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Bottom, who has appointed himself "assistant director", is determined to produce the play his way. Although he already is to play the role of Pyramus, Bottom thinks he should play the lion and Thisby as well. It is decided, however, that Flute should play Thisby, Snug should play the lion, Starveling should be Thisby's mother, and Snout Thisby's father. Quince tells the men they must all know their lines by the next night when they will rehearse in secret in the woods near Athens.

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Team-1 Pranav
The theatrical effect in the exposition has through symbolism and language and the use of literary devices have evolved the reading experience making it more complex and extract dramatic.

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In act 1 scene 1, Theseus, who is a Duke of Athens, is excited to be marrying Hippolyta in just four days. Egeus approaches Theseus with his daughter Hermia to ask for the duke's advice. Egeus has agreed to let Demetrius marry Hermia; however, Hermia is in love with Lysander, who is also interested in marrying her.

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A carpenter named Quince and his fellow workmen, Snug the joiner, Bottom the weaver, Flute the bellows-mender, Snout the tinker, and Starveling the tailor gather in Quince's house. The group has heard that Theseus is to be wed and they want to produce a play in his honor. Quince, the director, announces that the play will be "The most lamentable comedy, and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby" (11-2), and he announces who will play which part.

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puck events midsummer story line msnd shakespeare play plot

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A Midsummer Night's Dream Scene by Scene Plot Summary

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An detailed summary of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, from Shakespeare Online.

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Some of the popular beliefs are that whatever is wished on Midsummer's Night will come true; that after night-fall the fairies are all-powerful; that they often steal new brides, or turn cowslips sprinkled on the doorstep into flames to burn those who have harmed them TEAM 1

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characters.
helena
Helena is characterized by insecurity and misery, and covets the love affairs of Hermia, who is troubled by one too many lovers.

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Characters
Hippolyta and Theseus
Theseus and Hippolyta are the first two characters introduced to the play. Through them we are immediately introduced to the play's main themes of marriage, love and conflict.

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https://www.coursehero.com/lit/A-Midsummer-Nights-Dream/symbols/

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Cite This Study Guide

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Course Hero. "A Midsummer Night's Dream Study Guide." Course Hero. 11 May 2017. Web. 9 Sep. 2021. <https://www.coursehero.com/lit/A-Midsummer-Nights-Dream/>.

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APA

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Course Hero. (2017, May 11). A Midsummer Night's Dream Study Guide. In Course Hero. Retrieved September 9, 2021, from https://www.coursehero.com/lit/A-Midsummer-Nights-Dream/

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Course Hero. "A Midsummer Night's Dream Study Guide." May 11, 2017. Accessed September 9, 2021. https://www.coursehero.com/lit/A-Midsummer-Nights-Dream/.

Footnote

Course Hero, "A Midsummer Night's Dream Study Guide," May 11, 2017, accessed September 9, 2021, https://www.coursehero.com/lit/A-Midsummer-Nights-Dream/.

Symbols

Course Hero Literature Instructor Russell Jaffe explains the symbols in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The Woods

The woods is a powerful symbol of untamed nature, and in this play, nature is specifically tied to the fairy realm. Titania and Oberon's extended argument is said to cause ongoing unrest in nature, including unseasonable weather. So the woods represents both untamed nature and untamed magic, which are intertwined. The fairies are seen to be closer to disorder than to order. Their pranks are disruptive to human activities, and they do not seem governed by laws as Theseus is. The disruptive fairy magic represented by the woods is then the perfect setting for the "dream" part of the "midsummer night's dream." In the woods, dreamlike events can take place-events that do not obey the rules of nature or Athenian civilization.

Flowers

As part of nature, flowers are necessarily associated with fairies and with magic. However, certain flowers have a special role in this play. One is the flower that Oberon tells Puck he witnessed Cupid's arrow striking. This flower contains a magical juice that when placed on a person's eyelids causes that person to instantly fall in love with whatever living creature he or she sees upon waking. The other flower is used to reverse the magical enchantment of the first flower. In the play these enchantments create confusion but ultimately work together to make a happy ending out of tragic circumstances. Therefore, the flowers symbolize not only nature and fairy magic, but also the wild yet ultimately benevolent nature of the fairy magic.

Moon

The moon exerts a powerful force on many of the characters, affecting how they act. It is associated with the love and dreaming the characters encounter. The action of the play occurs at night, when the moon presides. The moon mainly affects the humans and not the fairies. In Act 2, Scene 1 one of the fairies takes great pleasure in being a night fairy, saying that it is "swifter than the moon's sphere," which means that this fairy is much too quick to be caught in the net of the moon's spell. The moon shows the passage of time. When the play opens, as Theseus and Hippolyta are discussing their approaching marriage ( Act 1, Scene 1), Theseus remarks how the "old moon" makes time progress slowly. The moon is also a witness to their marriage ceremony and their union on the wedding night.

The moon represents chastity, too. In Act 1, Scene 1 Theseus tells Hermia that it would be difficult "To live a barren sister all [her] life / Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon." This reference to nuns evokes purity, and the words barren and fruitless also denote chastity.

