The Book Report

Researching a Novel and Play

Compiled by Dzaki Jabbar Mahdi

NIM : 16211144004

Major : English literatur

Faculty of Language and Art

Generation of 2016/2017

The Reviews Results Of Sherlock Holmes

Vol 2

The Complete Novels and Stories

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

THE REPORT COVERS

full title : The Hound of the Baskervilles

author : Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

type of work : Novel

genre : Mystery

language : English

time and place written : Returning from the Boer War in South Africa, Doyle wrote and published Hound of the Baskervilles in England in 1901.

date of first publication : 1901, serialized in The Strand; 1902, published by Newnes

publisher : George Newnes, Ltd.

narrator : Dr. Watson

climax ·:Holmes' secret plan comes to fruition when a guileless Sir Henry heads home across the moor, only to be attacked by the hound. Hindered by a thick fog and sheer fright, Holmes and Watson nonetheless shoot the beast and solve the mystery.

protagonist : Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes

antagonist : Jack Stapleton

setting (time) : 1889. Holmes notes that the date 1884, engraved on Dr. Mortimer's walking stick, is five years old.

setting (place) : The novel starts and ends in London, in Holmes' office at 221b Baker Street. Most of the rest of the novel takes place in Devonshire, at the imposing Baskerville Hall, the lonely moorlands, and the rundown Merripit House where Stapleton lives.

point of view : The mystery is told entirely from Watson's point of view, although the author regularly switches from straight narrative to diary to letters home.

falling action : Holmes explains the intricacies of the case; Sir Henry and Mortimer head off on vacation to heal Henry's nerves

tense : Modulates from past (as in Watson's narration of London events) to recent past (as in Watson's diary and letters)

foreshadowing : The deaths of some wild horses prefigure Stapleton's own death by drowning in the Grimpen mire. There is a sense in which all the clues serve as foreshadowing for later discoveries.

tone : At different times, the novel's tone is earnest, reverent (of Holmes), uncertain, and ominous.

themes : Good and evil; natural and supernatural; truth and fantasy; classism, hierarchy, and entitlement

motifs : Superstition and folk tales; disguised identities; the red herring

symbols : The moor (the mire); the hound

THEME

“Natural and supernatural; truth and fantasy”

In this novel, a man narrates his comrade’s astute logical reasoning, his ability to take

almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve difficult cases that led

them to an amazing adventure. Synopsis: The story opens with a mini mystery—Sherlock

Holmes and Dr. Watson speculate on the identity of the owner of a cane that has been left

in their office by an unknown visitor. Wowing Watson with his amazing powers of

observation, Holmes predicts the appearance of James Mortimer, owner of the found object

and a convenient entrée into the baffling curse of the Baskervilles. Entering the office, Dr.

Mortimer reports that the Baskerville line has been plagued by a mysterious and

supernatural black hound. The recent death of Sir Charles Baskerville has rekindled

suspicions and fears. The next of kin, the duo finds out, has arrived in London to take up his

post at Baskerville Hall, but he has already been intimidated by an anonymous note of

warning. They decided That Dr. Watson should temporarily hold the case.

Dr. Watson then went to Dartmoor in Devon to hold the case and to protect Sir Henry

Baskerville, the next heir. Sir Henry then meets Miss Stapleton and becomes romantically

interested even the brother, Jack Stapleton is opposed to Sir Henry He held the case

seriously letting Holmes know every detail that he observed and what strange things that

happen but Dr. Watson didn’t know that Sherlock Homes is just at the Dartmoor and

observing and gaining information as Dr. Watson does. Then he found out that Miss

Stapleton is actually married to Jack Stapleton and also found out that the Hugo Baskerville,

the founder of the Baskerville line has a similarity to Mr. Stapleton clearing out that

Mr. Stapleton “do” the crime so that he can be the next heir.

So they made a plan to know who the criminal is and the younger Baskerville will be used as

bait to catch Stapleton red-handed. A fog comes in, and Holmes is worried. Finally, Henry

comes running through the fog, pursued by the hound. The hound is huge (as big as a lion)

and black, and fire seems to come from its eyes and mouth. Then they fought and kill the

hound. Then they find Mrs. Stapleton tied up and said tell that his husband maybe ran to

the hideout and probably drowned, so they went to the place and find no Stapleton but

found out where he hide the hound.

As soon as Dr. Mortimer arrives to unveil the mysterious curse of the Baskervilles, Hound

wrestles with questions of natural and supernatural occurrences. The doctor himself decides

that the marauding hound in question is a supernatural beast, and all he wants to ask

Sherlock Holmes is what to do with the next of kin.

From Holmes' point of view, every set of clues points toward a logical, real- world solution.

Considering the supernatural explanation, Holmes decides to consider all other options

before falling back on that one. Sherlock Holmes personifies the intellectual's faith in logic,

and on examining facts to find the answers.

In this sense, the story takes on the Gothic tradition, a brand of storytelling that highlights

the bizarre and unexplained. Doyles' mysterious hound, an ancient family curse, even the

ominous Baskerville Hall all set up a Gothic- style mystery that, in the end, will fall victim to

Holmes' powerful logic.

Doyle's own faith in spiritualism, a doctrine of life after death and psychic powers, might at

first seem to contradict a Sherlockian belief in logical solutions and real world answers.

Holmes is probably based more on Doyle's scientific training than his belief system. But the

struggle for understanding, the search for a coherent conception of the world we live in,

links the spiritualist Doyle with his fictional counterpart. Throughout the novel, Holmes is

able to come up with far-flung if ultimately true accounts of the world around him, much as

his author strove for understanding in fiction and in fact.

Classism and hierarchy

Hound's focus on the natural and supernatural spills over into other thematic territory—the

rigid classism of Doyle's milieu. Well-to-do intellectual that he was, Doyle translated many of

the assumptions of turn-of- the-century English society into his fiction. The natural and

supernatural is one example.

Throughout the story, the superstitions of the shapeless mass of common folk- everyone

attributes an unbending faith in the curse to the commoners-are denigrated and, often,

dismissed. If Mortimer and Sir Henry have their doubts, it is the gullible common folk who

take the curse seriously. In the end, when Watson's reportage and Holmes' insight have

shed light on the situation, the curse and the commoners who believed it end up looking

silly.

At the same time, Sir Henry's servants evince a kind of docility, and their brother the convict

is reduced from dangerous murderer to pathetic rodent under Watson's gaze. Hound's

classism is also enmeshed in questions of entitlement: who has the right to Baskerville Hall,

to Holmes' attention, to our attention.

Motifs

Superstition and folk tales

The story opens with the folk tale of the Baskerville curse, presented on eighteenth century

parchment. The reproduction of the curse, both in the novel and in Mortimer's reading,

serves to start the story off with a bang-a shadowy folk tale, nothing if not mysterious. At

the same time, it offers a nice contrast to Watson's straight-forward reporting, a style

insisted upon by the master and one which will ultimately dispel any foolish belief in curses

and hounds of hell.

