http : / / www . pathguy . com / mnd . htm Enjoying " A Midsummer Night ' s Dream ", by William Shakespeare by Ed Friedlander M . D . This day my oaths of drinking wine and going to plays are out , and so I do resolve to take a liberty to - day , and then to fall to them again . To the King ' s Theatre , where we saw " Midsummer ' s Night ' s Dream , " which I had never seen before , nor shall ever again , for it is the most insipid ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life . I saw , I confess , some good dancing and some handsome women , which was all my pleasure . - Samuel Pepys , Diary , Sept . 29 , 1662 You are always insane when you are in love . - Sigmund Freud If you are a student or adult approaching " A Midsummer Night ' s Dream ", this site will help you get started . Shakespeare ' s works are larger than anyone individual ' s ideas or knowledge . You ' ll need to bring your own experience -- especially of being in love -- to help you decide what it all means for you . You probably already know a few things about the play . " A Midsummer Night ' s Dream " inspired four hundred years of stories and pictures of tiny , butterfly - winged people living in the woods . Walt Disney ' s fairies are their descendants . Felix Mendelssohn ' s production music remains very popular , including the " Wedding March ". For over 200 years , the play was never put on stage except as adaptations . For years , Puck was featured at the top of many Sunday comics , with the banner " What fools these mortals be . " Modern productions most often depict the people of the woods as overtly erotic , savage , and sinister . Goethe ' s " Faust " features a burlesque of his own times as " The Golden Wedding Anniversary of Oberon and Titania . " Today ' s Religious Right is divided on the question of whether the play is good family entertainment or a satanic exercise . The popular movie " Dead Poets Society " used the play as a metaphor for young people choosing nonconformity . The best - known character , " Bottom ", is transformed into an " ass " and becomes the " butt " of jokes . What could be " behind " this ? The play - within - a - play , which retells a story from Ovid , looks like Shakespeare ' s parody of his own " Romeo and Juliet ". Plot and Characters Don ' t focus on story in " A Midsummer Night ' s Dream ". The tale is simplicity itself . It ' s about ideas and emotion rather than plot . Notice that the fairies ' magic takes place at night -- how much is really a dream ? Theseus , Duke of Athens , is about to marry Hippolyta , a lady warrior who he conquered . Egeus brings his daughter Hermia to court . She and Lysander want to get married , but Egeus wants her to marry Demetrius , who also wants her . Under Athenian law , Hermia must marry the man of her father ' s choice , choose " single blessedness " ( i . e . , celibacy in a religious order ) , or be executed . Theseus says he will enforce this law and gives everyone a few days to decide . Demetrius has seduced and abandoned Helena , Hermia ' s friend . Lysander and Hermia decide to elope and get married in the next town , beyond the reach of Athenian law . ( Probably Theseus and everybody else expects them to do this anyway . ) Hermia tells Helena , who tells Demetrius in order to ingratiate herself to him . Hermia and Lysander flee into the woods , Demetrius follows the lovers , and Helena follows him . Out in the forest , Oberon and Titania , king and queen of fairyland , have quarrelled over who will raise an orphaned Indian boy . Oberon sends Puck to find a magic flower . Cupid ' s arrow , aimed at Queen Elizabeth , was diverted and hit the flower ( " love in idleness ", a pansy ) . Now this flower ' s juice , applied to a sleeper ' s eyes , will make the person fall in love with whoever he or she sees first upon awakening . Puck brings the flower , and Oberon applies it to the eyes of sleeping Titania . Oberon then tells Puck to apply it to the eyes of Demetrius , so that when he wakes and sees Helena he will love her instead . Hermia and Lysander fall asleep , with Lysander honoring Hermia ' s request to sleep a little distance away . Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius and puts the love juice in his eyes . Helena sees Lysander , thinks he may be hurt , and wakes him . Lysander sees Helena and falls in love with her . This gives rise to a comic situation , with much clever language and remarks about the ironies and irrationality of love . Some skilled laborers have gone into the woods to rehearse a play for the wedding . They rewrite it , replacing the lovers ' parents by " the moon " and " a wall ". Puck puts a donkey head on Bottom the weaver . Titania , awakening , falls in love with him . ( In Elizabethan times , the male donkey was proverbial for his generous sexual endowment . ) Demetrius and Lysander meet Helena and Hermia and the love - comedy continues , with the men about to come to blows . Oberon sees what has happened , and instructs Puck to