At the same time, the moon represents lust. This idea appears in Act 1, Scene 1 when Egeus says that Lysander "hast by moonlight at her window sung / With feigning voice verses of feigning love," showing how Lysander serenaded his love by the moonlight, which is an act of lust.

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A Midsummer Night's Dream Symbols | Course Hero

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Cite This Study Guide MLA Bibliography Course Hero. "A Midsummer Night's Dream Study Guide." Course Hero. 11 May 2017. Web. 9 Sep. 2021. . In text (Course Hero) APA Bibliography Course Hero. (2017, May 11). A Midsummer Night's Dream Study Guide. In Course Hero.

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Team-1 Pranav
Context depicts a play set on Midsummer Night and structured as a dream was going to be fun and full of the resonances associated with a festal day that had age old overtones of love, marriage, misrule and jolllity.

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The Elizabethan popular audience had a natural love of clowning, slapstick and the mayhem that was released when the rules of society were relaxed, broken or subverted. A play set on Midsummer Night and structured as a dream was going to be fun and full of the resonances associated with a festal day that had age old overtones of love, marriage, misrule and jolllity. Midsummer was traditionally celebrated with dancing and feasting and always involved secret assignations in the woods later when it was dark. Indeed, A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play with a bit of everything - magic, moonlight, mayhem, love's mad entanglements, fairies, mistakes, mechanicals as mummers, all set in the spookiness of the woods at midnight - and all of it provoking laughter.

The business of comedy was more important and serious than simply raising a laugh. It has always served a much graver purpose than mere humorous entertainment, but has also been regarded by religious, moral and cultural guardians as a lesser form than tragedy and a morally questionable one. In a world where society was strictly stratified even the arts had hierarchies. In painting devotional studies (Annunciations, Nativities, Crucifixions) were thought to be the highest endeavour, and historical subjects were thought superior to landscape and portraiture. Grotesque topics of common life (card-playing, village dances, tavern scenes) were thought of as very low art. In literature the epic poem, tragic drama, religious poetry, history plays, even lyrics and love verses were thought of as higher forms than mere comedy. Though the plays of Terence and Plautus were studied, translated and performed by schoolboys and undergraduates, and the satires of Juvenal and Horace were similarly on educational syllabuses, comedy was regarded with suspicion. It was thought to be a too vulgar form, too associated with the bourgeoisie and the commoners, too concerned with trickery, knavery and sex.

It would not be amiss to re-title the play A Midsummer Night's Nightmare, for, though matters in Athens are complicated and tense enough, the escape to the woods releases all manner of dark things and makes the entanglements even worse. The piece can be acted in two ways. The traditional approach has been to display it as a fast-moving, action-packed, farcical romp, a carnival of silliness; a light-hearted celebration of human foolishness, full of mistakes and misperceptions, nonsense and laughter, but turning out all right in the end, and not to be taken seriously as it is only a playful entertainment. It may also be seen as a play where oppressiveness, manipulation, misplaced love, hatred and menace dominate and the inconstancy of the human heart is disturbingly exposed. Hermia escapes from Egeus' dictatorial threats only to find herself (and her complacent assumption of happiness to come in exile) at the mercy of forces she cannot control and does not understand. What happens in the woods is unsettling and represents the more frightening fears that lurk in the psyche and emerge in dreams. It is the woods that provoke the dream/nightmare element.

"Shakespeare's great comedy, to which Linley provides an excellent guide.'
-Henry S. Turner, 'Recent Studies in Tudor and Stuart Drama', SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, Volume 58, Number 2, Spring, 2018, pp. 473-537"

'A splendid, lucid and engaging work; the key to its success is the scholarly way we are drawn into the world which produced the Dream. Linley's style adds to the reader's experience: vibrant, lively and lit with real enthusiasm for his subject.' - Wendy Ellis, OCR A Level English Literature Team Leader

'This witty and scholarly companion will easily engage a range of readers, especially those wishing to gain an insight into the historical attitudes and the social and political systems that surrounded the creation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.' - Jill Leese, English Teacher, OCR Team Leader

Poet, painter, teacher and academic, Keith Linley has lectured at university and given papers at conferences and book festivals on a range of literary subjects.

Anthem Perspectives in Literature

Introduction; About this book - What is a context?; Part I. The Inherited Past; Prologue: The setting; i. The Historical Context; ii . The Elizabethan World Order: From Divinity To Dust; iii. Sin, Death and the Prince of Darkness; iv. The Seven Cardinal Virtues; v. Kingship; vi. Patriarchy, Family Authority and Gender relationships; vii. Man in His Place; viii. Images of Disorder: The Religious Context Unsettling Questions; Part II. The Elizabethan Present; ix. The Context of Comedy; x. Theseus and the Setting; xi. Puck's Permutations: The Context of Love; xii. 'Sweet Moon': The Context of Magic; xiii. Literary Context; xiv. Playing Parts; xv. Transgressions and Translations; Bibliography

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How might Shakespeare's audiences have responded to this enduringly popular comedy? This guide to the various contexts that situate 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in its time, explains the Christian ethics, the contemporary socio-political scene, the literary atmosphere and requirements of comedy that inform the background of this mad play.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/theater/a-midsummer-nights-dream-in-different-looks-and-cities.html TEAM 1

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A scene from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Old Globe Theater with, from left, Charles Janasz, John Lavelle, Donald Carrier, Sean-Michael Wilkinson, Triney Sandoval and Miles Anderson. Credit Credit Jim Cox

Chances are you've either seen it or have been in it. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is sort of like the Shakespearean " Godspell " in that sense. And not unsurprisingly, the summer is a particularly vibrant time for productions of the comedy, which works well in an outdoor setting - what with those enchanted fairy-filled woods outside Athens, where lovers' woes are mystically resolved.

