1

A Midsummer Nights Dream

William Shakespeare


Context
T HE MOST INFLUENTIAL WRITER in all of English literature, William Shakespeare was born in
1564 to a successful middle-class glove-maker in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Shakespeare
attended grammar school, but his formal education proceeded no further. In 1582 he married an
older woman, Anne Hathaway, and had three children with her. Around 1590 he left his family
behind and traveled to London to work as an actor and playwright. Public and critical success
quickly followed, and Shakespeare eventually became the most popular playwright in England
and part-owner of the Globe Theater. His career bridged the reigns of Elizabeth I (ruled 1558
1603) and James I (ruled 16031625), and he was a favorite of both monarchs. Indeed, James
granted Shakespeares company the greatest possible compliment by bestowing upon its
members the title of Kings Men. Wealthy and renowned, Shakespeare retired to Stratford and
died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two. At the time of Shakespeares death, literary luminaries such
as Ben Jonson hailed his works as timeless.
Shakespeares works were collected and printed in various editions in the century following his
death, and by the early eighteenth century his reputation as the greatest poet ever to write in
English was well established. The unprecedented admiration garnered by his works led to a
fierce curiosity about Shakespeares life, but the dearth of biographical information has left many
details of Shakespeares personal history shrouded in mystery. Some people have concluded
from this fact that Shakespeares plays were really written by someone elseFrancis Bacon and
the Earl of Oxford are the two most popular candidatesbut the support for this claim is
overwhelmingly circumstantial, and the theory is not taken seriously by many scholars.
In the absence of credible evidence to the contrary, Shakespeare must be viewed as the author of
the thirty-seven plays and 154 sonnets that bear his name. The legacy of this body of work is
immense. A number of Shakespeares plays seem to have transcended even the category of
brilliance, becoming so influential as to profoundly affect the course of Western literature and
culture ever after.
Written in the mid-1590s, probably shortly before Shakespeare turned to Romeo and Juliet, A
Midsummer Nights Dream is one of his strangest and most delightful creations, and it marks a
departure from his earlier works and from others of the English Renaissance. The play
demonstrates both the extent of Shakespeares learning and the expansiveness of his imagination.
The range of references in the play is among its most extraordinary attributes: Shakespeare draws
on sources as various as Greek mythology (Theseus, for instance, is loosely based on the Greek
hero of the same name, and the play is peppered with references to Greek gods and goddesses);
English country fairy lore (the character of Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, was a popular figure in
sixteenth-century stories); and the theatrical practices of Shakespeares London (the craftsmens
play refers to and parodies many conventions of English Renaissance theater, such as men
playing the roles of women). Further, many of the characters are drawn from diverse texts:
Titania comes from Ovids Metamorphoses, and Oberon may have been taken from the medieval
romance Huan of Bordeaux, translated by Lord Berners in the mid-1530s. Unlike the plots of
many of Shakespeares plays, however, the story in A Midsummer Nights Dream seems not to
2

have been drawn from any particular source but rather to be the original product of the
playwrights imagination.
Plot Overview
T HESEUS, DUKE OF ATHENS, is preparing for his marriage to Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons,
with a four-day festival of pomp and entertainment. He commissions his Master of the Revels,
Philostrate, to find suitable amusements for the occasion. Egeus, an Athenian nobleman, marches
into Theseuss court with his daughter, Hermia, and two young men, Demetrius and Lysander.
Egeus wishes Hermia to marry Demetrius (who loves Hermia), but Hermia is in love with
Lysander and refuses to comply. Egeus asks for the full penalty of law to fall on Hermias head
if she flouts her fathers will. Theseus gives Hermia until his wedding to consider her options,
warning her that disobeying her fathers wishes could result in her being sent to a convent or
even executed. Nonetheless, Hermia and Lysander plan to escape Athens the following night and
marry in the house of Lysanders aunt, some seven leagues distant from the city. They make their
intentions known to Hermias friend Helena, who was once engaged to Demetrius and still loves
him even though he jilted her after meeting Hermia. Hoping to regain his love, Helena tells
Demetrius of the elopement that Hermia and Lysander have planned. At the appointed time,
Demetrius stalks into the woods after his intended bride and her lover; Helena follows behind
him.
In these same woods are two very different groups of characters. The first is a band of fairies,
including Oberon, the fairy king, and Titania, his queen, who has recently returned from India to
bless the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. The second is a band of Athenian craftsmen
rehearsing a play that they hope to perform for the duke and his bride. Oberon and Titania are at
odds over a young Indian prince given to Titania by the princes mother; the boy is so beautiful
that Oberon wishes to make him a knight, but Titania refuses. Seeking revenge, Oberon sends his
merry servant, Puck, to acquire a magical flower, the juice of which can be spread over a
sleeping persons eyelids to make that person fall in love with the first thing he or she sees upon
waking. Puck obtains the flower, and Oberon tells him of his plan to spread its juice on the
sleeping Titanias eyelids. Having seen Demetrius act cruelly toward Helena, he orders Puck to
spread some of the juice on the eyelids of the young Athenian man. Puck encounters Lysander
and Hermia; thinking that Lysander is the Athenian of whom Oberon spoke, Puck afflicts him
with the love potion. Lysander happens to see Helena upon awaking and falls deeply in love with
her, abandoning Hermia. As the night progresses and Puck attempts to undo his mistake, both
Lysander and Demetrius end up in love with Helena, who believes that they are mocking her.
Hermia becomes so jealous that she tries to challenge Helena to a fight. Demetrius and Lysander
nearly do fight over Helenas love, but Puck confuses them by mimicking their voices, leading
them apart until they are lost separately in the forest.
When Titania wakes, the first creature she sees is Bottom, the most ridiculous of the Athenian
craftsmen, whose head Puck has mockingly transformed into that of an ass. Titania passes a
ludicrous interlude doting on the ass-headed weaver. Eventually, Oberon obtains the Indian boy,
Puck spreads the love potion on Lysanders eyelids, and by morning all is well. Theseus and
Hippolyta discover the sleeping lovers in the forest and take them back to Athens to be
marriedDemetrius now loves Helena, and Lysander now loves Hermia. After the group
wedding, the lovers watch Bottom and his fellow craftsmen perform their play, a fumbling,
hilarious version of the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. When the play is completed, the lovers go
3

to bed; the fairies briefly emerge to bless the sleeping couples with a protective charm and then
disappear. Only Puck remains, to ask the audience for its forgiveness and approval and to urge it
to remember the play as though it had all been a dream.
Character List
Puck - Also known as Robin Goodfellow, Puck is Oberons jester, a mischievous fairy who
delights in playing pranks on mortals. Though A Midsummer Nights 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 Bottoms head into that of an ass.
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. Oberons
desire for revenge on Titania leads him to send Puck to obtain the love-potion flower that creates
so much of the plays 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. Titanias brief, potion-
induced love for Nick Bottom, whose head Puck has transformed into that of an ass, yields the
plays foremost example of the contrast motif.
Lysander - A young man of Athens, in love with Hermia. Lysanders relationship with Hermia
invokes the theme of loves 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. Demetriuss obstinate pursuit of Hermia throws love out of balance among the quartet of
Athenian youths and precludes a symmetrical two-couple arrangement.
Hermia - Egeuss 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 Oberons 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 Lysanders 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 Helenas 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 - Hermias 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. Egeuss 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.
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.
4

