Analysis of "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

Act 1 scene 1

This book begins with the King of Athens, Theseus, talking about the marriage of him and his soon-to-be wife, Hippolyta. He talks about how eager he is to get married in 4 days. While talking about his marriage, Egeus, the father of the lovely Hermia, enters with Lysander, Demetrius, and Hermia herself. Egeus starts to complain to the king of his stubborn daughter and how she is in love with Lysander, when he, Egeus, wishes for her to marry Demetrius. Demetrius is in love with the Hermia, but the feeling is not mutual. Egeus goes on to tell Theseus about Demetrius?s actions to win the hand of his daughter. Egeus begs the king to tell Hermia of her wrong choice and goes on to explain that if she did not abide by his rules, then he would put death upon her. Theseus then turns to Hermia and asks of her opinion, also stating that Demetrius is a noble man. Hermia retorts by saying that Lysander, too, is a noble man. Theseus tells her that to marry Demetrius is the wish of her father and that Demetrius was the more worthier of the two. Hermia explains that she is ready for the worst that is to come because she refuses to wed Demetrius. Theseus then lists of possible roads that she can take if she refuses to wed Demetrius. To become a nun, and never have anything to do with men again, or to take death. By the end of their conversation, Theseus tells Hermia that he will give her until the next new moon (after his wedding day) to make a decision. Demetrius then steps forward and tells Hermia that marrying him would be better than to die and then tells Lysander to back down. Lysander sarcastically states that he, Demetrius has the love of Hermia?s father and should marry him instead, and leave Hermia. They start to quarrel about their own good qualities, and finally, everyone exits but Lysander and Hermia. They talk for a while, then, they make a plan to meet with each other the next night in the woods and they will run away together, never facing this torment again. Helena now enters the scene and confronts Hermia of Demetrius, since Helena is in love with him. They start to talk about how, Hermia looks down upon him and scorns him, but he loves her more, but when Helena dotes upon him, he turns away. But Hermia reassures Helena that she won?t have to compete with her anymore, since she is running away with Lysander. Hermia and Lysander exit and Helena is left alone. She promises herself that she is going to make Demetrius love her, since now, she is the fairest (now that Hermia is gone). She exits.

Act 1 Scene 2

Men from the village enter in to the story in this scene. They are Quince the carpenter, Snug the joiner, Bottom the weaver, Flute the bellows-mender, Snout the tinker, and Starveling the tailor. Quince, who seems to be the leader of this group, asks if everyone is present, and hands out a script for the play, Pyramus and Thisbe, which is a romantic play, which they will be acting out on the wedding day of the King Theseus and Hippolyta. Quince assigns parts to all the men, while Bottom, boastfully wants to take on all the parts himself. But the group tells him that he can play Pyramus and Pyramus only. He eventually takes the part, and then they all agree to meet in the woods the next night to rehearse their play, in secret, so that no one knows of the plot. They all say their farewells and exit.

Act 2 Scene 1

In the beginning of this act, a fairy (with no known name) and a henchman (of the King of Fairies), named Robin Goodfellow, or Puck, enter on to the scene. Robin asks the fairy questions of why she is there and she explains that she is on an errand for the queen of fairies. The fairy recognizes Robin and asks him if he is truly the mischievous sprite of the fairy king. He does not deny it and explains that he lives to serve his king.

The king and queen of the fairies then enter the scene, the king being Oberon and the Queen, Titania (They were once in love but Titania fell out of love with Oberon). They are both followed by their own group of fairies and they are both very ?arrogant? to each other. They start to talk about the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta and how they brought them together, also bringing up the subject of a little Indian boy that Oberon wants as his henchman, but the boy was the son of a dear friend of Titania?s that died, so she was raising him now. And so she refused to give him to Oberon to make his servant. Titania exits. Oberon then talks to Robin of a story where Cupid accidentally shot one of his arrows the wrong way and it hit a western flower, which was milk white, but now purple with the wound of the love from the bow. He then orders Robin to go fetch that flower, for if the nectar of that flower is placed on the eyes of a sleeping person, the first thing they see will be the thing that they fall madly in love with, even if it?s the ugliest thing in the world. Robin exits to fetch the flower. Oberon then goes over the plan that he has, and that is to squeeze the juice of this flower in to Titania when she is asleep and make her fall head over heels for something ugly and when she goes to sleep again, he shall put the juice once more in her eyes and make her fall in love with him again, showing just how good he is compared to someone else, that is less. But then Helena and Demetrius enter the scene, and backs away to watch them.

