A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy written by Shakespeare.

It is a world known play

and has been adapted many times for films and TV productions. It was most probably
written between 1596 and 1597 and was published in 1600. The play is well known for its
weird events. The play consists of 3 themes Love, Dreams, and Magic.

The title is connected to:

 a time of uninhibited natural drives, of magic events and fertility rites.

 dreams, visions, in which the poet is a dreamer like the lover.

Sources

Poetry and mythology: Ovid’s Metamorphoses ( Pyramus and Thisbe, Titania, Theseus),
Apuleius’ The Golden Ass (Bottom like Lucius), Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (Theseus),
Spenser (Oberon). English folklore: the wood with its fairies, gnomes and magic creatures,
May festivities and Midsummer rituals.

This variety of threads are woven together to create a perfect jewel, a harmonious mixture
of love and romantic sentimentalism, eroticism and fairy-tale spells and magic.

Setting

Place: city ►wood ►city in a two-way shift

 City of Athens, the court: place of pomp and triumph, ordered by rules and laws,

characterised by stability and reason

 The wood: unruly space of nature, where there are no rules and no prohibitions. It is
the place where under night’s cloak and the power of magic the transformations
take place thanks to the magic juice. Here love is an enchantment, a charm, and
lovers are not responsible for their inconstancy and fickleness.

Time: midsummer is associated to:

 The solstice and the homage that used to be paid to the sun at its zenith and
to the erotic power of nature; a night of revelry with magic undertones
(young people believed they would find their perfect match and it was
thought that the herbs that were picked on that night had powerful magic
properties)
 Dreams, madness, illusions, shadows, visions. In this dream lovers, like poets,
are victims of a spell and transform reality. It is also a special occasion, on
which even the humblest of men can come in touch with the divine and
experience the vision, the unutterable revelation of the truth hidden behind
reality.
Themes

Love: Shakespeare portrays romantic love as a blind, irrational, often beautiful force that
can be both cruel and forgiving. Ultimately, love drives the play's entire plot.

Imagination: The boundaries between the real world and the magical world are porous, and
poetry gives the characters a means through which to access their imaginations.

Patriarchy: Gender roles exclude the female characters from positions of agency and power,
and their purpose in life amounts to finding whatever happiness a good marriage can offer.

Magic: an example of magic in the play is the juice used by Puck which makes people fall in
love, made from a flower called 'love-in-idleness', otherwise known as the wild pansy.

Characters:

Oberon
The king of the fairies, Oberon is initially at odds with his wife, Titania, because she refuses
to relinquish control of a young Indian prince whom he wants for a knight. Oberon’s desire
for revenge on Titania leads him to send Puck to obtain the love-potion flower that creates
so much of the play’s confusion and farce.

Titania
The beautiful queen of the fairies, Titania resists the attempts of her husband, Oberon, to
make a knight of the young Indian prince that she has been given. Titania’s brief, potion-
induced love for Nick Bottom, whose head Puck has transformed into that of an ass, yields
the play’s foremost example of the contrast motif.

Theseus
The heroic duke of Athens, engaged to Hippolyta. Theseus represents power and order
throughout the play. He appears only at the beginning and end of the story, removed from
the dreamlike events of the forest.

Hippolyta
The legendary queen of the Amazons, engaged to Theseus. Like Theseus, she symbolizes
order.

Puck

Also known as Robin Goodfellow, Puck is Oberon’s jester, a mischievous fairy who delights
in playing pranks on mortals. Though A Midsummer Night’s Dream divides its action
between several groups of characters, Puck is the closest thing the play has to a protagonist.
His enchanting, mischievous spirit pervades the atmosphere, and his antics are responsible
for many of the complications that propel the other main plots: he mistakes the young
Athenians, applying the love potion to Lysander instead of Demetrius, thereby causing chaos
within the group of young lovers; he also transforms Bottom’s head into that of an ass.

Lysander
A young man of Athens, in love with Hermia. Lysander’s relationship with Hermia invokes
the theme of love’s difficulty: he cannot marry her openly because Egeus, her father, wishes
her to wed Demetrius; when Lysander and Hermia run away into the forest, Lysander
becomes the victim of misapplied magic and wakes up in love with Helena.

