Key points
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play written by William Shakespeare, an English playwright.
The play is a comedy as it contains humour and has a happy ending.
It has three main plot lines: the confused relationships among four lovers, a conflict between a fairy king and queen and a group of amateur actors rehearsing a play.
Video about the plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Watch the following video to learn about the plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
Narrator: This is about how crazy love and lovers can be. Throw in some interfering fairies with magic eye drops and a guy with the head of an ass and you've got something so cooky it can only be Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Let me guess - Athens! He’s Theseus, Duke of Athens. He’s getting married. Everybody’s got wedding fever. Like rabies. Ask Hermia. Her Dad is like ‘marry Demetrius’, or die, and she’s like, ‘Yeah, as if!’. She thinks Demetrius is a jerk. And she loves Lysander. Whereas her best pal Helena loves Demetrius, but he ain’t interested! What a mess! Oh Shakespeare! You so understand!
So, Hermia and Lysander run away together into the woods. With Demetrius and Helena hot-footing it after them. But it’s not just any woods! No! They’re enchanted woods! Oh, here come some bad actors rehearsing a play for the Duke. One of them is called Nick Bottom. Seriously!
Oh look some Fairies! The king’s Oberon, the queen’s Titania, and the guy with the flappy wings is Puck. Cute! Except, how cute is arguing over the custody of an adopted child? Yeah, a little Indian baby! This is so Hollywood! Titania won’t give the baby up, so jealous Oberon asks Puck to make some eye drops that’ll make her fall in love with the first creature she sees. He’s a sore loser. But funny with it.
Puck squirts the potion in Titania’s eyes, and who does she fall in love with? Bottom. And Puck has turned his head into an ass! Meanwhile Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena are still in the woods arguing. Oberon’s got enough magic juice to sort them out… But this so goes wrong.
Oberon tells Puck to put it in Demetrius’ eyes so that he’ll love Helena, but it goes in Lysander’s eyes instead, and when he wakes up, does he see Hermia? No! He sees Helena! Like it wasn’t complicated enough! To solve this crazy situation, Puck puts the juice in Demetrius’ eyes, so that he’ll love Helena. Woah! Remember this started crazy! Just got crazier!
So now both boys are juiced up, it’s totally crazy! Helena’s like this is a sick joke!? And Hermia’s like ‘How could you Helena!’ And the girls totally fall out and the guys want to fight, but over Helena this time! Fairyland is crazy land!
Oberon’s had enough. He brings down a fog to make everyone think they were dreaming. He makes Lysander love Hermia again. Titania lets Oberon have the custody kid, so Oberon stops her going crazy for Bottom. Everybody wakes up thinking it was a crazy dream! Even Bottom stops being an ass!
The Duke appears, blesses the couples, the bad actors perform their play, and everyone gets married! Even these guys. Only joking! At the end Puck says, if you hate this play, then it was all a dream. What? Hey Shakespeare! You’re a lazy hack!
Did you know?
Audiences in Shakespeare’s time were likely to believe in The traditional stories and culture of a group of people.. In English folklore, Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow, is a fairy famous for playing practical jokes.
Plot summary
Main characters
Who are the main characters in A Midsummer Night’s Dream?
There are three main groups of characters in the play:
- The lovers
- The mechanicals
- The fairies
The lovers are Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena. They live in the Greek city of Athens. Hermia and Lysander are in love with each other and want to get married. Helena loves Demetrius, but he doesn’t love her back. Demetrius is in love with Hermia.
The mechanicals are a group of skilled workmen and amateur actors, which include a weaver called Nick Bottom who is famously given the head of a donkey. The mechanicals are comical characters who are preparing to perform a play for the wedding of Theseus, the ruler of Athens, and Hippolyta.
The fairies live in the woods near Athens and use magic to control the events of the play. Oberon and Titania are the king and queen of the fairies. Puck, also known by the name Robin Goodfellow, is the servant of Oberon and is responsible for the confusion among the lovers.
Hermia runs away with Lysander
The play is set in the Greek city of Athens. Everyone in the city is preparing for the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta.
Demetrius and Lysander are both in love with Hermia. Hermia loves Lysander, but her father insists that she marries Demetrius. If she does not marry the man her father chooses, she could be put to death or made to become a nun. Hermia and Lysander secretly run away to get married away from Athens.
Helena loves Demetrius, but he does not love her and wants to marry Hermia. To try and win his favour, Helena tells Demetrius that Hermia has run away with Lysander. Demetrius follows the couple into the woods. Helena follows Demetrius.