separate the two men , which he does using ventriloquism , and to apply the love - juice to Demetrius ' s eyes . Lysander is lost in the dark and decides to sleep it out . Demetrius is tired and rests , and Puck reapplies the antidote to Lysander . Oberon applies the antidote to Titania . Demetrius wakes up and falls in love with Helena . After more dialogue and action , Theseus enters , the now properly - paired lovers are united , and everybody is happy . The humans wonder how much of the night ' s events have been real , and how much was a dream . The laborers perform their play - within - a - play . Although it ' s bad , Theseus and the others appreciate the sincerity and effort . Don ' t look for depth of characterization in " A Midsummer Night ' s Dream ". It ' s about ideas rather than personalities . Here are a few hints . Theseus : Kind and generous . He must enforce the law , but talks privately with Egeus and Demetrius ( I . i . 115 ) to get them to relent . He appreciates the effort that goes into the play - within - a - play , and the sincerity of the ordinary people . He lets his imagination turn good people ' s sincere effort into a good performance . Hippolyta : More literal - minded than Theseus . She cannot bring her imagination to consider a bad play good . But she notes that the lovers ' tale of paranormal experience in the woods presents " great constancy " -- what paranormal investigators look for today . Like most of us , Hippolyta decides , " If they ' re all telling the same story , there may be something to it . " Philostrate : Master of ceremonies for Theseus . In Chaucer ' s The Knight ' s Tale , one of the rival lovers takes the name " Philostrate " to work for Theseus and Hippolyta . This is almost certainly an oblique reference to Chaucer ' s tale . Demetrius : Not a nice person . By the time he says he wants to feed Lysander ' s carcass to his hounds , this seems completely in character . I don ' t know what Helena sees in him . Neither does she -- such is the irrationality of love , even before the lovers enter the forest . He is the only one who remains under the influence of the magic juice . This is probably good . Helena : Tall , blonde beauty . Verbal abuse from Demetrius has made her think she ' s ugly . We have to hope that the love juice never wears off Demetrius , or she is in trouble Hermia : Short , dark - complected beauty . Spunky and likable . Lysander : Likable , rationalizer , sense of humor . He suggests Egeus and Demetrius get married . He cites classic stories as models for " the course of true love ", and thinks the effects of the love juice are the workings of his own " reason ". Peter Quince : Playwright for the amateurs . Nick Bottom the Weaver : Enthusiastic . Wants to play all the roles . Likes to overact . Francis Flute the Bellows Mender : Young man . He points out that he ' s just getting his facial hair . He thinks this will make playing Thisbe a problem , but this is actually why he was chosen . Robin Starveling the Tailor : Just a few lines portray a pessimist . He plays the part of the moon . He seems to forget his lines , and explains who he is in prose . Snug the Joiner : " I am slow of study ". The lion need only roar . Actually Snug does learn a few lines . Tom Snout the Tinker : Literal - minded . Plays the wall . Often the same actor who plays Theseus also plays Oberon , the same actor who plays Philostrate plays Puck , and the same actress who plays Hippolyta plays Titania . You may enjoy thinking about why this makes sense , especially if the dream - world is a shadow of ours . one of my correspondents reminded me that this also happens in the film version of " The Wizard of Oz ". How Now , Spirit ! " A Midsummer Night ' s Dream " is unusual among Shakespeare ' s plays in lacking a written source for its plot . The wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta was described in Chaucer ' s " Knight ' s Tale " and elsewhere . The theme of a daughter who wants to marry against her father ' s desires was a common theme in Roman comedy . Bottom and his friends are caricatures of amateur players . Shakespeare must have derived his forest spirits from oral folk traditions . The mysterious people of the forest might be in turn helpful ( household chores ) , mischievous ( pranks , illusions ) , or sinister . In " Henry IV Part I ", the king relates a folk legend that " some night - tripping fairy " might steal babies and leave a fairy child or someone else ' s child ( a " changeling ", see II . i . 