A Midsummer Night's Dream: History and Performance

• The play is first mentioned by Francis Meres in 1598, dating it between 1594 and 1596.
• It was likely written around the same time as Romeo and Juliet, sharing similarities and a potential for tragic ending.
• The first quarto was printed in 1600 after its entry into the Stationer's Register on October 8, 1600.
• This quarto was almost certainly taken from Shakespeare's manuscript.
• A second quarto, falsely backdated to 1600, was printed in 1619, attempting to correct errors but introducing new ones.
• First Folio in 1623 used the second quarto as its basis.
• There’s a myth about the play first being performed for a private audience after a wedding.
• The play's three weddings and Pyramus and Thisbe play fit the scene.
• No evidence of this imagined performance exists.
• A Midsummer Night's Dream was definitely performed on the London stage by the Lord Chamberlain's Men.
• The title page of the first Quarto indicates it was written by William Shakespeare.
• The title draws on the summer solstice, Midsummer Eve, June 23, marked by holiday partying, fairy tales, and temporary insanity.
• Shakespeare weaves together fairies, lovers, and social hierarchies with Theseus and the "rude mechanicals."
• This allows the play to be lyrical, drawing on lower class language alongside noble poetry.
• Shakespeare introduced the concept of small, kind fairies, unlike the feared evil spirits of Elizabethan times.
• The final act spotlights the fear of censorship in Elizabethan theater.
• The artisans try to assure that the play is not real.
• Puck suggests the audience should consider it a dream if not liked.
• Audience members are left unsure if what they saw was real or a dream.
• The theater is portrayed as nothing more than a shared dream.
• The constant interruption of the Pyramus and Thisbe production highlights the artificiality of the theater.
• Pyramus, Thisbe, and the entire play are products of imagination.
• Puck's suggestion hides a deeper sexual tension between characters.
• Oberon attempts to humiliate Titania and Theseus' conquest of Hippolyta.
• The darker side of the play involves rapid shifts in actors' amorous desires.

A Midsummer Night's Dream Summary

• The play takes place in Athens.
• Duke Theseus plans his marriage with Hippolyta, planning a large festival.
• Egeus wants his daughter Hermia to marry Demetrius, but she loves Lysander.
• Theseus agrees Hermia must obey her father, threatening a nunnery or marriage to Demetrius.
• Lysander and Hermia plan to flee into the woods to escape the law.
• They tell Helena, who's in love with Demetrius, hoping she will gain favor with Demetrius by telling him.
• Local artisans plan to celebrate Theseus’ wedding with a play, Pyramus and Thisbe.
• Nick Bottom gets the role of Pyramus, and Flute takes the part of Thisbe.
• They decide to meet in the woods to rehearse.
• Robin Goodfellow (Puck) tells a fairy that King Oberon and Queen Titania will quarrel in the woods.
• Titania and Oberon argue about a stolen boy, whom Titania refuses to give Oberon.
• Oberon decides to play a trick on Titania, using pansy juice to make her fall in love with the first person she sees.
• Puck is sent to fetch the juice.
• Oberon overhears Demetrius deserting Helena.
• Oberon commands Robin to put the juice on Demetrius' eyes while sleeping.
• Oberon drops the juice onto Titania's eyelids.
• Robin accidentally uses the juice on Lysander.
• Helena comes across Lysander, who falls in love with her and chases her.
• Oberon realizes the mistake and puts juice on Demetrius' eyelids, who also falls in love with Helena.
• Helena thinks the men are tormenting her.
• The workmen rehearse their play, mispronouncing and ruining the lines.
• To avoid censorship, they decide to make the play less realistic.
• Bottom is given an ass's head by Puck.
• The troupe runs away in fear.
• Bottom crosses Titania, who wakes and falls in love with him; she takes him with her.
• Lysander and Demetrius prepare to fight for Helena.
• Puck leads them in circles until they collapse, bringing the women to sleep there as well.
• Oberon releases Titania from the spell.
• He tells the audience Bottom will think it was a dream and releases Lysander from the love spell.
• Theseus and a hunting party find the lovers and wake them.
• The lovers explain their presence and Egeus demands his legal right on Hermia.
• Demetrius no longer loves Hermia, but loves Helena.
• Theseus overrules Egeus and allows the lovers to marry with him, and they return to Athens.
• Bottom wakes up thinking it was a dream, and he meets his friends in Athens.
• They head to Theseus' palace, where Pyramus and Thisbe is performed, and everyone retires to bed.
• Puck sweeps the house and Oberon and Titania bless the couples.
• Puck asks the audience to forgive any offense and imagine the play was all a dream.

