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Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed

A Midsummer Night's Dream

by William Shakespeare

1595

Drama

Comedy

On a magical Midsummer Eve, two lovers, Hermia and Lysander, flee parental constraint and arrive in an enchanted forest where the activities of humans and fairies collide.

Four distinct circles of characters meet and overlap in this comedy of marriage, merriment, magic, and imagination. The occasion is the marriage of Duke Theseus of Athens to the Amazon Queen, Hippolyta. As lawgiver, Theseus must settle a romantic dispute. The young lovers Hermia and Lysander want to marry, but Hermia's father wants her to wed Demetrius instead. Helena, Hermia's dearest friend, loves Demetrius. Theseus supports the father's stance: Hermia is told to marry Demetrius or else decide between a nunnery and death.

Rather than obey, Hermia flees with Lysander. Demetrius sets off in pursuit of his betrothed, while the infatuated Helena follows. Far from the strictured world of court and city, the four lose themselves in a dream-dominated, spirit-haunted wood. The forest spirits are divided by a quarrel between Oberon, the king of the fairies, and his queen Titania. The dissension soon entangles the human lovers as well.

Oberon gives the mischievous sprite Puck a vial of magic potion to sprinkle into the eyes of Titania so that when she wakes she will be enamored of whomever she first sees. The fairy queen wakes to fall in love with Bottom, a weaver who has ventured into the wood with his fellow mechanicals to practice their play of Pyramus and Thisbe. Bottom, given an ass's head by the madcap Puck, is comic indeed. The sight of Titania caressing and crooning over this farcical monster softens Oberon, who frees her from the spell and sets the other lovers to rights.

With harmony in fairyland comes harmony in Athens. Out early, Theseus and Hippolyta come upon the waking lovers, and Theseus decides to overturn his first decision and pair the lovers as they desire. The comedy concludes with the three marriages solemnized, the long-awaited performance of Bottom and his fellow actors, and the fairies' blessing on the human couples.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Shakespeare, William. "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed, edited by Editors of Salem Press, Salem Press, 2015. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=6CR_0339.
APA 7th
Shakespeare, W. (2015). A Midsummer Night's Dream. In E. Salem Press (Ed.), Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Shakespeare, William. "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Edited by Editors of Salem Press. Recommended Reading: 600 Classics Reviewed. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2015. Accessed September 15, 2025. online.salempress.com.