Red Herring

A classic of the mystery/detective genre, the red herring throws us off the right trail. Much

like the folk tale, it offers a too-easy answer to the question at hand, tempting us to take the

bait and making fools of us if we do. In Hound, the largest red herring is the convict. After

all, who better to pin a murder on than a convicted murderer. Barrymore's late-night

mischief turns out to be innocent, and the convicted murderer turns out to not be involved

in the mysterious deaths.

CHARACTERS & CHARACTERIZATION

Sherlock Holmes is the ever-observant, world-renowned detective of 221b Baker Street. For

all his assumed genius and intuition he is virtually omniscient in these stories, and Holmes

becomes more accessible in the context of his constant posturing and pretension.

Holmes lets down his guard and admits of a fragile ego. When challenged at the beginning

of the book—Mortimer calls him the second best crime solver in Europe and Holmes lets

down his guard and asks who could possibly be the first. By and large, however, Holmes' ego

is kept in check by a constant dose of adulation from Watson. Holmes regularly announces

some absurd and unsubstantiated conclusion only to mock Watson by revealing the most

obvious of clues. In the end, Holmes toys with his associates (and particularly Watson) at

least as much as he flouts his enemies, equivocating, misleading, and making fools out of

them only to up his own crime-solving cachet.

Dr. Watson

The good doctor plays the sidekick to Holmes' self-obsessed hero figure. Watson is a lowly

apprentice and live-in friend, who spends most of the book trying to solve a difficult case in

his master's stead. Always on hand to stroke Holmes' ego, Watson is nonetheless intent on

proving his own mettle by applying Holmes' techniques.

Watson's never-ending adulation, which is presumably meant to mirror our own

understanding of the legendary detective, comes through most forcefully at the end of the

novel, when Holmes arrives at Devonshire. Holmes announces that he meant for Watson to

think he was in London, and a pouty Watson reacts: "Then you use me, and yet you do not

trust me!" Codependent throughout, Holmes and Watson fill each other's needs. Watson

provides Holmes with an ego boost, and Holmes needs Watson's eyes and ears to

inconspicuously gather clues. Watson is awestruck by Holmes' power of observation, and

Watson feels more powerful by association.

Mr. Jack Stapleton

Intended to incarnate ill will and malice, Stapleton is conflated at various points with the

lecherous libertine Hugo, whom he resembles. Stapleton is a black-hearted, violent villain

hidden beneath a benign, bookish surface.

If Hugo operates as a kind of Doppelganger for his entomologist heir, then the convict offers

an interesting parallel as well. Serving mainly as a red herring in the mysterious death of Sir

Charles Baskerville, the convict also operates as a foil for the real culprit, Stapleton.

Personifying "peculiar ferocity," "wonton brutality," and even dubious sanity, the convict is

shown to be a pathetic, animalistic figure on whom the detectives ultimately take pity. Not

so with Stapleton, a man with a "murderous heart," and a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Stapleton is a worthy adversary because of his birthright. If the convict is a simple murderer,

he is also simply born, related by blood to the Baskerville's domestic help. Thus, the convict

is part of a lower class than Holmes, and therefore is not a worthy adversary. Stapleton,

however, is an intellectual, and when his evil side comes out, his hidden nobility comes out

as well. Once Holmes is handling an educated and noble rival, he begins to take things much

more seriously. In this sense, Stapleton's character adds to the strong classist themes

imbedded in this book.

The Reviews Results Of Richard III

William Shakespeare

THE REPORT COVERS

full title : The Tragedy of King Richard the Third

author : William Shakespeare

type of work : Play

genre : History play

language : English

time and place written : Around 1592, London

date of first publication : 1597

tone : Shakespeare’s attitude toward Richard is one of condemnation and disgust,

combined with a penetrating fascination with the mind of the power-hungry psychopath.

settings (time) : Around 1485, though the actual historical events of the play took place

over a much longer period, around 1471–1485

settings (place) : Various palaces and locales in England

protagonist : Richard III

major conflict : Richard, the power-hungry younger brother of the king of England, longs to

seize control of the throne, but he is far back in the line of succession. He plots and

manipulates his way past the obstacles in his path to power, betraying and murdering with

reckless abandon as he proceeds.

rising action : Richard persuades Lady Anne, Prince Edward’s widow, to marry him; he has

his brother Clarence murdered; he has the two young princes in line for the throne

murdered .

climax : In Act III, scene vii, Buckingham and others entreat Richard to accept the crown,

which he pretends to refuse and then accepts.

falling action : Richard turns against Buckingham and murders the young princes and his

wife Anne; Richmond defeats Richard at the Battle of Bosworth Field.

themes : The allure of evil; the relationship between ruler and state; the power of

language; the rise of the Tudor dynasty in England

motifs : The supernatural, dreams

symbols : The boar

foreshadowing : The play is full of foreshadowing, including Margaret’s curses (which

foreshadow almost all the future action of the play), Richard’s monologues, the prophetic

dreams of Clarence and Stanley, and the pronouncements of the ghosts in Act V.

PLOT

a long civil war between the royal family of York and the royal family of Lancaster, England

enjoys a period of peace under King Edward IV and the victorious Yorks. But Edward’s

younger brother, Richard, resents Edward’s power and the happiness of those around him.

Malicious, power-hungry, and bitter about his physical deformity, Richard begins to aspire

secretly to the throne—and decides to kill anyone he has to in order to become king.

Using his intelligence and his skills of deception and political manipulation, Richard begins

his campaign for the throne. He manipulates a noblewoman, Lady Anne, into marrying

him—even though she knows that he murdered her first husband. He has his own older

brother, Clarence, executed, and shifts the burden of guilt onto his sick older brother King

Edward in order to accelerate Edward’s illness and death. After King Edward dies, Richard

becomes lord protector of England—the figure in charge until the elder of Edward’s two

sons grows up.

Next Richard kills the court noblemen who are loyal to the princes, most notably Lord

Hastings, the lord chamberlain of England. He then has the boys’ relatives on their mother’s

side—the powerful kinsmen of Edward’s wife, Queen Elizabeth—arrested and executed.

With Elizabeth and the princes now unprotected, Richard has his political allies, particularly

his right-hand man, Lord Buckingham, campaign to have Richard crowned king. Richard then

imprisons the young princes in the Tower and, in his bloodiest move yet, sends hired

murderers to kill both children.

By this time, Richard’s reign of terror has caused the common people of England to fear and

loathe him, and he has alienated nearly all the noblemen of the court—even the power-

hungry Buckingham. When rumors begin to circulate about a challenger to the throne who

is gathering forces in France, noblemen defect in droves to join his forces. The challenger is

the earl of Richmond, a descendant of a secondary arm of the Lancaster family, and England

is ready to welcome him.

