# A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare - Blinkist

What’s in it for me? Get to know the lighter side of the Bard with a trip to the woodland realm of mischievous fairies.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream sits at an earlier point in Shakespeare’s career, where some scholars believe he was more captivated by lyricism than by intricate plotting.

Indeed, one of the play’s most striking features is its poetic language – especially the fairies, who speak entirely in rhyming verse.

Yet the play’s enduring popularity isn’t due to its poetry alone.

It has stood the test of time as one of Shakespeare’s most accessible and broadly appealing works – a lighthearted farce that involves not just a love triangle, but a full-blown love quadrangle.

Because of its playful tone and engaging characters, it’s often the first Shakespearean play that students encounter in school.

Still, as we’ll explore in the sections ahead, there’s much more going on beneath the surface than its whimsical exterior might suggest.

Act One: "The course of true love never did run smooth"

As the play begins, Theseus has got a lot on his plate.

To start with, he’s the Duke of Athens and he’s about to get married to Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons.

And the hour of this grand wedding is nigh.

But before the festivities can begin, Theseus has to deal with Egeus, who’s come to the Duke “full of vexation.

” The problem is, Egeus’s daughter, Hermia, is in love with the wrong man.

In a scene that resembles a quick mock trial, Egeus presents Demetrius, a man of means who has professed his love of Hermia.

And then he points to Hermia’s supposed ‘true love’, Lysander, a man both Egeus and Demetrius believe to be cunning and deceitful, and who they believe has bewitched his daughter and turned her against her father.

But this isn’t your average love triangle.

The stakes are much higher.

Egeus is presenting this whole affair to the Duke with the intention of exercising his right under Athenian law that, as a father, he may have his daughter executed if she does not obey his wishes.

Theseus listens to Hermia and Lysander’s side of the story, but ultimately upholds the law.

He tells Hermia that she has until the day of his own wedding to Hippolyta to make up her mind.

As he puts it, “Upon that day either prepare to die for disobedience to your father’s will,” or “fit your fancies to your father’s will.

” But not wanting to be cruel, Theseus also suggests that, perhaps, if she doesn’t marry Demetrius but makes a vow to remain single for the rest of her life, they can avoid the unpleasantness of an execution.

After everyone leaves, Lysander quickly reveals his plan to Hermia: let’s run off together.

His aunt has a home where they’ll be safe and far enough away that the long arm of the Athenian law won’t reach them.

Hermia agrees, and so they plan to flee Athens tomorrow night.

But just as the plan is hatched, the lovers cross paths with Helena, a friend who is miserable due to her unrequited love for Demetrius.

Hoping to lift her spirits, Hermia confides in her – perhaps unwisely – that by the next day, Demetrius will be free to love Helena, since she and Lysander will be gone.

Unfortunately, this backfires, as scene one ends with Helena hatching a plan of her own: she’ll betray their secret to Demetrius in hopes of winning his affection.

As the second scene begins, the focus shifts.

We’re introduced to a group of amateur actors preparing a play for Theseus and Hippolyta’s wedding, a tragic romance titled Pyramus and Thisbe.

Shakespeare, ever fond of plays-within-plays, uses this device to mirror the main plot.

The doomed lovers of Pyramus and Thisbe echo Hermia and Lysander’s predicament – and foreshadow Romeo and Juliet, which Shakespeare was writing around the same time.

This subplot also brings a dose of comedy.

Leading the troupe is the overconfident Nick Bottom, a weaver who’s been cast as Pyramus but insists he could play every role in the production.

Bottom gets reigned in, however, and the director tells his troupe that they will begin rehearsal tomorrow night in the woods by the Duke’s palace.

It should be noted that all of the actors in this amateur theater group are what Shakespeare calls “mechanics”.

Bottom is a weaver, the rest of the group is made up of a carpenter, a joiner, a bellows-mender, a tinker, and a tailor.

This is, of course, a significant shift in terms of the class structure of the time, contrasting with both the noble Athenians and, as we’ll soon see, the supernatural fairies.

These three groups – the aristocratic Athenians, the laborers, and the God-like magical beings – form the layered world of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, each bringing its own energy, perspective, and purpose to the story.

Act Two: “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind…”

Act Two starts by taking us into the fairy world that appears to coexist in the woods near the Duke’s palace.

At first we meet a couple of underlings, one fairy who does the bidding of Titania, the queen of the fairies, and the mischievous Puck, a.

k.

a Robin Goodfellow, who does the bidding of Oberon, the king of the fairies.

Soon, both Queen Titania and King Oberon arrive on the scene, and it turns out that these two aren’t on the best of terms.

There’s a good amount of jealousy going on, with Titania being fond of Theseus and Oberon carrying a love for Hippolyta – so both are tense about the upcoming wedding.

But Titania is also in possession of a changeling child that Oberon wants to include among his minions.

Titania refuses.

“Not for thy fairy kingdom,” she says before leaving.

So the disgruntled Oberon begins to scheme.

Oberon tells Puck about a magical flower, turned purple by Cupid’s magic.

