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It is not known with certainly when the play was written and staged for the first time, but it is assumed between 1594 and 1596. Some have suggested that it may have been written in February 1596 for a performance at the marriage of Sir Thomas Berkeley and Elizabeth Carey. It is not certain which gender has inspired the plot, but some ideas can be traced in classical literature, for example, the story of Pyramus and Thisbe is told in Ovid's Metamorphoses, and the transformation of Bottom into a donkey is taken from “L'Asino d'Oro di Apuleio” - two literary works that Shakespeare may have learned at school.
Characters
Puck
Puck is the elf, servant of Oberon.
The Puck of Shakespeare becomes in some ways the real main character. By mistake or ability he raises the action, follows it for all its course, determines the happy ending. The characteristics of the Nordic tradition of Puck: the joke, the spite, are used to symbolize the changing nature of love.
Puck is the love that first hides and then reveals the real physical and moral appearence who fell under his attentions.
Titania
Queen of the Fairies, is the beautiful wife of Oberon, King of the Fairies. Both are protagonists, with their intricate tale of love and revenge. Titania in the play is a beautiful creature that goes around the woods with his faithful retinue of spirits
Oberon
The king of the fairies. The name Oberon appears for the first time in the first half of the thirteenth century, in a chanson de geste. A son of Charles the Bald, in 866 died from wounds inflicted by a certain Oberon.
Shakespeare read or had news at school of the chanson de geste.
Lysander
Man loved by Hermia, but refused by her father.
Demetrius
Betrothed to Hermia, but unrequited. He is loved by Helena, but not reciprocated.
Hermia
She is caught in a romantic accident where she loves one man, Lysander and is loved by Demetrius but does not love him back. Hermia is the Greek goddess of commerce and dreams. This connects with the economic reasons Demetrius and Lysander desire her, as well as their demands to be in control of her psyche, or dreams
Helena
Helena is considered to be a very vulnerable, sensitive and obsessive character, due to her growing up in the shadow of Hermia: she shows strength and a new belief in herself by refusing advances of Lysander when she believes he is making fun of her, despite the fact that he claimed that she was his one true love. Helena is the character who changes most and for the better.
Teseus
Duke of Athens
Hippolyta
Queen of the Amazons and the wife of Theseus
Bottom
Will be transformed into an ass, and Titania falls in love with him.
Plot
The play features three interlocking plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazon queen, Hippolyta, and set simultaneously in the woodland, and in the realm of Fairyland.
In the opening scene, Hermia refuses to follow her father Egeus's instructions to marry Demetrius, whom he has chosen for her. In response, Egeus quotes before Theseus an ancient Athenian law whereby a daughter must marry the suitor chosen by her father, or else face death. Theseus offers her another choice: lifelong chastity worshiping the goddess Diana as a nun.
At that same time, Peter Quince and his fellow players gather to produce a stage play, "the most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe", for the Duke and the Duchess. Quince reads the names of characters and bestows them to the players. Nick Bottom play the main role of Pyramus, is over-enthusiastic and wants to dominate others by suggesting himself for the characters of Thisbe, The Lion and Pyramus at the same time.
Meanwhile, Oberon, king of the fairies, and his queen, Titania, have come to the forest outside Athens. Titania tells Oberon that she plans to stay there until after she has attended Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding. Oberon and Titania are estranged because Titania refuses to give her Indian changeling to Oberon for use as his "knight" or "henchman," since the child's mother was one of Titania's worshipers. Oberon seeks to punish Titania's disobedience, so he calls for his mischievous court jester Puck to help him apply a magical juice from a flower called "love-in-idleness," which when applied to a person's eyelids while sleeping makes the victim fall in love with the first living thing seen upon awakening. He instructs Puck to retrieve the flower so that he can make Titania fall in love with the first thing she sees when waking from sleep, which he is sure will be an animal of the forest. Oberon's intent is to shame Titania into giving up the little Indian boy. He says, "And ere I take this charm from off her sight, / As I can take it with another herb, / I'll make her render up her page to me."
Having seen Demetrius act cruelly toward Helena, Oberon orders Puck to spread some of the magical juice from the flower on the eyelids of the young Athenian man. Instead, Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius, not having actually seen either before, and administers the juice to the sleeping Lysander. Helena, coming across him, wakes him while attempting to determine whether he is dead or asleep. Upon this happening, Lysander immediately falls in love with Helena. Oberon sees Demetrius still following Hermia and is enraged. When Demetrius decides to go to sleep, Oberon sends Puck to get Helena while he charms Demetrius' eyes. Upon waking up, he sees Helena. Now, both men are in pursuit of Helena. However, she is convinced that her two suitors are mocking her, as neither loved her originally. Hermia is at a loss to see why her lover has abandoned her, and accuses Helena of stealing Lysander away from her. The four quarrel with each other until Lysander and Demetrius become so enraged that they seek a place to duel each other to prove whose love for Helena is the greatest. Oberon orders Puck to keep Lysander and Demetrius from catching up with one another and to remove the charm from Lysander, so that he goes back to being in love with Hermia.