Nick Bottom - The overconfident weaver chosen to play Pyramus in the craftsmens play for
Theseuss marriage celebration. Bottom is full of advice and self-confidence but frequently
makes silly mistakes and misuses language. His simultaneous nonchalance about the beautiful
Titanias 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.
Peter Quince - A carpenter and the nominal leader of the craftsmens attempt to put on a play
for Theseuss marriage celebration. Quince is often shoved aside by the abundantly confident
Bottom. During the craftsmens play, Quince plays the Prologue.
Francis Flute - The bellows-mender chosen to play Thisbe in the craftsmens play for
Theseuss marriage celebration. Forced to play a young girl in love, the bearded craftsman
determines to speak his lines in a high, squeaky voice.
Robin Starveling - The tailor chosen to play Thisbes mother in the craftsmens play for
Theseuss marriage celebration. He ends up playing the part of Moonshine.
Tom Snout - The tinker chosen to play Pyramuss father in the craftsmens play for Theseuss
marriage celebration. He ends up playing the part of Wall, dividing the two lovers.
Snug - The joiner chosen to play the lion in the craftsmens play for Theseuss marriage
celebration. Snug worries that his roaring will frighten the ladies in the audience.
Philostrate - Theseuss Master of the Revels, responsible for organizing the entertainment for
the dukes marriage celebration.
Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mote, and Mustardseed - The fairies ordered by Titania to attend to
Bottom after she falls in love with him.
Analysis of Major Characters
Puck
Though there is little character development in A Midsummer Nights Dream and no true
protagonist, critics generally point to Puck as the most important character in the play. The
mischievous, quick-witted sprite sets many of the plays events in motion with his magic, by
means of both deliberate pranks on the human characters (transforming Bottoms head into that
of an ass) and unfortunate mistakes (smearing the love potion on Lysanders eyelids instead of
Demetriuss).
More important, Pucks capricious spirit, magical fancy, fun-loving humor, and lovely, evocative
language permeate the atmosphere of the play. Wild contrasts, such as the implicit comparison
between the rough, earthy craftsmen and the delicate, graceful fairies, dominate A Midsummer
Nights Dream. Puck seems to illustrate many of these contrasts within his own character: he is
graceful but not so saccharine as the other fairies; as Oberons jester, he is given to a certain
coarseness, which leads him to transform Bottoms head into that of an ass merely for the sake of
enjoyment. He is good-hearted but capable of cruel tricks. Finally, whereas most of the fairies
are beautiful and ethereal, Puck is often portrayed as somewhat bizarre looking. Indeed, another
fairy mentions that some call Puck a hobgoblin, a term whose connotations are decidedly less
glamorous than those of fairy (II.i.40).
Nick Bottom
Whereas Pucks humor is often mischievous and subtle, the comedy surrounding the
overconfident weaver Nick Bottom is hilariously overt. The central figure in the subplot
involving the craftsmens production of the Pyramus and Thisbe story, Bottom dominates his
5

fellow actors with an extraordinary belief in his own abilities (he thinks he is perfect for every
part in the play) and his comical incompetence (he is a terrible actor and frequently makes
rhetorical and grammatical mistakes in his speech). The humor surrounding Bottom often stems
from the fact that he is totally unaware of his own ridiculousness; his speeches are overdramatic
and self-aggrandizing, and he seems to believe that everyone takes him as seriously as he does
himself. This foolish self-importance reaches its pinnacle after Puck transforms Bottoms head
into that of an ass. When Titania, whose eyes have been anointed with a love potion, falls in love
with the now ass-headed Bottom, he believes that the devotion of the beautiful, magical fairy
queen is nothing out of the ordinary and that all of the trappings of her affection, including
having servants attend him, are his proper due. His unawareness of the fact that his head has
been transformed into that of an ass parallels his inability to perceive the absurdity of the idea
that Titania could fall in love with him.
Helena
Although Puck and Bottom stand out as the most personable characters in A Midsummer Nights
Dream, they themselves are not involved in the main dramatic events. Of the other characters,
Helena, the lovesick young woman desperately in love with Demetrius, is perhaps the most fully
drawn. Among the quartet of Athenian lovers, Helena is the one who thinks most about the
nature of lovewhich makes sense, given that at the beginning of the play she is left out of the
love triangle involving Lysander, Hermia, and Demetrius. She says, Love looks not with the
eyes, but with the mind, believing that Demetrius has built up a fantastic notion of Hermias
beauty that prevents him from recognizing Helenas own beauty (I.i.234). Utterly faithful to
Demetrius despite her recognition of his shortcomings, Helena sets out to win his love by telling
him about the plan of Lysander and Hermia to elope into the forest. Once Helena enters the
forest, many of her traits are drawn out by the confusion that the love potion engenders:
compared to the other lovers, she is extremely unsure of herself, worrying about her appearance
and believing that Lysander is mocking her when he declares his love for her.
Themes, Symbols, & Motifs
Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
Loves Difficulty
The course of true love never did run smooth, comments Lysander, articulating one of A
Midsummer Nights Dreams most important themesthat of the difficulty of love (I.i.134).
Though most of the conflict in the play stems from the troubles of romance, and though the play
involves a number of romantic elements, it is not truly a love story; it distances the audience
from the emotions of the characters in order to poke fun at the torments and afflictions that those
in love suffer. The tone of the play is so lighthearted that the audience never doubts that things
will end happily, and it is therefore free to enjoy the comedy without being caught up in the
tension of an uncertain outcome.
The theme of loves difficulty is often explored through the motif of love out of balancethat is,
romantic situations in which a disparity or inequality interferes with the harmony of a
relationship. The prime instance of this imbalance is the asymmetrical love among the four
young Athenians: Hermia loves Lysander, Lysander loves Hermia, Helena loves Demetrius, and
6

Demetrius loves Hermia instead of Helenaa simple numeric imbalance in which two men love
the same woman, leaving one woman with too many suitors and one with too few. The play has
strong potential for a traditional outcome, and the plot is in many ways based on a quest for
internal balance; that is, when the lovers tangle resolves itself into symmetrical pairings, the
traditional happy ending will have been achieved. Somewhat similarly, in the relationship
between Titania and Oberon, an imbalance arises out of the fact that Oberons coveting of
Titanias Indian boy outweighs his love for her. Later, Titanias passion for the ass-headed
Bottom represents an imbalance of appearance and nature: Titania is beautiful and graceful,
while Bottom is clumsy and grotesque.
Magic
The fairies magic, which brings about many of the most bizarre and hilarious situations in the
play, is another element central to the fantastic atmosphere of A Midsummer Nights Dream.
Shakespeare uses magic both to embody the almost supernatural power of love (symbolized by
the love potion) and to create a surreal world. Although the misuse of magic causes chaos, as
when Puck mistakenly applies the love potion to Lysanders eyelids, magic ultimately resolves
the plays tensions by restoring love to balance among the quartet of Athenian youths.
Additionally, the ease with which Puck uses magic to his own ends, as when he reshapes
Bottoms head into that of an ass and recreates the voices of Lysander and Demetrius, stands in
contrast to the laboriousness and gracelessness of the craftsmens attempt to stage their play.
Dreams
As the title suggests, dreams are an important theme in A Midsummer Nights Dream; they are
linked to the bizarre, magical mishaps in the forest. Hippolytas first words in the play evidence
the prevalence of dreams (Four days will quickly steep themselves in night, / Four nights will
quickly dream away the time), and various characters mention dreams throughout (I.i.78). The
theme of dreaming recurs predominantly when characters attempt to explain bizarre events in
which these characters are involved: I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what /
dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about texpound this dream, Bottom says, unable to
fathom the magical happenings that have affected him as anything but the result of slumber.
Shakespeare is also interested in the actual workings of dreams, in how events occur without
explanation, time loses its normal sense of flow, and the impossible occurs as a matter of course;
he seeks to recreate this environment in the play through the intervention of the fairies in the
magical forest. At the end of the play, Puck extends the idea of dreams to the audience members
themselves, saying that, if they have been offended by the play, they should remember it as
nothing more than a dream. This sense of illusion and gauzy fragility is crucial to the atmosphere
of A Midsummer Nights Dream, as it helps render the play a fantastical experience rather than a
heavy drama.
Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and
inform the texts major themes.
7