"There is no question there is something deeply magical about sitting in a theater as the sun is setting, and the play is changing with that sunset," said Charles Fee, whose production of the play will open this summer at the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival in Nevada.

"Midsummer" lends itself to nontraditional treatments, and the art of directorial tinkering is probably almost as old as the script. The Royal Shakespeare Company and Google Creative Lab are teaming up on a part-live, part-Internet production - the epitome of updates - that is but only one of many intriguing interpretations this summer.

Here several of those overseeing these productions talk about their renditions of "Midsummer," describing how they have conceptualized their productions; what take they've chosen for the fairy Puck, that "merry wanderer of the night"; and just what about "Dream"continues to draw our attention.

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Colorado Shakespeare Festival
Through Aug. 11

Mary Rippon Outdoor Theater, University of Colorado, Boulder; coloradoshakes.org

Directed by Geoffrey Kent

CONCEPT Set in the Jazz Age, this outdoor production will have a "Downton Abbey" feel. Mr. Kent said this choice makes thematic sense since the 1920s were the era of women's suffrage, and the play partly deals with a young woman wanting to marry the man of her own choosing, not of her father's.

PUCK The veteran character actor Lawrence Hecht is an unusual choice for the impish sprite. "He's a laborious, slow-moving Puck, who's got a bad back and bad knees and a bad neck," Mr. Kent said. "He's a like an aging Teamster fairy who cannot be fired but works at his own pace."

Mr. Kent has cast Hermia against type too: Jenna Bainbridge is partly paralyzed from the waist down and walks with a decided limp.

POPULARITY "The other comedies are laced with history jokes and jokes on the reign of the current queen," Mr. Kent said. " 'Midsummer' doesn't have any of that. You don't need footnotes to understand why it's so funny."

Credit Royal Shakespeare Company

Royal Shakespeare Company and Google Creative Lab
Friday Through June 23
Online at Google+
Directed by Gregory Doran

CONCEPT This online version of " Midsummer " will unfold in real time across the weekend. Participants - audience members sounds too passive - can interact with characters (like "Billy Shakespeare," above left, with "Francis Bacon") on Google+; create ancillary characters; share thoughts on the play; and engage with the production in other ways. But fear not, traditionalists; "the heart of the play is still the play, and it was important to us to preserve that," said Geraldine Collinge, director of events and exhibitions for the RSC.

PUCK "He's the only character that we're allowing to play across the Internet," as well as be shown in the more traditional live portion of the production, said Tom Uglow, director of Google Creative Lab (during an interview on Google Hangouts, appropriately enough). Participants will be able to interact with Puck's online presence.

POPULARITY The play's still the thing, though given that this is a Royal Shakespeare Company production at heart, the text is still important. "It's got a mixture of comedy and seriousness, and it does address our times," Ms. Collinge said. Besides, "In how many plays do people get turned into donkeys?"
International Festival of Arts & Ideas
Through June 23

University THeater, 222 York Street, New Haven; artidea.org

Directed by Tom Morris

CONCEPT This production comes to the United States from Bristol Old Vic in England, in association with the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa, the same team behind the 2011 Tony Award-winning " War Horse." Inspired by the setting of Athens, the world's first democracy, Mr. Morris has set this "Midsummer" in a chaotic, futuristic world, he said, where "there is an impulse through the course of the play toward civilization."

PUCK Naturally the show features puppets, and Puck is made of wood and metal. "In some ways he's a Bunraku-style puppet operated by three puppeteers," Mr. Morris said. Unlike a sprite portrayed by a human actor, this Puck can fly and fall to pieces, Mr. Morris said, adding, "He doesn't quite have people waiting for him at the stage door, but he's the character people are talking about after the play."

POPULARITY "A lot of our lives are based on a theory that when we go to bed on, say, a Wednesday, we wake up on a Thursday, and we are the same person," Mr. Morris said. "But we know that really we might go to bed on Wednesday in love with one person and wake up Thursday either not in love or in love with someone else. We all recognize that experience." The play is a "beautiful, wise, crazy articulation of that conundrum."

Nashville Shakespeare Festival
Aug. 15-Sept. 15

Centennial Park Bandshell; nashvilleshakes.org

Directed by Denice Hicks

CONCEPT Set in Nashville now, this green production features costumes made from recycled materials. The concept is partly inspired by references in Act II, Scene 1, during an argument between Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of the fairies, that today sounds an awful lot like allusions to global warming. As Titania says:
The spring, the summer, The childing autumn, angry winter change Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world, By their increase, now knows not which is which.
PUCK He will have horns, but he will also wear a hoodie. "There's a real negative movement against hipsters lately, and I'm kind of interested in that," Ms. Hicks said. "What's wrong with hipsters? They keep our coffee shops running."