Richard, in the meantime, tries to consolidate his power. He has his wife, Queen Anne,

murdered, so that he can marry young Elizabeth, the daughter of the former Queen

Elizabeth and the dead King Edward. Though young Elizabeth is his niece, the alliance would

secure his claim to the throne. Nevertheless, Richard has begun to lose control of events,

and Queen Elizabeth manages to forestall him. Meanwhile, she secretly promises to marry

young Elizabeth to Richmond.

Richmond finally invades England. The night before the battle that will decide everything,

Richard has a terrible dream in which the ghosts of all the people he has murdered appear

and curse him, telling him that he will die the next day. In the battle on the following

morning, Richard is killed, and Richmond is crowned King Henry VII. Promising a new era of

peace for England, the new king is betrothed to young Elizabeth in order to unite the

warring houses of Lancaster and York.

Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Allure of Evil

When Richard claims that his deformity is the cause of his wicked ways, he seems to be

manipulating us for sympathy, just as he manipulates the other characters throughout the

play. As a result, Richard III does not explore the cause of evil in the human mind so much as

it explores its operation, depicting the workings of Richard’s mind and the methods he uses

to manipulate, control, and injure others for his own gain. Central to this aspect of the play

is the idea that Richard’s victims are complicit in their own destruction. Just as Lady Anne

allows herself to be seduced by Richard, even knowing that he will kill her, other characters

allow themselves to be taken in by his charisma and overlook his dishonesty and violent

behavior. This tendency is echoed in Richard’s relationship with the audience for much of

the play. Even though the audience is likely to be repulsed by Richard’s actions, his gleeful,

brilliant, revealing monologues cause most viewers to like him and even hope that he will

succeed despite his obvious malice.

The Connection Between Ruler and State

The so-called window scenes in Richard III—the conversation of the common people in Act

II, scene iii; Buckingham’s speech to the masses and Richard’s acceptance of the crown in

Act III; and the scene of the Scrivener in Act III, scene iv—provide a glimpse of how the

drama in the royal palace affects the lives of the common people outside its walls. As a

history play, Richard III is at least somewhat concerned with the consequences of the

behavior of those in power, and with ideas of good rulership and governance. It is significant

that the common people come to fear and distrust Richard long before most of the nobles

in the palace, and that the opposition of the common people to Richard is one of the main

forces that enables Richmond to overthrow him. In these ways, Richard III explores a theme

Shakespeare later revisited in Hamlet and Macbeth—the idea that the moral righteousness

of a political ruler has a direct bearing on the health of the state. A state with a good ruler

will tend to flourish (as Denmark does under King Hamlet), while a state with a bad ruler will

tend to suffer (as Scotland does under Macbeth).

The Power of Language

An interesting secondary theme of Richard III is the power of language, or the importance of

language in achieving political power. Language may not always be a necessary instrument

of power, but for Richard, it is a crucial weapon. His extraordinary skill with words enables

him to manipulate, confuse, and control those around him. Richard’s skill with language and

argument is what enables him to woo Lady Anne, have Clarence thrown in prison, keep the

Woodvilles off his track, blame the king for Clarence’s death, and achieve Hastings’s

execution, all at very little risk to himself. Interestingly, language also seems to be the only

defense against Richard, as is shown when the princes match his skill at wordplay and thus

indicate their ability to see through his schemes. In such cases, Richard simply uses violence

as an expedient and has his enemies, including the princes, put to death.

The Birth of the Tudor Dynasty

Richard III dramatizes a key turning point in English history: the end of the Wars of the Roses

and the rise to power of the Tudor dynasty in the figure of Henry VII. The Tudors continued

to rule England in Shakespeare’s day—Queen Elizabeth I, who sat on the throne when

Richard III was written, was a Tudor. As a playwright in sixteenth-century England,

Shakespeare had to court the favor of those in power, who literally could make or break his

career. As a result, Shakespeare’s portrayal of Richard III as a vile, hateful villain is in part

designed to set up a glorious ascension for Henry VII at the end of the play. Henry overthrew

Richard, after all, and the worse Richard seems, the better Henry will seem for defeating

him; moreover, the better Henry seems, the more likely the Tudors are to approve of

Shakespeare’s play. Had Shakespeare portrayed Richard as a hero, then Henry might have

seemed villainous for usurping his throne, and Shakespeare might have fallen from favor

with Queen Elizabeth. Of course, these political considerations are by no means the main

focus of the play—Shakespeare’s exploration of the psychology of evil stands on its own and

transcends mere propaganda. Still, it is important to realize that the history Shakespeare

recounts in his story was still very much alive when he wrote it, and that the considerations

of his own time strongly affected his portrayal of the past.

Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the

text’s major themes.

The Supernatural

For a play supposedly based on actual history, Richard III involves an extraordinary number

of supernatural elements. Some of these elements are Margaret’s prophetic curses,

Clarence and Stanley’s prophetic dreams, the allegations of witchcraft Richard levels at

Elizabeth and mistress Shore, the continual association of Richard with devils and demons

(for example, he is often called a hellhound), Richard’s comparison of himself to the shape-

shifting Proteus, the Princes’ discussion of the ghosts of their dead uncles, and—most

significant—the parade of eleven ghosts that visits Richard and Richmond the night before

the battle. These supernatural elements serve to create an atmosphere of intense dread

and gloom that matches the malice and evil of Richard’s inner self, and also serve to

heighten the sense that Richard’s reign is innately evil, transforming England into a kind of

Gothic netherworld.

Dreams

The motif of prophetic dreams is part of the play’s larger preoccupation with the

supernatural, but the idea of dreams emerges as its own separate motif after Stanley’s

dream about Hastings’s death. Clarence and Stanley both have dreams that not only predict

the future, but that are also heavy with important symbolism. For example, Clarence’s

dream involves Richard causing his drowning at sea. Immediately after it, he is drowned in a

cask of wine by murderers hired by Richard. In addition, Stanley’s dream involves Hastings

being gored by a boar—Richard’s heraldic symbol. Immediately after it, Richard orders

Hastings’s execution.

Symbols

“Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

The Boar”

The boar is Richard’s heraldic symbol, and is used several times throughout the play to

represent him, most notably in Stanley’s dream about Hastings’s death. The idea of the boar

is also played on in describing Richard’s deformity, and Richard is cursed by the duchess as

an “abortive, rooting hog” (I.iii.225). The boar was one of the most dangerous animals that

people hunted in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and Shakespeare’s audience would

have associated it with untamed aggression and uncontrollable violence.

The Character list

Richard - Also called the duke of Gloucester, and eventually crowned King Richard III.

Deformed in body and twisted in mind, Richard is both the central character and the villain

of the play. He is evil, corrupt, sadistic, and manipulative, and he will stop at nothing to

become king. His intelligence, political brilliance, and dazzling use of language keep the

audience fascinated—and his subjects and rivals under his thumb.

Read an in-depth analysis of Richard.

Buckingham - Richard’s right-hand man in his schemes to gain power. The duke of

Buckingham is almost as amoral and ambitious as Richard himself.