Meanwhile, Quince and his band of six labourers ("rude mechanicals", as they are described by Puck) have arranged to perform their play about Pyramus and Thisbe for Theseus' wedding and venture into the forest, near Titania's bower, for their rehearsal. Bottom is spotted by Puck, who (taking his name to be another word for a jackass) transforms his head into that of a donkey. When Bottom returns for his next lines, the other workmen run screaming in terror, much to Bottom's confusion, since he hasn't felt a thing during the transformation. Determined to wait for his friends, he begins to sing to himself. Titania is awakened by Bottom's singing and immediately falls in love with him. She lavishes him with attention, and presumably makes love to him. While she is in this state of devotion, Oberon takes the changeling. Having achieved his goals, Oberon releases Titania, orders Puck to remove the donkey's head from Bottom, and arrange everything so that Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena will believe that they have been dreaming when they awaken. Demetrius is left under the spell and in love with Helena.
The fairies then disappear, and Theseus and Hippolyta arrive on the scene, during an early morning hunt. They wake the lovers and, since Demetrius does not love Hermia any more, Theseus overrules Egeus's demands and arranges a group wedding. The lovers decide that the night's events must have been a dream. After they all exit, Bottom awakes, and he too decides that he must have experienced a dream "past the wit of man". In Athens, Theseus, Hippolyta and the lovers watch the six workmen perform Pyramus and Thisbe. Given a lack of preparaton, the performers are so terrible playing their roles to the point where the guests laugh as if it were meant to be a comedy, and afterward everyone retires to bed. Afterward, Oberon, Titania, Puck, and other fairies enter, and bless the house and its occupants with good fortune. After all other characters leave, Puck "restores amends" and reminds the audience that this might be nothing but a dream (hence the name of the play).
Themes
Various Representation
During the years of the Puritan Interregnum when the theatres were closed (1642–60), the comic subplot of Bottom and his compatriots was performed as a "droll". Drolls were comical playlets, often adapted from the subplots of Shakespearean and other plays, that could be attached to the acts of acrobats and jugglers and other allowed performances, thus circumventing the ban against drama.
When the theatres re-opened in 1660, A Midsummer Night's Dream was acted in adapted form, like many other Shakespearean plays. Samuel Pepys saw it on 29 September 1662 and thought it "the most insipid, ridiculous play that ever I saw”
After the Jacobean/Caroline era, A Midsummer Night's Dream was never performed in its entirety until the 1840s.
In 1840, Madame Vestris at Covent Garden returned the play to the stage with a relatively full text, adding musical sequences and balletic dances. Vestris took the role of Oberon, and for the next seventy years, Oberon and Puck would always be played by women. After the success of Vestris' production, 19th-century theatre continued to stage the Dream as a spectacle, often with a cast numbering nearly one hundred. Detailed sets were created for the palace and the forest, and the fairies were portrayed as gossamer-winged ballerinas. The overture by Felix Mendelssohn was always used throughout this period. Augustin Daly's production opened in 1895 in London and ran for 21 performances. The special effects were constructed by the Martinka Magic Company, which was later owned by Houdini
A Midsummer Night's Dream has been produced many times in New York, including several stagings by the New York Shakespeare Festival at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park and a production by the Theatre for a New Audience, produced by Joseph Papp at the Public Theatre. In 1978, the Riverside Shakespeare Company staged an outdoor production starring Eric Hoffmann as Puck, with Karen Hurley as Titania and Eric Conger as Oberon, directed by company founder Gloria Skurski. There have been several variations since then, including some set in the 1980s.
Characters
Puck
Puck is the elf, servant of Oberon.
The Puck of Shakespeare becomes in some ways the real
main character. By mistake or ability he raises the action,
follows it for all its course, determines the happy ending.
The characteristics of the Nordic tradition of Puck: the
joke, the spite, are used to symbolize the changing nature
of love.
Puck is the love that first hides and then reveals the real
physical and moral appearence who fell under his
attentions .
Oberon Titania
Queen of the
The king of the fairies. The name Oberon appears for the first time in
the first half of the thirteenth century, in a chanson de geste. A son of Fairies, is the
Charles the Bald, in 866 died from wounds inflicted by a certain beautiful wife
of Oberon,
Oberon.
Shakespeare read or had news at school of the chanson de geste. King of the
Fairies. Both
are
protagonists,
with their
intricate tale
of love and
revenge.