Contrast
The idea of contrast is the basic building block of A Midsummer Nights Dream. The entire play
is constructed around groups of opposites and doubles. Nearly every characteristic presented in
the play has an opposite: Helena is tall, Hermia is short; Puck plays pranks, Bottom is the victim
of pranks; Titania is beautiful, Bottom is grotesque. Further, the three main groups of characters
(who are developed from sources as varied as Greek mythology, English folklore, and classical
literature) are designed to contrast powerfully with one another: the fairies are graceful and
magical, while the craftsmen are clumsy and earthy; the craftsmen are merry, while the lovers
are overly serious. Contrast serves as the defining visual characteristic of A Midsummer Nights
Dream, with the plays most indelible image being that of the beautiful, delicate Titania weaving
flowers into the hair of the ass-headed Bottom. It seems impossible to imagine two figures less
compatible with each other. The juxtaposition of extraordinary differences is the most important
characteristic of the plays surreal atmosphere and is thus perhaps the plays central motif; there
is no scene in which extraordinary contrast is not present.
Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Theseus and Hippolyta
Theseus and Hippolyta bookend A Midsummer Nights Dream, appearing in the daylight at both
the beginning and the end of the plays main action. They disappear, however, for the duration of
the action, leaving in the middle of Act I, scene i and not reappearing until Act IV, as the sun is
coming up to end the magical night in the forest. Shakespeare uses Theseus and Hippolyta, the
ruler of Athens and his warrior bride, to represent order and stability, to contrast with the
uncertainty, instability, and darkness of most of the play. Whereas an important element of the
dream realm is that one is not in control of ones environment, Theseus and Hippolyta are always
entirely in control of theirs. Their reappearance in the daylight of Act IV to hear Theseuss
hounds signifies the end of the dream state of the previous night and a return to rationality.
The Love Potion
The love potion is made from the juice of a flower that was struck with one of Cupids misfired
arrows; it is used by the fairies to wreak romantic havoc throughout Acts II, III, and IV. Because
the meddling fairies are careless with the love potion, the situation of the young Athenian lovers
becomes increasingly chaotic and confusing (Demetrius and Lysander are magically compelled
to transfer their love from Hermia to Helena), and Titania is hilariously humiliated (she is
magically compelled to fall deeply in love with the ass-headed Bottom). The love potion thus
becomes a symbol of the unreasoning, fickle, erratic, and undeniably powerful nature of love,
which can lead to inexplicable and bizarre behavior and cannot be resisted.
The Craftsmens Play
The play-within-a-play that takes up most of Act V, scene i is used to represent, in condensed
form, many of the important ideas and themes of the main plot. Because the craftsmen are such
bumbling actors, their performance satirizes the melodramatic Athenian lovers and gives the play
a purely joyful, comedic ending. Pyramus and Thisbe face parental disapproval in the play-
within-a-play, just as Hermia and Lysander do; the theme of romantic confusion enhanced by the
8

darkness of night is rehashed, as Pyramus mistakenly believes that Thisbe has been killed by the
lion, just as the Athenian lovers experience intense misery because of the mix-ups caused by the
fairies meddling. The craftsmens play is, therefore, a kind of symbol for A Midsummer Nights
Dream itself: a story involving powerful emotions that is made hilarious by its comical
presentation.
Act I, scene i
Summary
The course of true love never did run smooth. . . .
At his palace, Theseus, duke of Athens, and Hippolyta, his fiance, discuss their wedding, to be
held in four days, under the new moon. Impatient for the event and in a celebratory mood,
Theseus orders Philostrate, his Master of the Revels, to stir up the Athenian youth to
merriments and devise entertainments with which the couple might pass the time until their
wedding (I.i.12). Philostrate takes his leave, and Theseus promises Hippolyta that though he
wooed her with his sword (Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, presumably met Theseus in
combat), he will wed her with pomp, with triumph, and with revellingwith a grand
celebration to begin at once and last until the wedding (I.i.19).
Egeus, a citizen of Athens, strides into the room, followed by his daughter Hermia and the
Athenian youths Lysander and Demetrius. Egeus has come to see Theseus with a complaint
against his daughter: although Egeus has promised her in marriage to Demetrius, who loves her,
Lysander has won Hermias heart, and Hermia refuses to obey her father and marry Demetrius.
Egeus demands that the law punish Hermia if she fails to comply with his demands. Theseus
speaks to Hermia sharply, telling her to expect to be sent to a nunnery or put to death. Lysander
interrupts, accusing Demetrius of being fickle in love, saying that he was once engaged to
Hermias friend Helena but abandoned her after he met Hermia. Theseus admits that he has
heard this story, and he takes Egeus and Demetrius aside to discuss it. Before they go, he orders
Hermia to take the time remaining before his marriage to Hippolyta to make up her mind.
Theseus, Hippolyta, Egeus, and Demetrius depart, leaving Hermia alone with Lysander.
Hermia and Lysander discuss the trials that must be faced by those who are in love: The course
of true love never did run smooth, Lysander says (I.i.134). He proposes a plan: he has an aunt,
wealthy and childless, who lives seven leagues from Athens and who dotes on Lysander like a
son. At her house, Hermia and Lysander can be marriedand, because the manor is outside of
Athens, they would be free from Athenian law. Hermia is overjoyed, and they agree to travel to
the house the following night.
Helena, Hermias friend whom Demetrius jilted, enters the room, lovesick and deeply
melancholy because Demetrius no longer loves her. Hermia and Lysander confide their plan to
her and wish her luck with Demetrius. They depart to prepare for the following nights journey.
Helena remarks to herself that she envies them their happiness. She thinks up a plan: if she tells
Demetrius of the elopement that Lysander and Hermia are planning, he will be bound to follow
them to the woods to try to stop them; if she then follows him into the woods, she might have a
chance to win back his love.
9

Analysis
From the outset, Shakespeare subtly portrays the lovers as a group out of balance, a motif that
creates tension throughout the play. For the sake of symmetry, the audience wants the four lovers
to form two couples; instead, both men love Hermia, leaving Helena out of the equation. The
women are thus in nonparallel situations, adding to the sense of structural imbalance. By
establishing the fact that Demetrius once loved Helena, Shakespeare suggests the possibility of a
harmonious resolution to this love tangle: if Demetrius could only be made to love Helena again,
then all would be well. By the end of the play, the fairies intervention effects just such an
outcome, and all does become well, though it is worth noting that the restoration of Demetriuss
love for Helena is the result of magic rather than a natural reawakening of his feelings.
The genre of comedy surrounding the Athenian lovers is farce, in which the humor stems from
exaggerated characters trying to find their way out of ludicrous situations. Shakespeare portrays
the lovers as overly serious, as each is deeply and earnestly preoccupied with his or her own
feelings: Helena is anxious about her looks, reacting awkwardly when Lysander calls her fair;
Hermia later becomes self-conscious about her short stature; Demetrius is willing to see Hermia
executed to prevent her from marrying another man; and Lysander seems to have cast himself as
the hero of a great love story in his own mind (III.ii.188, III.ii.247). Hermia is stubborn and
quarrelsome, while Helena lacks self-confidence and believes that other people mock her. The
airy world of the fairies and the absurd predicaments in which the lovers find themselves once in
the forest make light of the lovers grave concerns.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

Act I, scene ii
Summary
In another part of Athens, far from Theseuss palace, a group of common laborers meets at the
house of Peter Quince to rehearse a play that the men hope to perform for the grand celebration
preceding the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. Quince, a carpenter, tries to conduct the
meeting, but the talkative weaver Nick Bottom continually interrupts him with advice and
direction. Quince tells the group what play they are to perform: The Most Lamentable Comedy
and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe, which tells the story of two lovers, separated by
their parents feud, who speak to each other at night through a hole in a wall. In the play, a lion
surprises Thisbe one night and tatters her mantle before she escapes. When Pyramus finds the
shredded garment, he assumes that the lion has killed Thisbe; stricken with grief, he commits
suicide. When Thisbe finds Pyramuss bloody corpse, she too commits suicide. Quince assigns
their parts: Bottom is to play Pyramus; Francis Flute, Thisbe; Robin Starveling, Thisbes mother;
Tom Snout, Pyramuss father; Quince himself, Thisbes father; and Snug, the lion.
As Quince doles out the parts, Bottom often interrupts, announcing that he should be the one to
play the assigned part. He says that his ability to speak in a womans voice would make him a
wonderful Thisbe and that his ability to roar would make him a wonderful lion. Quince
eventually convinces him that Pyramus is the part for him, by virtue of the fact that Pyramus is
supposed to be very handsome. Snug worries that he will be unable to learn the lions part, but
10

