The Folger Guide to Teaching A Midsummer Night's Dream

The authoritative guide to teaching Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Folger Guide to Teaching A Midsummer Night’s Dream is an invaluable resource for teachers, students, and Shakespeare fans alike.

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare stages the workings of love. Theseus and Hippolyta, about to marry, are figures from mythology. In the woods outside Theseus’s Athens, two young men and two young women sort themselves out into couples—but not before they form first one love triangle, and then another.

Also in the woods, the king and queen of fairyland, Oberon and Titania, battle over custody of an orphan boy; Oberon uses magic to make Titania fall in love with a weaver named Bottom, whose head is temporarily transformed into that of a donkey by a hobgoblin or “puck,” Robin Goodfellow. Finally, Bottom and his companions ineptly stage the tragedy of “Pyramus and Thisbe.”

The Folger Guide to Teaching A Midsummer Night’s Dream Includes:
-An explanation of the Folger methodology for teaching Shakespeare
-Scholarly essays from experts in the field
-A five-week breakdown of digestible lesson plans
-Resource links for a deeper dive into the world of Shakespeare

This guide is an essential part of any teacher’s toolkit.

Dr. Peggy O’Brien was named the Folger’s director of education in May 2013. A former Folger educator, she established the Library’s education philosophy and the bulk of its programs in the 1980s and led the department until 1994, when she left to become director of education programs for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Her long and distinguished career has brought her numerous awards and honors, including Doctor of Laws honoris causa from Trinity University, Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa from Georgetown University, the Public Humanities Award from the DC Community Humanities Council, and the Folger Shakespeare Library’s 2008 Shakespeare Steward Award. Prior to her first appointment at the Folger, she spent a number of years teaching high school English in the DC Public Schools, and since then has taught undergraduate courses at Georgetown University.