POPULARITY The ferocity of the lovers' battles still resonates today, and "the humor of the amateur actors as they try to put their play together is still really, really fresh," Ms. Hicks said. "There's great advice for life and art within this play."

The Old Globe
Through Sept. 29

Lowell Davies Festival Theater, Balboa Park, San Diego; theoldglobe.org

Directed by Ian Talbot

CONCEPT "Midsummer" opens with a father angry enough to sentence his daughter to death if she refuses to marry the man of his wishes. "I've set it in the Victorian era because that's an era when female emancipation hadn't happened," Mr. Talbot said. "I think it was a sexist world."

PUCK While the fairy world in the production is dark - like that of the Lost Boys in "Peter Pan" - Puck is still playful and "brings Oberon out of his dark moments," Mr. Talbot said. "I equate Puck's relationship with Oberon to the fool in 'Lear.' "

POPULARITY The romance is timeless: "When you get to a certain age, you think back to youthful love, that thrill of the initial feeling of being committed to someone," he said. "The wallowing about emotion and true love is something that we all enjoy."

Shakespeare & Company
July 20-Aug. 17

The Dell at the Mount, Edith Wharton's Home, 2 Plunkett Street, Lenox, Mass.; shakespeare.org

Directed by Jonathan Croy

CONCEPT Seven young actors who have been through the theater's training programs play all the parts in this 90-minute version. The setting is "sort of this side of Napoleonic," Mr. Croy said. "These are people who could have sprung full-blown from a Jane Austen novel in the way that they express themselves, in the way they seem to feel things, in the way the poetry becomes a metaphor for the size of their feelings."

PUCK A woman (Annie Considine) plays the role, and four others, in the production. One of the interesting benefits, Mr. Croy said, is "the ways that the different characters reveal things about each other when they come from the same actor."

POPULARITY "I honestly believe 'Midsummer' is the most perfectly constructed comedy ever written," Mr. Croy said. "Anything that's similar that seems stale or tired is because of the literally hundreds of years of people stealing from it."

Directed by Charles Fee

CONCEPT The 1960s setting includes paisley and leather in the costumes and a Volkswagen Beetle, right, on the outdoor set. Mr. Fee, who is artistic director at the Great Lakes Theater Festival, the Idaho Shakespeare Festival and Lake Tahoe, has employed the concept before, but he said he finds it rewarding to return to familiar ground.

"We begin in 1960s Athens, in a very rigid world," he said. "It's a little bit like a magical mystery tour. We go out into the woods, and we have drugs put in our eyes, and we see things completely differently. It's a bit psychedelic."

PUCK Expect a bit of Jimi Hendrix. "When I was 10 it was 1968, and I lived in San Francisco, and the fact is, he looks like one of the Merry Pranksters," Mr. Fee said. "He's beginning to follow a kind of guru, a sort of maharishi figure in Oberon, but he's like the guys I saw in the city in the late '60s."

POPULARITY The battles for love connect with audiences, Mr. Fee said, and the play features such a wide spectrum of characters that every attendee is in some way represented on stage. "The poetry is exquisite, and the comedy is low and very, very bawdy," he said.

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Chances are you've either seen it or have been in it. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is sort of like the Shakespearean " Godspell " in that sense. And not unsurprisingly, the summer is a particularly vibrant time for productions of the comedy, which works well in an outdoor setting - what with those enchanted fairy-filled woods outside Athens, where lovers' woes are mystically resolved.

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It shows how the male characters reign supreme, establishing their authority over the female characters and maintaining control by acts of violence.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6YGOPw-lCE

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A Midsummer Nights Dream - Act 1 Scene 1 - "Now, fair Hippolyta" (Subtitles in modern English)

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Shakespeare depicted Hermia as a strong woman who opposes male authority and Theseus as a domineering patriarch. Hermia unwaveringly supports Lysander, declaring him to be as "worthy" a gentleman as Demetrius. Hermia is seen as a courageous woman in the face of adversity by the audience. She defies the stereotype of an Elizabethan woman.

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Setting - A Midsummer Night's Dream takes place across two settings: the court of Athens and the woods. Every production will have these two settings, but they could be staged in lots of ways.
TEAM 1

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Characters
Egeus
Egeus's complaint against his daughter Hermia dominates the first scene. Shakespeare uses Egeus to introduce the themes of law and control. Egeus is determined to bring down the full force of law on Hermia if she refuses to obey him.

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Act 1 opens at the palace of Theseus, the Duke of Athens. Theseus is anxiously awaiting his marriage to Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons, which is to be held in four days on the first night of the new moon.

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Contexts-
The moral lesson of A Midsummer Night's Dream may be to point out the fickle nature of human relationships. Shakespeare uses comedy and the magic of fairies to demonstrate the failure of humans to form constant and steady romantic relationships

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motifs
Eyes as emblems of perception and perspective, as entryways to the heart, windows on the soul.
Plays, rehearsals and roles/parts as symbols of magical transformation and of experimentation and preparation

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Team-1 Pranav
The setting compromises of greek setting put up in Athens which is depicted as a place of civilization, law, and order, while the forest is a place of wildness, anarchy, and chaos.

