A Midsummer Night's Dream

Egeus was angry with his daughter Hermia because she refused to marry the man he had chosen for her, Demetrius, and instead wanted to marry Lysander. This went against Athenian law, and Egeus felt that Hermia was disobeying him and causing shame to their family.

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.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy.

The people involved in Act II, Scene 1, are Oberon, Titania, Puck, Demetrius, Helena, and one of Titania's attendants. Oberon and Titania are arguing about their infidelities, and after Titania leaves, Demetrius and Helena appear, but they cannot see Oberon (he is invisible). Oberon hatches a scheme with Puck to get back at Titania but decides instead to help Helena by making Demetrius fall in love her.

Although the title page of the first quarto if this play, published in 1600, said it have been publicly played sundry times by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, we have no records of when it was played or how the audience might have reacted. It is a fair guess that it was not a total flop as they played it "sundry times" and it was popular enough that they sold printed copies.

Paul Rogers played the role of Bottom in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." His performance received critical acclaim for bringing humor and depth to the character of the bumbling weaver who is transformed into an ass by the mischievous Puck.

The theme of Strindberg's A Dream Play revolves around the complexity of human existence, the search for meaning and truth, and the struggle to find happiness in a world filled with suffering and illusions. The play explores the surreal nature of dreams and the interconnectedness of reality and fantasy.

Helena - A Midsummer Night's Dream - was created in 1596.

Demetrius and Egeus want Hermia to marry Demetrius. Hemia and Lysander want Hermia to marry Lysander.

The speech also puts this into a broader perspective: Egeus believes that Hermia is a piece of his property, like a dining room table. "As she is mine, so may I dispose of her." Hermia and Lysander both advance the proposition that she is a person who should have the right and freedom to choose for herself. This is the conflict between and older and newer attitude to the relationship between parents and children, and to concepts of arranged marriages based on practical concerns as opposed to marriages based on love. We see similar conflicts, for example, in the musical Fiddler on the Roof.

There are further conflicts which become apparent in this scene. Egeus invokes a law which supports his traditional view of his rights as a father. The Duke has to choose between the weight of tradition which lends authority to the rule of law, and new attitudes which demand a change in obsolete legislation. In some productions, Hippolyta, silently standing by, is shown to be sympathetic to Hermia and Lysander and to expect Theseus to change the law. In this way the internal conflict Theseus faces is expanded to an external one between him and Hippolyta.

Demetrius is a character in William Shakespeare's play "A Midsummer Night's Dream." He initially loves Hermia but is later enchanted to love Helena instead. Ultimately, he ends up marrying Helena.

Some adjectives that describe Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream are passionate, persistent, and romantic.

Some adjectives to describe Demetrius in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" include fickle, lovesick, assertive, and conflicted.

There are two flowers: with one, if you get it in your eyes when you're asleep, you fall for the first thing you see when you wake up. The second flower is the antidote--it stops the person from doting.

Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow, finds humans to be foolish and prone to mistakes. He enjoys meddling with the emotions and actions of humans for his own amusement, often causing chaos in their lives. Despite this, he ultimately sees them as entertaining and a source of amusement.

The play was written over 400 years ago and has been performed steadily for all but about 20 of them. It has been performed by professional actors and actresses, amateurs, university groups, and schoolchildren.

Yes, word choice is a poetic device that allows poets to convey specific emotions, create vivid imagery, and set the tone of a poem. By carefully selecting words for their connotations, sounds, and rhythm, poets can enhance the overall impact and meaning of their work.

Moth is a minor character in A Midsummer Night's Dream and typically has only a few lines in the play. One example of Moth's lines is, "I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your mother, and to Master Peascod, your father. Good master Peaseblossom, I shall desire of you more acquaintance too."

Apparently he thinks Titania had a thing for Theseus. Why he should be made jealous by that but not by having her fall in love with and spend the night with the donkey-headed Bottom is a good question.

Gary in the early edition practice of Midsummer Nights Dream repeated the line about a band of bumbling rustic cross paths. He was determined to make everyone feel the experience of a magical moonlit forest on a midsummer night.

The plot for Midsummer Night's Dream:

There are 4 lovers. Helena, Hermia, Lysander, and Demetrius. Hermia wants to marry Lysander, but her father wants her to marry Demetrius. Helena loves Demetrius, but he has no feelings for her; he loves Hermia.

In the woods there is a fairy king (Oberon) and a fairy queen (Titania). Titania is in charge of a young prince (the prince was a son of her dear friend who died in childbirth). Oberon loves armies and soldiers, and he wants Titania to give him the prince so that he may make the boy a soldier. Titania refuses. Oberon sends his chief fairy servant (Puck) to go and find a flower which he can use to convince Titania to give him the boy. If the juice of the flower is laid on a victim's eyes, the next thing that person sees they shall pursue with the soul of love. Oberon used this to make Titania fall madly in love with him, and then he made her give him the boy.

Oberon then sees the lovers going through the woods. He orders Puck to put the love juice on the lovers eyes. Puck messes up 3 or 4 times. He finally gets it right and everybody lives happily ever after.

In "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Lysander's age is not explicitly stated. However, he is considered a young man, likely in his late teens or early twenties, as he is portrayed as a romantic lead alongside Hermia.

THESEUS, Duke of Athens

EGEUS, father to Hermia

LYSANDER, in love with Hermia

DEMETRIUS, in love with Hermia

PHILOSTRATE, Master of the Revels to Theseus

QUINCE, a carpenter

SNUG, a joiner

BOTTOM, a weaver

FLUTE, a bellows-mender

SNOUT, a tinker

STARVELING, a tailor

HIPPOLYTA, Queen of the Amazons, bethrothed to Theseus

HERMIA, daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander

HELENA, in love with Demetrius

OBERON, King of the Fairies

TITANIA, Queen of the Fairies

PUCK, or ROBIN GOODFELLOW

PEASEBLOSSOM, fairy

COBWEB, fairy

MOTH, fairy

MUSTARDSEED, fairy

PROLOGUE, PYRAMUS, THISBY, WALL, MOONSHINE, LION are presented

by:

QUINCE, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, STARVELING, AND SNUG

Other Fairies attending their King and Queen

Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta

There is no prologue to Shakespeare's play. There is a prologue, however, to the play-within-a-play Pyramus and Thisbe, which is read by Peter Quince, by whom the play was written, produced and directed.

The ending of A Midsummer Night's Dream (not a Midnight Summer's Dream) could be changed to a tragedy if Egeus killed Hermia or Lysander after the wedding. Or, the two lovers could have been separated rather than united.

On Midsummer's night, which falls around June 21st, people often celebrate with bonfires, feasts, dancing, and other festivities. It is believed to be a time when the veil between the world of the living and the world of the spirits is thin, making it a night of magic and mystery. In some cultures, Midsummer's night is also associated with rituals to ensure fertility, love, and abundance.