Titania in the
play is a
beautiful
creature that
goes around
the woods
with her
faithful retinue
of spirits
Demetrius
Helena Lysander Hermia
Helena Demetrius Lysander Hermia
Helena is considered Man loved by
Betrothed to She is caught in
to be a very Hermia, but
Hermia, but a romantic
vulnerable, sensitive refused by her accident where
unrequited. He is
and obsessive father.
loved by Helena, she loves one
character, due to her but not man, Lysander
growing up in the reciprocated. and is loved by
shadow of Hermia: Demetrius but
she shows strength does not love him
and a new belief in back. Hermia is
herself by refusing the Greek
advances of goddess of
Lysander when she commerce and
believes he is dreams. This
making fun of her, connects with the
despite the fact that economic
he claimed that she reasons
Helena
was his one true Demetrius and
love. Helena is the Lysander desire
character who her, as well as
changes most and their demands to
for the better. be in control of
her psyche, or
dreams
Teseus Hippolyta Nick
Bottom
Duke of Athens Queen of the Amazons Will be transformed into
an ass, and Titania falls in
and the wife of Theseus love with him.
Plot
The play features three interlocking plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of Duke
Theseus of Athens and the Amazon queen, Hippolyta, and set simultaneously in the woodland,
and in the realm of Fairyland.
In the opening scene, Hermia refuses to follow her father Egeus's instructions to marry
Demetrius, whom he has chosen for her. In response, Egeus quotes before Theseus an
ancient Athenian law whereby a daughter must marry the suitor chosen by her father, or else
face death. Theseus offers her another choice: lifelong chastity worshiping the goddess Diana
as a nun.
At that same time, Peter Quince and his fellow players gather to produce a stage play, "the
most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe", for the Duke and the
Duchess.
Oberon, king of the fairies, and his queen, Titania, have come to the forest outside Athens.
Titania tells Oberon that she plans to stay there until after she has attended Theseus and
Hippolyta's wedding. Oberon and Titania are estranged because Titania refuses to give her
Indian changeling to Oberon for use as his "knight" or "henchman," since the child's mother
was one of Titania's worshipers. Oberon seeks to punish Titania's disobedience, so he calls for
his mischievous court jester Puck to help him apply a magical juice from a flower called "love-
in-idleness," which when applied to a person's eyelids while sleeping makes the victim fall in
love with the first living thing seen upon awakening. He instructs Puck to retrieve the flower so
that he can make Titania fall in love with the first thing she sees when waking from sleep,
which he is sure will be an animal of the forest. Oberon's intent is to shame Titania into giving
up the little Indian boy.
Having seen Demetrius act cruelly toward Helena, Oberon orders Puck to spread some of the
magical juice from the flower on the eyelids of the young Athenian man. Instead, Puck
mistakes Lysander for Demetrius, not having actually seen either before, and administers the
juice to the sleeping Lysander. Helena, coming across him, wakes him while attempting to
determine whether he is dead or asleep. Upon this happening, Lysander immediately falls in
love with Helena. Oberon sees Demetrius still following Hermia, and is enraged. When
Demetrius decides to go to sleep, Oberon sends Puck to get Helena while he charms
Demetrius' eyes. Upon waking up, he sees Helena. Now, both men are in pursuit of Helena.
However, she is convinced that her two suitors are mocking her, as neither loved her originally.
Hermia is at a loss to see why her lover has abandoned her, and accuses Helena of stealing
Lysander away from her. The four quarrel with each other until Lysander and Demetrius
become so enraged that they seek a place to duel each other to prove whose love for Helena
is the greatest. Oberon orders Puck to keep Lysander and Demetrius from catching up with
one another and to remove the charm from Lysander, so that he goes back to being in love
with Hermia.
Meanwhile, Quince and his band of six labourers have arranged to perform their play about
Pyramus and Thisbe for Theseus' wedding and venture into the forest, near Titania's bower,
for their rehearsal. Bottom is spotted by Puck, who transforms his head into that of a donkey.
When Bottom returns for his next lines, the other workmen run screaming in terror, much to
Bottom's confusion, since he hasn't felt a thing during the transformation. Determined to wait
for his friends, he begins to sing to himself. Titania is awakened by Bottom's singing and
immediately falls in love with him. She lavishes him with attention, and presumably makes love
to him. While she is in this state of devotion, Oberon takes the changeling. Having achieved
his goals, Oberon releases Titania, orders Puck to remove the donkey's head from Bottom,
and arrange everything so that Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius, and Helena will believe that they
have been dreaming when they awaken. Demetrius is left under the spell and in love with
Helena.
The fairies then disappear, and Theseus and Hippolyta arrive on the scene, during an early
morning hunt. They wake the lovers and, since Demetrius does not love Hermia any more,
Theseus overrules Egeus's demands and arranges a group wedding. The lovers decide that
the night's events must have been a dream. After they all exit, Bottom awakes, and he too
decides that he must have experienced a dream "past the wit of man". In Athens, Theseus,
Hippolyta and the lovers watch the six workmen perform Pyramus and Thisbe. Given a lack of
preparation, the performers are so terrible playing their roles to the point where the guests
laugh as if it were meant to be a comedy, and afterward everyone retires to bed. Afterward,
Oberon, Titania, Puck, and other fairies enter, and bless the house and its occupants with
good fortune. After all other characters leave, Puck "restores amends" and reminds the
audience that this might be nothing but a dream.
Themes
Various
Representations