A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream- William Shakespeare
Characters:
THESEUS,
Duke of Athens.
EGEUS,
father Hermia.
LYSANDER,
in love with Hermia.
DEMETRIUS,
in love with Hermia.
BOTTOM, a weaver.
HERMIA, daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander.
HELENA,
in love with Demetrius.
OBERON,
king of the fairies.
TITANIA,
queen of the fairies.
PUCK,
or Robin Goodfellow.
Story / Plot of the drama
‘A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream’ is a comedy of
errors. The major characters are in confusion about their love due to love potion.
Hermia is in love with Lysander while Helena
is in love with Demetrius. Egeus is the father of Hermia. When Egeus comes with
Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius at Duke Theseus, he complains that Hermia disobeys
him and stubbornly refuses to marry Demetrius as she is in love with Lysander.
The Duke Theseus urges Hermia to obey her
father but she refuses him. The Duke gives her three alternatives- to marry
Demetrius or become a nun or to suffer a death sentence. The Duke gives her
time to think this over until the day of his own marriage.
Lysander and Hermia decide to run into the
Woods and get married. Demetrius who used to love Helena (Hermia’s friend), has
rejects her love and is now interested in Hermia. Demetrius decides to follow
Hermia, and Helena decides to follow Demetrius.
The king of faeries – Oberon and Queen of Faeries
– Titania are having a fight over the custody of an Indian boy as to who shall
own him. In order to teach a lesson to Titania – Oberon hatches a plan with the
help of Puck. Oberon orders Puck to bring the magic potion – 'Love in Idleness'
the juice of which if poured on the eyelids of a sleeping person, makes him/her
fall madly in love with the first person he/she sees after waking up. He thus
plans to madden Titania and get the custody of the Indian boy.
As Demetrius enters the wood, followed by
Helena, Oberon notices his cold behavior with Helena and decides to develop
feelings for her in the heart of Demetrius and orders Puck to apply the juice
on his eyelids.
Taking Lysander for Demetrius Puck squeezes
the juice on his eyelids. Helena, who enters the wood following Demetrius,
proves to be the first-person Lysander sees after waking up and falls in love
with her instantly.
Puck, who is appalled by the awful acting
of Bottom, bewitches him by transforming his head into that of an ass. Titania
sees ass headed Bottom and she fails in his love due to effect of the love
potion.
Puck wins praise by Oberon for his affair of Titania
–Botton. But as Oberon realizes Puck’s mistake of using the love potion for
Lysander instead of Demetrius, he himself squeezes it on the eyelids of
Demetrius. He sends Puck to fetch Helena which leads the fierce quarrel between
Hermia and Helena as also between Lysander and Demetrius for Helena.
Oberon then gets the muddle sorted out by
setting the wrong right in case of all Athenians by removing the spell of
potion from Lysander, restoring his love for Hermia.
Oberon also feels the need to release Titania
from this spell as he feels sorry for her and his purpose of obtaining the
Indian boy is also served. He orders Puck to restore Bottom’s head.
The Duke sees the love between Demetrius
and Helena and happily allows Hermia marry Lysander. Thus, the play ‘A
Midsummer Night’s Dream’ ends on a happy note.