King Edward IV - The older brother of Richard and Clarence, and the king of England at the

start of the play. Edward was deeply involved in the Yorkists’ brutal overthrow of the

Lancaster regime, but as king he is devoted to achieving a reconciliation among the various

political factions of his reign. He is unaware that Richard attempts to thwart him at every

turn.

Clarence - The gentle, trusting brother born between Edward and Richard in the York

family. Richard has Clarence murdered in order to get him out of the way. Clarence leaves

two children, a son and a daughter.

Queen Elizabeth - The wife of King Edward IV and the mother of the two young princes (the

heirs to the throne) and their older sister, young Elizabeth. After Edward’s death, Queen

Elizabeth (also called Lady Gray) is at Richard’s mercy. Richard rightly views her as an enemy

because she opposes his rise to power, and because she is intelligent and fairly strong-

willed. Elizabeth is part of the Woodeville family; her kinsmen—Dorset, Rivers, and Gray—

are her allies in the court.

Dorset, Rivers, and Gray - The kinsmen and allies of Elizabeth, and members of the

Woodeville and Gray families. Rivers is Elizabeth’s brother, while Gray and Dorset are her

sons from her first marriage. Richard eventually executes Rivers and Gray, but Dorset flees

and survives.

Anne - The young widow of Prince Edward, who was the son of the former king, Henry VI.

Lady Anne hates Richard for the death of her husband, but for reasons of politics—and for

sadistic pleasure—Richard persuades Anne to marry him.

Duchess of York - Widowed mother of Richard, Clarence, and King Edward IV. The duchess

of York is Elizabeth’s mother-in-law, and she is very protective of Elizabeth and her children,

who are the duchess’s grandchildren. She is angry with, and eventually curses, Richard for

his heinous actions.

Margaret - Widow of the dead King Henry VI, and mother of the slain Prince Edward. In

medieval times, when kings were deposed, their children were often killed to remove any

threat from the royal line of descent—but their wives were left alive because they were

considered harmless. Margaret was the wife of the king before Edward, the Lancastrian

Henry VI, who was subsequently deposed and murdered (along with their children) by the

family of King Edward IV and Richard. She is embittered and hates both Richard and the

people he is trying to get rid of, all of whom were complicit in the destruction of the

Lancasters.

Read an in-depth analysis of Margaret.

The princes - The two young sons of King Edward IV and his wife, Elizabeth, their names are

actually Prince Edward and the young duke of York, but they are often referred to

collectively. Agents of Richard murder these boys—Richard’s nephews—in the Tower of

London. Young Prince Edward, the rightful heir to the throne, should not be confused with

the elder Edward, prince of Wales (the first husband of Lady Anne, and the son of the

former king, Henry VI.), who was killed before the play begins.

Young Elizabeth - The former Queen Elizabeth’s daughter. Young Elizabeth enjoys the fate

of many Renaissance noblewomen. She becomes a pawn in political power-brokering, and is

promised in marriage at the end of the play to Richmond, the Lancastrian rebel leader, in

order to unite the warring houses of York and Lancaster.

Ratcliffe, Catesby - Two of Richard’s flunkies among the nobility.

Tyrrell - A murderer whom Richard hires to kill his young cousins, the princes in the Tower

of London.

Richmond - A member of a branch of the Lancaster royal family. Richmond gathers a force

of rebels to challenge Richard for the throne. He is meant to represent goodness, justice,

and fairness—all the things Richard does not. Richmond is portrayed in such a glowing light

in part because he founded the Tudor dynasty, which still ruled England in Shakespeare’s

day.

Hastings - A lord who maintains his integrity, remaining loyal to the family of King Edward

IV. Hastings winds up dead for making the mistake of trusting Richard.

Stanley - The stepfather of Richmond. Lord Stanley, earl of Derby, secretly helps Richmond,

although he cannot escape Richard’s watchful gaze.

Lord Mayor of London - A gullible and suggestible fellow whom Richard and Buckingham

use as a pawn in their ploy to make Richard king.

Vaughan - A friend of Elizabeth, Dorset, Rivers, and Gray who is executed by Richard along

with Rivers and Grey.

The Reviews results

Of

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

William Shakespeare

full title · A Midsummer Night’s Dream

author · William Shakespeare

type of work · Play

genres · Comedy; fantasy; romance; farce

language · English

time and place written · London, 1594 or 1595

date of first publication · 1600

publisher · Thomas Fisher

narrator · None

climax · In the strictest sense, there is no real climax, as the conflicts of the play are all

resolved swiftly by magical means in Act IV; the moment of greatest tension is probably the

quarrel between the lovers in Act III, scene ii.

protagonist · Because there are three main groups of characters, there is no single

protagonist in the play; however, Puck is generally considered the most important

character.

antagonist · None; the play’s tensions are mostly the result of circumstances, accidents,

and mistakes.

settings (time) · Combines elements of Ancient Greece with elements of Renaissance

England

settings (place) · Athens and the forest outside its walls

point of view · Varies from scene to scene

falling action · Act V, scene i, which centers on the craftsmen’s play

tense · Present

foreshadowing · Comments made in Act I, scene i about the difficulties that lovers face

tones · Romantic; comedic; fantastic; satirical; dreamlike; joyful; farcical

symbols · Theseus and Hippolyta represent order, stability, and wakefulness; Theseus’s

hounds represent the coming of morning; Oberon’s love potion represents the power and

instability of love.

themes · The difficulties of love; magic; the nature of dreams; the relationships between

fantasy and reality and between environment and experience

motifs · Love out of balance; contrast (juxtaposed opposites, such as beautiful and ugly,

short and tall, clumsy and graceful, ethereal and earthy)

Context

The most influential writer in all of English literature, William Shakespeare was born in 1564

to a successful middle-class glove-maker in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Shakespeare

attended grammar school, but his formal education proceeded no further. In 1582 he

married an older woman, Anne Hathaway, and had three children with her. Around 1590 he

left his family behind and traveled to London to work as an actor and playwright. Public and

critical success quickly followed, and Shakespeare eventually became the most popular

playwright in England and part-owner of the Globe Theater. His career bridged the reigns of

Elizabeth I (ruled 1558–1603) and James I (ruled 1603–1625), and he was a favorite of both

monarchs. Indeed, James granted Shakespeare’s company the greatest possible compliment

by bestowing upon its members the title of King’s Men. Wealthy and renowned,

Shakespeare retired to Stratford and died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two. At the time of

Shakespeare’s death, literary luminaries such as Ben Jonson hailed his works as timeless.

Shakespeare’s works were collected and printed in various editions in the century following

his death, and by the early eighteenth century his reputation as the greatest poet ever to

write in English was well established. The unprecedented admiration garnered by his works

led to a fierce curiosity about Shakespeare’s life, but the dearth of biographical information

has left many details of Shakespeare’s personal history shrouded in mystery. Some people

have concluded from this fact that Shakespeare’s plays were really written by someone

else—Francis Bacon and the Earl of Oxford are the two most popular candidates—but the

support for this claim is overwhelmingly circumstantial, and the theory is not taken seriously

by many scholars.