Demetrius
A young man of Athens, initially in love with Hermia and ultimately in love with Helena.
Demetrius’s obstinate pursuit of Hermia throws love out of balance among the quartet of
Athenian youths and precludes a symmetrical two-couple arrangement.

Hermia
Egeus’s daughter, a young woman of Athens. Hermia is in love with Lysander and is a
childhood friend of Helena. As a result of the fairies’ mischief with Oberon’s love potion,
both Lysander and Demetrius suddenly fall in love with Helena. Self-conscious about her
short stature, Hermia suspects that Helena has wooed the men with her height. By morning,
however, Puck has sorted matters out with the love potion, and Lysander’s love for Hermia
is restored.

Helena
A young woman of Athens, in love with Demetrius. Demetrius and Helena were once
betrothed, but when Demetrius met Helena’s friend Hermia, he fell in love with her and
abandoned Helena. Lacking confidence in her looks, Helena thinks that Demetrius and
Lysander are mocking her when the fairies’ mischief causes them to fall in love with her.

Egeus
Hermia’s father, who brings a complaint against his daughter to Theseus: Egeus has given
Demetrius permission to marry Hermia, but Hermia, in love with Lysander, refuses to marry
Demetrius. Egeus’s severe insistence that Hermia either respect his wishes or be held
accountable to Athenian law places him squarely outside the whimsical dream realm of the
forest.

Nick Bottom
The overconfident weaver chosen to play Pyramus in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s
marriage celebration. Bottom is full of advice and self-confidence but frequently makes silly
mistakes and misuses language. His simultaneous nonchalance about the beautiful Titania’s
sudden love for him and unawareness of the fact that Puck has transformed his head into
that of an ass mark the pinnacle of his foolish arrogance.

PLOT
Act 1:
Theseus, the Duke of Athens, is preparing the city for a large festival to mark his imminent
marriage to Hippolyta. Egeus, a nobleman, enters the stage accompanied by his
daughter Hermia, the man she loves named Lysander, and the man Egeus wants her to
marry named Demetrius. He begs Theseus for the ancient Athenian right to either make his
daughter marry Demetrius or have the power to kill her.
Theseus offers Hermia only two options: she must marry Demetrius or join a nunnery. He
then departs with the other men, leaving Hermia and Lysander behind on stage. Lysander
quickly convinces Hermia to sneak into the woods the next night so that they may get
married at his aunt's house outside of Athens. She agrees to the plan. Helena arrives and
laments the fact that Demetrius only has eyes for Hermia, even though she loves him far
more than Hermia ever could. Lysander tells her to not worry since he and Hermia are
sneaking away that night. Helena, in a final soliloquy, indicates that she will tell Demetrius
about Hermia's plans because that might make him start to love her again. The assembled
artisans gather and are given the parts for the play they want to perform for the Duke's
wedding. The play is based on Pyramus and Thisbe and is meant to be a comedy and a
tragedy at the same time. They finally all agree to meet in the woods outside of the city the
next night to rehearse their parts.

Act 2:

Robin Goodfellow, also called Puck, meets with a fairy who serves Queen Titania. She tells
him that Titania is coming to the woods outside of Athens that night. Puck informs the fairy
that it would be better if Titania and his master, Oberon, did not meet since they only
quarrel when they do so.
Seconds later both Oberon and Titania arrive onstage, both accompanied by their respective
fairy followers. Immediately they begin an argument, with both of them accusing each other
of infidelity and jealousy. Titania has stolen a young boy whom she keeps with her and
spends her time caring for. Oberon, jealous of the attention the boy is receiving, demands
that Titania give the boy to him, a request she refuses. After Titania departs, Oberon vows
to get revenge on her for causing him embarrassment. He sends Puck to fetch a juice which
is supposed to make a person love the first thing he or she sees upon waking up. Oberon's
plan is to put the juice onto Titania's eyes while she sleeps, so that she will fall in love with
the first animal she sees after waking up. Puck leaves him and Oberon hides himself.

