A Midsummer Night's Dream

A Midsummer Night's Dream

 

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play written by William Shakespeare. It is a comedy believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. This play is one of William Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage it is preformed throughout the world.

 

About The Play

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedic play about four people from Athens, Demetrius, Helena, Hermia and Lysander. At first the two men love Hermia but Hermia only loves Lysander. Helena loves Demetrius, but of course he doesn't love her back as he loves Hermia. The confusion in the play starts when a magical creature named Robin Goodfellow (Puck) uses magic to try to make Demetrius love Helena back, only he gets the wrong guy and he makes Lysander fall in love with Helena instead. He tries to fix the mess and does make Demetrius fall in love with Helena but now both of the men love Helena and neither loves Hermia.  Almost everyone is miserable until Robin finally resolves the mix up and the four Athenians pair off into couples, Lysander with Hermia and Demetrius with Helena, making everyone happy.

 

Puck &  Oberon

 

Puck- 

 

Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow, is Oberon’s jester a mischievous small creature who is clever and enjoys tricking mortals (humans). Puck is introduced in the play as the "shrewd and knavish sprite" and "that merry wanderer of the night" in some scenes it seems he is longing for freedom.

 

"Lord, what fools these mortals be!"

 

Oberon- 

 

Oberon is the King of all of the Fairies who is having an argument with his wife, Titania, the Queen of Fairies. Oberon's personality has two sides. On one side he is kind and  ensures that the proper lovers end up together by the end of the comedic play. He shows sympathy for the poor woman, Helena and causes Demetrius to fall in love with her. As the ruler of the spirit world he also brings blessing of peace and health to the future families of the newlyweds. On the other side though he is not so kind and shows more of his argumentative emotions towards Titania.  

 

"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania"

 

Lysander & Titania

 

Lysander- 

Lysander is a young man from Athens, in love with a woman named Hermia. Lysander’s relationship with Hermia is full of uncertainties and invokes the theme of love’s difficulty: he cannot marry her openly because Egeus, her father, wishes her to marry Demetrius. Egeus complains about Lysander and the bad influence he has on his daughter but, determined to keep his love, Lysander asks Hermia to elope into the forest with him.

 

Titania-

Titania is the Queen of Fairies and Oberon's wife. They are both in an intense argument about this Indian prince and as Oberon and Titania both have proud and mighty characters this argument causes a mix up and confusion of some other characters in the play. This mix up is done by a creature named Puck, who is the servant of Oberon. Titania magically falls in love with a person named Nick Bottom who has been given the head of a donkey by Puck, who feels it suits his character better.