A Midsummer Night’s Dream 949The Elizabethan era, in which this raucous
comedy was written, took place during the late
European Renaissance, a time when authors and
scholars were rediscovering the texts written during
the ancient classical periods of Greece and Rome.
Shakespeare thus plucks his characters from ancient
Greek mythology and from the Roman poet Ovid’s
recasting of myths in his book-length poem Meta-
morphoses. The playwrights of the day worked under
Elizabeth I’s prohibition against making specific
reference to religion, since she had come to the
throne under historical divisions between Catholics
and Church of England Protestants that had taken
the country through successive bloodbaths and
political intrigue. The midsummer celebration of the
solstice—the longest day of the year—is a festival
that predates Christianity, and so the world of the
play is at a safe remove from real concerns.
The play begins with the duke of Athens, The-
seus, preparing to marry his vanquished foe, Hip-
polyta. Egeus enters, complaining that his daughter
Hermia is refusing to marry her intended bride-
groom, Demetrius; instead, she wants to marry
Lysander. Egeus asks Theseus to compel Hermia to
follow his wishes or to have Hermia die. Theseus
gives Hermia four days to decide if she will comply,
and he offers her the kinder option of going to a
convent rather than being put to death. She and
Lysander decide to run away from Athens to live
at his aunt’s house. They share their scheme with
Hermia’s friend Helena, who is in love with Deme-
trius, and she tells Demetrius what the lovers are
planning.
Next, we are introduced to a group of amateur
actors who are rehearsing a play, Pyramus and
Thisbe, which they hope will be chosen to be per-
formed in celebration of Theseus and Hippolyta’s
wedding. The actors are guildsmen, laborers in a
variety of trades. Nick Bottom, a weaver by trade
and a braggart by character, is given the role of
Pyramus. The female lead, Thisbe, is to be played
by the worker who fixes bellows, Francis Flute.
The rest of the parts are handed out, and the
“mechanicals” (as these actor/guildsmen are called)
plan to rehearse in the woods the next day. Though
well-meaning and romantic, the actors are poorly
educated, and their literal-minded approach to
theater belies their naïveté and ignorance and cre-
ate tremendous humor.
In the meantime, Oberon and Titania, the king
and queen of the fairies, are arguing over an “Indian”
boy whom Titania has adopted. Oberon wants her
to give the boy to him, and to gain the upper hand,
he sends his henchman fairy, Puck, to bring him
magic drops that will cause Titania to fall in love
with the first person she sees when she awakens.
Oberon intends to be that person himself and
thereby persuade Titania to do his bidding.
Bottom, whose group is rehearsing in the woods,
turns out to be the first person Titania sees. She falls
in love with Bottom, who metamorphoses into an
ass (donkey) because Puck has cast a spell over him.
Surrounded by her fairies, Titania woos Bottom.
Hermia and Lysander run away and become lost
in the fairies’ forest. Demetrius and Helena have fol-
lowed the couple, and Oberon has eavesdropped on
the latter pair in the woods. He sends Puck to put
magic drops in Demetrius’s eyes so he will fall in love
with Helena. Puck mistakenly enchants Lysander,
who sees Helena upon awaking and falls in love with
her. Hermia is beside herself at this turn of events,
and Helena simply believes she is being mocked.
Eventually Puck reveals to Oberon his mis-
take in enchanting Lysander, and Oberon charms
Demetrius’s eyes so he will fall in love with Helena.
He has Puck cast a mist over the couples, reversing
Lysander’s spell and causing the lovers to sleep and
forget all that has occurred.
Puck restores Bottom, who returns to town with
a great idea for a new play based on his “dream.”
Oberon takes the Indian boy from the besotted
Titania and lifts the spell from her eyes. She says
she dreamed she loved an ass, and order is restored
to the fairy world.
In the meantime, Theseus, Egeus, and their
party find the waking lovers in the woods. Since
there are now two loving couples, Egeus relents, all
is forgiven, and they return to Athens to celebrate a
triple wedding.
Ellen Rosenbergnature in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Nature is the antithesis of civilization in Wil-
liam Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.