Demetrius and Helena arrive in the woods right next to where Oberon is hidden. Demetrius

tells Helena to go away, and that he does not love her even though she has told him
about Hermia and Lysander trying to run away. She threatens to chase him down if he
should try to leave her in the woods. Oberon, having overheard the entire conversation,
decides to make Demetrius fall in love with Helena. He tells Robin Goodfellow to take some
of the juice and go anoint the eyes of the Athenian man in the woods but doing so only
when it is certain that the woman by his side will be the first person he sees. Puck agrees
and goes off to carry out his errand. Titania calls for a quick dance in the woods with her
fairies, after which they sing her to sleep. Oberon takes the opportunity to sneak up and
drop the juice onto her closed eyelids. Soon thereafter Lysander and Hermia, tired of
walking and having lost their way, decide to go to sleep as well. They lie down, but Hermia
demands that Lysander sleep a short distance away in order to keep up her sense of
modesty since she is not married to him yet.
Puck enters, having vainly searched the woods for an Athenian. He spies Lysander lying
apart from Hermia and deduces that this must be the hard-hearted Athenian which Oberon
spoke about. Robin Goodfellow quickly drops some of the juice onto Lysander's eyes.
Demetrius, followed closely by Helena, runs into the clearing where Lysander is lying asleep.
She begs him to stop running away from her, but he refuses and leaves her there alone.
Helena finally sees Lysander on the ground and shakes him awake, unwittingly becoming the
first woman he sees when he opens his eyes. Lysander immediately falls in love with Helena
and tells her that he deeply loves her. She thinks it is a cruel joke and tells him to stop
abusing her. Helena leaves and Lysander decides to forget about Hermia and follow Helena
instead. Hermia wakes up because she is scared about a dream she has had in which a
serpent eats her heart. She calls for Lysander, but he is no longer near her. She then leaves
her bed to go search for him.

Act 3:

The rustics and artisans arrive in the woods and discuss their play, Pyramus and Thisbe.
Bottom is afraid that if Pyramus commits suicide with his sword, it might seem too real and
cause the ladies to be afraid. As a result, they agree to write a prologue which tells the
audience that Pyramus is only Bottom the Weaver and that he does not really kill himself.
Next, Snout becomes afraid that Snug's role as the lion will cause a similar fear. Thus, they
undertake to write another prologue to tell the audience that it is not a lion, but only Snug
the joiner. The men further decide that Snug should speak to the audience directly and that
half his head should be visible through the costume. Finally, they start to rehearse the play,
which Puck eavesdrops in the background. Each of the actors makes several word mistakes,
giving the phrases completely different meanings. Puck leaves when Bottom goes offstage,
and reappears with Bottom, who now wears an ass’s head which Puck put on him. Bottom is
blissfully unaware that he is transformed into an ass, and humorously asks the others why
they run away from him. At this point Titania wakes up and sees Bottom, with his ass’s head,
and falls in love with him. She begs him to keep singing and making jokes for her and
entreats him to remain in the forest with her. Robin Goodfellow returns to Oberon and tells
him what has happened to Titania. Oberon is overjoyed that Titania is being humiliated in
this way. He then asks about the Athenian he wanted to fall in love with Helena. At this
point Demetrius and Hermia enter the stage. Hermia is convinced that Demetrius has
killed Lysander in his sleep, and in her fury she curses Demetrius for his actions. She finally
storms away, leaving Demetrius to fall asleep in front of Oberon. Oberon, furious that Robin
has ruined his plan to make Demetrius love Helena, sends Robin off to get her. Puck soon
returns with both Helena and Lysander. Helena believes that Lysander is only mocking her
with his words of love and tells him that his phrases have no substance. Inadvertently she
wakes up Demetrius, on whose eyes Oberon has applied the juice. Demetrius sees her and
falls in love with Helena. During this quarrel over which man loves Helena more, Hermia
arrives. She is shocked by Lysander's words and does not believe that he could possibly love
Helena. Helena assumes that Hermia is part of the mockery and chastises her for violating
the close friendship which they have enjoyed since childhood. Demetrius and Lysander
begin to quarrel over Helena even more intensely, at which point Hermia breaks in and tries
to stop Lysander. He spurns her, calling her a serpent and a dwarf, and finally leaves with
Demetrius to fight over which man should get Helena. Oberon and Robin step forward,
having watched the entire spectacle. Oberon is furious about the mess that Robin has
created and orders him to separate Demetrius and Lysander. He then tells Puck to make the
men fall asleep, and to rub the juice on Lysander's eyes and make him see Hermia when he
awakes. Robin does so and when the two fall asleep, he finds the two women and brings
them close to their "lovers" before letting them fall asleep as well. His last act is to sprinkle
the juice into Lysander's eyes so that he will fall in love with Hermia when he awakes and
sees her.