The king and queen of the fairies fight over a little boy
Oberon and Titania both want The right to care for and protect someone. of a little boy. Titania is refusing to give the little boy to Oberon. Oberon plans his revenge - he will use a love potion to make Titania fall in love with the first thing she sees. Oberon hopes she will fall in love with a bear, a bull or a monkey. Puck, Oberon’s servant, is sent to find the magic flower to make the love potion.
Who is the little boy Titania and Oberon are fighting over?
The little boy is called a changeling and is from India. A changeling is usually a human child that has been taken by the fairies and a fairy child left in their place. Oberon claims that the boy was the son of an Indian king. Titania tells Oberon that the boy belonged to her friend and was left to her to care for when her friend died.
Video - staging the argument between Oberon and Titania
What is the role of a director in a play?
The director of a play is in charge of all aspects of the performance. They make key decisions on everything from lighting to costumes. While practising the play, the director will tell actors where to stand, how to say their lines and how they should move.
Watch the following video to learn more about how a director might stage the argument between Oberon and Titania in Act 1, scene 2.
Presenter: Here are the directors. 12 divorces, nine law suits and three stints in rehab between them, these guys know what they want and they normally get it. Today they’re looking for innovative ways of staging the fairy fight scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s act two, scene one.
First into the Directors’ Den is set designer Geraldine. She’s hoping her organic depiction of a forest will bring this magical world to life for an audience, as the fairy King Oberon and Queen Titania row over the custody of a child, which influences the main action of the play.
Geraldine: Set in an open air theatre, at night, using real trees and grass on stage, lit only by flame torches and moonlight. The perfect forest setting to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Presenter: Oberon does say they are ‘ill met by moonlight’, so Geraldine might be into something here.
Director 1: Geraldine, I have to admit that would be very atmospheric, and I can see the audience getting involved in the action with such a picturesque setting, there's just one problem, what if it rains?
Geraldine: Oh well, it does state in the script that Oberon’s bad mood affects the weather, so if it were to rain I would simply blame the fairies.
Director 2: Geraldine. A Shakespearean audience might have believed in that sort of thing, but a modern crowd would tell you to get lost.
Director 3: People go to outdoor productions of Shakespeare all the time, I can see this being really engaging.
Director 2: Well not me. I’m not paying to sit in the rain, I’m out.
Presenter: Geraldine let down by the elements there. Will designer Steve fare any better with his inventive vision for the scene?
Actor: I do but beg a little changeling boy to be my henchman.
Actress: Set your heart at rest, the fairyland buys not the child of me.
Director 1: Steve, using the smoke to represent the contagious fog and bad weather brought on by Oberon’s temper was inspired.
Steve: Thanks very much.
Director 3: Hi Steve, it’s Peter, I like the way you use the darkness to your advantage, and Oberon is certainly a creature of the night. Well done. Tell me, how did you get the idea for torches?
Steve: Well I use ‘em a lot for my other job, I work nights.
Director 1: That’s lovely, and what is it you do Steve?
Steve: I’m a burglar.
Presenter: Next into the Directors’ Den is young designer Walter, the Directors seem unsure if Walter has an exciting idea, or simply no idea at all.
Director 3: So Walter, let me just get this straight, this is just a spotlight, there is no actual set? The audience will have to use their imagination?
Walter: Well that’s correct, just a fairy glow about the stage. This whole play could be a dream, so why not let the audience use their imagination.
Director 1: Do you know what I think? I think it’s cracking, this imagination business. I see it having a really eerie effect on the audience appropriate to the strange and magical fairies in the play, and, it would save a fortune on set design, actually, that’s a point, how much does nothing cost?
Walter: Five million pounds.
Director 2: How on earth did you come up with that figure?
Walter: Used my imagination.
Director 2: Well Walter. Imagine this. I’m out.
Walter: Okay.
Who is the director of the play the mechanicals are rehearsing?
In A Midsummer Night’s Dream there is a ‘play within a play’ as the mechanicals prepare to perform the play Pyramus and Thisbe to celebrate the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta. The director of this play is Peter Quince, who gives roles to the other mechanicals and tries to organise their chaotic rehearsals.
Puck muddles up the lovers and causes havoc with a love potion
Oberon watches the lovers argue in the woods and sees Demetrius cruelly rejecting Helena. Oberon tells Puck to put some love potion in Demetrius’ eyes so he will return Helena’s love.