Quince reassures him that it will be very easy to learn, since the lion speaks no words and only
growls and roars. This worries the craftsmen, who reason that if the lion frightens any of the
noble ladies in the audience, they will all be executed; since they are only common laborers, they
do not want to risk upsetting powerful people. Bottom says that he could roar as sweetly as a
nightingale so as not to frighten anyone, but Quince again convinces him that he can only play
Pyramus. The group disperses, agreeing to meet in the woods the following night to rehearse
their play.
Analysis
The most important motif in A Midsummer Nights Dream, and one of the most important
literary techniques Shakespeare uses throughout the play, is that of contrast. The three main
groups of characters are all vastly different from one another, and the styles, moods, and
structures of their respective subplots also differ. It is by incorporating these contrasting realms
into a single story that Shakespeare creates the plays dreamlike atmosphere. Almost
diametrically opposite the beautiful, serious, and love-struck young nobles are the clumsy,
ridiculous, and deeply confused craftsmen, around whom many of the plays most comical
scenes are centered.
Where the young lovers are graceful and well spokenalmost comically well suited to their
roles as melodramatically passionate youthsthe craftsmen often fumble their words and could
not be less well suited for acting. This disjunction reveals itself as it becomes readily apparent
that the craftsmen have no idea how to put on a dramatic production: their speeches are full of
impossible ideas and mistakes (Bottom, for example, claims that he will roar as gently / as any
sucking dove); their concerns about their parts are absurd (Flute does not want to play Thisbe
because he is growing a beard); and their extended discussion about whether they will be
executed if the lions roaring frightens the ladies further evidences the fact that their primary
concern is with themselves, not their art (II.i.6768).
The fact that the workmen have chosen to perform the Pyramus and Thisbe story, a Babylonian
myth familiar to Shakespeares audiences from Ovids Metamorphoses, only heightens the
comedy. The story of Pyramus and Thisbe is highly dramatic, with suicides and tragically wasted
love (themes that Shakespeare takes up in Romeo and Juliet as well). Badly suited to their task
and inexperienced, although endlessly well meaning, the craftsmen are sympathetic figures even
when the audience laughs at thema fact made explicit in Act V, when Theseus makes fun of
their play even as he honors their effort. The contrast between the serious nature of the play and
the bumbling foolishness of the craftsmen makes the endeavor all the more ridiculous. Further,
the actors botched telling of the youthful love between Pyramus and Thisbe implicitly mocks
the melodramatic love tangle of Hermia, Helena, Demetrius, and Lysander.
Act II, scene i
Summary
In the forest, two fairies, one a servant of Titania, the other a servant of Oberon, meet by chance
in a glade. Oberons servant tells Titanias to be sure to keep Titania out of Oberons sight, for
the two are very angry with each other. Titania, he says, has taken a little Indian prince as her
attendant, and the boy is so beautiful that Oberon wishes to make him his knight. Titania,
however, refuses to give the boy up.
11

Titanias servant is delighted to recognize Oberons servant as Robin Goodfellow, better known
as Puck, a mischievous sprite notorious for his pranks and jests. Puck admits his identity and
describes some of the tricks he plays on mortals.
The two are interrupted when Oberon enters from one side of the glade, followed by a train of
attendants. At the same moment, Titania enters from the other side of the glade, followed by her
own train. The two fairy royals confront one another, each questioning the others motive for
coming so near to Athens just before the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. Titania accuses
Oberon of loving Hippolyta and of thus wishing to bless the marriage; Oberon accuses Titania of
loving Theseus. The conversation turns to the little Indian boy, whom Oberon asks Titania to
give him. But Titania responds that the boys mother was a devotee of hers before she died; in
honor of his mothers memory, Titania will hold the boy near to her. She invites Oberon to go
with her to dance in a fairy round and see her nightly revels, but Oberon declines, saying that
they will be at odds until she gives him the boy.
Titania storms away, and Oberon vows to take revenge on her before the night is out. He sends
Puck to seek a white-and-purple flower called love-in-idleness, which was once hit with one of
Cupids arrows. He says that the flowers juice, if rubbed on a sleepers eyelids, will cause the
sleeper to fall in love with the first living thing he or she sees upon waking. Oberon announces
that he will use this juice on Titania, hoping that she will fall in love with some ridiculous
creature; he will then refuse to lift the juices effect until she yields the Indian prince to him.
Analysis
Act II serves two main functions: it introduces the fairies and their realm, and it initiates the
romantic confusion that will eventually help restore the balance of love. The fairies, whom
Shakespeare bases heavily on characters familiar from English folklore, are among the most
memorable and delightful characters in the play. They speak in lilting rhymes infused with
gorgeous poetic imagery. A Midsummer Nights Dream is a play dominated by the presence of
doubles, and the fairies are designed to contrast heavily with the young lovers and the craftsmen.
Whereas the lovers are earnest and serious, Puck and the other pixies are merry and full of
laughter; whereas the craftsmen are bumbling, earthy, and engage in methodical labor, the fairies
are delicate, airy, and indulge in effortless magic and enchantment.
The conflict between Oberon and Titania imports into the fairy realm the motif of love being out
of balance. As with the Athenian lovers, the eventual resolution of the tension between the two
occurs only by means of magic. Though the craftsmen do not experience romantic confusion
about one another, Bottom becomes involved in an accidental romance with Titania in Act III,
and in Act V two craftsmen portray the lovers Pyramus and Thisbe, who commit suicide after
misinterpreting events.
A Midsummer Nights Dream was probably performed before Queen Elizabeth, and Shakespeare
managed to make a flattering reference to his monarch in Act II, scene i. When Oberon
introduces the idea of the love potion to Puck, he says that he once saw Cupid fire an arrow that
missed its mark:
That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,
Flying between the cold moon and the earth
Cupid, all armed.
12

A certain aim he took
At a fair vestal thrond by the west,
And loosed his love-shaft smartly from his bow
As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts.
But I might see young Cupids fiery shaft
Quenched in the chaste beams of the watry moon,
And the imperial votress passd on,
In maiden meditation, fancy-free
(II.i.155164).
Queen Elizabeth never married and was celebrated in her time as a woman of chastity, a virgin
queen whose concerns were above the flesh. Here Shakespeare alludes to that reputation by
describing Cupid firing an arrow at a fair vestal thrond by the westQueen Elizabeth
whom the heat of passion cannot affect because the arrow is cooled in the chaste beams of the
watry moon. Shakespeare celebrates how Elizabeth put affairs of state before her personal life
and lived in maiden meditation, fancy-free. He nestles a patriotic aside in an evocative
description, couching praise for the ruler on whose good favor he depended in dexterous poetic
language. (Audiences in Shakespeares day would most likely have recognized this imaginative
passages reference to their monarch.)
Because many of the main themes and motifs in A Midsummer Nights Dream are very light,
even secondary to the overall sense of comedy and the dreamlike atmosphere, it is perhaps more
important to try to understand not what the play means but rather how Shakespeare creates its
mood. One technique that he uses is to embellish action with a wealth of finely wrought poetic
imagery, using language to work upon the imagination of the audience and thereby effect a kind
of magic upon the stage: I must go seek some dewdrops here, one fairy says, And hang a
pearl in every cowslips ear (II.i.1415). The fairies conjure many of the plays most evocative
images: Oberon, for instance, describes having heard
a mermaid on a dolphins back
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
That the rude sea grew civil at her song
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres
To hear the sea-maids music
(II.i.150154)
and seen
a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite overcanopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine.
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight
(II.i.249254).
This technique extends even to the suggestive names of some of the characters, such as the
craftsmen Snug, Starveling, Quince, Flute, and Snout, and the fairies Cobweb, Mustardseed,
Mote, and Peaseblossom.
13