When the juice from this flower is dropped into the eyes of a sleeping person, they will fall madly in love with the first creature they see upon waking up – be it human or animal.

He tells Puck to fetch this flower so that he may use it on Titania.

Once under the spell of the magic, and likely in love with some forest creature, Oberon will then present her with the cure to break the spell, but only in exchange for the magical child he covets.

But, just then, while Puck is off retrieving the flower, Demetrius and Helena arrive in the woods.

Helena is desperately, and rather pathetically, throwing herself at Demetrius, while Demetrius is pleading with Helena to leave him alone, as he is only interested in finding Hermia and Lysander before they get away.

Oberon observes this spectacle and seems to take pity on poor Helena.

After the bickering humans are gone, Puck returns with the flower.

Oberon now tells his faithful servant that he too should use the flower to "anoint" the eyes of Demetrius so that he will fall in love with Helena.

So Oberon sends him off to find the Athenian couple wandering the woods while he proceeds to use the flower on the sleeping Titania.

We then catch up with Hermia and Lysander, who are pausing their escape through the woods to catch some much needed rest.

Now, of course, is when Puck enters the scene believing Hermia and Lysander to be Helena and Demetrius, and therefore dropping the magical botanical liquid on the eyes of Lysander.

Puck then quickly exits, only for Demetrius and Helena to come through.

Just as Helena finally runs out of steam and stops chasing Demetrius, she comes upon the sleeping Lysander, wakes him up and ends up being the first creature he sees.

When Lysander is suddenly in love with her, however, she thinks this must be some kind of cruel joke, so she runs off – with the smitten Lysander following right on her heels.

And so endeth Act Two.

Act Three: "Lord, what fools these mortals be!"

At the start of Act Three, we drop in on the practicing theater troupe, who are rehearsing their play in the woods right next to the sleeping fairy queen, Titania.

Puck watches the actors and decides to cast a spell on Nick Bottom, giving him the head of a donkey, which frightens the rest of the actors away.

So, the ass-headed Bottom is alone and, as Puck would have it, the first thing Titania sees when she awakens.

Bottom is now treated as if he were the new king of the fairies, with Titania promising him jewels and ordering the fairy-people she commands to serve his every whim and desire.

Meanwhile, Oberon and Puck observe an angry Hermia, who has caught up with Demetrius and is yelling at him, convinced that he has either kidnapped or somehow harmed her beloved Lysander.

Demetrius pleads ignorance on the whereabouts of his romantic rival, and Oberon realizes that Puck has worked the flower’s magic on the wrong Athenian man and so orders Puck to find Helena.

Demetrius, exhausted from endlessly walking the woods, lies down to rest.

Once asleep, Oberon drops the flower juice on his eyes and, just like that, Helena and Lysander reenter the scene.

Lysander is still chasing after Helena, professing his love.

But Helena spots Demetrius, and being the first thing he sees upon waking, is suddenly in love with Helena as well.

Now, with two men fighting over her, she’s only twice as confused, thinking both men are teasing her.

She cries out, “O spite!

O hell!

I see you all are bent to set against me for your merriment.

” This includes Hermia, who soon arrives, and is excited to finally find her beloved Lysander.

But alas, Lysander is not so happy to see her.

Hermia is rightfully confused when her lover starts professing his love for Helena.

She’s left wondering, is Lysander a two-timing creep, or has Helena done something cruel to her out of spite?

It’s safe to say that chaos ensues as all four comically bicker and fight.

Oberon recognizes the mess he’s made and orders Puck to break the love spell by dropping a crushed herb into Lysander’s eye.

And so, after all four of the confused lovers wearily fall asleep in the woods, Puck puts the herb in Lysander’s eyes, and Act Three draws to a close.

Act Four: "I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was."

Act Four opens with the fairy king Oberon and his devoted Puck observing the strange, lovey-dovey romance between Titania and the donkey-headed Bottom, who wouldn’t mind some fresh hay to munch on and a barber to tend to his hairy face.

Oberon tells Puck that he recently met with the Queen of the fairies, taunted her about her affair with Bottom, and was able to get the changeling child that he desired.

But now, he feels wrong about all of his meddling and takes pity on Titania’s situation.

So, once she falls asleep, Oberon puts the herbal remedy in Titania’s eyes and tells Puck to reverse the spell on Bottom.

As the sun begins to rise, Oberon and Titania exit, hand-in-hand, with Titania asking, in a far more poetic fashion, “what the heck happened last night?

” With dawn having broken, we find Theseus, Hippolyta, and Egeus having formed a search party for the missing foursome.

It doesn’t take long before they find them all peacefully sleeping in the forest together.

Upon being woken, Lysander admits that he and Hermia went into the woods to escape the dire fate of Athenian law.

Then Demetrius explains that although he went into the woods with Helena to stop the two lovers, “my love to Hermia, melted as the snow… The object and the pleasure of mine eye, is only Helena…” At this moment Theseus steps up and puts the matter to rest.

He overrides Egeus’s will and pronounces the matter resolved.

The two unions shall receive his blessing and tonight a feast shall be had in celebration of three marriages.