Demetrius and Helena are having a quarrel, Demetrius telling her to stop chasing after him, and Helena telling him not to run away, saying how much she loves him. After their little fight, Demetrius exits. Then Helena makes a vow that she will follow him wherever he goes and she too, then exits. Robin Goodfellow then comes back on to the scene after fetching the flower and gives it to Oberon. Oberon then tells Robin about what he had just witnessed with the two humans and orders Robin to do something about it. Robin agrees and they both exit.

Act 2 Scene 2

In this scene, Titania enters with her group of fairies and she orders them to sing so that she can sleep. They do so, and she eventually tells them enough, and goes in to slumber. Oberon then shows up and puts the nectar of the magical flower in to her eyes, and tells her that when she wakes, she shall fall in love with the first thing she lays her eyes upon. Then he exits.

Lysander and Hermia then enter, and they are obviously tired from traveling all night and they try to go to rest. They at first they argue about sleeping in the same place, but Hermia keeps refusing and eventually they sleep in separate places. After they fall asleep, Robin enters and he states that he has looked everywhere, but couldn?t find the ones that were in the one way love situation. He then spots Hermia and Lysander and notes that they are sleeping separately, which indicated that that must have been the two, when it was actually Helena and Demetrius that he was supposed to find. He goes over to Lysander and squeezes the juice of the flower in to his eye and told him that when he awakes, he will fall in love with the first person he sees (thinking that when he awoke, Lysander would see ?Helena? which was really Hermia and fall in love with her). Demetrius and Helena then come running in to the woods and they are still fighting about the ?chase? between them. But then Demetrius exits and Helena is left there by herself, when she notices Lysander and Hermia sleeping on the ground. Helena tries to wake Lysander, and when she does, Lysander becomes instantly in love with her. She is startled by this and Lysander starts going off about how much he loves her. But Helena thinks that he is playing a joke on her because she thought that he was in love with Hermia. So she told him to stop playing tricks on her and she exits. Then Lysander makes a rude comment or two to Hermia and follows Helena. He exits. Hermia then wakes up from a nightmare that she was having and she looks around after a while, and notices that Lysander was no longer there. She vows that she will find him until forever, and she exits.

Act 3 Scene 1

Bottom, Snout, Quince, Flute, Snug, and Starveling then enter this scene and they start to talk about the play that they are going to perform, while Titania is sleeping there, but is not visible to them. They start to rehearse the play when Robin enters, but he is invisible to the men. He watches their rehearsal for a while and then exits. Then while Bottom was waiting his cue for his next line, his head transforms to that of an ass, or he has the head of a donkey. Quince, when he sees this devilry, runs away scared and so the others, and everyone is gone except for Bottom, who is left alone on stage. Bottom thinks that they are just playing a joke on him so that he would get scared, so he starts to sing, waking Titania, who sleeps nearby. She spots Bottom singing and when he stops, Titania dotes upon him and he eventually plays along. Titania then gets him everything that he wants and they are happy for now.