Act II, scene ii
Summary
As Puck flies off to seek the flower, Demetrius and Helena pass through the glade. Oberon
makes himself invisible so that he can watch and hear them. Demetrius harangues Helena, saying
that he does not love her, does not want to see her, and wishes that she would stop following him
immediately. He curses Lysander and Hermia, whom he is pursuing, hoping to prevent their
marriage and slay Lysander. Helena repeatedly declares her adoration for, and loyalty to,
Demetrius, who repeatedly insults her. They exit the grove, with Helena following closely
behind Demetrius, and Oberon materializes. He declares that before the night is out, Demetrius
will be the one chasing Helena.
Puck appears, carrying the flower whose juice will serve as the love potion. Oberon takes the
flower and says that he knows of a fragrant stream bank surrounded with flowers where Titania
often sleeps. Before hurrying away to anoint Titanias eyelids with the flowers juice, Oberon
orders Puck to look for an Athenian youth being pursued by a lady and to put some of the juice
on the disdainful youths eyelids, so that when he wakes he will fall in love with the lady. He
informs Puck that he will know the youth by his Athenian garb. Puck agrees to carry out his
masters wishes.
After her dancing and revelry, Titania falls asleep by the stream bank. Oberon creeps up on her
and squeezes the flowers juice onto her eyelids, chanting a spell, so that Titania will fall in love
with the first creature she sees upon waking. Oberon departs, and Lysander and Hermia wander
into the glade. Lysander admits that he has forgotten the way to his aunts house and says that
they should sleep in the forest until morning, when they can find their way by daylight. Lysander
wishes to sleep close to Hermia, but she insists that they sleep apart, to respect custom and
propriety. At some distance from each other, they fall asleep.
Puck enters, complaining that he has looked everywhere but cannot find an Athenian youth and
pursuing lady. He is relieved when he finally happens upon the sleeping forms of Lysander and
Hermia, assuming that they are the Athenians of whom Oberon spoke. Noticing that the two are
sleeping apart, Puck surmises that the youth refused to let Hermia come closer to him. Calling
him a churl, Puck spreads the potion on Lysanders eyelids, and he departs.
Simultaneously, Helena pursues Demetrius through the glade. He insults her again and insists
that she no longer follow him. She complains that she is afraid of the dark, but he nonetheless
storms off without her. Saying that she is out of breath, Helena remains behind, bemoaning her
unrequited love. She sees the sleeping Lysander and wakes him up. The potion takes effect, and
Lysander falls deeply in love with Helena. He begins to praise her beauty and to declare his
undying passion for her. Disbelieving, Helena reminds him that he loves Hermia; he declares that
Hermia is nothing to him. Helena believes that Lysander is making fun of her, and she grows
angry. She leaves in a huff, and Lysander follows after her. Hermia soon wakes and is shocked to
find that Lysander is gone. She stumbles into the woods to find him.
Analysis
Act II, scene ii introduces the plot device of the love potion, which Shakespeare uses to explore
the comic possibilities inherent in the motif of love out of balance. Oberons meddling in the
14

affairs of humans further disrupts the love equilibrium, and the love potion symbolizes the fact
that the lovers themselves will not reason out their dilemmas; rather, an outside forcemagic
will resolve the love tangle.
The ease with which characters affections change in the play, so that Lysander is madly in love
with Hermia at one point and with Helena at another, has troubled some readers, who feel that
Shakespeare profanes the idea of true love by treating it as inconstant and subject to outside
manipulation. It is important to remember, however, that while A Midsummer Nights Dream
contains elements of romance, it is not a true love story like Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeares
aim is not to comment on the nature of true love but rather to mock gently the melodramatic
afflictions and confusions that love induces. Demetrius, Helena, Hermia, and Lysander are meant
not to be romantic archetypes but rather sympathetic figures thrown into the confusing
circumstances of a romantic farce.
Like much farce, A Midsummer Nights Dream relies heavily on misunderstanding and mistaken
identity to create its humorous entanglements. Oberons unawareness of the presence of a second
Athenian coupleLysander and Hermiain the forest enables Pucks mistaken application of
the flowers juice. This confusion underscores the crucial role of circumstance in the play: it is
not people who are responsible for what happens but rather fate. In Hamlet and Macbeth,
oppositely, Shakespeare forces his characters to make crucial decisions that affect their lives.
Much of the comic tension in this scene (and throughout the rest of the play, as the confusion
wrought by the love potion only increases) stems from the fact that the solution to the love tangle
seems so simple to the reader/audience: if Demetrius could simply be made to love Hermia, then
the lovers could pair off symmetrically, and love would be restored to a point of balance.
Shakespeare teases the audience by dangling the magic flower as a simple mechanism by which
this resolution could be achieved. He uses this mechanism, however, to cycle through a number
of increasingly ridiculous arrangements before he allows the love story to arrive at its inevitable
happy conclusion.
Act III, scene i
Summary
The craftsmen meet in the woods at the appointed time to rehearse their play. Since they will be
performing in front of a large group of nobles (and since they have an exaggerated sense of the
delicacy of noble ladies), Bottom declares that certain elements of the play must be changed. He
fears that Pyramuss suicide and the lions roaring will frighten the ladies and lead to the actors
executions. The other men share Bottoms concern, and they decide to write a prologue
explaining that the lion is not really a lion nor the sword really a sword and assuring the ladies
that no one will really die. They decide also that, to clarify the fact that the story takes place at
night and that Pyramus and Thisbe are separated by a wall, one man must play the wall and
another the moonlight by carrying a bush and a lantern.
As the craftsmen rehearse, Puck enters and marvels at the scene of the hempen homespuns
trying to act (III.i.65). When Bottom steps aside, temporarily out of view of the other craftsmen,
Puck transforms Bottoms head into that of an ass. When the ass-headed Bottom reenters the
scene, the other men become terrified and run for their lives. Delighting in the mischief, Puck
chases after them. Bottom, perplexed, remains behind.
15

In the same grove, the sleeping Titania wakes. When she sees Bottom, the flower juice on her
eyelids works its magic, and she falls deeply and instantly in love with the ass-headed weaver.
She insists that he remain with her, embraces him, and appoints a group of fairies
Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mote, and Mustardseedto see to his every wish. Bottom takes these
events in stride, having no notion that his head has been replaced with that of an ass. He
comments that his friends have acted like asses in leaving him, and he introduces himself to the
fairies. Titania looks on him with undisguised love as he follows her to her forest bower.
Analysis
The structure of A Midsummer Nights Dream is roughly such that Act I introduces the main
characters and the conflict; Act II sets up the interaction among the Athenian lovers, the fairies,
and the craftsmen (the lovers wander through the forest, the fairies make mischief with the love
potion); and Act III develops the comical possibilities of these interactions. As Act III is the first
act in which all three groups appear, the fantastic contrasts between them are at their most
visible.
The craftsmens attempt at drama is a comedy of incongruity, as the rough, unsophisticated men
demonstrate their utter inability to conceive a competent theatrical production. Their proposal to
let the audience know that it is night by having a character play the role of Moonshine
exemplifies their straightforward, literal manner of thinking and their lack of regard for subtlety.
In their earthy and practical natures, the craftsmen stand in stark contrast to the airy and impish
fairies.
The fairies magic is one of the main components of the dreamlike atmosphere of A Midsummer
Nights Dream, and it is integral to the plots progression. It throws love increasingly out of
balance and brings the farce into its most frenzied state. With the youths love tangle already
affected by the potion, Shakespeare creates further havoc by generating a romance across groups,
as Titania falls in love with the ass-headed Bottom. Obviously, the delicate fairy queen is
dramatically unsuited to the clumsy, monstrous craftsman. Shakespeare develops this romance
with fantastic aplomb and heightens the comedy of the incongruity by making Bottom fully
unaware of his transformed state. Rather, Bottom is so self-confident that he finds it fairly
unremarkable that the beautiful fairy queen should wish desperately to become his lover. Further,
his ironic reference to his colleagues as asses and his hunger for hay emphasize the
ridiculousness of his lofty self-estimation.
Act III, scenes iiiii
Summary: Act I I I , scene i
Lord, what fools these mortals be!
In another part of the forest, Puck tells Oberon about the predicament involving Titania and
Bottom. Oberon is delighted that his plan is working so well. Hermia, having discovered
Demetrius after losing Lysander, enters the clearing with Demetrius. Puck is surprised to see the
woman he saw earlier with a different man from the one he enchanted. Oberon is surprised to see
the man he ordered Puck to enchant with a different woman. He realizes that a mistake has been
made and says that he and Puck will have to remedy it. Hermia presses Demetrius about
Lysanders whereabouts, fearing that he is dead, but Demetrius does not know where Lysander
16

