what is love?
TRANSCRIPT
What do these babies feel for the people who are holding them?
How do you know? How did they develop these feelings? What do the people look like? What is their relationship to them?
Are these children loved? Do they love back?
Is this love?
• What are the qualities of true love?• Are there different kinds of love?• How does love make you feel?• Can you think of any songs about love?• Share the lyrics in your groups and decide
what kind of love this is and how the people involved feel. (Be prepared to share with the class)
Let us read Helena’s speech in Act I, Scene i (on page 17).
• What just happened before she starts to speak?
• What is the topic of her soliloquy?• Who does she care for?• What is she going to do?• Why is this significant?
Listen to the following clips and decide which lines in Helena’s speech (p. 17)
relate to each song
• Line 226• Lines 227-228• Lines 230-231• Lines 230-231
• Lines 232-235• Lines 236-239• Lines 240-245• Lines 246-251
• Song 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWAdb1vgoik
• Song 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHRVO2Cgonc
• Song 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lobE-PEqRc
• Song 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l8EDGSzeRA
• Song 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evwxsLzUiFc&feature=fvwrel
• Song 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rIs2S2WH7M&feature=related
• Song 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZixqPPhg4E
• Song 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbzuF_jaRTU
Listen to the following clips and decide which lines in Helena’s speech (p. 17)
relate to each song
• Line 226• Lines 227-228• Lines 230-231• Lines 230-231
• Lines 232-235• Lines 236-239• Lines 240-245• Lines 246-251
• Song 1: “Call me Maybe” Carly Rae Jepsen 0:28- 1:29
• Song 2: “Grenade” Bruno Mars 1:35-3:20
• Song 3: “You Belong With Me” Taylor Swift 1:10-2:23
• Song 4: “Amnesia” Timberland 1:30-2:10
• Song 5: “I’m so Lonely” Akon 0-30
• Song 6: “Bleeding Love” Leona Lewis 2:00-2:57
• Song 7: “I Love the Way You Lie” Eminem & Rihanna 0-1:41
• Song 8: “Love You Like I Do” Jamillions 0-1:25
What literary devices do you see in the soliloquy? Let us look at the following
quotes:• “Through Athens I am thought as fair as she”• “And as he errs, doting on Hermia’s eyes” • “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the
mind”• “And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind”• “And therefore is love said to be a child”• “So the boy Love is perjured everywhere”• “To have his sight thither, and back again”
How do these shed light on Helena’s situation?
IN OUR WORLD
• Do you agree with Helena’s description of love? Why/Why not?
• Which are the similarities and differences in our contemporary view of love?
• Is Helena’s heart ache a theme in today’s poetry?
• What can we say about Hermia and Helena’s situation?
• What about Hermia and Demetrius’?
Activity I
1. You are the author of an advice column (ie. Dear Abby). • Write a short letter from Helena explaining her situation
and request advice. • Then, write back with your suggestions.
OR2. You are a choreographer for a dance number. • Pick a song that will allow you to physically and artistically
convey what Helena’s soliloquy does with words.• Present the number (approximately 1 minute) in the next
class (with costume). This may be done individually or in pairs.