What happens in A Midsummer Night's Dream?

Answer 1

PLOT SUMMARY:

Lysander loves Hermia and Hermia loves Lysander. Demetrius used to love Helena but is now in love with Hermia. Helena loves Demetrius. Egeus, Hermia's father, orders Hermia to marry Demetrius and gets the Duke of Athens involved, who explains to Hermia that if she does not obey her father she may be beheaded or forced into a life of nunnery. Next, Hermia and Lysander escape to the forest to hide from the Duke and Egeus, but Demetrius and Helena follow. Meanwhile, Oberon, King of the Fairies, and Titania, Queen of the Fairies are arguing over a boy who Titania adopted.

Later, Oberon orders Puck to squeeze a special love juice in Titania's eyes as she sleeps so that the first creature she sees when she wakes up, she will fall in love with. Then, after hearing Demetrius rejecting Helena, Oberon decides that Puck should then squeeze juice into Demetrius' eyes to make him fall in love with Helena. However, Puck makes a mistake and puts the juice in the eyes of Lysander instead. Helena then stumbles over Lysander and awakes him, which causes him to then fall in love with Helena, growing hatred for Hermia, and rejects her for her best friend and man stealer Helena.

In the middle of all of this confusion, a group of workmen from Athens are rehearsing a play that they will perform at the Duke's wedding. The two main actors are Nick Bottom and Peter Quince. Puck mischieviously casts a spell on Nick Bottom and magically gives him the head of a donkey! But, Bottom is the very first thing that Titania sees as she awakes and instantly falls in love with him!

As Titania and Bottom admire eachother, Oberon again orders Puck to make sure DEMETRIUS falls in love with Helena and eventually Puck gets it right. Although, with Lysander AND Demetrius follow Helena like lost puppies, Helena feels she is being mocked.

Finally Oberon decides that all the confusion must come to an end and puts all four lovers to sleep and gives Lysander an antidote for the juice so that he will again fall in love with Hermia. Oberon also gives Titania an antidote and the Fairy King and Queen are reunited.

Theseus and Hippolyta find the four lovers in the forest and see the love they have for their admired ones and decide that they should have a joint wedding. So, they all live happily ever after, whilst watching Nick Bottom and Peter Quince's dedicated play.

Answer 2

The play A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare has four plots going on simultaneously:

1. Theseus, Duke of Athens, is preparing to marry his fiancee Hippolyta.

2. Egeus, an Athenian man, wants to marry his daughter Hermia to Demetrius, but Hermia wants to marry Lysander. Helena, another Athenian girl, is in love with Demetrius.

3. A group of Athenian workmen are rehearsing a play to perform at the Duke's wedding.

4. Oberon, king of the fairies and his wife Titania are fighting over custody of a boy.

Egeus brings his complaint before Theseus who declares that Hermia must marry Demetrius, die or become a nun. Lysander and Hermia plan another way out, by escaping Into the Woods where they can elope. They let Helena into their secret and she tells Demetrius. At the same time the workmen decide to go into the woods to rehearse so they will not be disturbed.

Theseus overhears Helena pleading with Demetrius who treats her scornfully. He sends his servant Puck to get a magic flower which, when squeezed into someone's eyes, will make him or her fall in love with the next thing he or she sees. He plans to use it on Titania and sends Puck to use it on Demetrius. Unfortunately Puck erroneously uses it on Lysander who is wakened by Helena; Lysander falls for her.

Oberon uses the flower on Titania who is sleeping. Puck runs across the workmen and turns the biggest blowhard among them, the weaver Nick Bottom, into a half-man half-donkey. The other actors are frightened away and Bottom bumbles into Titania, who falls for him and sleeps with him.

Meanwhile Oberon finds that Puck has enchanted the wrong guy, and orders him to enchant Demetrius, which he does, and Demetrius falls for Helena also, and starts to fight with Lysander over her, while Hermia stands puzzled why nobody seems to love her any more.

Oberon now produces the antidote to the magic flower and applies it to Titania who is happily reunited with Oberon. Puck puts the four young lovers to sleep, and applies the antidote to Lysander, whose infatuation for Helena ends. As Theseus, Hippolyta and Egeus ride up, Demetrius now says he wants to marry Helena. Theseus declares that Helena and Demetrius, as well as Hermia and Lysander, should be married at the same time as he and Hippolyta. At the wedding Bottom (no longer in donkey form) and his group of actors put on their ridiculously funny play and, as everyone goes to bed, the fairies bless the newlyweds.

Answer 3

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a comedy by William Shakespeare that portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta. It includes themes of love, fantasy, and mischief, with the intertwining stories of four young lovers, a group of amateur actors, and the mischievous fairies Oberon and Puck causing chaos in the Athenian forest. The play explores the complexities of love, the blurred lines between reality and illusion, and the transformative power of the imagination.