has gone, and he is bitter and reproachful that Hermia would rather be with Lysander than with
him. Hermia grows angrier and angrier, and Demetrius decides that it is pointless to follow her.
He lies down and falls asleep, and Hermia stalks away to find Lysander.
When Hermia is gone, Oberon sends Puck to find Helena and squeezes the flower juice onto
Demetriuss eyelids. Puck quickly returns, saying that Helena is close behind him. Helena enters
with Lysander still pledging his undying love to her. Still believing that he is mocking her,
Helena remains angry and hurt. The noise of their bickering wakes Demetrius, who sees Helena
and immediately falls in love with her. Demetrius joins Lysander in declaring this love. Lysander
argues that Demetrius does not really love Helena; Demetrius argues that Lysander is truly in
love with Hermia. Helena believes that they are both mocking her and refuses to believe that
either one loves her.
Hermia reenters, having heard Lysander from a distance. When she learns that her beloved
Lysander now claims to love Helena, as does Demetrius, she is appalled and incredulous.
Helena, who is likewise unable to fathom that both men could be in love with her, assumes that
Hermia is involved in the joke that she believes the men are playing on her, and she chides
Hermia furiously for treating their friendship so lightly. Lysander and Demetrius are ready to
fight one another for Helenas love; as they lunge at one another, Hermia holds Lysander back,
provoking his scorn and disgust: I will shake thee from me like a serpent (III.ii.262). Hermia
begins to suspect that Helena has somehow acted to steal Lysanders love from her, and she
surmises that, because she is short and Helena is tall, Helena must have used her height to lure
Lysander. She grows furious with Helena and threatens to scratch out her eyes. Helena becomes
afraid, saying that Hermia was always much quicker than she to fight. Demetrius and Lysander
vow to protect Helena from Hermia, but they quickly become angry with each other and storm
off into the forest to have a duel. Helena runs away from Hermia, and Hermia, reannouncing her
amazement at the turn of events, departs.
Oberon dispatches Puck to prevent Lysander and Demetrius from fighting and says that they
must resolve this confusion by morning. Puck flies through the forest hurling insults in the voices
of both Lysander and Demetrius, confusing the would-be combatants until they are hopelessly
lost.
Summary: Act I I I , scene iii
Eventually, all four of the young Athenian lovers wander back separately into the glade and fall
asleep. Puck squeezes the love potion onto Lysanders eyelids, declaring that in the morning all
will be well.
Analysis
The confusion in Act III continues to heighten, as the Athenian lovers and the fairies occupy the
stage simultaneously, often without seeing each other. The comedy is at its silliest, and the
characters are at their most extreme: Helena and Hermia nearly come to blows as a result of their
physical insecurities, and Lysander and Demetrius actually try to have a duel. The plot is at its
most chaotic, and, though there is no real climax in A Midsummer Nights Dream, the action is at
its most intense. With the falling action of Acts IV and V, however, matters will sort themselves
out quickly and order will be restored.
17

Like Act III, scene i, Act III, scene ii serves a mainly developmental role in the plot structure of
A Midsummer Nights Dream, focusing on the increasing confusion among the four Athenian
lovers. Now that both men have been magically induced to switch their love from Hermia to
Helena, the vanities and insecurities of both women become far more pronounced. Helenas low
self-esteem prevents her from believing that either man could really be in love with her. Hermia,
who is used to having both men fawn on her, has her vanity stung by the fact that they are
suddenly cold and indifferent toward her. She reveals a latent insecurity about her short stature
when she assumes that Helena has used her height (her personage, her tall personage) to win
Lysanders love, and her quick temper is revealed in Helenas fear that Hermia will attack her
(III.ii.293). The mens exaggerated masculine aggression leads them to vow to protect Helena
from the dreaded Hermiaa ridiculous state of affairs given that they are two armed men
whereas Hermia is a tiny, unarmed woman. Their aggression betrays Helena, however, as the
men refocus it on their competition for her love.
The potion is responsible for the confusion of the lovers situation; thus, Shakespeare links the
theme of magic to the motif of imbalanced love, which dominates the scene. Had the love potion
never been brought into play, the Athenian lovers would still be tangled in their romantic mess,
but they would all understand it, whereas the fairies meddling has left both Hermia and Helena
unable to comprehend the situation. Additionally, Pucks magical ventriloquism is what prevents
Lysander and Demetrius from killing each other at the end of the scene. Thus, magic both brings
about their mutual hostility (to this point, Lysander has not been antagonistic toward Demetrius)
and resolves it.
Act IV, scene i
Summary
[M]ans hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream
was.
As the Athenian lovers lie asleep in the grove, Titania enters with Bottom, still with the head of
an ass, and their fairy attendants. Titania tells Bottom to lie down with his head in her lap, so that
she may twine roses into his hair and kiss his fair large ears (IV.i.4). Bottom orders
Peaseblossom to scratch his head and sends Cobweb to find him some honey. Titania asks
Bottom if he is hungry, and he replies that he has a strange appetite for hay. Titania suggests that
she send a fairy to fetch him nuts from a squirrels hoard, but Bottom says that he would rather
have a handful of dried peas. Yawning, he declares that he is very tired. Titania tells him to sleep
in her arms, and she sends the fairies away. Gazing at Bottoms head, she cries, O how I love
thee, how I dote on thee! and they fall asleep (IV.i.42).
Puck and Oberon enter the glade and comment on the success of Oberons revenge. Oberon says
that he saw Titania earlier in the woods and taunted her about her love for the ass-headed
Bottom; he asked her for the Indian child, promising to undo the spell if she would yield him, to
which she consented. Satisfied, Oberon bends over the sleeping Titania and speaks the charm to
undo the love potion. Titania wakes and is amazed to find that she is sleeping with the
donkeylike Bottom. Oberon calls for music and takes his queen away to dance. She says that she
hears the morning lark, and they exit. Puck speaks a charm over Bottom to restore his normal
head, and he follows after his master.
18

