A Midsummer

Night’s Dream
-By William
Shakespeare

Project done by:

Aleesha Bhargava
VIII – D
Roll no. 1
About the author: William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an

English playwright, poet and actor, widely regarded as the
greatest writer in the English language and the world’s
greatest dramatist. His plays have been translated into every
living language and are performed more often than those of
any other playwright.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon,
Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married
26 year old Anne Hathaway with whom he had 3 children.
Between 1585 and 1592, Shakespeare began a successful
career in London as an actor, writer and part-owner of a
playing company called the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, later
known as the King’s Men. At age 49, he retired to Stratford,
where he passed away 3 years later.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between
1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and
histories and are regarded as some of the best work produced
in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608,
among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear,
and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in
the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote
tragicomedies and collaborated with other playwrights.
William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, an
alderman and a successful glover originally from Snitterfield,
and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent land-owning
family. His date of birth is unknown, but it is traditionally
observed on 23 April 1564.
Although he had no records of attendance at the King’s New
School in Stratford, a free school chartered in 1553.
It is not definitively known when Shakespeare began writing,
but contemporary allusion and records of performances show
that several of his plays were on the London stage.
Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, at the age of 52. He died
within a month of signing his will, a document which he
begins by describing himself in “perfect health”. No extant
contemporary source explains how or why he died.
Shakespeare has been commemorated in many statues and
memorials around the world, including funeral monuments in
Southwark Cathedral and Poets’ Corner in Westminster
Abbey.

Character Analysis: HERMIA

Hermia is a fictional character of ancient Athens named after

Hermes, the Greek god of trade. She is the daughter of Egeus.
Hermia loves Lysander, but is being courted by another,
Demetrius, whose feelings she does not return.
Hermia’s father wants her to marry Demetrius and has
appealed to Theseus, the Duke of Athens, for support. Under
Athenian law, Hermia’s refusal to her father’s command
would result in her being put to death or being banished to the
nunnery.
Lysander and Hermia flee into the forest and met Demetrius
and her lifelong friend, Helena. Helena is hopelessly in love
with Demetrius. Hermia tells Helena not to worry as she will
elope with Lysander. However, Helena discloses this plan to
Demetrius hoping that he will realise her love for him, but
Demetrius pursues Hermia and Lysander into the forest with
Helena in pursuit.
Demetrius tries to persuade Helena to stop following him but
she declares her love. Oberon, the king of fairies, is invisible
to humans and has been watching the story untold. He orders
his sprite, Puck, to place a drop from a magical flower on the
sleeping Demetrius’ eyelids so that he will fall in love with
Helena when he wakes, and everyone will be content.
However, Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius; when
Lysander awakes, he sees Helena and falls deeply in love with
her, forsaking Hermia. After discovering the mistake, Oberon
places a drop of the magical flower on Demetrius’ eyes.
Demetrius awakes and his love for Helena is now rekindled;
he joins Lysander in the quest for Helena’s hand.
With both Demetrius and Lysander pursuing her, Helena
becomes angry. Helena believes that they are cruelly mocking
her. When Hermia returns to the scene, Helena accuses her of
being part of the joke. Hermia feels betrayed by the
accusation and asserts that she would never hurt her friend
that way. Hermia now thinks the two swains prefer Helena
because she is taller and offers to fight Helena. Helena asks
for protection because Hermia was a scrapper in their younger
years, saying, “And though she be but little, she is fierce.”
Lysander and Demetrius resolve to settle their rivalry with
swords and separated ahead further into the forest.
Wearied by the conflict and chase, and with Puck providing
some magic assistance, the four young Athenians fall asleep
in the forest. Puck places the antidote on Lysander’s eyes but
not on Demetrius’. The four awake up the next morning when
Theseus, Hippolyta, his betrothed, and Egeus find them.
This is the day Hermia has to make her choice: marry
Demetrius, enter a nunnery or die. However, the lovers wake
up dazed; Unable to explain how they fell asleep, they talk
about a strange dream.
Demetrius, now permanently under the love flowers spell,
says that he loves only Helena. With Demetrius out of the
picture, Theseus overrules Egeus, freeing Hermia from
obligation. Hermia and Lysander marry each other.
 Theme: LOVE

Definition of theme: A theme is a central topic, subject, or

message within a narrative. Themes can be divided into two
categories: a work’s thematic concept is what readers “think
the work is about” and its thematic statement being “what the
work says about the subject”.
A dominant theme in the play “A Midsummer Night’s
Dream” is love, a subject to which Shakespeare returns
constantly in his comedies. Shakespeare explores how people
tend to fall in love with those who appear beautiful to them.
He portrays romantic love as blind, irrational, often beautiful
force that can be both cruel and forgiving. Ultimately, love
drives the play’s entire plot. People we think we love at one
time in our lives can later seem not only unattractive but even
repellent. For a time, this attraction to beauty might appear to
be love at its most intense, but one of the ideas of the play is
that real love is much more than mere physical attraction.
At one level, the story of the four young Athenians asserts
that although “The course of true love never did run smooth,”
true love triumphs in the end, bringing happiness and
harmony. At another level, however, the audience is forced to
consider what an apparently irrational and whimsical thing
love is, at least when experienced between youngsters.
Love, is a standard element of the comedy genre, the stock
blocking character of the irate father, here Egeus, objects to
his daughter’s choice of partner, Lysander, and is, at first,
supported by existing law. Although Shakespeare uses this
standard plot device, there is never any real tension along
these lines, for the tandem sets of lovers are essentially
protected from the long arm of paternal authority by the
magic of the fairyland woods and its immortal denizens. After
Puck’s mistakes are undone, the objections of Egeus fall by
the wayside as Theseus is able to bend law and custom after
all.

PICTURE GALLERY:
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)

SHAKESPEARS BIRTHPLACE/ SCHOOL/

HOUSE
SHAKESPEARE’S FAMILY

WILLIAM SHAKESPEAR’S PLAY COLLECTION

 LOCATION: ATHENS – GREECE

HERMIA AND LYSANDER