In the absence of credible evidence to the contrary, Shakespeare must be viewed as the

author of the thirty-seven plays and 154 sonnets that bear his name. The legacy of this body

of work is immense. A number of Shakespeare’s plays seem to have transcended even the

category of brilliance, becoming so influential as to profoundly affect the course of Western

literature and culture ever after.

Written in the mid-1590s, probably shortly before Shakespeare turned to Romeo and Juliet,

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of his strangest and most delightful creations, and it

marks a departure from his earlier works and from others of the English Renaissance. The

play demonstrates both the extent of Shakespeare’s learning and the expansiveness of his

imagination. The range of references in the play is among its most extraordinary attributes:

Shakespeare draws on sources as various as Greek mythology (Theseus, for instance, is

loosely based on the Greek hero of the same name, and the play is peppered with

references to Greek gods and goddesses); English country fairy lore (the character of Puck,

or Robin Goodfellow, was a popular figure in sixteenth-century stories); and the theatrical

practices of Shakespeare’s London (the craftsmen’s play refers to and parodies many

conventions of English Renaissance theater, such as men playing the roles of women).

Further, many of the characters are drawn from diverse texts: Titania comes from Ovid’s

Metamorphoses, and Oberon may have been taken from the medieval romance Huan of

Bordeaux, translated by Lord Berners in the mid-1530s. Unlike the plots of many of

Shakespeare’s plays, however, the story in A Midsummer Night’s Dream seems not to have

been drawn from any particular source but rather to be the original product of the

playwright’s imagination.

Plot Overview

Theseus, duke of Athens, is preparing for his marriage to Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons,

with a four-day festival of pomp and entertainment. He commissions his Master of the

Revels, Philostrate, to find suitable amusements for the occasion. Egeus, an Athenian

nobleman, marches into Theseus’s court with his daughter, Hermia, and two young men,

Demetrius and Lysander. Egeus wishes Hermia to marry Demetrius (who loves Hermia), but

Hermia is in love with Lysander and refuses to comply. Egeus asks for the full penalty of law

to fall on Hermia’s head if she flouts her father’s will. Theseus gives Hermia until his

wedding to consider her options, warning her that disobeying her father’s wishes could

result in her being sent to a convent or even executed. Nonetheless, Hermia and Lysander

plan to escape Athens the following night and marry in the house of Lysander’s aunt, some

seven leagues distant from the city. They make their intentions known to Hermia’s friend

Helena, who was once engaged to Demetrius and still loves him even though he jilted her

after meeting Hermia. Hoping to regain his love, Helena tells Demetrius of the elopement

that Hermia and Lysander have planned. At the appointed time, Demetrius stalks into the

woods after his intended bride and her lover; Helena follows behind him.

In these same woods are two very different groups of characters. The first is a band of

fairies, including Oberon, the fairy king, and Titania, his queen, who has recently returned

from India to bless the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. The second is a band of Athenian

craftsmen rehearsing a play that they hope to perform for the duke and his bride. Oberon

and Titania are at odds over a young Indian prince given to Titania by the prince’s mother;

the boy is so beautiful that Oberon wishes to make him a knight, but Titania refuses. Seeking

revenge, Oberon sends his merry servant, Puck, to acquire a magical flower, the juice of

which can be spread over a sleeping person’s eyelids to make that person fall in love with

the first thing he or she sees upon waking. Puck obtains the flower, and Oberon tells him of

his plan to spread its juice on the sleeping Titania’s eyelids. Having seen Demetrius act

cruelly toward Helena, he orders Puck to spread some of the juice on the eyelids of the

young Athenian man. Puck encounters Lysander and Hermia; thinking that Lysander is the

Athenian of whom Oberon spoke, Puck afflicts him with the love potion. Lysander happens

to see Helena upon awaking and falls deeply in love with her, abandoning Hermia. As the

night progresses and Puck attempts to undo his mistake, both Lysander and Demetrius end

up in love with Helena, who believes that they are mocking her. Hermia becomes so jealous

that she tries to challenge Helena to a fight. Demetrius and Lysander nearly do fight over

Helena’s love, but Puck confuses them by mimicking their voices, leading them apart until

they are lost separately in the forest.

When Titania wakes, the first creature she sees is Bottom, the most ridiculous of the

Athenian craftsmen, whose head Puck has mockingly transformed into that of an ass. Titania

passes a ludicrous interlude doting on the ass-headed weaver. Eventually, Oberon obtains

the Indian boy, Puck spreads the love potion on Lysander’s eyelids, and by morning all is

well. Theseus and Hippolyta discover the sleeping lovers in the forest and take them back to

Athens to be married—Demetrius now loves Helena, and Lysander now loves Hermia. After

the group wedding, the lovers watch Bottom and his fellow craftsmen perform their play, a

fumbling, hilarious version of the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. When the play is completed,

the lovers go to bed; the fairies briefly emerge to bless the sleeping couples with a

protective charm and then disappear. Only Puck remains, to ask the audience for its

forgiveness and approval and to urge it to remember the play as though it had all been a

dream.

Conflict

Titania and Oberon quarrel. Lysander and Hermia run off together and get lost in the

woods, and Demetrius and Helena follow them.

Further conflict arises in yet another set of main characters: Oberon and Titania. The fairies'

fight (over a relatively small thing) has very serious consequences on the entire natural

world. In contrast, the young lovers are worried about a serious thing (love), but the way

they deal with it only matters to themselves and their families. The scene is set for our

Athenian heroes to get involved in this other conflict. As Titania and Oberon announce that

the natural world is all mixed up, the four lovers go wandering into that very natural world,

with predictably zany results. We're all set for the young Athenians' problems to become

even more complicated, reflecting the conflict that brews in the wood around them.

Themes

“Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.”

Love’s Difficulty

“The course of true love never did run smooth,” comments Lysander, articulating one of A

Midsummer Night’s Dream’s most important themes—that of the difficulty of love (I.i.134).

Though most of the conflict in the play stems from the troubles of romance, and though the

play involves a number of romantic elements, it is not truly a love story; it distances the

audience from the emotions of the characters in order to poke fun at the torments and

afflictions that those in love suffer. The tone of the play is so lighthearted that the audience

never doubts that things will end happily, and it is therefore free to enjoy the comedy

without being caught up in the tension of an uncertain outcome.

Magic

The fairies’ magic, which brings about many of the most bizarre and hilarious situations in

the play, is another element central to the fantastic atmosphere of A Midsummer Night’s

Dream. Shakespeare uses magic both to embody the almost supernatural power of love

(symbolized by the love potion) and to create a surreal world. Although the misuse of magic

causes chaos, as when Puck mistakenly applies the love potion to Lysander’s eyelids, magic

ultimately resolves the play’s tensions by restoring love to balance among the quartet of

Athenian youths. Additionally, the ease with which Puck uses magic to his own ends, as

when he reshapes Bottom’s head into that of an ass and recreates the voices of Lysander

and Demetrius, stands in contrast to the laboriousness and gracelessness of the craftsmen’s

attempt to stage their play.

