Act 3, Scene 1


Puck transforms Bottom into a man wearing an asshead. This trick of transformation was one that Shakespeare learned from reading stories about metamorphoses or magical changes in form and nature in people. This is a common theme in many myths, some of which you might have studied. Can you think of any other examples from other texts where characters undergo drastic physical or emotional changes? Have you ever experienced a noticeable change yourself?

10 comments:

  1. A very famous text that I know which has a character that has undergone a transformation is Beauty and the Beast. In the Disney movie version of this text prince Adam refuses to let an old lady in to his palace on a cold winter night. The old woman curses the prince and he turns into a beast. Just like Bottom, Adam also transformed by some force of magic and both of their spells or curses had ways to be undone. Unlike Bottom, Adam knew he was transformed into a scary looking bear hybrid. Luckily for Bottom he had only had to have an asshead for a short period of time. Prince Adam wasn’t so lucky; he had to be this ugly monster for a lot longer.

    I underwent a transformation myself. In grade 7 I was one the shortest people in our class. When I came back after the summer break I was taller than most people in my class. I know that this is natural it is just that I was not expecting it to be so sudden and know it’s still happening.

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  3. Before I start, this assignment may contain some major spoilers. If you noticed and caught on, I watch quite a bunch of anime. So for this post, I will be using a popular anime called Clannad: After Story by Key. As you get about mid way of the anime series, the main characters, Tomoya and Nagisa are about to have a baby, almost ready to give birth. Before she got pregnant, she often got sick a lot and had to miss school because of an illness she had, which lead her to not passing the grade. While Nagisa is pregnant, her doctor warns her that her birth may cause her to die because she's sick from her illness, but they still decide to go with the birth. On the day of the birth, Nagisa was able to successfully give birth to Ushio, but with her illness and the delivery together, it causes Nagisa to die moments later. Bringing their dream of raising Ushio together as a family forever gone. The cause of the death brings Tomoya heartbroken and makes him very depressed. He starts to smoke and drink more then he use to. He stayed in a state of depression for a very long time, about 5 years.

    Another example is Hal: The Movie by Production I.G. After a tragic plane accident, a robot is sent to a small Japanese town to help a person, who just lost a loved one. In the story, a robot is asked to replace "Hal", which is the one who apparently died in the plane accident, to help Kurumi move on with life. In the end, Hal's old friend, Ryu, see's him and tries to reveal the truth out to him. Ryu and his friends chase him down to a mini river dam. They push him down, and Ryu screams to Hal to snap out of it. Hal then has many flash backs, of before the plane incident and afterwards. It then shows later that the person who actually died in the plane, was Kurumi. Hal just couldn't process the reality and because of tragedy, he had a symptom where he thought he was a robot. The one who was the robot was Kurumi, she was the one to help a lost love one.

    Personally, I haven't noticed much of a change for myself. You might not even believe this but, I was more shy back then when I was younger. It was pretty bad when I think about it, compared to now. I guess what made me change a bit was the fact that if I don't change on how shy I am, I won't be able to grow out of it and stay that way for the entire rest of my life, or at least a good portion of my life.

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  4. Well in Egyptian mythology the gods usually were portrayed with animal heads. The gods had the same kind of nature as the animal that they represented. A good example of therianthropic (part animal, part human) is the the fiercest hunter known to the Egyptians, Sekhmet!! She is symbolized with the head of a lion,the king of all beast.

    In AMND ,Demetrius was influence by the potion that altered his mind . In Egyptian mythology many of these gods had certain personalities of other gods that alters there mind. For example Ra,had different personalities like Atum, Khepri, Sokar, and Aten which were originally more than 1 god,but the Egyptians put them all in 1 god

    Like Dwarfking said, he was short in grade 7 and became taller than other students,I noticed this as well. I also notice myself being more experienced

    http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/311/f/7/sekhmet_by_hgrace-d32e1gt.jpg

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  5. One of the changes that has happened in a character that I've seen is The Amazing Spider Man. In this movie, Peter Parker is a normal teenage boy who goes to school. One day, he goes to a room filled with dangerous spiders and gets bit by one of them. A few days later, he found out that he had special powers including: shooting spider webs from his wrists and walking on walls. he didn't use the powers until one night. That night, a man shot his grand father in front of his own eyes. He made the suit so he can go find the man who shot him and get him arrested but he ended up stopping all criminals and he eventually became Spider Man.
    I have changed a lot from when I was in grade 7. In grade 7, I was 5'8 and I still had the same childish voice that I had since I was in grade 6. In grade 8, I am 6 foot and i have a very deep voice.

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  6. Usually in heroic movies or famously hero characters for example superman, in the show smallville they show the expiriences of superman as a teenager and developing as his powers change. It shows his emotions to how he reacts to his changes and how he learns to use them for the greater good. One of the changes in my life is how my older siblings moved out of my house to live their life with their spouses because they're much older. When my brother left it was a big change in my life because I would be the man in the house and because my brother had a big impact on my life

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  7. Well in the book series I am currently reading (The Rangers Apprentice) the main character Will, as he gets older (from teenager to adult) he learns more skills and gets more experienced in what he does (he is a Ranger). But later in the series he marries his girlfriend from the previous books, Alyss. Sadly a few months after he married her, she died so he then had to cope with her loss for six months before something else important happened in his life. It was an important change in his life most importantly of course (for him) was tracking down the man who killed her , Jury Ruhl. To do so he searched searched and searched, finding Ruhl sort of became his obsession.
    I have experienced a change in my self, for example I recently found out my grandmother was dying, so that is a very important change in my life. I also grew taller, for example I am now nearly as tall as both my parents, and taller than some of my friends.

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  8. A great example of drastic change is The Doctor in Doctor Who. Every time he is about to die, his body regenerates. He becomes a whole new person. This can be considered an emotional change because he says that it feels like dying because after the regeneration, as the Doctor once said, “Some new man goes sauntering away... and I'm dead.” Even though he keeps all his memories, every other part of him is different; his taste, favorite color, etc.

    A noticeable change that I have encountered is that my voice deepened. Drastically. It happened very quickly in my opinion.

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  9. An example of a drastic change is Scott from Teen Wolf. Scott is a werewolf, but he wasn't always one throughout the series. Before Scott got "The Bite", he was a wimp. He didn't really have any friends other than Stiles. His physique was poor and his reflexes weren't the best. He had trouble talking to girls and what not. Shortly after Scott got "The Bite", he had noticed drastic changes within himself. He was able to hear, smell, and see things other wouldn't be able to. He had cat like reflexes. He even decided to try out for the Lacrosse team.

    I have experienced some changes within my self. Although my voice may not show it, I have grown a few inches since grade 7. I hope to grow to be at least 6ft but let's face it, that's not happening anytime soon.

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  10. Doctor Who is an English Science-Fiction show that features a man, called the Doctor, who can travel through time and space as he pleases in his TARDIS, which stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space.

    What makes Doctor Who so interesting is that the Doctor cannot die. Instead, he regenerates. This is when the show brings in a new actor to play the role. On the actual show, added onto the obvious physical changes in the Doctor's appearance, he also goes through many emotional changes. While he is still the same person on the inside, his personality molds and shifts into a slightly different one. For example, the ninth Doctor was a lot more serious than the tenth, who was more cunning, and muc more different than the eleventh, who many agree was the most playful Doctor of the bunch.


    As for myself, I definitely think I have gone through many changes. For example, I am a much more strong (mentally, I'm still extremely weak physicality wise) person than I was, say, two years ago. I have learned to stand up for myself and not let my own voice get lost in a sea of others, and I think that does show through.

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