Character List

• Theseus: Duke of Athens.
• Hippolyta: Queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus.
• Philostrate: Master of the Revels to Theseus.
• Egeus: Hermia's father.
• Hermia: Daughter of Egeus, in love with Lysander.
• Lysander: Loved by Hermia.
• Demetrius: Suitor to Hermia.
• Helena: Friend of Hermia, in love with Demetrius.
• Oberon: King of the Fairies.
• Titania: Queen of the Fairies, Oberon's wife.
• Robin Goodfellow: A puck, mischievous fairy.
• Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mote, Mustardseed: Fairies.
• Peter Quince: Carpenter, one of the artisans.
• Nick Bottom: Weaver, transformed into an ass by Puck.
• Francis Flute: Bellows-mender, one of the artisans.
• Tom Snout: Tinker, one of the artisans.
• Snug: Joiner.
• Robin Starveling: Tailor.

Glossary

• Nuptial: A wedding or related to a wedding.
• Vexation: Annoyed, frustrated, or worried.
• Extenuate: Cause an offense to seem less serious.
• Tawny: Orange-brown or yellow-brown color.
• Changeling: A child substituted by fairies for real child.
• Progeny: Descendants.
• Dulcet: Sweet and soothing sound.
• Languish: Grow weak or feeble.
• Confound: Cause surprise or confusion.
• Asunder: Divided.
• Harbinger: Announces the approach of another.
• Consort: Wife, husband, or other companion.
• Bewail: Express great regret.
• Amity: Friendly relationship.
• Idle: Avoiding work.
• Paramour: A lover.
• Revel: Enjoy oneself in a lively way.
• Audacious: Showing a willingness to take bold risks.
• Rote: Habitual repetition of something.
• Amends: Make better, improve.

Themes

• Love's Triumph: The enduring and triumphant power of love is a central theme. Despite complications, love persists, and the pairs of lovers are married by the play's conclusion.
• Patriarchal Control: The play highlights the divide between young women's desires and older men's power. Hermia's desire to marry Lysander challenges her father's choice of Demetrius, underscoring Hermia's maturation and challenge to patriarchal control.
• Gender and Power: The play explores power dynamics between men and women by describing Oberon and Titania’s interactions. Their matched seeking of revenge suggests equality where gender becomes irrelevant in the fairy world.
• Dreams and Imagination: Characters are tricked into thinking bizarre events happened in "dreams". Puck encourages the audience to assume they were dreaming if they didn't enjoy it. This allows supernatural plot points to exist in the play without reason or profound meaning.
• Performance: The number of meta-theatrical elements involved in A Midsummer Night's Dream is abundant. Shakespeare highlights the difference between "bad" and "good" showcasing his own skill as a playwright.
• Magic and the Supernatural: It drives the plot in big ways. Magic gives a dream-like quality detaching the lovers from reality in Athens. Rationality and explanation disappear and characters rediscover a sense of stability in an irrational world.
• Nature: Thus, characters retreat to the woodlands where they encounter supernatural powers and are thrust into a dream-like series of strange events. While entertaining for the audience, Shakespeare's representation of nature is impressively nuanced as he shows nature both as a respite for humans looking to sidestep the governance of urban life and as a fearsome and mysterious power in its own right.

