Then to the wood will he to-morrow night
Pursue her; and for this intelligence
If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:
But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
To have his sight thither and back again.

One of the aspects of Shakespearean language that makes it unique and can often causes confusion for modern readers is the rearrangement of words. Instead of the normal: subject-verb-direct object progression, Shakespeare rearranged the words some times to fit his rhythm or rhyme scheme. In Helena's soliloquy after talking to Hermia and Lysander, she uses this rearranged grammar, "And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind." The typical sentence would have the 'is' placed after Cupid.
The words Shakespeare uses are also very different from those used today. In some cases he uses a word that we still use, but the word is used in a different way.
In this section the rhyme scheme follows an: a , a , b , b , c , c , etc. The way Shakespeare used rhyme in his works is one of the things that makes reading them the most enjoyable to me. The other is the way he takes words and plays with them using alternate meanings and the sounds of words.

Manga Shakespeare

The Manga A Midsummer Night's Dream starts off with with introducing the characters with a picture, his/her name, and a quote to help show the personality and help identify the character in the story. The place is introduced as "Athens--where modern technology meet ancient tradition. These help set up the story making it easy to follow from the beginning, instead of trying to find one's bearing in the flow of the story. The clothes that the characters wear are an interesting combination of modern dress and ancient garb. Demetrius wears a white collared shirt and tie covered by a toga.
Pages 14 and 15 demonstrate the hybridization of the times very well. On page 14 ancient weapons such as swords and spears are shown on the wall, as well as flowers for the wedding. However, on page 15, televisions, which are used for communication in the story, are set into the wall as well. This stark contrast gives the book an interesting feel.

War is Kind

I found the whole poem to be very powerful. I had trouble picking just one line. The line I chose though is, "In a field where a thousand corpses lie." The line conjures up mental images of a battlefield after a conflict. The battlefield strewn with bodies of dead and dying soldiers. This image in conjunction with the line "War is kind," outlines the sarcasm in the title line. It makes the poem so much more powerful.

Maus II

The fifth panel on page 250 offers a very telling glimpse into Vladek's mentality. He is excited about getting six dollars of groceries for one dollar by returning the mostly eaten boxes of cereal he had re-glued. It is amazing for me to think of being excited about saving five dollars on groceries. I would never try to return cereal that was mostly consumed and had no true defects. The extreme conservative nature of Vladek is assumed to be the result of his experiences during WWII. His nature that helped him survive the war though, feels very out of place in a peaceful society. His son is very embaressed by this behavior, because in the current culture it is considered odd.