A Midsummer Night's Dream By William Shakespeare

A “Midsummer Night’s Dream, a comedy play set in Athens, was written by William Shakespeare in the mid-1590’s. In the play, the duke of Athens, Theseus, was getting himself and his city ready for his upcoming wedding. He was preparing to marry Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons, who he had just conquered. However, there is a dilemma that is disturbing his festivity. A woman named Hermia was in love with a man named Lysander. The problem is, there is another man named Demetrius, and Hermia’s father wants her to marry him instead and is willing to punish her if she did not keep his wishes. Consequently, Hermia and Lysander decide to run off in the night and get married together. They are followed by both Demetrius and another woman named Helena. Helena loves Demetrius and wants him to love her but he loves Hermia instead. As they enter the woods, the fairies begin to interfere with the lovers and continue to worsen the situation. Puck, a fairy servant, was charged to fix the love issues between the four people but he continued to mess up time and again. Eventually, Puck was able to set things straight between the lovers and they were able to get married accordingly due to the grace of Theseus. Throughout the play, there are several different themes; love, marriage, appearance versus reality, and even order versus
The title of the play, “A Midsummer Night’s dream”, is significant because it represents the very essence of appearance versus reality. Perhaps the easiest way to grasp the concept of this theme is to think of it as a dream. When dreaming a person’s mind thinks that they are moving around and being adventurous, while in reality, they are simply lying there asleep.