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Literature Afternoon Tea:
A Midsummer Night's Dream In the forest, Puck, a mischievous,
trickster fairy, on Oberon, the king
Jointly reported by: of fairies’ orders, obtained a flower.
Ng Yi Phin Jr2Z(2) It wasn’t just any flower, it was one
Victoria Hwang Jr2S(4) that was once hit by Cupid’s arrow.
Tan Qi Xuan Sr1A Puck rubbed the flower juice on the
On Friday, 17th of June 2022, Kuen Cheng High School Library organised an eyelids of Titania, the queen of fairies,
event for all students – A Literary High Tea. Mr. Joshua Tan Chong Hui, English Demetrius and Lysander. The magic
Teacher cum Assistant to the Head of Discipline Department was invited as of the flower was said to cause the
the presenter, with Mr. Pang Chung Seong, our Assistant Admin Head of the sleeper to fall in love with whoever
Discipline Department as a facilitator. The book shared was a well-known classic they first lay eyes on upon waking.
– “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, by William Shakespeare. Due to the magic and an incredulous
coincidence, both Demetrius and
Lysander, who were initially pursuing
after Hermia, fell madly in love with
Helena, who took their confessions
as hurtful insults. Hermia, who was
appalled at Lysander’s sudden change
of heart, grows furious with Helena.
They ended up fighting, chasing after
one another in the forest. The two
men did the same, but Puck, who was
still running interference, confused
the would-be combatants, until they
were hopelessly lost and exhausted.
When all four fell into slumber from
tiredness, Puck dispelled the love
potion in Lysander, so that he may
Joshua’s storytelling centred around the complicated relationships of four
Athenians: Demetrius, Hermia, Lysander and Helena. At the beginning, we were
introduced to Hermia’s father, Egeus, who had promised his daughter’s hand in
marriage to Demetrius. But she refused to obey, as she was deeply in love with
Lysander. Hermia was given three choices: to follow her father’s wishes, to be put
to death by law, or to be alone forever. Hermia, furious at the unfairness, seeked
Lysander to discuss about running away into the woods. Demetrius’s former
lover, Helena, heard of the elopement and hurriedly informed Demetrius. She
followed behind him when he set out to find the starstruck couple.
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remember his feelings for Hermia,
and squeezed more of the juice in
Demetrius’s eyelids, so that he may
reciprocate Helena’s love. With that,
the status quo was restored and the
four youths were found safe and
sound by Egeus the next morning.
During the discussion session,
three questions were thrown to the
participants, giving them a chance
to interact with others while coming
up with the possible answers. There
were quite a few particularly active
students who answered the questions
and provided reasonable answers,
which enlightened everyone to view
the story from different perspectives.
After a thrilling storytelling session
and everyone’s active participation, the
activity came to an end. The story told
by Mr. Joshua Tan greatly described
how people tend to fall in love with
those who appear beautiful to them.
We would like to express a heartfelt
gratitude to Mr. Joshua Tan for giving
all the participants a chance to learn
about the great work of literature.
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