A Midsummer Nights Dream Analysis Chart

Technique Quote Theme/Effect

similes/metaphors I mean that my heart unto
yours is knit (2.2.47)




Our hearts are intertwined.
personification



Love looks not with the eyes,
but with the mind; (1.1.234)
Love is not seen, it is felt.

Love looks past physical
appearance.
allusion I swear to thee, by Cupids
strongest bow,/By his best
arrow and golden head,/By the
simplicity of Venus doves
(1.1.168-171)
love heightens emotions,
causing characters to speak like
poets.

Love is divine
imagery Help me, Lysander, help me!
Do thy best/To pluck this
crawling serpent from my
breast! Ay me, for pity! What a
dream was here! (2.2.145-
147)
Nightmare reflects the real
betrayal of the pledges of love
they exchanged before the
eloping and again before falling
asleep.
dramatic irony



What fools these mortals be! Love should not be taken so
seriously as it changes rapidly.

Humans like the fairies act
irrationally when they are in
love.
symbolism And with the juice of this Ill
streak her eyes,/And make her
full of hateful fantasies
2.1.256-258 Oberson plans to
put the potion in Titanias eyes



An asss nole I fixed on his
head (3.2.17)
The love potion that is dropped
into the eyes symbolises how
easily one can see things
differently, from a different
perspective that instantly
changes ones feelings.

A donkeys head symbolises:
-how love makes fools of us all,
sometimes youre the lover,
sometimes the fool
-how love makes people blind
to the imperfections in others
-how being in love with oneself
makes one look like an ass
(Bottoms character)
-how love makes one act on
animal impulse rather than
human logic and reason

verse in iambic
pentameter/trochaic
tetrameter



prose passages



tone/tone shifts



humour



breaking the fourth wall





play-within-a-play



stage directions



characterisation



character relationships



contrasting settings