Dreams

As the title suggests, dreams are an important theme in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; they

are linked to the bizarre, magical mishaps in the forest. Hippolyta’s first words in the play

evidence the prevalence of dreams (“Four days will quickly steep themselves in night, / Four

nights will quickly dream away the time”), and various characters mention dreams

throughout (I.i.7–8). The theme of dreaming recurs predominantly when characters attempt

to explain bizarre events in which these characters are involved: “I have had a dream, past

the wit of man to say what / dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about t’expound this

dream,” Bottom says, unable to fathom the magical happenings that have affected him as

anything but the result of slumber.

Motifs

“Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and

inform the text’s major themes.”

Contrast

The idea of contrast is the basic building block of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 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. Further, the three

main groups of characters (who are developed from sources as varied as Greek mythology,

English folklore, and classical literature) are designed to contrast powerfully with one

another: the fairies are graceful and magical, while the craftsmen are clumsy and earthy; the

craftsmen are merry, while the lovers are overly serious. Contrast serves as the defining

visual characteristic of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with the play’s most indelible image

being that of the beautiful, delicate Titania weaving flowers into the hair of the ass-headed

Bottom. It seems impossible to imagine two figures less compatible with each other. The

juxtaposition of extraordinary differences is the most important characteristic of the play’s

surreal atmosphere and is thus perhaps the play’s central motif; there is no scene in which

extraordinary contrast is not present.

Symbols

“Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or

concepts.”

Theseus and Hippolyta

Theseus and Hippolyta bookend A Midsummer Night’s Dream, appearing in the daylight at

both the beginning and the end of the play’s main action. They disappear, however, for the

duration of the action, leaving in the middle of Act I, scene i and not reappearing until Act

IV, as the sun is coming up to end the magical night in the forest. Shakespeare uses Theseus

and Hippolyta, the ruler of Athens and his warrior bride, to represent order and stability, to

contrast with the uncertainty, instability, and darkness of most of the play. Whereas an

important element of the dream realm is that one is not in control of one’s environment,

Theseus and Hippolyta are always entirely in control of theirs. Their reappearance in the

daylight of Act IV to hear Theseus’s hounds signifies the end of the dream state of the

previous night and a return to rationality.

The Love Potion

The love potion is made from the juice of a flower that was struck with one of Cupid’s

misfired arrows; it is used by the fairies to wreak romantic havoc throughout Acts II, III, and

IV. Because the meddling fairies are careless with the love potion, the situation of the young

Athenian lovers becomes increasingly chaotic and confusing (Demetrius and Lysander are

magically compelled to transfer their love from Hermia to Helena), and Titania is hilariously

humiliated (she is magically compelled to fall deeply in love with the ass-headed Bottom).

The love potion thus becomes a symbol of the unreasoning, fickle, erratic, and undeniably

powerful nature of love, which can lead to inexplicable and bizarre behavior and cannot be

resisted.

The Craftsmen’s Play

The play-within-a-play that takes up most of Act V, scene i is used to represent, in

condensed form, many of the important ideas and themes of the main plot. Because the

craftsmen are such bumbling actors, their performance satirizes the melodramatic Athenian

lovers and gives the play a purely joyful, comedic ending. Pyramus and Thisbe face parental

disapproval in the play-within-a-play, just as Hermia and Lysander do; the theme of

romantic confusion enhanced by the darkness of night is rehashed, as Pyramus mistakenly

believes that Thisbe has been killed by the lion, just as the Athenian lovers experience

intense misery because of the mix-ups caused by the fairies’ meddling. The craftsmen’s play

is, therefore, a kind of symbol for A Midsummer Night’s Dream itself: a story involving

powerful emotions that is made hilarious by its comical presentation.

Spectacle

The Elizabethan Theater

Attending the theater in Shakespeare's time was quite unlike attending a professional

performance today. First, the theaters were of two distinct kinds: public and private. The

government closely regulated both, but particularly the public theaters. Public theaters such

as the one in which Shakespeare made his livelihood were fairly large open-air structures,

able to hold about 3,000 people.

In order to compete with rival theaters, as well as the popular pastimes of bullbaiting and

bearbaiting, acting troupes changed their show bills often, generally daily. They introduced

new plays regularly, helping partially explain why about 2,000 plays were written by more

than 250 dramatists between 1590 and the closing of the theaters in 1642. Public

performances generally started in the mid-afternoon so spectators could return home by

nightfall.

Because of weather, plague, Puritan opposition, and religious observances, theaters often

advertised on a day-to-day basis (unlike today when we know in advance the dates a show

will run). One of the most memorable advertising techniques troupes employed involved

running a specific flag atop the theater to signal a performance that day (a black flag for a

tragedy, a red flag for a history, and white flag for a comedy). Scholars estimate that during

the first part of the seventeenth century, performances in public theaters took place about

214 days (about 7 months) each year.

Although we commonly associate elaborate lighting and scenery with producing plays, in

the public playhouses of Elizabethan England, the only lighting came from natural sources.

All action took place in front of a general three-tiered façade, eliminating the need for

elaborate sets. Public theaters varied in shape (circular, octagonal, square), yet their

purpose was the same: to surround a playing area in such a way as to accommodate a large

number of paying spectators. Most theaters had tree-roofed galleries for spectators, one

above the other, surrounding the yard. Each theater was also made up of three distinct

seating areas, each increasingly more expensive: the pit (standing room only, used primarily

by the lower classes), the public gallery (bench seats for the middle classes), and the box

seats (appropriate for the Puritan aristocracy).

The private theaters of Shakespeare's day offered a definite alternative to the more

common public playhouse. These venues were open to the public, but special

considerations made it unusual for commoners to attend. First, the private playhouses

accommodated only about 300 spectators. In addition, they provided actual seats for

patrons, helping to justify a considerably higher admission than the public theaters. Unlike

the open-air theaters, private theaters were roofed and lit by candles, allowing for evening

performances (a time when most commoners needed to be doing chores around their own

homes). During performances, too, the private theaters would often separate the acts with

musical interludes rather than performing the entire play without any intermissions, as they

did in the public theaters.

Tools of Character and Characterization

Character Analysis

Social Status

You probably noticed that there's a major social divide in Athens, where people are divided

into hierarchical groups: royalty (Theseus and Hippolyta), nobility (Hermia, Lysander,

Demetrius, Helena, and Egeus), and commoners (the "Mechanicals" or craftsmen who

perform a play at Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding). Obviously, those at the top have a lot

more power than the characters at the bottom of the social ladder.

The upper-class characters are also a lot more educated, and the play suggests that this

makes them better able to appreciate art and culture, unlike the "rude Mechanicals" who

bumble their way through a performance of a classic story. At one point, Egeus says the

craftsmen are "hard-handed men that work in Athens here. / Which never laboured in their

minds til now" (5.1.76-77).

