This lesson provides you with ten different writing prompts and essay questions for William Shakespeare's ''A Midsummer Night's Dream''. Some can be answered in brief, while others will require research and in-depth thought.
A Midsummer Night's Dream Writing Prompts & Essay Questions
Table of Contents
ShowHere are some ideas for short writing prompts for your students:
1. Once students have finished reading the entire play, have them explain why they think Shakespeare titled the play A Midsummer Night's Dream.
2. What is the significance of magic and fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream? Why would Shakespeare introduce such fantasy into the play?
3. What does the following quote from a A Midsummer Night's Dream mean to you:
'Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.'
4. What modern books, movies, television shows or even real-life stories remind you of various parts of A Midsummer Night's Dream? Zero-in on a part or parts of your choosing and discuss it or them in more detail.
5. What are some ways in which love is portrayed in A Midsummer Night's Dream?
6. People often complain they can't understand Shakespearean English and that's why they don't like reading his plays. Choose any section of text you'd like in A Midsummer Night's Dream. 'Convert' this text from Shakespearean English into modern English. Make sure your text doesn't use Shakespeare's words and that even a 6th grader can understand the converted text.
The following essay questions will require that your students think and write about the settings, characters and other aspects of A Midsummer Night's Dream in more depth.
1. Describe the settings of A Midsummer Night's Dream. What is their purpose? Pick one setting, such as the city of Athens or the forest, and describe its significance in more detail or go over all of them in brief.
2. How do the roles of gender, with respect to love and life in general, in A Midsummer Night's Dream compare and contrast to those of today?
3. Research and write about what other stories might have inspired Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Compare and contrast those sources of inspiration with Shakespeare's play.
4. Pick one character from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Pretend you are a criminal profiler or psychologist and write a detailed dossier on the character. Sample questions for the character to answer might include:
- Where are you from?
- Where do you live?
- What do you like and dislike?
In your dossier, include a description of your character's personality and explain how he or she is connected to other characters?
5. Have students watch a film adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream and then write an essay that analyzes the differences between the on-screen and written versions. The essay should also explain the basis for these differences, such as those related to time or political correctness.
6. Write a diary/journal entry for any character of your choosing. Express this character's intimate thoughts on any situation found in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Justify why his or her private thoughts are as you believe them to be with quotes from the text.
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