Summary Example

Summary of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is an amazing play written by William Shakespeare. This play has a combination of the human world and the fairy world. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is about six pairs of lovers and the complications of love are one key theme. Some of the other themes supporting it are magic, power and jealousy.

At the start of A Midsummer Night’s Dream five pairs of lovers are introduced: these are Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena, Demetrius and Hermia and Theseus and Hippolyta the duke and duchess of Athens. In the royal hall in act 1 scene 1, power emerges as an important factor. Hermia’s father has power over her, as daughters are considered as the father’s property and if they do not obey the father’s orders, they die or become a nun. Hermia is in a very difficult situation. Since power controls everything, true love is seen to be at odds with ‘power’. This is clear in that Demetrius can marry Hermia because he got Hermia’s father Egeus’s permission, but her true love, Lysander, is thwarted. In Act 1, Scene 2, a group of workmen are preparing to perform a play called ‘The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe’. Pyramus and Thisbe are also a pair of lovers, thus expanding on the theme of love. The workmen are a positive team and each of them has different personalities. Their personalities, strengths and weaknesses suggest their appropriate part and roles in the team. Quince is considered the leader of the group and Bottom is the ‘fun guy’ of the group. Bottom is so enthusiastic and energetic that the team might botch the play because he confuses the group.

Act 2 Scene 1, the fairy world is introduced containing magic. The audience will later find the key symbol and object of the fairy world is the love juice which can make people fall in love with the first living thing they see. Puck, a junior partner to the king of fairies, Oberon, reveals a scene when he and his wife, the queen of fairies, Titania, argue over an Indian boy. Oberon wants the boy raised and cared for by Titania to become his shepherd. Titania angrily leaves with her train and Oberon is frustrated as Titania has not obeyed his order. He decides to punish Titania by dropping love juice into her eyes and Puck transforms Bottom’s head into a donkey head. Titania wakes and sees Bottom and eventually falls in love with him. Oberon meets Demetrius and Helena in the forest and decides to make him fall in love with Helena. However, Puck mixes up Lysander and Demetrius and drops the love juice into Lysander’s eyes, thus causing Lysander to fall in love with Helena. Puck and Oberon later drop the love juice into Demetrius’s eyes but when he wakes up he sees Helena. Helena thinks they are making fun of her and Hermia thinks Helena has stolen Lysander.

In Act 4, the sun rises and Oberon realises that he was wrong and removes the spell from Titania. Theseus, Egeus and Hippolyta are hunting and see the four lovers and wake them. They remember the absurd night but they confirm their true attractions as Lysander is in love with Hermia but Demetrius finally found his true love Helena. The two best friends reconcile and even Demetrius and Lysander become good friends. Also, Bottom wakes up and decides to share his ‘Dream’ from the previous night. ‘The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was,’ Bottom tells the audience in a monologue. He does not have time to share it all and life continues. In the end Quince and his team of craftsmen perform their terrible play for the married couples and everyone is happy. On the night of the wedding party, the moon is shining brightly. Throughout the play, the moon is like a bystander judging and reflecting the mood of the play. The moon is a positive symbol rendering love possible but also a negative symbol when Theseus tells Hermia that as a ‘barren sister (a nun), she will spend her life ‘chanting hymns to the cold fruitless moon’. Shakespeare seems to suggest that, as with the moon, life and love are complex and multi-sided

In conclusion, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a classic text that has influenced many romantic plays and films which similarly end with the best outcome following many challenges provoking growth in the characters. The lovers in A Midsummer Night’s Dream learn that love contains sweetness but also pain. In this way, A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a great play that reflects real life. Through the play, Shakespeare postulates love deprives a person’s clear sight and clear thought. He shows in the play the truth of real life that it is often not right or wrong in life.

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