As dawn breaks, Theseus, his attendants, Hippolyta, and Egeus enter to hear the baying of
Theseuss hounds. They are startled to find the Athenian youths sleeping in the glade. They wake
them and demand their story, which the youths are only partly able to recallto them, the
previous night seems as insubstantial as a dream. All that is clear to them is that Demetrius and
Helena love each other, as do Lysander and Hermia. Theseus orders them to follow him to the
temple for a great wedding feast. As they leave, Bottom wakes. He says that he has had a
wondrous dream and that he will have Peter Quince write a ballad of his dream to perform at the
end of their play.
Analysis
Barely 300 lines long, Act IV is the shortest and most transitional of A Midsummer Nights
Dreams five acts. The first three serve respectively to introduce the characters, establish the
comic situation, and develop the comedy; Act IV ends the conflict and leads to the happy ending
in Act V. What is most remarkable, perhaps, is the speed with which the conflict is resolved and
the farce comes to an end; despite the ubiquity of chaos in Act III, all that is necessary to resolve
matters is a bit of potion on Lysanders eyelids and Oberons forgiveness of his wife. The
climactic moment between Titania and Oberon, during which she agrees to give him the Indian
boy, is not even shown onstage but is merely described.
Though Demetriuss love of Helena is a by-product of the magic potion rather than an expression
of his natural feelings, love has been put into balance, allowing for a traditional marriage ending.
As is often the case with Shakespeare, the dramatic situation is closely tied to the circumstances
of the external environment; just as the conflict is ending and a semblance of order is restored
among the characters, the sun comes up. There is no real climax in A Midsummer Nights
Dream; rather, as soon as the scenario has progressed to a suitable degree of complication and
hilarity, Shakespeare simply invokes the fairies magic to dispel all conflict. As the sun comes
up, the reappearance of Theseus and Hippolyta, who symbolize the power and structure of the
outside world, begins to dispel the magical dream of the play.
Theseus and Hippolyta bookend the play. They are extremely important figures both at its
beginning and at its end, but they disappear entirely during the main action in the magical forest.
The duke and his Amazon bride are romanticized in the play, but they belong solely to the
nonmagical waking world, where they remain wholly in control of their own feelings and
actions. An important element of the dream realm, as the lovers come to realize upon waking in a
daze, is that one is in control of neither oneself nor ones surroundings. In this way, the forest
and fairies contribute to the lovers sense of their experience as a dream, even though the action
happens largely while they are awake.
Act IV, scene ii
Summary
At Quinces house, the craftsmen sit somberly and worry about their missing friend Bottom.
Having last seen him shortly before the appearance of the ass-headed monster in the forest, the
craftsmen worry that he has been felled by this terrifying creature. Starveling suspects that the
fairies have cast some enchantment on Bottom. Flute asks whether they will go through with the
play if Bottom does not return from the woods, and Peter Quince declares that to do so would be
19

impossible, as Bottom is the only man in Athens capable of portraying Pyramus. The sad
craftsmen agree that their friend is the wittiest, most intelligent, and best person in all of Athens.
Snug enters with an alarming piece of news: Theseus has been married, along with two or three
lords and ladies (presumably Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius, and Helena), and the newlyweds
are eager to see a play (IV.ii.16). Flute laments Bottoms absence, noting that Bottom would
certainly have won a great deal of money from the admiring duke for his portrayal of Pyramus.
Just then, Bottom bursts triumphantly into the room and asks why everyone looks so sad. The
men are overjoyed to see him, and he declares that he has an amazing story to tell them about his
adventure in the forest. Quince asks to hear it, but Bottom says that there is no time: they must
don their costumes and go straight to the dukes palace to perform their play. As they leave,
Bottom tells them not to eat onions or garlic before the play, as they must be prepared to utter
sweet breath (IV.ii.36).
Analysis
This brief comic scene returns the focus of the play to the subplot of the Athenian craftsmen.
Structurally, Act IV, scene ii represents something of a new beginning for A Midsummer Nights
Dream: the main conflict of the play has been resolved, but rather than ending with the weddings
of the lovers, as is customary in an Elizabethan comedy (the weddings do not even occur onstage
here), Shakespeare chooses to include an extended epilogue devoted to sheer comedy. The
epilogue takes up all of Act V and centers around the craftsmens performance of Pyramus and
Thisbe for the Athenian crowd. Act IV, scene ii transfers the focus of the play from magic and
unbalanced love to a play-within-a-play, in which the themes of A Midsummer Nights Dream,
not too heavy to begin with, are recycled into a form so ridiculous and garbled that the play
draws to a wholly untroubled conclusion.
Though the preceding events of A Midsummer Nights Dream have been far from tragic, many of
the characters have experienced unpleasant emotions, such as jealousy, lovesickness, and
insecurity. Act IV, scene ii makes a basic transition from sadness to joy as Bottoms return
transforms his fellow craftsmens sorrow and confusion into delight and eagerness. It is no
coincidence that Bottoms reappearance occurs almost simultaneously with the audience being
told that the lovers have been married. Just as the marriages dispel the romantic angst of the play,
so does Bottoms return dispel the worry of his comrades. Similarly, the arrival in the forest of
Theseus and Hippolyta, representatives of order, coincides with the Athenian lovers waking
from their chaotic, dreamlike romp of the previous night.
Act V, scenes iepilogue
Summary: Act V, scene i
At his palace, Theseus speaks with Hippolyta about the story that the Athenian youths have told
them concerning the magical romantic mix-ups of the previous night. Theseus says that he does
not believe the story, adding that darkness and love have a way of exciting the imagination.
Hippolyta notes, however, that if their story is not true, then it is quite strange that all of the
lovers managed to narrate the events in exactly the same way.
The youths enter and Theseus greets them heartily. He says that they should pass the time before
bed with a performance, and he summons Egeus (or, in some editions of A Midsummer Nights
20

Dream, Philostrate) to read him a list of plays, each of which Theseus deems unacceptable.
Egeus then tells him of the Pyramus and Thisbe story that the common craftsmen have prepared;
warning that it is terrible in every respect, he urges Theseus not to see it. Theseus, however, says
that if the craftsmens intentions are dutiful, there will be something of merit in the play no
matter how poor the performance.
The lords and ladies take their seats, and Quince enters to present a prologue, which he speaks
haltingly. His strange pauses put the meaning of his words in question, so that he says, Our true
intent is. All for your delight / We are not here. That you should here repent you, though he
means to communicate that Our true intent is all for your delight. / We are not here that you
should here repent you (V.i.114115). The other players then enter, including two characters
performing the roles of Wall and Moonshine. They act out a clumsy version of the story, during
which the noblemen and women joke among themselves about the actors strange speeches and
misapprehensions. Bottom, in particular, makes many perplexing statements while playing
Pyramus, such as I see a voice...I can hear my Thisbes face (V.i.190191). Pyramus and
Thisbe meet at, and speak across, the actor playing Wall, who holds up his fingers to indicate a
chink. Snug, as the lion, enters and pours forth a speech explaining to the ladies that he is not
really a lion. He roars, scaring Thisbe away, and clumsily rends her mantle. Finding the bloody
mantle, Pyramus duly commits suicide. Thisbe does likewise when she finds her Pyramus dead.
After the conclusion of the play, during which Bottom pretends to kill himself, with a cry of die,
die, die, die, die, Bottom asks if the audience would like an epilogue or a bergamask dance;
Theseus replies that they will see the dance (V.i.295). Bottom and Flute perform the dance, and
the whole group exits for bed.
Summary: Act V, scene iiepilogue
Think but this, and all is mended:
That you have but slumbered here,
While these visions did appear.

