A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of the most widely popular plays by William Shakespeare, written in the 1590’s. It’s the story of four star crossed lovers, with various sub-plots regarding fairies in the forest, and an acting troupe whose leaders becomes involved with them in their mischief. The Athenian lovers are Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena. The other characters of higher rank in the story are Egeus, father of Hermia, Theseus, the Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, and Theseus’s betrothed. The characters of lower class are Philostrate, the Master of Revels for Theseus, and the acting troupe known as The Mechanicals. They are Peter Quince, the leader, Nick Bottom –who will later be Titania’s lover, Francis Flute, Robin Starveling, Tom Snout, and Snug. The supernatural characters are Titania, the fairy queen, Oberon, and the illustrious and mischievous character Puck; who almost seems to have his own agenda. The lesser fairies are Titania’s fairy servants, First Fairy, Cobweb, Moth, Peaseblossom, and Mustardseed.
In the opening scene, Hermia and her father are fighting because Hermia refuses to marry the man Egeus, her father, has chosen for her; Demetrius. Egeus then reminds Hermia that a daughter must either comply with her father’s wishes or face death. Theseus happens to be there, and not wishing to see the young girl put to death, offers her the third option of becoming a nun. Hermia is instead in love with Lysander, and plans to run away that night into the woods. She tells her best friend Helena before the two run off. However, Helena who is in love with Hermia’s intended, Demetrius, was recently spurned by him. Helena hopes to win his favor back when she tells him of Hermia’s escape. Demetrius follows Hermia and Lysander into the woods, and Helena follows after Demetrius.
Meanwhile, Oberon and Titania meet in the simultaneous setting of Fairy Land and the woods in Athens. Titania and Oberon are estranged from one another because Titania refuses to give up a changeling boy who was recently orphaned when his mother, one of Titania’s obedient worshippers, died. Oberon planned to use the boy as a knight or henchman, and to punish Titania for disobedience, he calls on Puck. Oberon sends Puck to apply the juice of a flower called love-in-idleness to Titania’s eyelids while she sleeps, in order to make her fall in love with some animal in the forest. As Oberon watches Demetrius treat Helena cruelly, he also orders Puck to apply the elixir to Demetrius’ eyes while he sleeps.
Eventually the entire situation erupts into varying levels of confusion and lovers’ quarrels. In the end however, Demetrius is in love properly with Helena, and Hermia and Lysander are once more in love with each other as well. The lovers are discovered by Theseus and Hippolyta in the morning, and since Demetrius no longer loves Hermia, Theseus overrules the demands of Egeus. The quarrel between Oberon and Titania is resolved when she is distracted with her half-donkey lover, and has given the Indian changeling boy casually over to Oberon. Afterwards, he releases her, and the fairies disperse. The Theseus and Hippolyta hold a group wedding in which the other two couples are wed with them.