Literacy Blog #6 - MSND

Literacy Blog #6 – MSND

           

This week’s question from my English is the following; Which one of the book covers do you believe to be most effective for the play A Midsummer Night's Dream, and why? This is the cover I chose to be the best out of the options which were given. Out of all the covers I think this one was the most magical and mysterious. The cover shows a young lady in the forest and she appears to be sleeping. Surrounding her are an abundance of fairies, and when aren’t fairies magical? From a young age we have be told stories and fairy tales, where most of the settings in the forest and a magical adventure usually occurs. The dark shadows in the picture possess a mysterious air to them and causes the viewer to have a mood of wonder.  What else is within this forest besides the fairies? What other magic would be lurking around the corner?  The colour of the trees leaves also show it is summertime, lush with new leaves and flowers littering the ground below. Since the play is set in summer this is only fitting. The lady on the ground also has a sense of magic and mystery to her and the viewer wonders why she is in this forest and why the fairies have taken such a liking to her. Since she is sleeping we as the viewer’s wonder what she is dreaming about. When I first saw this cover I thought it was the most fitting because of a part in the play when Hermia (who I assume is the woman lying on the ground) and when she has sat down to rest her head because her and Lysander are fleeing the city of Athens and have stopped in the forest to rest. The examples are the reasons why I believe this is the best cover out of the ones which were the options.

Literacy Blog #5 - MSND

 Literacy Blog #5 – MSND

   

April 5, 2013

Today in English class we had to make a connection to the book we are currently reading. The options for our choices were; connection to the characters or a similar theme. After some time I came up with a similar theme, although the connection was loose. The supernatural is what I came up with. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare the supernatural is all of the fairies and magic within the kingdom and of course the forest.  Forests always seem to have something lurking in them, fairy tales more often than not have the setting based there, and at a young age we are taught from these stories not to venture into the forest alone. Why wouldn't there be something supernatural in one of Shakespeare’s plays, when there’s a forest filled with magic? The supernatural in The Last Lecture is Randy’s cancer. The tumors of cancer and cancerous cells in his body formed from what seemed like thin air. How is it we can have these things grow inside of us and us not have known about it? How can we not find a way to get rid of it and stop it from taking away a life? The supernatural is a scary, exciting, unknown thing in some cases, where we know minimal about it. There are always stories about the supernatural and it fascinates our society because of the mystery and little known facts behind it. Sometimes it is made up and thought of by someone, like Shakespeare’s’ A Midsummer Night’s Dream and sometimes it takes someone on a journey they were least expecting.