Puck mixes up Demetrius and Lysander and accidently puts the love potion in Lysander’s eyes. When Lysander wakes, the first person he sees is Helena and he instantly falls in love with her. When Puck realises his mistake, he puts the potion in Demetrius’ eyes, and he falls in love with Helena too.
Now both men love Helena and neither of them love Hermia. Hermia is furious and blames Helena. Helena is confused and thinks the men are mocking her.
Bottom gets the head of a donkey and Titania falls in love with him
Puck secretly watches the mechanicals rehearse their play and enjoys their silly behaviour. When one of the mechanicals, Nick Bottom, is separated from his friends, Puck transforms his human head into a donkey’s head.
His strange appearance frightens the other mechanicals and they run away. Puck then puts love potion in Titania’s eyes. She is woken by Bottom singing to himself, and when she sees him she instantly falls in love with him.
Who is Bottom?
Nick Bottom is a mechanical and one of the funniest characters in the play. During the rehearsals he is so enthusiastic he keeps volunteering to play all the roles. Bottom is also the only character from the human world to see and talk to the fairies.
Video - Rehearsing Titania pampering Bottom
Watch the following video about how a director might stage the scene in which Titania pampers Bottom.
Presenter: Hello and welcome to The Big Scene. We’re at rehearsals for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It’s Act 4, scene 1, and fairy magic has been transforming Bottom and just won’t stop. The challenge facing the director today? How can this player be made to look like a right donkey? She’s got options, but it’s a big ask. Can she pull it off on this team’s budget? She’s got great vision this director, but this has got to be convincing for the crowd and still allow for a great performance from the player.
Director: Okay, let’s run it from the top guys.
Titania: Hm, what wilt though hear some music my sweet love.
Presenter: Oh it’s a full change of kit there, he certainly looks the part, but I’m not sure he can see where he’s going.
Bottom: …hearing music, let’s have the tongs and the bones.
Presenter: And no-one can hear him!
They’re at complete sixes and sevens out there, mayhem.
Bottom: This is ridiculous, I can’t see anything and he keeps moving when he shouldn’t be.
Presenter: Oh! Fielding an extra player? That's not in the rule book, at least not in my copy, and they are in serious danger of turning this performance into a right old pantomime.
Bottom: I have a reasonable ear in music.
Presenter: Well, now, this is a classic Bottom tactic, and arguably it gets the job done, but are we getting the best performance out of this chap where we can’t see his face? And the heat is really getting to him.
Bottom: I pray you, let none of your people stir me. I have an exposition of sleep come upon me.
Presenter: Ha ha ha ha nice comic delivery, and his team mates can really see the effort he’s putting in, and so will the crowd. He’s got a clear field of vision, and for sheer entertainment this tactic really scores.
Director: Okay, that's good. Just want to try something else.
Presenter: But hold on, this director is still tinkering. She’s definitely a perfectionist, and she wants to get one more kick out of thisdonkey. Well, it’s controversial.
Bottom: Methinks I have a great desire for a bottle of hay. Good hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.
Director: Do the whinny!
Presenter: By jove, I think she’s done it. The director has stripped it right back and gone for pure performance, and judging by the reaction of his team mates, he’s really hoofed it.
Bottom: What? You want me to eat that?
Extra: Yes.
Presenter: He’s handled the constant change in tactics really well, but just look at his face, it’s not attractive.
Bottom: Oi!
Presenter: But what a great ass.
Oberon puts things right and wins the little boy from Titania
Oberon and Puck reverse the effects of the love potion on Titania, Demetrius and Lysander. Oberon puts all the lovers to sleep and when they wake everything is in order - Lysander loves Hermia and Demetrius loves Helena.
Titania gives up the little boy to Oberon and they are united once more. All the characters wake up and think they have had a strange dream.
The lovers get married and Bottom’s friends perform a play
The united lovers, Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena, return to Athens and are married alongside Theseus and Hippolyta.
The mechanicals perform their play, which is meant to be a tragic love story about Pyramus and Thisbe. The guests find the play very amusing, and everyone laughs at the terrible acting and silly props.
Did you know?
Shakespeare often included references to acting and the theatre in the plots of his plays. It would have amused the audience to see a play being performed within a play. It also gave Shakespeare the chance to make jokes about acting and actors.
The fairies bless the marriages
At the end of the play, everyone is happy and order is restored. Oberon and Titania bless all the married couples. Puck delivers the last lines of the play directly to the audience. He hopes the audience have enjoyed the play, but if not, he says that they can pretend it was all a dream.
Activity - Put the events in order
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