Puck enters and says that, now that night has fallen, the fairies will come to the castle and that he
has been sent with broom before / To sweep the dust behind the door (V.ii.1920). Oberon and
Titania enter and bless the palace and its occupants with a fairy song, so that the lovers will
always be true to one another, their children will be beautiful, and no harm will ever visit
Theseus and Hippolyta. Oberon and Titania take their leave, and Puck makes a final address to
the audience. He says that if the play has offended, the audience should remember it simply as a
dream. He wishes the audience members good night and asks them to give him their hands in
applause if they are kind friends.
Analysis
The structure of A Midsummer Nights Dream is somewhat compacted in that the first four acts
contain all of the plays main action, with the height of conflict occurring in Act III and a happy
turn of events resembling a conclusion in Act IV. Act V serves as a kind of joyful comic
epilogue to the rest of the play, focusing on the craftsmens hilariously bungling efforts to
present their play and on the noble Athenians good-natured jesting during the craftsmens
performance. The heady tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe becomes comical in the hands of the
craftsmen. The bearded Flutes portrayal of the maiden Thisbe as well as the melodramatic
21

(Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall) and nonsensical (Sweet moon, I thank thee for
thy sunny beams) language of the play strips the performance of any seriousness or profound
meaning (V.i.174, V.i.261).
The story of Pyramus and Thisbe, which comes from an ancient Babylonian legend often
reworked in European mythology, would have been familiar to educated members of
Shakespeares audiences. The story likely influenced Romeo and Juliet, although Shakespeare
also pulled elements from other versions of the Romeo and Juliet tale. In both stories, two young
lovers from feuding families communicate under cover of darkness; both male lovers
erroneously think their beloveds dead and commit suicide, and both females do likewise when
they find their lovers dead.
Insofar as the fifth act of A Midsummer Nights Dream has thematic significance (the main
purpose of the play-within-a-play is to provide comic enjoyment), it is that the Pyramus and
Thisbe story revisits the themes of romantic hardship and confusion that run through the main
action of the play. Pyramus and Thisbe are kept apart by parental will, just as Lysander and
Hermia were; their tragic end results from misinterpretationPyramus takes Thisbes bloody
mantle as proof that she is dead, which recalls, to some extent, Pucks mistaking of Lysander for
Demetrius (as well as Titanias misconception of Bottom as a beautiful lover). In this way, the
play-within-a-play lightheartedly satirizes the anguish that earlier plagued the Athenian lovers.
Given the title A Midsummer Nights Dream, it is no surprise that one of the main themes of the
play is dreams, particularly as they relate to darkness and love. When morning comes, ending the
magical night in the forest, the lovers begin to suspect that their experience in the woods was
merely a dream. Theseus suggests as much to Hippolyta, who finds it strange that all the young
lovers would have had the same dream. In the famous final speech of the play, Puck turns this
idea outward, recommending that if audience members did not enjoy the play, they should
assume that they have simply been dreaming throughout. This suggestion captures perfectly the
delicate, insubstantial nature of A Midsummer Nights Dream: just as the fairies mended their
mischief by sorting out the romantic confusion of the young lovers, Puck accounts for the
whimsical nature of the play by explaining it as a manifestation of the subconscious.
Important Quotations Explained
1. Ay me, for aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth. . . .
Lysander speaks these lines to soothe Hermia when she despairs about the difficulties facing
their love, specifically, that Egeus, her father, has forbidden them to marry and that Theseus has
threatened her with death if she disobeys her father (I.i.132134). Lysander tells Hermia that as
long as there has been true love, there have been seemingly insurmountable difficulties to
challenge it. He goes on to list a number of these difficulties, many of which later appear in the
play: differences in birth or age (misgrafted in respect of years) and difficulties caused by
friends or war, death, or sickness, which make love seem swift as a shadow, short as any
dream (I.i.137, I.i.142144). But, as Hermia comments, lovers must persevere, treating their
difficulties as a price that must be paid for romantic bliss. As such, the above lines inaugurate the
plays exploration of the theme of loves difficulties and presage what lies ahead for Lysander
22

and Hermia: they will face great difficulties but will persevere and ultimately arrive at a happy
ending.
2. Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so.
He will not know what all but he do know.
And as he errs, doting on Hermias eyes,
So I, admiring of his qualities.
Things base and vile, holding no quantity,
Love can transpose to form and dignity.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.
Helena utters these lines as she comments on the irrational nature of love. They are extremely
important to the plays overall presentation of love as erratic, inexplicable, and exceptionally
powerful (I.i.227235). Distressed by the fact that her beloved Demetrius loves Hermia and not
her, Helena says that though she is as beautiful as Hermia, Demetrius cannot see her beauty.
Helena adds that she dotes on Demetrius (though not all of his qualities are admirable) in the
same way that he dotes on Hermia. She believes that love has the power to transform base and
vile qualities into form and dignitythat is, even ugliness and bad behavior can seem
attractive to someone in love. This is the case, she argues, because love looks not with the eyes,
but with the mindlove depends not on an objective assessment of appearance but rather on an
individual perception of the beloved. These lines prefigure aspects of the plays examination of
love, such as Titanias passion for the ass-headed Bottom, which epitomizes the transformation
of the base and vile into form and dignity.
3. Lord, what fools these mortals be!
Puck makes this declaration in his amazement at the ludicrous behavior of the young Athenians
(III.ii.115). This line is one of the most famous in A Midsummer Nights Dream for its pithy
humor, but it is also thematically important: first, because it captures the exaggerated silliness of
the lovers behavior; second, because it marks the contrast between the human lovers,
completely absorbed in their emotions, and the magical fairies, impish and never too serious.
4. I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream past the wit of man to say what dream it
was. Man is but an ass if he go about texpound this dream. Methought I wasthere is no man
can tell what. Methought I was, and methought I hadbut man is but a patched fool if he will
offer to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen,
mans hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream
was. I will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream. It shall be called Bottoms Dream,
because it hath no bottom.
Bottom makes this bombastic speech after he wakes up from his adventure with Titania; his
human head restored, he believes that his experience as an ass-headed monster beloved by the
beautiful fairy queen was merely a bizarre dream (IV.i.199209). He remarks dramatically that
his dream is beyond human comprehension; then, contradicting himself, he says that he will ask
Quince to write a ballad about this dream. These lines are important partially because they offer
humorous commentary on the theme of dreams throughout the play but also because they
crystallize much of what is so lovable and amusing about Bottom. His overabundant self-
23

confidence burbles out in his grandiose idea that although no one could possibly understand his
dream, it is worthy of being immortalized in a poem. His tendency to make melodramatic
rhetorical mistakes manifests itself plentifully, particularly in his comically mixed-up association
of body parts and senses: he suggests that eyes can hear, ears see, hands taste, tongues think, and
hearts speak.
5. If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended:
That you have but slumbered here,
While these visions did appear;
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do not reprehend.
If you pardon, we will mend.
Puck speaks these lines in an address to the audience near the end of A Midsummer Nights
Dream, extending the theme of dreams beyond the world of the play and putting the reality of the
audiences experience into question (V.epilogue.18). As many of the characters (Bottom and
Theseus among them) believe that the magical events of the plays action were merely a dream,
Puck tells the crowd that if the play has offended them, they too should remember it simply as a
dreamThat you have but slumbered here, / While these visions did appear. The speech offers
a commentary on the dreamlike atmosphere of A Midsummer Nights Dream and casts the play
as a magical dream in which the audience shares.
Key Facts
FULL TITLE A Midsummer Nights Dream
AUTHOR William Shakespeare
TYPE OF WORK Play
GENRES Comedy; fantasy; romance; farce
LANGUAGE English
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN London, 1594 or 1595
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION 1600
PUBLISHER Thomas Fisher
NARRATOR None
CLIMAX In the strictest sense, there is no real climax, as the conflicts of the play are all
resolved swiftly by magical means in Act IV; the moment of greatest tension is probably the
quarrel between the lovers in Act III, scene ii.
PROTAGONIST Because there are three main groups of characters, there is no single protagonist
in the play; however, Puck is generally considered the most important character.
24

ANTAGONIST None; the plays tensions are mostly the result of circumstances, accidents, and
mistakes.
SETTINGS (TIME) Combines elements of Ancient Greece with elements of Renaissance England
SETTINGS (PLACE) Athens and the forest outside its walls
POINT OF VIEW Varies from scene to scene
FALLING ACTION Act V, scene i, which centers on the craftsmens play
TENSE Present
FORESHADOWING Comments made in Act I, scene i about the difficulties that lovers face
TONES Romantic; comedic; fantastic; satirical; dreamlike; joyful; farcical
SYMBOLS Theseus and Hippolyta represent order, stability, and wakefulness; Theseuss hounds
represent the coming of morning; Oberons love potion represents the power and instability of
love.
THEMES The difficulties of love; magic; the nature of dreams; the relationships between
fantasy and reality and between environment and experience
MOTIFS Love out of balance; contrast (juxtaposed opposites, such as beautiful and ugly, short
and tall, clumsy and graceful, ethereal and earthy)