a romantic story similar toRomeo and Juliet, but much better-known in Shakespeare's time. The ham acting of Bottom and his company, the awfulness and bathos of the poetry, and the sarcastic comments of the courtiers combine to make the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe the highlight of the play. This scene, quite apart from being the finest and the most dramatically important in A Midsummer Night's Dream, could also easily stand alone as a one-act play.

Unlike most of Shakespeare's other plays, there is no clear antagonistA Midsummer Night's Dream. Instead, several characters act in ways that precipitate conflict. They don't possess inherently evil intentions. However, their decisions and actions inspire distrust and dissatisfaction.

Egeus, for example, wants his daughter Hermia to marry Demetrius. However, Hermia is in love with Lysander. Egeus approaches King Theseus in hopes that the monarch will pressure Hermia into obedience.

By all indications, Egeus is motivated by paternal love. However, his actions do nothing to inspire obedience or gratitude on Hermia's part.

Meanwhile, Theseus insists that Hermia must obey Egeus or incur grave penalties for her intransigence: either death or a life of celibacy in a nunnery. He tells Hermia that she should look on her father as a god who has power over her fate.

While Egeus is supposedly motivated by paternal love, Theseus sees himself as the defender of parental authority in the domestic space. In this, Egeus and Theseus conspire to thwart Hermia. Neither, however, is motivated by hatred, jealousy, or vengeance.

Meanwhile, Demetrius, motivated by his infatuation with Hermia, shuns Helena. It is his thoughtless rejection of Helena that causes the main conflict in the play. Helena, still in love with Demetrius, tells him about Hermia's intention to elope with Lysander.

Helena, of course, is motivated by her desire to get Demetrius back. Both Helena and Demetrius are motivated by passion; neither has evil intentions.

Demetrius believes that Hermia is the woman for him, while Helena still holds out hope that she and Demetrius can reunite. Again, the actions of these four characters (Egeus, Helena, Demetrius, and Theseus) result in the majority of the conflicts in the play.

Just as there is no single protagonist, there is no single antagonist in this wonderful play. There are several protagonists, grouped together (the "rude mechanicals," the lovers, etc.), and several antagonists.

If forced to pick a single figure, however, I'd say Puck fills the antagonist role most emphatically. He complicates Oberon's plans. He is the engine of transformation who sets Bottom against his friends (and vice versa) and the entire Titania love theme in play. He tricks and misleads the lovers, so they are fighting him when they think they are fighting one another.

Well this question really depends on the part of the play.  If you're taking things from the point of view of Lysander and Hermia, it could be Demetrius or Hermia's father.  Both attempt to stand in the way of the arranged marriage between Hermia and Demetrius... Demetrius out of love, and her father out of scorn for Hermia's refusal to follow his instructions.  In fact, he even goes as far as to invoke the law of Athens, which allows a daughter who is disobedient to be killed for not listening to her father.

Also, you could view Puck and Oberon as antagonists, as they mess around with the young Athenian lovers' feelings.  By charming both Demetrius and Lysander, the former on purpose, and the latter by mistake, they believe they are helping Helena to find love.  However, in reality, they are simply ruining things and causing more problems than they are good, regardless of their intentions.

The main villain would be the character who creates the greatest conflict in the play. There are two characters who create conflict, Egeus and Puck. However, out of these two characters, Egeus is the only one who remains stuck in his ways without wanting to present a solution while Puck resolves issues in the end. Therefore, I would argue that Egeus is the greatest villain of the play.

Egeus creates one of the play's most central conflicts by insisting his daughter marry Demetrius instead of Lysander. Egeus is even threatening her with death, in accordance with the "ancient privilege of Athens" (I.i.42). As a result of his threats and his petition to Duke Theseus to enforce the law that will see to Hermia being punished, Hermia decides to runaway with Lysander out of Athens. Hence, Egeus serves as the main catalyst that drives all four Athenian lovers into the woods that night, which of course leads to further conflicts in the plot. Not only is Egeus a main source for all of the play's troubles, when the couples are finally paired off as they should be, Egeus still begs for, not only Hermia's punishment, but Lysander's as well, as we see in his lines:

I beg the law, the law upon his head.
They would have stolen away, they would, Demetrius,
Thereby to have defeated you and me:
You of your wife, and me of my consent. (IV.i.156-159)

The play's resolution is only fully brought about by Duke Theseus, who, in his wisdom, overrides Egeus and commands the two couples to be married as they are.

In contrast to Egeus, Puck creates his fair share of mischief, thereby creating conflicts of his own, but Puck also resolves them. According to Oberon's commands, Puck is responsible for finally pairing the couples appropriately. In addition, in his final speech, he asks the audience for forgiveness, as we see in his lines, "Give me your hands, if we be friends, / And Robin shall restore amends" (V.i.432-433).