Quotes and Analysis

• Lysander: "Ay me, for that I could ever read, / The course of true love never did run smooth." Love is always tried and tested.
• Helena: "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, / And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind." Helena comments on the irrational nature of love.
• Theseus: "To you your father should be as a god... By him imprinted and within his power to leave the figure or disfigure it." Theseus comments on obeying her father.
• Titania: "Full often hath she gossip'd by my side... And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind." Reveals a human element in her supernatural character.
• Puck: "Lord, what fools these mortals be!" Comments ironically on the events of the play.
• Helena: "Though she be but little, she is fierce!" Describes the quick and powerful transformation of her friend Hermia.
• Hippolyta: "...I never heard / So musical a discord, such sweet thunder." Reminisces about her past, emblematic of the play's whimsy and chaos.
• Demetrius: "Are you sure / That we are awake? It seems to me / That yet we sleep, we dream." Comments on the theater.
• Bottom: "I have had a most rare vision... what my dream was." Serves to lend his character a comedic presence in the play.
• Puck: "If we shadows have offended...Do not reprehend." Asks the audience to replace any offense felt with the illusion that they were dreaming.

Summary and Analysis of Act 1

• Act One, Scene One: Theseus prepares Athens for his wedding to Hippolyta. Hermia loves Lysander, but her father Egeus demands she marry Demetrius. Theseus declares she must marry Demetrius or join a nunnery. Lysander then convinces Hermia to sneak into the woods to flee to his aunt's to get married. Helena indicates that she will tell Demetrius about Hermia's plans as this might make him love her again.

• Act One, Scene Two: Peter Quince hands out several parts to the artisans for a play based on Pyramus and Thisbe. Nick Bottom is afraid the lion will seem too real. They agree to meet in the woods to rehearse.

Analysis of Act 1

• Two themes in many of Shakespeare's plays, the struggle of men to dominate women and the conflict between father and daughter, form a large part of the dramatic content of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
• Both forms of tension appear, when Theseus remarks that he has won Hippolyta by defeating her, "Hippolyta, I wooed thee with my sword" (1.1.16), and via the conflict between Egeus and Hermia.
• Adding to this war of the sexes are Lysander and Demetrius, both wooing Hermia away from her father.
• A Midsummer Night's Dream is really a play about finding oneself in order to be free of these authoritative and sexual conflicts.
• The forest therefore quickly emerges as the location where all of these struggles must be resolved.
• Recalling Romeo and Juliet, Theseus offers Hermia the choice of the nunnery or death.
• As always in Shakespeare (note Juliet), this is not a viable option for a young woman who is beautiful. Hermia therefore decides to run away rather than face the certainty of death.
• A remarkable aspect of A Midsummer Night's Dream is that it contains a play within a play.
• The story of Pyramus and Thisbe serves to not only show the tragedy that might have occurred if the fairies had not intervened, but also to comment on the nature of reality versus theater.
• Bottom, afraid the lion will frighten the ladies, get them to write a prologue in which the lion is explicitly revealed as only being an actor.
• The play within a play is therefore used by Shakespeare to make a subtle point about theater, namely the fact that it is only acting.