Still, Lysander, Hermia, Helena and Demetrius remain somewhat confused, as if they were perhaps still stuck in some strange dream.

Meanwhile, Bottom wakes up, returned to his former human-headed self, but also left with a strange feeling.

Though he can’t quite make sense of what he’s experienced, he’s oddly thrilled by it.

Inspired, he decides the strange dream might make a fine ballad – one he hopes to perform for the Duke himself.

Soon after, he rejoins his fellow actors, who are both relieved and delighted to see him.

With the wedding celebration fast approaching, they know full well that only Bottom can bring the role of Pyramus to life.

Act Five: “ So shall all the couples three ever true in loving be.”

The final act begins with Theseus and Hippolyta discussing the strange stories that have come from the young lovers.

Theseus dismisses the accounts as another example of young minds being warped by love.

In his mind, the lunatic, the lover, and poet – all are prone to the same wild fantasies.

Turning to the evening’s entertainment, the Duke scans a list of performances and selects Pyramus and Thisbe.

This choice comes despite the objections of Philostrate, the Master of the Revels, who warns that the rehearsal he witnessed was nothing short of dreadful.

Philostrate tells Theseus that the actors are all laborers by trade.

As he puts it, “Hard-handed men that work in Athens here, which never labour’d in their minds till now.

” But something about this appeals to Theseus, so he assures Philostrate that this is, indeed, the entertainment he desires.

The Duke explains his reasoning more to Hipollyta by saying, “The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing.

Our sport shall be to take what they mistake: and what poor duty cannot do, noble respect takes it in might, not merit.

” He appreciates the honesty of “tongue-tied simplicity” over studied eloquence.

What follows is essentially a demonstration of Theseus’s philosophy.

As Nick Bottom and the rest of the amateur troupe perform Pyramus and Thisbe, Hippolyta and the young lovers frequently mock the clumsy acting, awkward costumes, and laughable script.

But Theseus counters their critiques, suggesting that there’s value in the players’ earnestness – that their efforts, however flawed, deserve appreciation.

Indeed, by the end of the play, when both Pyramus and Thisbe have killed themselves – due to circumstances that closely resemble Romeo and Juliet’s – others aside from Theseus seem to have grown to appreciate the drama’s tragedy.

The actors are “very notably discharged” by Theseus, who then instructs the newlyweds that it’s time for bed.

The play then ends with Puck, Oberon, and Titania introducing a moment of song and dance and giving their blessing to those in the Duke’s palace.

Then Puck steps forward alone, breaking the fourth wall to speak directly to the audience.

In his final lines, he suggests that perhaps everything we’ve just witnessed has been nothing more than a dream.

Final summary

So, what is A Midsummer Night’s Dream all about?

Well, there are a lot of differing theories on this – in fact, there are multiple conflicting opinions on just how many nights the lovers actually spend in the forest.

Is it one night?

Four nights?

Who’s to say.

Like a lot of Shakespeare’s plays, much is left open to interpretation.

And maybe it isn’t such a good idea to take a literal-minded approach to the play, especially since the title – and Puck’s final words – suggest that much of what transpired might be operating under dream logic.

That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of commentary to be extracted from the text.

A lot of what transpires has to do with the nature of love as well as what is reality and what is illusion.

The play seems to be asking, when it comes to who we fall in love with, is there a difference – and are we really in control?

Is desire rational or, more often than not, irrational?

In many ways, Shakespeare plays with the two sides of every argument and tries to have it both ways.

Through the scheming of the fairies, he shows the chaotic, irrational side of love, but in the end, he shows that we’re at our happiest when our love finds a rational order that is not in conflict with the greater good and the happiness of others.

Likewise, with Theseus and Nick Bottom, Shakespeare shows a sort of nobility to both sides of the class divide.

Theseus is a very noble sort of monarch.

He wants to uphold the rule of law, but he also doesn’t want to see anyone suffer.

When Demetrius falls in love with Helena, he jumps at the opportunity to resolve the matter in a way that leaves everyone, except perhaps Hermia’s father, quite happy.

In that way, Theseus can even be seen as the kind of monarch that would happily undermine the patriarchy when he can get away with it.

But perhaps more interesting is Theseus’s openness and appreciation to the art being made by the laborers of the working class.

Nick Bottom is at first presented as, well, a bit of an ass.

He’s conceited, thinking himself perfectly suited to play every role in the play.

But at the same time, as an actor and a weaver, he’s the character best suited to travel between the worlds and multiple identities that the other characters struggle with.

When he becomes donkey-headed and treated like a king by the Queen of the fairies, he takes it all in stride.

Rather than coming out of the woods confused, he emerges inspired, as a true artist would.

Maybe this is what’s most clever about A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Shakespeare made a farcical comedy that would appeal to everyone.

We can all laugh at the fairies toying with the young lovers.

But for the aristocrats in the audience, there’s the noble figure of Theseus, and for the average theater-goer there’s the more relatable heroics of Bottom, who gets to be wooed by the fairy Queen and given a thumbs-up by the Duke.

Not bad for a not-so-humble weaver from Athens.

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