23 ) . People may have believed , or half - believed , in the fairies ( elves , sprites , pixies , leprechauns , and so forth ) . " Goblin " was the name of a lesser devil in " Piers Plowman ", and Puck ' s aliases include " Hob Goblin " ( Robert Goblin ) . They might also have been imaginary figures of fun that personify nature , as we speak of " Mother Nature " and the artistic " Jack Frost ", painter of autumn leaves and creator of the beautiful ice patterns on windowpanes . Literary trips to fairyland included " Sir Orfeo ", a retelling of Orpheus ' s descent to the underworld . Sir Orfeo visits a dreadful supernatural realm in which other humans are imprisoned , looking as they did at the moments of their deaths . " Thomas of Erceldoune " met the fairy queen , who took him to her realm , full of beautiful people living in luxury -- as Satan ' s cattle . So far as I know , Shakespeare is the first writer to portray the faerie folk as tiny or cute . No More Yielding than a Dream In the realm of illusion , notice several elements in which logic is suspended in favor of symbolism , as in our own dreams . Puck describes his own helpful and harmful behavior as if it is all logically consistent . Are the fairies large ( Titania embraces Bottom ) or tiny ( creep into acorn cups , wrap in a snakeskin , make coats from bat fur ) ? Do the spirits fly around the globe with the night , or watch the dawn and have diminished powers during the day ? Shakespeare describes both . " A Midsummer Night ' s Dream " breaks theatrical illusion , the rule that the players do not talk to the audience about this being a play . Oberon begins ( because Shakespeare must have him do so ) by saying , " I am invisible . " The play - within - a - play is interrupted several times by explanations by the actors . Nowadays , breaking theatrical illusion is a easy laugh . For example , in " The Hostage ", Brendan Behan has characters say , " Silence ! This is a serious play ! ", " That ' s the kind of joke this audience understands ", and " That song has just about brought the show to a standstill . " In Shakespeare , even " asides " are unusual , though he uses prologues as modern movies may begin with text or voiceover giving the background . The amateur actor ' s concern about the lion frightening the ladies probably refers to an episode in which actors who were to impersonate lions were omitted from James of Scotland ' s parade , out of fear of frightening the audience . The actors decide the lion must be played with a half - mask , so people will realize it ' s really a person . Not With the Eye , But With the Mind The key passage in the play is Theseus ' s speech on " the lunatic , the lover , and the poet " ( V . i . 5 - 22 ) . Mentally ill people hallucinate , lovers see ugly people as beautiful , and poets create an imaginary world to give life to ideas ( " giving to airy nothing a local habitation and a name "). Fear can make even a normal person in dim light can mistake a bush for a bear . As you read the play , focus on the theme of how emotions , however irrational , color perception . Shakespeare is writing about how fantasy and imagination influence how we see the world , and how we see and behave toward each other . Egeus accuses Lysander of being insincere , and using evil magic to win Hermia ' s love ( I . i . 27 - 32 ) . Actually , it ' s Egeus who ' s fantasizing . Hermia says , " I wish my father looked but with my eyes ", to which Theseus replies " Rather your eyes must with his judgment look " ( I . i . 56 - 57 ) . No two people see the world in the same way . Helena knows Demetrius is a jerk , says he has bad taste in women , etc . , etc . But Helena loves him anyway ( I . i . 226 - 233 ) . She reflects on love ' s blindness and sudden changeability ( 234 - 245 ) . Demetrius , who remains under the influence of the love juice , remarks after talking with Theseus in the woods that he doesn ' t know what he dreamed , and what really happened . Theseus says that even the best theatrical productions are " shadows ", and that imagination can " amend " ( mend , repair ) a bad play so it seems good . Notice that Theseus is himself a character in a play . At the end , Puck invites the audience to believe that , if they didn ' t like the play , they just dreamed it . You will find many more such passages . This would be a good paper topic . In a freshman bull session in 1969 , I was asked how a beautiful lady falling in love with a donkey - headed loud - mouthed fool related to anything at all . I had no good answer . Four years later -- after observing that the most socially successful among my classmates had been the do - nothings and the substance - abusers -- I could have answered eloquently . Hee - haw ! Following Darkness Like a Dream You ' ll need to decide for yourself just how sinister the spiritual powers in " A Midsummer Night ' s Dream " really are . Oberon and Titania have manipulated Theseus and Hippolyta . The boy over whom the fairy king and queen quarrel is the son of an " Indian King " and a " votaress of [ Titania ' s ] order ", evidently a celibate who was forced by a warlord . ( Elsewhere in the play , Oberon calls Queen Elizabeth " the imperial votaress ", because she was supposedly celibate . ) Oberon is simply wrong to demand the child of Titania ' s dedicated servant who died giving him birth . Shakespeare has changed Greek myth to have Oberon assist Theseus in deserting " Perigenia whom he ravished " ( raped , date - raped , took advantage of , or whatever . ) Perigenia is Perigoune ( say peh - ree - gou - NAY ) , daughter of a robber . She hid in an asparagus patch while her father was killed , and afterwards she and Theseus fell in love and had a son who was legendary ancestor of an ancient Greek community . The battle between Oberon and Titania has devastated nature and hurt people . Neither one cares . Note in particular the picture of sheep killed in a flash flood , rotting and being eaten by crows . Puck " misleads night - travelers , laughing at their harm . " This is the will - o - wisp , the eerie light that leads night travellers off the road and into the marsh . Today we suppose that this is swamp gas . The fairies enact a charm around the sleeping Titania , to ward off the ugly and dangerous creatures of the night -- worms , poisonous snakes , spiders , newts , beetles . " Philomel ( a ) " is the nightingale ( some say swallow ) ; her story from classical mythology involves rape , mutilation , and cannibalism . Note that the one sentinel " fairy silently betrays his mistress to Oberon , who says to Titania , " Wake when some vile thing is near . ". Titania tells her fairies to cut the legs off bees and pull the wings off butterflies to create creature comforts for Bottom . Titania tells Bottom , " Thou wilt remain here , whether thou wilt or no . " Puck remarks that only one male human in a million keeps his promises . As the spirit of chaos and unreason , Puck says , " And those things do best please me / That befall preposterously ! " Puck promises to prevent birth defects in the newlyweds ' babies . Can / do the fairies also cause these ? Paradox In " A Midsummer Night ' s Dream ", imagination makes impossible things into reality . Theseus woos Hippoyta " with his sword ". on opposite sides in battle , they fall in love . Enemies become friends ( the mismatched lovers , the families of Pyramis and Thisbe . ) Helena ' s affection for Demetrius seems to make him hate her . Hermia ' s hatred seems to make him love her . In the dream world of the forest , deer chase tigers as Helena pursues Demetrius . Like Demetrius ' s whipped spaniel , Helena grows fonder from mistreatment . Pyramis is white as a lily , red as a rose . Theseus and Hippolyta , describing the hunt , with the hounds sounding random , discordant notes , celebrate the wild , free beauty of chaos . The play - within - a - play is " tragical mirth , merry and tragical , tedious and brief . " The Religious Right Somebody will probably tell you that Bottom is a parody of Puritanism , the Elizabethan version of our own Christian Right . These people sought to " purify " religious practice and popular culture . one item on their political agenda was making theater illegal . The Puritans were unpopular with folks who liked to go to Shakespeare ' s plays . Shakespeare parodies Puritans elsewhere ( do you understand the joke in the opening line of Julius Caesar ? ) The claim that Bottom is a caricature of a Puritan rests on the following : He is a pretentious , loud - mouthed fool ; He gets a donkey head for a while ; He attempts to quote Paul ( " The eye of man has not heard . .."); Commentators will tell you that a disproportionate number of weavers were Puritans . I am not aware of any evidence that this is true . You ' ll need to decide for yourself whether Bottom is a Puritan . Members of the Religious Right would occasionally blast " A Midsummer Night ' s Dream " as " satanic ", etc . , because of the magic and nature spirits . When I first posted this page in 1994 , there were several links ; all have disappeared . Christian Answers -- a conservative Christian site , praises " A Midsummer Night ' s Dream " for its family values . What Does It All Mean ? 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 to expound this dream . - Bottom Don ' t look for a grand metaphysical theory or a system of right living in " A Midsummer Night ' s Dream ", or most other works by Shakespeare . His work mirrors human experience . We will probably not meet Puck and his supernatural companions when we go into the woods . But when we fall in love , or go crazy , or do creative writing , or fall asleep and dream , we enter the realm of the imagination . This happens even when we choose -- as Theseus does -- to look beyond performance at intention . Even if we pride ourselves ( as Lysander does ) on being " rational ", there are important facets of our humanity that are both non - rational and beyond our control . " A Midsummer Night ' s Dream " celebrates this essential fact of life . To include this page in a bibliography , you may use this format : Friedlander ER ( 1999 ) Enjoying " A Midsummer Night ' s Dream " by William Shakespeare Retrieved Dec . 25 , 2003 from http : / / www . pathguy . com / mnd . htm For Modern Language Association sticklers , the name of the site itself is " The Pathology Guy " and the Sponsoring Institution or Organization is Ed Friedlander MD . midsummernightsdream . wma