We also want to point out that the play's division of power isn't limited to Athens—even in

the fairy world King Oberon and Queen Titania are elevated above regular old sprites (like

Puck) and the fairies who live to serve them. To some extent, all of this is a reflection of the

social hierarchy in Shakespeare's England, which also consisted of royals, nobles, and

commoners.

Type of Being

The characters in the play fall into two categories: humans and fairies. As we know, fairies

have supernatural powers and humans don't. Fairies can go whizzing around the globe in

under an hour and humans can't. Fairies can sprinkle magic love juice in the eyes of hapless

victims and humans can't. We could go on and on, but you get the idea.

The play also mentions some "ghosts" that come out at night and "wand'ring here and

there, / Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all" (3.2.402-404). Still, Oberon is quick

to point out the following: "But we are sprits of another sort" (3.2.410). In other words,

fairies like Oberon might like a good practical joke or two, but they're mostly harmless and,

in some cases, they go out of their way to protect humans. (Remember how Oberon orders

his crew to run around blessing Theseus's house in Act 5, Scene 1?)

Names

Some, but not all, of the characters' names are significant in the play. Bottom, for example,

is silly and ridiculous. His name implies that he's kind of an "ass." In case we didn't get the

joke, Shakespeare literally transforms his head into that of a donkey. Bottom's name also

refers to his profession. A weaver by trade, his name is another term for a piece a wood that

weavers wrapped thread around.

In fact, all of the Mechanicals' names are clever plays on their professions. Peter Quince is a

carpenter and his name sounds like "quoins," the wooden wedges used by men in his trade.

Snug is a joiner and his name refers to the kind of "snug" joints craftsmen aimed for when

they built furniture. Starveling is a tailor and his name plays on the common idea that all

tailors were skinny. You get the idea, right?

It's interesting to us that Shakespeare gave his craftsmen names that align the men with

their trades. It's almost as if their entire identities are wrapped up in their professions, as

though the men can never be anything other than skilled laborers (no matter how hard they

try to be skilled actors).

Speech and Dialogue

In the play, Shakespeare uses different speech styles to differentiate between the various

types and classes of characters. The "rude Mechanicals" tend to speak in regular old prose

(which is how we talk every day). The more "noble" and/or educated figures tend to speak a

lot in verse (poetry). To differentiate the upper-class characters (like Theseus) from the

commoners (like Bottom), Shakespeare usually has the members of the nobility speak in a

style that's called "blank verse," or "unrhymed iambic pentameter." Sometimes, however,

the young Athenian lovers speak "rhymed verse," especially when they're all worked up

about their love lives. The fairies (Oberon, Titania, Puck, etc.) also speak in verse, but it's

usually different from the humans because they tend to speak in what's called "catalectic

trochaic tetrameter."

Before you get so stressed out that your head starts spinning around, you should relax—we

explain all of this in "Writing Style," which is where you should go now

Character List

Puck - Also known as Robin Goodfellow, Puck is Oberon’s jester, a mischievous fairy who

delights in playing pranks on mortals. Though A Midsummer Night’s Dream divides its action

between several groups of characters, Puck is the closest thing the play has to a protagonist.

His enchanting, mischievous spirit pervades the atmosphere, and his antics are responsible

for many of the complications that propel the other main plots: he mistakes the young

Athenians, applying the love potion to Lysander instead of Demetrius, thereby causing chaos

within the group of young lovers; he also transforms Bottom’s head into that of an ass.

Read an in-depth analysis of Puck.

Oberon - The king of the fairies, Oberon is initially at odds with his wife, Titania, because

she refuses to relinquish control of a young Indian prince whom he wants for a knight.

Oberon’s desire for revenge on Titania leads him to send Puck to obtain the love-potion

flower that creates so much of the play’s confusion and farce.

Titania - The beautiful queen of the fairies, Titania resists the attempts of her husband,

Oberon, to make a knight of the young Indian prince that she has been given. Titania’s brief,

potion-induced love for Nick Bottom, whose head Puck has transformed into that of an ass,

yields the play’s foremost example of the contrast motif.

Lysander - A young man of Athens, in love with Hermia. Lysander’s relationship with

Hermia invokes the theme of love’s difficulty: he cannot marry her openly because Egeus,

her father, wishes her to wed Demetrius; when Lysander and Hermia run away into the

forest, Lysander becomes the victim of misapplied magic and wakes up in love with Helena.

Demetrius - A young man of Athens, initially in love with Hermia and ultimately in love with

Helena. Demetrius’s obstinate pursuit of Hermia throws love out of balance among the

quartet of Athenian youths and precludes a symmetrical two-couple arrangement.

Hermia - Egeus’s daughter, a young woman of Athens. Hermia is in love with Lysander and

is a childhood friend of Helena. As a result of the fairies’ mischief with Oberon’s love potion,

both Lysander and Demetrius suddenly fall in love with Helena. Self-conscious about her

short stature, Hermia suspects that Helena has wooed the men with her height. By morning,

however, Puck has sorted matters out with the love potion, and Lysander’s love for Hermia

is restored.

Helena - A young woman of Athens, in love with Demetrius. Demetrius and Helena were

once betrothed, but when Demetrius met Helena’s friend Hermia, he fell in love with her

and abandoned Helena. Lacking confidence in her looks, Helena thinks that Demetrius and

Lysander are mocking her when the fairies’ mischief causes them to fall in love with her.

Read an in-depth analysis of Helena.

Egeus - Hermia’s father, who brings a complaint against his daughter to Theseus: Egeus has

given Demetrius permission to marry Hermia, but Hermia, in love with Lysander, refuses to

marry Demetrius. Egeus’s severe insistence that Hermia either respect his wishes or be held

accountable to Athenian law places him squarely outside the whimsical dream realm of the

forest.

Theseus - The heroic duke of Athens, engaged to Hippolyta. Theseus represents power and

order throughout the play. He appears only at the beginning and end of the story, removed

from the dreamlike events of the forest.

Hippolyta - The legendary queen of the Amazons, engaged to Theseus. Like Theseus, she

symbolizes order.

Nick Bottom - The overconfident weaver chosen to play Pyramus in the craftsmen’s play for

Theseus’s marriage celebration. Bottom is full of advice and self-confidence but frequently

makes silly mistakes and misuses language. His simultaneous nonchalance about the

beautiful Titania’s sudden love for him and unawareness of the fact that Puck has

transformed his head into that of an ass mark the pinnacle of his foolish arrogance.

Read an in-depth analysis of Nick Bottom.

Peter Quince - A carpenter and the nominal leader of the craftsmen’s attempt to put on a

play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. Quince is often shoved aside by the abundantly

confident Bottom. During the craftsmen’s play, Quince plays the Prologue.

Francis Flute - The bellows-mender chosen to play Thisbe in the craftsmen’s play for

Theseus’s marriage celebration. Forced to play a young girl in love, the bearded craftsman

determines to speak his lines in a high, squeaky voice.