Act 4:

Titania and Bottom, still with an ass’s head, enter the stage followed by Titania's fairies.
Bottom asks the fairies to scratch his head, and is hungry for some hay. Titania, completely
in love with him, orders the fairies to find him food. Together they soon fall asleep.
Oberon enters and looks at his sleeping Queen. He tells Puck that Titania gave him her
young boy earlier in the woods, and so it is time for him to remove the spell from her eyes.
He orders Robin to change Bottom back to normal, but first he wakes up Titania. At first she
thinks she dreamed about being in love with an ass, but then sees Bottom still asleep by her
side. Oberon helps her off the ground and tells her that tomorrow they will dance at the
weddings of Theseus and the other two couples.
Theseus, Hippolyta and Egeus arrive where the lovers are sleeping. They are in the woods to
celebrate the May morning with hunting hounds in preparation of the day's ceremonies.
Theseus sees the lovers and has them woken by sounding the hunting horns. The lovers tell
Theseus what they remember from the night before, and Lysander declares his love
for Hermia while Demetrius speaks of his love for Helena. Theseus decides to override
Egeus' will and have all three of them get married in Athens that day. They eventually all
depart for Athens.
Bottom wakes up and realizes that he has been abandoned in the woods by his friends. He
recalls what happened to him only as a dream. He then returns to Athens.
The artisans are lamenting the fact that the Duke Theseus is already married, as well as the
other noblemen, which means they missed their chance to perform Pyramus and Thisbe at
the wedding. Bottom finally arrives and tells the men to hurry to the festivities since there is
still enough time to perform the play.

Act 5:

In the palace where Theseus and Hippolyta reside, the guests are waiting for some form of
after dinner entertainment. Theseus has Egeus read him a list of possible performances, and
Theseus finally settles on Pyramus and Thisbe as the play he wants to see performed. Egeus
tries to dissuade him, telling him that the actors are workingmen with no talent, but
Theseus persists on watching them perform.
The play is then performed, with numerous linguistic errors and incorrect references making
it into a complete farce. Hippolyta condemns the play as being "silly" while Theseus defends
it as being nothing more than imaginative. During the performance,
Theseus, Lysander, Demetrius and Hippolyta add commentary which criticizes the action,
and makes fun of the antics of the laymen.
At the end of the play Bottom gets up from where he’s lying, supposedly dead, and offers to
perform an epilogue or a bergamask (a type of dance). Theseus quickly intervenes and tells
him there’s no need for an epilogue, but rather he should only perform the dance, which he
does. Puck enters with a broom and sweeps the stage. In a monologue he informs the
audience that not even a mouse will disturb the lovers, and it can be inferred that he is
protecting their bedchambers. Oberon and Titania arrive in order to bless the union of
Theseus and Hippolyta. They perform a fairy dance and depart, leaving Puck alone on stage.
Puck's epilogue begs forgiveness of the audience and says that if someone did not like the
play, then he or she should imagine that it was all a dream.

  * Pyramus and Thisbe, though not a real play, is very much based off Romeo and Juliet. In
its much shorter version, it parallels many of the main actions of the play, including the
lovers from feuding families, killing themselves to always be together.

Movie adaptations:

A midsummer night’s dream, 1935

It was the first screen adaptation of Shakespeare’s play. Although the film did not succeed at
the box office, contemporary film critics largely praised the film for its lavish production
value. Critics singled out the cinematography, the dance sequences, and the use of music
that Felix Mendelssohn originally wrote to accompany a stage production of the play. The
film remains respected among today’s critics, who continue to praise Reinhardt’s vision and
respectful treatment of Shakespeare’s original text.

A midsummer night’s dream, 1999

Michael Hoffman’s popular film adaptation features an all-star ensemble cast and shifts the
setting from ancient Athens to nineteenth-century Tuscany. Despite the change in setting,
Hoffman’s adaptation remains faithful to the language and spirit of Shakespeare’s play,
making few cuts to the text and retaining the original ordering of scenes. Filmed on location
in Italy, this production looks gorgeous. But though critics have largely enjoyed the film’s
visual pleasures, they have been divided on whether the film succeeds as a whole.

A midsummer night’s dream, 2017

The film is a modern rendition that relocates the story from ancient Athens to present day
Los Angeles.