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The main themes in A Midsummer Night's Dream are love, imagination, and patriarchy. Love: Shakespeare portrays romantic love as a blind, irrational, often beautiful force that can be both cruel and forgiving. Ultimately, love drives the play's entire plot.

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The first scene of Act I of "Romeo and Juliet" opens with two servants of the Capulet house, Sampson and Gregory, armed with swords and bucklers. Gregory especially detests the feuding family, the Montagues, referring to Abraham of the Montague house as "a dog of the house of Montague

team 2 aarna

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Themes
Love and Marriage and the difficulty of making relationships work. Some related scenes: Act 1 Scene 1: Theseus describes his courtship of Hippolyta and the confusion of the four lovers begins with Egeus' formal complaint about his daughter's involvement with Lysander.

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https://youtu.be/M5wiW5i5rss

Themes of Gender dominance and metamorphosis/change.
The theme of gender dominance makes the audience aware of the state of women during the Elizabethan era, how they had no independence and no control over their lives
On the other hand, the theme of metamorphosis informs the audience about the fickle nature of love and humans. Irrational, erratic, deceiving.

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A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare | Themes

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team 1
The play's use of satire, paradox and oxymoron. Literary devices from the play, including wordplay, puns, alliteration, idioms and hyperbole.

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https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/setting/

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A Midsummer Night's Dream takes place partly in the city of Athens, and partly in the forest that lies beyond the city's walls. This split between city and forest is thematically significant. The city of Athens is depicted as a place of civilization, law, and order, while the forest is a place of wildness, anarchy, and chaos. As if to underline the idea of Athens as a place of law and order, the play opens with Egeus bringing a legal dispute before Theseus. As duke of Athens, Theseus stands as the city's chief legal authority. His primary responsibility is to uphold the law, which he attempts to do when he rules that Hermia must obey her father and marry Demetrius instead of Lysander. In contrast to this display of Athenian rule of law, the forest appears decidedly unruly-which is to say, ruled by fairy mischief. The forest is a place where social norms break down, as exemplified in the increasing chaos and confusion that afflicts the Athenian lovers as well as Titania and Nick Bottom.

Even as Shakespeare sets up an opposition between city and forest, the events of the play complicate this opposition. Athens supposedly symbolizes civilization, and its system of law and order indicates a degree of rationality. Yet the grim punishment Theseus threatens in the event of Hermia's disobedience seems completely out of proportion for her crime. Her crime, after all, is simply loving Lysander-a man, it should be noted, who possesses a similar status as her father's favorite, Demetrius. Considering that from a socioeconomic perspective the two rivals are well matched, it makes rational sense that Hermia should be able to marry whichever suitor she wants. Thus, Egeus and the patriarchal law he cites can be seen as cruel, uncivilized, and irrational. A similar reversal occurs in the case of the forest. The forest is a space marked by chaos, and indeed, lots of chaotic events occur in the forest over the course of the play. Yet these events have the unexpected result of restoring proper order among the young lovers, ensuring them all a safe return to Athens. Where Athenian law and order fails, forest mischief ultimately succeeds.

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A Midsummer Night's Dream: Setting | SparkNotes

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A Midsummer Night's Dream takes place partly in the city of Athens, and partly in the forest that lies beyond the city's walls. This split between city and forest is thematically significant. The city of Athens is depicted as a place of civilization, law, and order, while the forest is a place of wildness, anarchy, and chaos.

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The play opens with Theseus and Hippolyta talking about their wedding, which is about to take place. Theseus is eager for the wedding day to come but Hippolyta reassures him that 'Four days will quickly steep themselves in nights'. ... Egeus tells Theseus he wants to 'beg the ancient privilege of Athens'.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LpGRhXBR8U

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A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare | Act 1, Scene 1

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Team-1 Pranav
Themes are eloquently displayed in the play. Conflict explains Egeus' attempt to force his will across Hermia. Order and Disorder interprets brings out a rational and irrational rules between magic and interests of love.

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A major theme is metamorphosis, which means change or transformation. The connection between Hippolyta and Theseus begins brutally on the battlefield, with Theseus inflicting "injuries" on Hippolyta with his "sword." Their connection, however, metamorphoses into a marriage comprising "pomp," "triumph," and "revelling."

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team 1 The entire play is constructed around groups of opposites and doubles. Nearly every characteristic presented in the play has an opposite: Helena is tall, Hermia is short; Puck plays pranks, Bottom is the victim of pranks; Titania is beautiful, Bottom is grotesque.

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Motifs
Nature representing the magical world of the forest in contrast to Theseus's court.
The Moon reflecting change, disruption and unpredictability, romance, the magical and mysterious, a journey.

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A Midsummer Night's Dream - Act 1 Summary - Shakespeare Today Series

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Characters
Demetrius
Demetrius appears much less likable than Lysander. He appears as arrogant and seems rather careless of Hermia's lack of interest. Even less favourable is his rejection of Helena and the hurt he caused her.