Robin Starveling - The tailor chosen to play Thisbe’s mother in the craftsmen’s play for

Theseus’s marriage celebration. He ends up playing the part of Moonshine.

Tom Snout - The tinker chosen to play Pyramus’s father in the craftsmen’s play for

Theseus’s marriage celebration. He ends up playing the part of Wall, dividing the two lovers.

Snug - The joiner chosen to play the lion in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage

celebration. Snug worries that his roaring will frighten the ladies in the audience.

Philostrate - Theseus’s Master of the Revels, responsible for organizing the entertainment

for the duke’s marriage celebration.

Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mote, and Mustardseed - The fairies ordered by Titania to attend

to Bottom after she falls in love with him.

Setting

Where It All Goes Down

Athens in Antiquity; A Wood Outside of Athens; Midsummer

The play begins in (ancient) Athens, where Duke Theseus and Hippolyta are preparing for an

elaborate wedding. Despite the upcoming nuptials and festivities that surround a

nobleman's marriage, Athens is also a place for law and order. Here, a father can demand

the death penalty for a disobedient daughter who refuses to marry the man of his choosing.

It's no wonder, then, that the young Athenian lovers hightail it into the enchanted wood,

where fairies reign over a gorgeous and lush natural world of magic, wonder, and mischief.

The wood is the perfect space for the suspension of man-made rules: Bottom, a lowly

workman, can cavort with the Queen of the Fairies; the Athenian lovers can fight and love as

lovers do; and, most importantly, fairy magic (not the rule of law) can reign supreme.

Still, the human characters can't make a permanent home in the wood and so they all return

to Athens in the end. Once everyone is back at Theseus's pad in Act 5, the setting looks less

like an ancient Greek palace than an Elizabethan nobleman's estate. After their elaborate

wedding, Duke Theseus and Hippolyta enjoy the kind of courtly entertainments that

Elizabethan nobles and royals would have experienced.

Genre

Comedy

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a classic example of Shakespearean comedy. What, you

don't believe us? We'll prove it to you. We've got a checklist that details all the typical

conventions and features of the genre so you can see for yourself:

Light, humorous tone: Check. The play features fairy magic (like Oberon's love potion), silly

pranks (like the transformation of a guy's head into that of a jackass), and the botched

performance of a play-within-a-play by a bunch of wannabe actors. Need we say more?

Clever dialogue and witty banter: Check. Shakespeare is a huge fan of puns and snappy

wordplay, so naturally his characters know how to get their witty repartee on. Shakespeare

reserves some of the best dialogue for his warring lovers, especially Oberon and Titania, and

even the "rude mechanicals" manage to wow us with their clever banter.

Deception and disguise: Let's see… Hermia and Lysander try to sneak away from Athens to

elope (behind Egeus's back). Also, Titania and the young lovers have no idea they've been

drugged by Oberon and his magic love juice. So, check.

Mistaken identity: Check... sort of. In most of Shakespeare's other comedies, someone

usually runs around in a disguise to mask his or her identity. (Sometimes, a lover is even

tricked into sleeping with the wrong person by mistake.) This isn't necessarily the case in A

Midsummer Night's Dream, unless we count the fact that the love juice causes Titania to fall

head over heels in love with an "ass." In other words, Titania mistakes Bottom for a creature

who is worthy of her love and affection. The same can be said of the other lovers who are

dosed with Oberon's magic love potion.

Multiple plots with twists and turns: Check. There are several lines of action in A

Midsummer Night's Dream and Shakespeare invites us to sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

The first plotline involves Theseus and Hippolyta's upcoming wedding. The second plotline

involves the young Athenian lovers who run around the wood in confusion. The third follows

Oberon's tiff with his wife, Titania. And as a fourth plotline, Shakespeare works in a bunch

of craftsmen (the Mechanicals), who plan to perform a play at Theseus's big, fancy wedding.

Love overcomes obstacles: Check. From the play's very beginning, Shakespeare beats us

over the head with this idea. Seriously. The only reason Theseus is even engaged to

Hippolyta is because he conquered her people (the Amazons) and basically won her in

battle. Just a few moments after we hear about Theseus and Hippolyta, we learn that

Hermia and Lysander must also overcome a major obstacle if they want to be together

because Hermia's dad wants her to marry someone else. Never mind the fact that we've got

a bunch of mischievous fairies running around the wood sloshing magic love juice into the

eyes of hapless humans, causing them to fall in and out of love with the first creature that

comes into view. In the end, though, love wins out and Theseus and the four young lovers

all hook up with a steady partner. Keep reading.

Marriage: Check. This is important so pay attention, Shmoopsters. No matter what else

happens, Shakespeare's comedies ALWAYS end with one or more marriages (or the promise

of marriage). This is Shakespeare's way of restoring social order to the world of his plays

(after turning order on its head for a few hours). At the end of A Midsummer Night's Dream,

Theseus finally gets to marry Hippolyta and spend the night with her (which he's been

talking about since the play's opening lines). As for the four humans who have been chasing

each other around the forest and falling in and out of love, they finally settle down and hook

up with a steady partner: Hermia weds Lysander and Demetrius gets hitched to Helena.

Family drama: Check. If you read the very first scene, you know that Hermia and her dad

Egeus go toe-to-toe about whom she should and shouldn't marry. Egeus is so worked up

about his daughter's disobedience that he wants Duke Theseus to uphold the Athenian law

that says daughters have to do what their fathers say or else they get sentenced to death.

Yeesh. It's a good thing A Midsummer Night's Dream isn't a tragedy, otherwise this ugly little

domestic dispute would end badly. How badly? Think Romeo and Juliet badly.

(Re)unification of families: Check. Like we said earlier, Egeus would rather see his daughter

dead than witness Hermia marry Lysander. Still, A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy so

Egeus eventually backs down and gives in to the idea that Hermia is going to marry for love.

We should point out that Egeus only changes his mind after Duke Theseus orders him to

back off (4.1), but still, Egeus sticks around for his daughter's wedding, so we're counting

that as a family reunion.

Tone

At the beginning of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the tone is pretty dark, wouldn't you say?

After all, Hermia faces the death penalty or life as a nun if she doesn't obey her father and

marry the man of his choosing. This suggests a bleak outlook, don't you think?

Still, this darkness quickly gives way to a lighthearted tone that reveals Shakespeare's sense

of humor about the pitfalls of love. Case in point,When the young lovers (some of whom

have been drugged by Oberon's magic love potion) go chasing each other around the wood,

falling in and out of love at the drop of a hat (or the drop of some magic love juice),

Shakespeare pokes fun at how erratic and foolish we can all be when it comes to romance.

Just ask Titania, who falls head-over-heels in love with a (literal) jackass.

Bibliography and sources

http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/themes.html

www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/

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Ross, Charles D. Richard III. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.

Spivack, Bernard. Shakespeare and the Allegory of Evil. New York: Columbia University Press, 1958.

Weir, Alison. The Wars of the Roses. New York: Ballantine, 1996.