Quotation analysis

Puck’s Soliloquy and Preparing for the

Unit Test

What is quotation analysis?

Tell your reader what meaning you find in the quote. Explain how this passage relates to what you take to be author’s central idea.

The important idea to recognize is that all aspects of analysis are interrelated.

Where do we need to focus?

The Five Areas of Analysis

What are the five areas of analysis?

Plot key points in the plot triangle (exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, dénouement, catastrophe)background (antecedent) informationoffstage information (unseen by audience)complicationsadvancements of the plot (pushes plot forward)

Settingtime (Elizabethan era – role of women)

place (geographical location) – Dunsinane, Inverness, Verona

atmosphere (tone, mood, or emotions related to scene: foreboding, gloomy, joyous, tense, sombre, jubilant, triumphant)

socioeconomic status (class system: courtiers (royalty) vs. working class)

Five Areas of AnalysisCharacter

personality/nature or changes therein

relationships or changes therein

motivations

states of mind or awareness (psychological? emotional? intellectual?)

Theme

motif or recurring concrete images often point to a particular theme

AMND: Love and Marriage, Order and Disorder, Appearance vs Reality

Motifs: nature, the moon, sleep and dreams, eyes, magic

5 areas of analysisSpecial Dramatic

Effectsdramatic irony, foreshadowing, pathetic fallacy, pathos, comic relief, juxtaposition of scenes, soliloquy)

language literary devices (e.g., allusion, paradox, metaphor/simile, personification, oxymoron, metonymy, synecdoche)

Act V, EpiloguePuck’s Soliloquy

Format of Passage Analysis

1. Begin with author and name of text. For Shakespearean plays, address Act and Scene as well.

“This passage, from the epilogue in Act V of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, highlights…”

Format of Passage Analysis2. Address speaker, audience, and context/situation.

“Puck’s soliloquy where he addresses the audience at the conclusion of the play, after the plot of the 4 lovers, Theseus and Hippolyta, and Oberon and Titania are resolved.”

Format of Passage Analysis

Highlight the blueprint, which outlines the points you will be discussing.

“The importance of the quote can be seen through an analysis of plot, setting, character, theme and special dramatic effects.”

Format of Passage Analysis

For each paragraph, you must follow a specific pattern:

T – Transition

A – Answer

R – Reason

E – Evidence

E - Explanation

“Firstly (T), setting plays a key role in understanding Puck’s soliloquy(A) because it highlights the emotional tone and atmosphere of the play(R). As many of the characters (Bottom and Theseus among them) believe that the magical events of the play’s action were merely a dream, Puck tells the crowd that if the play has offended them, they too should remember it simply as a dream—“That you have but slumbered here, / While these visions did appear” (Ev).The speech offers a commentary on the dreamlike atmosphere of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and casts the play as a magical dream in which the audience shares”(Ex).

Using the format outlined, write a passage analysis of Puck’s soliloquy for homework tonight ready to be submitted tomorrow.

Puck’s Soliloquy