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team 1 https://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/characters/

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SparkNotes: A Midsummer Night's Dream: Character List

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A list of all the characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The A Midsummer Night's Dream characters covered include: Puck, Oberon, Titania, Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, Helena, Egeus, Theseus, Hippolyta, Nick Bottom, Peter Quince, Francis Flute, Robin Starveling, Tom Snout, Snug, Philostrate, Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mote, and Mustardseed.

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Context-
The wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta is to be held in four days with the coming of the new moon. Egeus, whose dark-complexioned daughter is Hermia, requests of Theseus the ancient privilege of selecting Demetrius as her husband rather than Lysander, despite their expressed love for each other.

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https://www.softschools.com/literature/summary/a_midsummer_nights_dream/a_midsummer_nights_dream_act_1_summary/
In act 1 scene 1, Theseus, who is a Duke of Athens, is excited to be marrying Hippolyta in just four days. Lysander points out to Theseus and Egeus that Helena is in love with Demetrius and wants to marry him. Theseus agrees to talk privately to Egeus and Demetrius about this situation, and the three of them leave.

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a midsummer night's dream chapter summaries

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A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 1 Summary - A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare Act 1 Summary and Analysis

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Setting-
Act 1 opens at the palace of Theseus, the Duke of Athens. Theseus is anxiously awaiting his marriage to Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons, which is to be held in four days on the first night of the new moon.

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 Midsummer Night's Dream takes place across two settings the court of Athens and the woods. team -1 diya 

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 Midsummer Night's Dream takes place across two settings the court of Athens and the woods. team -1 diya 

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team 1 - in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the main symbols are the moon, roses, and the love potion. A symbol is an object that represents a deeper, more important idea often explored through a piece of literature.

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Context-
In act 1 scene 1, Theseus, who is a Duke of Athens, is excited to be marrying Hippolytain just four days. Egeus approaches Theseus with his daughter Hermia to ask for the duke's advice. ... Lysander points out to Theseus and Egeus that Helena is in love with Demetrius and wants to marry him.

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Team 1- Pranav
Motifs are constant and never change during the entire play. They signify nature, the moon and dreams. The eyes are a sign of perception and imagination.

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Characters
Lysander
Lysander is confident, despite the problems that he and Hermia face at the beginning. Ahakespeare presents Lysander as a proactive lover that will love Hermia no matter what.

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Team 1 - The theme of jealousy operates in both the human and fairy realms in Midsummer Night's Dream. Jealousy plays out most obviously among the quartet of Athenian lovers, who find themselves in an increasingly tangled knot of misaligned desire.

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Character -Puck
Puck uses magic throughout the play for comic effect—most notably when he transforms Bottom's head into that of an ass. This is likely the most memorable image of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and it demonstrates that while Puck is harmless, he is capable of cruel tricks for the sake of enjoyment.

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Puck is one of Shakespeare's most enjoyable characters. In "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Puck is a mischievous sprite and Oberon's servant and jester.

Puck is perhaps the play's most adorable character, and he stands out from the other fairies that drift through the play. He is also not as ethereal as the play's other fairies; rather, he is coarser, more prone to misadventure, and goblin-like. Indeed, one of the fairies describes Puck as a "hobgoblin" in Act Two, Scene One.

As his "hobgoblin" reputation suggests, Puck is fun-loving and quick-witted. Thanks to this mischievous nature, he triggers many of the play's most memorable events.

What Is Puck's Gender?

Although Puck is usually played by a male actor, it's worth noting that nowhere in the play is the audience told the character's gender, and there are no gendered pronouns used to reference Puck. Even the character's alternate name, Robin Goodfellow, is androgynous.

It is interesting to consider that Puck is regularly thought to be a male character based solely on actions and attitudes during the play. It is also worth pondering how the play's dynamic would change if Puck was cast as a female fairy.

Puck's Use (and Misuse) of Magic

Puck uses magic throughout the play for comic effect-most notably when he transforms Bottom's head into that of an ass. This is likely the most memorable image of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and it demonstrates that while Puck is harmless, he is capable of cruel tricks for the sake of enjoyment.

Puck is also not the most mindful of fairies. One example of this is when Oberon sends Puck to fetch a love potion and use it on the Athenian lovers to stop them from bickering. However, since Puck is prone to making unfortunate mistakes, he smears the love potion on Lysander's eyelids instead of Demetrius's, which leads to unintended results.

The mistake was made without malice, but it was still an error, and Puck never really accepts responsibility for it. He continues to blame the lovers' behavior on their own foolishness. In Act Three, Scene Two he says:

"Captain of our fairy band,
Helena is here at hand;
And the youth, mistook by me,
Pleading for a lover's fee.
Shall we their fond pageant see?
Lord, what fools these mortals be!"

Later in the play, Oberon sends Puck out to fix his mistake. The forest is magically plunged into darkness and Puck imitates the voices of the lovers to lead them astray. This time he successfully smears the love potion on the eyes of Lysander, who thus falls back in love with Hermia.

