A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Barbican (2024)

FAQs

What is the famous line from Midsummer Night Dream? ›

I had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was… The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was.

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, Therefore is winged cupid painted blind. Love in its many forms is the most important theme in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The romantic encounters and subsequent confusions are the greatest cause of conflict in the play.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play about love. It proposes that love is a dream, or perhaps a vision; that it is absurd, irrational, a delusion, or, perhaps, on the other hand, a transfiguration; that it is doomed to be momentary (“So quick bright things come to confusion” [1.1.

Essential Questions for A Midsummer Night's Dream

Would you go against your family to follow your heart?

Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound, A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire, And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn, Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.

Paradoxes in A Midsummer Night's Dream

The play which Theseus introduces blends the violent with the silly. The play put on is Pyramus and Thisbe, in which both title characters tragically die. However, this serious story becomes paradoxically comical when performed by this ramshackle troupe of actors.

Moral of the Midsummer Night's Dream's Story

One thing learned from A Midsummer Night's Dream is that loving someone should be based on their personality rather than their appearance. You will have a lot of arguments if you do not do this.

Plot Summary

A Midsummer Night's Dream is the story of the events surrounding the marriage of Theseus, king of Athens, and Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. It follows the lovers Hermia and Lysander as they attempt to elope but are dogged by Demetrius, in love with Hermia, and Helena, in love with Demetrius.

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare explores the problems and conflicts that can be caused by love. Helena and Demetrius suffer from unrequited. love at the start of the play. Helena is in love with Demetrius, but he doesn't love her back.

As one of Shakespeare's most popular and beloved comedies, A Midsummer Night's Dream is filled with rich elements from folklore, literature, nature, mythology, and the supernatural. It tells of the whims, desires, and impulses of love, both mortal and fantastical.

What happens to Bottom at the end of a midsummer night's dream? ›

Oberon sees Demetrius and Helena arguing and decides to help her by using the potion on Demetrius. Unfortunately, Puck mistakenly gives it to Lysander who then falls in love with Helena. Puck uses magic to turn Bottom's head into a Donkey head, while he is rehearsing in the forest.

An ongoing example of dramatic irony is the fairies making people fall in and out of love. The characters wake up feeling disoriented and believing what they experienced was a dream, though the reader knows the truth.

There are many themes in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Explore the main themes of love, appearance and reality, and order and disorder - looking at how they affect characters and influence the story.

Oberon wants Titania's changeling child to serve him in his court instead of hers. He also wants to satisfy his own jealousy, as Titania and Oberon have accused each other of romantic dalliances with mortals: Titania with Theseus and Oberon with Hippolyta.

According to the Queen of the Fairies, her good friend died in childbirth and Titania has agreed to raise the boy out of love for his mother.

The course of true love never did run smooth; But, either it was different in blood, O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low.

Swift as a shadow, short as any dream, Brief as the lightning in the collied night, That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and Earth, And, ere a man hath power to say “Behold!”