A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy written by William Shakespeare. A Midsummer Night’s Dream was first performed around 1595–96, and it was originally categorized as a comedy. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is set in a forest near Athens, where the fairy king and queen have been quarreling, and a troupe of amateur actors is in the forest for a performance. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is Shakespearean comedy at its best, with a plot involving love, dreams, mistaken identities, and an assortment of comical characters.
The plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream starts with a love triangle between two men and a woman, evolves into slapstick comedy involving the troupe of amateur actors, then ends with the restoration of order to the lives of both mortals and fairies. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is rich in subplots, ranging from an exploration of how life is different for lovers versus friends to whether or not one can truly love someone who does not return that love.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream contains many themes dealing with relationships; A Midsummer Night’s Dream provides examples of romantic love, unrequited love, friendship, flirting, broken hearts, social class, age difference, gender roles (especially in heterosexual relationships), and homosexual relationships. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy about the power of love, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream demonstrates that all humans, regardless of age or gender, are susceptible to falling in love.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream also demonstrates that true love can be found even when it seems least expected. A Midsummer Night’s Dream takes place during Puck’s night off; it has been said by scholars that A Midsummer Night’s Dream illustrates Shakespeare making fun of himself for stretching his limited repertoire to fit so many types of plays.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s comedies, which Mark Van Doren praised as “the most joyous of all plays” (Preface). A Midsummer Night’s Dream is characterized by its variety of themes and does not fall under the conventional or stereotypical comedy. Shakespeare has written A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Elizabethan era where it was not customary to question man-made beliefs because questioning people were accused of being heretics.
Later, A Midsummer Night’s Dream became a forerunner play for his other romantic comedies, including A Winters Tale, As You Like It and The Merchant Of Venice. The plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream revolves around four love stories, which are all intertwined. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is about a mortal man named Theseus who marries Hippolyta and becomes the Duke of Athens. A Midsummer Night’s Dream starts off with The Mechanicals (a group of tradesmen) trying to stage Pyramus And Thisby for their entertainment, but it turns out so comical that Quince exclaims “Is all our company here?
The wedding between Theseus and Hippolyta is set within the first three scenes where the lovers Hermia and Lysander try to escape from Athens because Theseus forbids her to marry him since he only has eyes on her sister, Helena. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is of the typical Shakespearean Comedy because it has a happy ending by reconciling everyone of their problems, which sets A Midsummer Night’s Dream apart from all of his other comedies where tragedy is not avoided (Cambridge University Press).
The main ideas that A Midsummer Night’s Dream emphasizes on are friendship, love and marriage. A Midsummer Night’s Dream mainly focuses on the human desires of companionship and love, which leads to marriages at various levels. A Midsummer Night’s Dream also focuses on the theme of power, but it does so in a way where people do not agree with what they are told to accept.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream was written in the Elizabethan era when women were not equal to men because they did not have the same rights; however, women are given power in A Midsummer Night’s Dream through Hermia and Helena (Moira-Day). Shakespeare highlights this theme of power by showing how Demetrius falls in love with Helena even though he is engaged to Hermia, but it is clear that Helena wants him for his looks rather than love which she blatantly states “Eyes, look your last; arms, take your last embrace; and lips, O you/ The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss! A contract of eternal bond of love. / (I. i. 183–185)” A Midsummer Night’s Dream also emphasized on the theme of love which is found through all four of the stories. A Midsummer Night’s Dream does not just highlight love within heterosexual relationships, but it even highlights same-sex love between Helena and Hermia (Oberlin College).
A Midsummer Night’s Dream shows how marriage was seen as very important in Elizabethan society; however, it is not clear why Shakespeare had written A Midsummer Night’s Dream at this point because there had been no events that would suggest Shakespeare had some feelings about an impending marriage. Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream may be read as a comedy, but there are many aspects of A Midsummer Night’s Dream which do not fit in with the stereotypical characteristics of a comedy.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream has no happy ending at the end of the play because both Hermia and Lysander are still unhappy about their marriages, while Helena is still not disputed for her love towards Demetrius. A Midsummer Night’s Dream also presents marital relationships as being very humorous because everyone fails to remain faithful to their spouse throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream other than Theseus who never sleeps with Hippolyta until they are married (The University Of Wisconsin).
A Midsummer Night’s Dream also does not show how women retain their chastity before marriage which was an expected characteristic in Elizabethan society. A Midsummer Night’s Dream does not show how relationships should be between a man and a woman because the relationship between Hermia and Lysander is shown as being very negative, which is unlike other comedies where relationships are usually positive (The Society For The Study Of Early Modern Women).
A Midsummer Night’s Dream fails to meet the characteristics of a comedy in many ways because A Midsummer Night’s Dream shows marriages as being rather humorous when it should show marriages in a good light. A Midsummer Night’s Dream shows that Shakespeare may have been trying to prove his own point on marriage by making A Midsummer Night’s Dream unconventional from all the other comedies he has written.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream also focuses on many issues which are not usually found within a comedy because A Midsummer Night’s Dream shows the messiness of love and marriage, rather than just having marriages at various levels. A Midsummer Night’s Dream does not show how relationships should be in Elizabethan society because A Midsummer Night’s Dream is very unconventional when it comes to romantic love between men, women, and same-sex couples (Cleveland State University).