The lovers are made to believe that the entire affair was a dream, and in the final passage of the play, Puck encourages the audience to think the same. He apologizes to the audience for any "misunderstanding," which re-establishes him as a likable, good character (although not exactly a heroic one).

"If we shadows have offended,
Think but this, and all is mended,
That you have but slumber'd here
While these visions did appear."

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What Is the Role of Puck in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'

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Puck is one of Shakespeare's most enjoyable characters. In "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Puck is a mischievous sprite and Oberon's servant and jester. Puck is perhaps the play's most adorable character, and he stands out from the other fairies that drift through the play.

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https://youtu.be/ZGzv0V1BQ-Y
Symbols in midsummer night's dream

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A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare | Symbols

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The main themes in A Midsummer Night's Dream are love, imagination, and patriarchy. Love: Shakespeare portrays romantic love as a blind, irrational, often beautiful force that can be both cruel and forgiving. Ultimately, love drives the play's entire plot.

team 2- Aarna

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Context-
Shakespeare drew on concepts of courtly love and ethics from Chaucer's ''The Knight's Tale'' as well as the marriage culture of the 16th century in order to create the play A Midsummer Night's Dream-Yashita Sharma

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The main themes in A Midsummer Night's Dream are love, imagination, and patriarchy. - team 1 diya 

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The main themes in A Midsummer Night's Dream are love, imagination, and patriarchy. - team 1 diya 

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context-
the midnight summer review. Peter C. Herman argues that underneath the surface tale lies a tale of complex political tension that ends with an unwinnable choice from an increasingly hypocritical leader.

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There are no specific sources for A Midsummer Night's Dream, but Shakespeare did draw on several works for various aspects of the play. Plutarch, translated by Sir Thomas North, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romanes (1579). Shakespeare took both Theseus and Hippolyta from this translation of Plutarch.

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Early performances

The title-page of the first quarto of A Midsummer Night's Dream, published 1600, states that the play 'hath been sundry times publickley acted' by the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Its first public performances were probably at the Theatre. However, it is generally agreed that the play was created to celebrate a wedding in a noble household.

There are two such occasions appropriate for this first performance. One is the wedding in 1595 of Elizabeth Vere, Lord Burghley's granddaughter, to William Earl of Derby at Greenwich Palace. The other, considered more likely, is the wedding in 1596 of Elizabeth Carey to Thomas, son of Lord Berkeley at the Blackfriars house of the bride's father, Sir George Carey. Elizabeth Carey was the granddaughter of Henry, Lord Hunsdon, Lord Chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth. Lord Hunsdon was the patron of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, Shakespeare's company. A Midsummer Night's Dream was probably performed at court on 1 January 1604.

Publication in quarto and folio

A Midsummer Night's Dream appeared in four editions before 1642.

First quarto, 1600. Thought to have been printed from the final state (rather than a fair copy) of Shakespeare's foul papers.

Second quarto, dated 1600 on the title-page but published in 1619. Printed from the first quarto.

First Folio, 1623. Printed from the second quarto, apparently annotated from a promptbook.

Second Folio, 1632. Printed from the first folio.

A Midsummer Night's Dream was entered on the Stationers' Register by Thomas Fisher on 8 October 1600. It was printed for him by Richard Bradock that same year. The second quarto appeared with the imprint 'printed by Iames Roberts' dated 1600. It was, in fact, one of a group of ten plays printed by William Jaggard for Thomas Pavier in 1619. These were apparently intended to form a collection of plays attributed to Shakespeare. The King's Men may have protested against Pavier's intentions, for the Lord Chamberlain subsequently wrote to the Stationers' Company demanding that no more plays belonging to them should be printed except with their consent.

British Library copies of A Midsummer Night's Dream contains detailed bibliographic descriptions of all the quarto copies of the play.

Shakespeare's sources

There are no specific sources for A Midsummer Night's Dream, but Shakespeare did draw on several works for various aspects of the play.

Plutarch, translated by Sir Thomas North, Theseus, Duke of Athens, Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romanes (1579). Shakespeare took both Theseus and Hippolyta from this translation of Plutarch.

The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romanes, 1579. British Library, C.38.k.24, p.1 Larger image

Geoffrey Chaucer, 'The Knight's Tale' from the Canterbury Tales, in The Workes of Geffrey Chaucer (1561). Shakespeare drew on Chaucer for some of his language, as well as the characters of Theseus and Hippolyta.

Ovid, translated by Arthur Golding, The .XV. Bookes of P. Ouidius Naso, Entytuled Metamorphosis (1567). This includes the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, and was also a source for the hunting scene in act 4.

The Boke of Duke Huon of Burdeuxe (1534), translated by John Bourchier, Lord Berners. Shakespeare's Oberon was influenced by this source.

Apuleius, translated by William Adlington, The. XI. Bookes of the Golden Asse (1566). This provided Shakespeare with some aspects of Bottom's transformation with an Ass's head, and Titania's infatuation with him.

Reginald Scot, Robin Goodfellow, or Puck. Reginald Scot, The Discouerie of Witchcraft (1584). The source for Shakespeare's Puck, and some aspects of Bottom's transformation.

The Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584. British Library, C.123.c.10, p. 85. Larger image

Edmund Spenser, The Shepheardes Calender (1579). Spenser's work influenced Shakespeare's language and his depiction of the friendly (rather than evil) fairies.

Seneca His Tenne Tragedies (1581), edited by Thomas Newton. Shakespeare used Seneca's plays Medea and Hippolytus in particular for aspects of the Helena and Demetrius love-plot.

Story of the play
Note: the links below will take you to the page in the quarto where each act begins, according to standard modern editions. (The quartos themselves have no act divisions.) The quarto shown for each play is always the earliest in the Library's collection - unless it is a 'bad' quarto in which case it is the earliest 'good' quarto.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is set in Athens and the surrounding woods.

( Act 1) In Athens, Theseus, Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, look forward to celebrating their marriage. Theseus decrees that Hermia must marry Demetrius, although she is in love with Lysander. Hermia and Lysander agree to run away together in secret. Helena loves Demetrius, although he is in love with Hermia. She learns of the plans of Hermia and Lysander and decides to tell Demetrius. Bottom the weaver and his fellow craftsmen rehearse the play about Pyramus and Thisbe that they hope to present during the marriage celebrations.

( Act 2) In the woods outside Athens, night falls. The King and Queen of the Fairies have quarrelled. Oberon sends Puck for a love-potion, with which he can take revenge on Titania. He sees Helena unhappily pursuing Demetrius, and instructs Puck to use the love-potion on him. While Titania sleeps, Oberon uses the love-potion on her so that she will fall in love with the first creature she sees on waking. Hermia and Lysander are lost in the woods. Tired, they sleep and Puck uses the love-potion on Lysander by mistake. He awakes, sees Helena and instantly falls in love with her.

John Gielgud as Oberon, 'I know a bank where the wild thyme blows',
Listen A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act 2, Scene 1. British Library Sound Archive, 1931

( Act 3) Bottom and his fellows meet for another rehearsal. Puck transforms Bottom with an ass's head, and the others run away in fear. Titania awakes to see Bottom and is immediately enamoured. Oberon and Puck see Demetrius pursuing Hermia and discover Puck's error. Hermia flees and the tired Demetrius lies down to sleep. Oberon uses the love-potion on Demetrius just as Helena arrives, pursued by Lysander. Demetrius awakes, and falls in love with Helena. Hermia enters to find Demetrius and Lysander quarrelling over Helena. She and Helena quarrel as well. Oberon commands Puck to put things right. Puck leads the lovers through the woods until all are tired, once he has Hermia alongside Lysander and Helena alongside Demetrius, he lets them settle down to sleep. Puck uses an antidote to the love-potion on Lysander.

John Gielgud as Puck, 'My mistress with a monster is in love',
Listen A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act 3, Scene 2. British Library Sound Archive, 1931

John Gielgud as Oberon, 'Thou see'st these lovers seek a place to fight',
Listen A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act 3, Scene 2. British Library Sound Archive, 1931

( Act 4) Titania dallies with Bottom, still wearing his ass's head. They fall asleep together. Oberon uses the antidote to the love-potion on Titania. She awakes and is repelled by Bottom. Oberon and Titania are reconciled. Day breaks as Theseus and Hippolyta arrive with a hunting party. They discover and awake the sleeping pairs of lovers. Theseus decrees that Hermia will marry Lysander, and Helena will marry Demetrius. Bottom, restored by Puck to his natural appearance, awakes. He is convinced that his amorous adventures with Titania were a dream.

( Act 5) Back in Athens, the three couples, Theseus and Hippolyta, Hermia and Lysander, and Helena and Demetrius have each been married. Bottom and his fellow craftsmen play the story of Pyramus and Thisbe before the newly-weds. The three couples leave to enjoy their wedding-nights. Oberon, Titania, and Puck come to bless the house and all its occupants.

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plays; drama; comedies; tragedies; histories; shakespeare's quartos; william shakespeare; quartos; printing; publishing; english drama; elizabethan england; jacobean england; theatre history; a midsummer night's dream; richard ii; romeo; juliet; loves's labour's lost; elizabeth vere; greenwich palace; elizabeth carey; blackfairs; stationers' register; lord chamberlain; plutarch; sir thomas north; chaucer; john gielgud; a midsummer night's dream story

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The title-page of the first quarto of A Midsummer Night's Dream, published 1600, states that the play 'hath been sundry times publickley acted' by the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Its first public performances were probably at the Theatre. However, it is generally agreed that the play was created to celebrate a wedding in a noble household.

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This play begins in turmoil and finishes in harmony, exactly like any other Shakespearean comedy. The drama is set on the day of the summer solstice when the connection between the human and fairy worlds are strongest.

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Shakespeare has characterized the poem with immaculate symbolism of the moon. Represented via several names Diana, Sophie, Phoebe. It signifies time and waiting.
Pranav Team-1

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Characters
Helena
Shakespeare presents Helena as a stark physical contrast to Hermia. We meet Helena in a low point in her life. She is very much in love with Demetrius, a young man who once courted her. Now he wants to marry Hermia and has rejected Helena.