Summary and Analysis of Act 2

• Act Two, Scene One: Puck tells a fairy that Queen Titania is coming to the woods outside of Athens.
• Titania and Oberon both arrive on stage, accompanied by their respective fairy followers.
• They begin an argument, accusing each other of infidelity and jealousy.
• Titania has stolen a young boy to spend caring for. Oberon, jealous of the attention the boy is receiving, demands that Titania give the boy to him, a request to which she refuses.
• After Titania departs, Oberon vows to get revenge on her for causing him embarrassment.
• He sends his puck to fetch some pansies.
• Puck knows the juice is supposed to make a person love the first thing he or she sees.
• Oberon plans to put the juice onto Titania's eyes while she sleeps.
• Demetrius and Helena tells Helena to go away.
• Helena has told him about trying to run away with Hermia and Lysander and that he does not love her.
• 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.
• Oberon says to do so when the puck is is certain woman by his side will be the first person he sees,
• Act Two, Scene Two: Oberon orders the the fairies to dance
• Titania asks for a quick dance and sings her to sleep.
• Oberon takes the opportunity to sneak up and drop the pansy juice onto her closed eyelids.
• Lysander and Hermia walking, Hermia tires of walking and wants to sleep
• 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 quickly applies the juice onto Lysander's eyes.
• Demetrius, followed closely by Helena, runs into the clearing.
• Helena begs Demetrius to stop running away from her, but he refuses and leaves her there alone.
• Helena sees Lysander and shakes him awake, unwittingly becoming the first woman he sees when he opens his eyes.
• Lysander falls in love with Helena, thinking it is a cruel joke and tells him to stop abusing her.
• Helena leaver, and Lysander decides to forget about Hermia and to follow Helena instead.
• Hermia wakes up the and notices a dream in which a serpent eats her heart.
• She is scared, she calls after Lysander and she leaves her bed to go search for him

Analysis of Act 2

• The aspect of the woods as a place for the characters to reach adulthood is made even more explicit in this scene.
• In the dialogue between Helena and Demetrius, the woods are a place to be feared, and also are a place to lose virginity.
• As Demetrius warns, "Thus the forest can be allegorically read as a sort of trial for the characters, a phase they must pass through in order to reach maturity."
• Hermia's serpent serves as a sign of the monsters which are in the woods.
• This plays into the fact that the woods are not only a place which the characters must escape from, but are also a place of imagination.
• Hermia's fear of her dream, in which the monster and the danger are only imagined, is meant to show the audience that the danger in a play is only imagined by the audience; neither the play nor Hermia's dream are real.

Summary and Analysis of Act 3

• Act Three, Scene One: 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.

• The rustics say that Pyramus is is really only Bottom the Weaver and that he does not kill himself.

• Next, Snout becomes afraid that Snug's role as the lion will cause a similar fear.

• Snug says to Snug to tell the audience that Snug should speak to the audience directly and that half his head should be visible through the costume.

• The start to rehearse the play, with the puck eavesdropping in the background. - Each of the actors makes several word mistakes, giving the phrases completely different meanings.

• Bottom goes offstage, and reappears with Bottom, who now wears an asses head.

• At this point Titania wakes up and sees Bottom, with his asses 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.

• Act Three, Scene Two: Titania by Oberon has happened to Titania

• Oberon is overjoyed wants to go find helana

• Hermia is convinced that to fall in love

• Helena what point here

• When has applied potion to lyasanders eyes and with whose face the play begins

Analysis of Act 3

• The act that is intermixed is the exchanges,
• Lysander tells and with the lines being each other.

Summary and Analysis of Act 4

• Act Four, Scene One
• Titania and Bottom with some asses head and enter, the fairies scratch Bottoms
• Bottom asks the fairies
• Titania, love orders for them
• Then enter together
• Act Four, Scene Two
• The artisans complain that wedding time as missed by performing the play. But Bottom tells the the that time is still there to preform the play

Analysis of Act 4

• What the effect and that some double cast it.

Summary and Analysis of Act 5

• Act Five, Scene One In to the Duke wedding

• He will go for and what that mean for he

• Act Five, Scene Two

Analysis of Act 5

• This is what has been and the and

Symbols

• What the over and that and

Allegory and motif

• The themes in that play and the

• All themes

Midsummer metaphor

• This is the part the play

Irony

• About the and can show

Influences

• One can say

Dream

• What it show

Theatre

• Talk about

Theatre women

• What it about that

Genre

• Type of play

Language

• About english set

Story

• What

Dream

• Then

One can

• To show

Questions

• The answers