|
A Midsummer
Night’s Dream
(Comedy)
|
Lysander loves Hermia, and Hermia loves Lysander. Helena
loves Demetrius; Demetrius used to love Helena but is now in
love with Hermia. Hermia’s father, Egeus, would prefer his
daughter to marry Demetrius, causing him to use the Duke of
Athens, Theseus, to let his daughter know his opinion and to
change hers. In accordance with Athenian law, Hermia has
four days to choose between Demetrius, life in a nunnery or
the death sentence. Hermia is a strong willed character and,
instead, chooses to escape with Lysander into the nearby
forest. |
|
However, Hermia and Lysander come across some complications
in the forest. The King and Queen of the forest, Oberon and
Titania, are in a dispute over a boy, who Titania has
adopted. In retaliation to this, Oberon instructs Puck, his
trusty servant, to fetch him magic love drops, in order to
sprinkle them into Titania’s eyes, causing her to fall in
love with the first creature she sees when she wakes up.
Meanwhile, Helena and Demetrius have gone to look for Hermia
and Lysander. Oberon overhears Demetrius telling Helena to
leave him alone, and feels sorry for her. Because of this,
he instructs Puck to use the magic drops on Demetrius, in
order to make him fall back in love with Helena. Instead,
Puck mistakes Lysander for Demetrius and puts the drops on
him instead. Helena and Lysander stumble across each other
and the magic love drops take action, meaning Lysander now
rejects Hermia for his new love Helena.
In the midst of all the chaos, a production of “Pyramus and
Thisbe” is being put together by a group of craftsmen, to be
played at the wedding of the Duke. Puck, always in a
mischievous mood, places a spell on Bottom, turning his head
into that of a donkey’s. At this point, Titania is just
waking, resulting in Bottom being the first thing that she
sees, causing her to fall in love with him. Oberon is
enjoying his game immensely, until he finds out that his
efforts to help re-unite Helena and Demetrius have failed
because of Puck, so Oberon proceeds to do the job himself.
However, this causes Helena to feel as though she is being
mocked by both Demetrius and Lysander, (who is still under
the influence of the magic potion).
Finally, Oberon decides to put an end to the games. He puts
the four lovers to sleep and takes the spell off Lysander,
so that he will be in love with Hermia again. He then undoes
the spell on Titania and they make up. The four are then
discovered sleeping in the forest, by Theseus and Hippolyta
and they all return to Athens, thinking the events that took
place were just part of a strange dream. Bottom returns to
the rest of the members of the play and they perform
“Pyramus and Thisbe” at the wedding, (which became the
wedding of three couples). As people return home, the
fairies perform their blessings, accompanied by a soliloquy
performed by Puck.
|
