Plot, Themes & motifs in A Midsummer Night’s Dream

plot Theseus and Hippolyte’s upcoming wedding The four lovers’ tangled loves The play about Pyramus and Thisbe King Oberon and Queen Titania and the antics in fairyland

(Chaos controlled by law) (Lovers quarrel & fairy mischief) settings Athens (Chaos controlled by law) Forest (Lovers quarrel & fairy mischief)

Love The play focuses on the difficulties of love. It shows how the heart can be broken, but it can also be repaired. Love is a state that is often out of balance in this play. Is Shakespeare satirising love in this play?

Acts Act 1: In Athens, Theseus prepares for his wedding to Hippolyta, Egeus states Hermia must marry Demetrius (not Lysander her lover), Hermia and Lysander run off together. Act 2: Lysander and Titania are affected by Puck’s love juice, Lysander falls in love with Helena. Act 3: Puck turns Bottom’s head into a donkey’s and Titania falls in love with Bottom, Oberon causes Demetrius to love Helena, Hermia fights with Helena because she thinks she betrayed her, Oberon tells Puck to correct the situation. Act 4: The young lovers awaken in love with their true loves, Demtrius tells his father he wants to marry Helena and Bottom gets his real head back. Act 5: Lots of weddings: Theseus & Hippolyta, Lysander & Hermia, Demetrius & Helena, Bottom and the mechanics perform their play, Oberon and Titania bless the marriages.

themes Love and marriage Order and disorder Appearance and reality Imagination

Love & Marriage “The course of true love never did run smooth.” -Lysander Specific scenes to review: Act 1 Scene 1 Act 2 Scene 1 Act 3 Scene 2 Act 4 Scene 1 Act 5 Scene 1

Love quotes “The course of true love never did run smooth” –Lysander I, 1 “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind. And therefore is wing’dCupid painted blind” –Helena I, 1

Order & disorder Act 1 Scene 1 Act 2 Scene 1 Act 3 Scene 1

Appearance & reality Things are often not as they seem. Scenes: Act 3 Scene 1 Act 3 Scene 2 Act 4 Scene 1 Act 5 Scene 1

imagination The unconscious, the magical, the mysterious. Scenes: Act 4 Scene 1 Act 5 Scene 1

Motifs A motif is an object (symbol) or idea (theme) that repeats itself throughout the text. Recurring imagery or elements. Nature Moon Sleep/dreams Eyes Plays/roles Magic

Nature The magical world of the forest contrasts with Theseus's court. It is disrupted by the disharmony between the fairy king and queen. 

The moon The Moon symbolises change, disruption and unpredictability, romance, and the magical. 'Therefore the moon, the governess of floods, / Pale in her anger, washes all the air...'  Act 2 Scene 2 'We the globe can compass soon, / Swifter than the wandering moon'  Act 4 Scene 1 'Now the hungry lion roars, / And the wolf behowls the moon'  Act 5 Scene 1

Sleep & dreams When we sleep and dream we are transported to mysterious places, and we are in a state of innocence and vulnerability. Sometimes boundaries between fantasy and reality are blurred. The dreaming relates to love; it is also confusing. The inclusion of dreams makes the love a more lighthearted element rather than a tragic element that focuses too significantly on emotions. 'Ay me, for pity! what a dream was here!'  Act 2 Scene 2 'It seems to me / That yet we sleep, we dream'  Act 4 Scene 1 'God's my life, stolen hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream...'  Act 4 Scene 1 'Why, then, we are awake: let's follow him / And by the way let us recount our dreams'  Act 4 Scene 1

Plays & roles symbols of magical transformation and of experimentation

magic The unseen, the unpredictable and that which can’t be explained.    

eyes Eyes are the windows to the soul, a gateway to the heart 'Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind'  Act 1 Scene 1 'Reason becomes the marshal to my will / And leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook / Love's stories written in love's richest book'  Act 2 Scene 2 'And then I will her charmed eye release / From monster's view, and all things shall be peace'  Act 3 Scene 2 'Methinks I see these things with parted eye, / When every thing seems double'  Act 4 Scene 1 'The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling, / Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven...'  Act5 Scene 1