Act 3 Scene 2

Oberon is the one that enters first in this scene, and he observes Titania and her new lover. Then Robin enters and Oberon tells him that he did a good job of making Titania fall in love with something horrid. Demetrius and Hermia then enter the scene and Oberon and Robin step aside, but still watch them. When it shows that Demetrius still dotes on Hermia, (but Hermia still doesn?t like him) Oberon and Puck knew that they had put the flower?s juice in to the eyes of the wrong person. Robin then exits to find Lysander (the person that was mistaken for Demetrius). Hermia eventually exits after fighting Demetrius about who she loves. Demetrius decides that it is no use chasing her and that it is late. So he lays down and falls asleep. Oberon then approaches him and puts the juice in to Demetrius?s eyes and tells him that when he awakes, he will fall in love with the first person he sees. Robin then enters again and warns Oberon that Helena and Lysander were coming. They step aside. Helena and Lysander then enter and they are still talking about who loves who. Demetrius then wakes and he sees Helena and instantly falls in love with her. He starts to tell her all these nice things but Helena now thinks that they all are playing a trick on her. And she starts talking to herself and Demetrius and Lysander then fight over who will win the love of Helena and they try to make each other take Hermia instead. Then Hermia enters and is happy to see Lysander but the feeling is not mutual. Lysander tells her that he does no longer love her and that she is free to go, and that he loves Helena. But Hermia is bothered by this and tries to talk to Lysander about it. But then Helena starts to talk about how they are ALL mocking her and that she is the butt of their joke, but Hermia then says that they are all playing the trick on HER. They all start to talk about who loves who, trying to get to the bottom of all this confusion. They eventually stop arguing and Lysander and Demetrius exit. Then, Hermia and Helena do the same. Oberon and Robin then start to talk about the mistake that Robin had made and Robin apologizes. Oberon then gives the flower to Robin and orders him to fix the mistake. But then Lysander enters again and he asks where Demetrius is, and in Demetrius?s voice, Robin says to go to another place, where they will fight for the hand of Helena, so that Robin can have him alone and there would be no inferiorities. Lysander exits and Demetrius enters. He then asks where Lysander is and Robin does the same to him in Lysander?s voice, and leads him away. Lysander then enters again, and claims that he is tired and that he will fight Demetrius later. He lays down, and sleeps. Robin and Demetrius enter again, and Robin is still disguising his voice as Lysander. Demetrius then realizes that he is also tired, so he lays down and sleeps too. Helena then enters and is still shaken by the happenings that day and she is tired also, so she falls asleep. Hermia then enters too and talks about how sad and down she is and she lays down and falls asleep. Robin then comes and puts the juice of the flower in to Lysander?s eyes and tells him that when he awakes he will fall in love with the woman he used to love. He exits.

Act 4 Scene 1

This scene starts out with Titania and Bottom (and Oberon watching them, invisible to those on the stage), where Bottom is telling all the fairies to do or run errands for him. Titania and Bottom eventually go to sleep, Titania telling her fairies to go away. Robin then enters and Oberon then talks about how he is going to make the fairy queen his again. He then applies the nectar to her eyes and then she awakes, obviously falling in love with him. Then she talks about how she thought she had a dream about her being in love with a donkey, and when Oberon shows that she was not dreaming, she is disgusted and Oberon tells Robin to take the ass head off of him, and then him and Titania dance. Titania then asks Oberon about what happened that night and they (Oberon, Titania, and Robin) all exit together.

Theseus the king enters, followed by his train of men and Egeus. They find the four lovers on the ground and the king tells his servants to wake them with the horns. They awake, and they kneel in front of the king. They are told that they can get up and they rise, and Lysander claims that he has no idea as to how he got there in the woods. Egeus interrupts him and turns to Demetrius, but Demetrius then claims that he is in love with Helena and Theseus says that they are lucky to be in such a good relationship and they all exit, except for the four lovers. They then talk about how weird things were that night and how they think they were all part of something that had to do with magic. They all exit.

Bottom then wakes from where he was sleeping and then recalls being an ass, but then not knowing if it was a dream or not. He said that he could have sworn he was, but then took it as a dream. He then calls out for the other men that were to do the play with him, but when he doesn?t hear anyone, he exits to find them.

Act 4 Scene 2

This scene starts out with Quince, Flute, Starveling, and Snout. They all talk about where Bottom might have gone, when Snug enters. He tells the men that the King is on his way to watch the play and they say how Bottom has disappointed them by not showing up. Then Bottom enters. They all greet him happily, and Bottom tells them not to ask what happened to him. He says that he will tell them later. They all agree and they exit.

Act 5 Scene 1

Theseus, Hippolyta, and their men and ladies come in to watch the play. They talk about how they don?t believe in fairy tales and stories and such. Then the four lovers enter and they are greeted by the king. They talk about what the play is about. Then the prologue of the play starts. Then the actual play starts. (While the play is going, the book shows some of the characters talking while the play is on.) When the play is ended, the King and Queen of fairies enter the scene, and so does Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, and he is the one to end the book by saying a sweet goodnight to the readers.