A Midsummer Night’s Dream

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy written by William Shakespeare around 1595. The play is about four sets of lovers: one fairy couple, the Duke of Athens and his bride, and four young Athenians. Part of the great fun of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is that all of these characters are made into fools by love and fairy magic.

When Shakespeare wrote this play, Elizabeth I was still the Queen of England and Shakespeare was simultaneously working on Romeo and Juliet. The performance of the play Pyramus and Thisby within A Midsummer Night’s Dream could be seen as a lighthearted mock-up for Romeo and Juliet, which is a more serious treatment of a similar storyline. During Shakespeare’s time it was assumed that the audience was acquainted with the story of Pyramus and Thisby as told by Ovid. Shakespeare, however, uses the classical tale of tragedy towards humorous ends in his comedy. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is light in many ways: the language is gorgeous and lush, and problems are sometimes treated frivolously.

The play’s airy nature might be explained by the occasion for the play. Though the exact venue for which this play was written is unknown, it’s generally thought to be a piece meant for performance at a nobleman’s wedding. Just as the character Theseus dismisses plays about history and tragedy for his wedding night, Shakespeare seems to have deliberately written A Midsummer Night’s Dream as a lighter piece fit to be performed at a celebration. In general, this period at the end of the 1500s is thought to be when Shakespeare was at his best with the comedies, having perfected their form.

And after the teenagers chased each other around the woods for a night, they all lived happily ever after in perfect marital bliss. The End.

Call us crazy, but does anyone out there wonder whether true happiness in this play exists? Happiness seems to arrive only with the help of magic. Let’s examine:

• Peace between the four lovers is restored only because Demetrius remains drugged up on magic and infatuated with Helena.
• Bottom adores being loved by Titania so much (even with the whole donkey-transformation thing) that he delivers a monologue about it (and a famous one at that).
• Stormy Titania is happy as a clam (happier than we’ve ever seen her) with Bottom-turned-donkey in her bower.

We want to be satisfied with this play's happy ending, but enchantment gets in the way.

So now we turn to you, Shmoopster. Help us out. What is true happiness, and is it real if it's induced by magical potions?