Hence, since Egeus only continuously creates and adds to the play's conflict while Puck contributes to the resolution, we can say that Egeus is the true villain of the story.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play written by William Shakespeare. The plot is probably more complex than would fit in a single newspaper story. If these were real events, journalists would probably break the events down into four separate stories, based on the four different plot lines of the play:

1. The Young Lovers: Hermia loves Lysander, and Helena loves Demetrius. Demetrius rejects Helena and pursues Hermia, whose father supports Demetrius's suit. The four young people run off into the woods, and after some confusion, and with the aid of Puck, Demetrius returns to Helena. The two couples return to Athens and are wed.
2. Theseus and Hippolyta: Theseus kidnapped Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. At the start of the play, they are preparing for a wedding. At the end of the play, they get married.
3. The Fairies: The king and queen of the fairies (Oberon and Titania) are fighting over a changeling boy. Oberon has Puck cast a spell on Titania that causes her to fall in love with Bottom. At the end of the play, the spell is reversed, Oberon gets the boy, and the two fairy rulers are reconciled.
4. The Mechanicals: Bottom, Quince, and the other tradesmen are rehearsing a play in the woods. After various comic interludes, they manage to finish their rehearsal and present their play.

Several important incidents that might fit into the newspaper are as follows:

Hermia, daughter of the prominent Athenian citizen Egeus, has disappeared after a public disagreement with her father over the man she will marry. Several sources indicate she has run away with Lysander, the lover forbidden to her by both her father and Theseus.

Athenian citizen Demetrius, favored as Hermia's husband by her father Egeus, also has disappeared. Sources report he is searching for Hermia and being stalked by Helena.

Oberon, king of the fairies, feuds with his wife, Titania, over the fate of an Indian boy, disrupting human weather patterns.

Itinerant actor Bottom has suffered a mysterious accident that has given him an ass's head—and this seems to be the ultimate turn-on to love for Titania, the queen of the fairies.

Theseus, duke of Athens, weds Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons. She was captured as an unwilling bride, but Hippolyta has come around and participated without protest in what many are billing as a wedding to remember.

It is a common axiom that while a Shakespearean tragedy should end with at least one death, a comedy should conclude with a wedding, or at least an engagement. A Midsummer Night's Dream contains three marriages, around which much of the action revolves. Theseus, Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, are married, and their wedding feast occupies the entire final act of the play. At the same time, Lysander marries Hermia and Demetrius marries Helena, putting an end to the confusion between couples that complicates the middle of the drama.

These weddings all take place offstage. There is a brief allusion to them in act 4, scene 2, when Snug says:

Masters, the duke is coming from the temple, and there is two or three lords and ladies more married: if our sport had gone forward, we had all been made men.

Snug makes this rueful comment because he believes that they will not now be able to perform their play before the Duke and Duchess, since Bottom, their lead actor, is still missing. Moments later, Bottom reappears and they are ready for the hilarious performance that dominates act 5.

Shakespeare's usual practice is to have weddings happen offstage, often after the end of the play. As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing include wedding scenes, but in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare places the wedding feast, with its play-within-a-play, at the center of attention.

Hermia accuses Demetrius of murdering Lysander when she wakes up and can’t find him, but he is not actually dead.

Lysander leads Hermia through the forest, but he gets lost.  They are both so tired that they just lay down.  Puck sees Lysander wearing Athenian clothing and assumes he is the one Oberon ordered him to anoint with the love juice.  Helena wanders through, also tired from her chase of Demetrius, and sees Lysander sleeping.  She thinks he is dead, and wakes him up.  He falls in love with her instantly, and she runs away with him giving lovesick chase.  At this point Hermia wakes up, and finds Demetrius and not Lysander.  She jumps to conclusions, assuming that Demetrius has murdered Lysander (foreshadowing the duel the two have later over the now distraught Helena.

Demetrius gets annoyed, and says he’d rather “give his carcass” to his hounds.  Hermia takes this as confession.

Out, dog! out, cur! Thou drivest me past the bounds
Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him, then?
Henceforth be never number'd among men!  (Act 3, Scene 2)

Demetrius finally tells her that he did not kill Lysander.  She leaves, and he lies down, exhausted from being chased and chasing.

Hermia jumps to strange conclusions about Demetrius.  If she really thinks so little of his character, no wonder she does not want to marry him.  Her behavior is also symptomatic of her exhaustion and mental instability.  She is wandering through the forest at night, wakes up alone, and sees the man she does not want to marry.  Her reaction might be extreme, but speaks to her frustration.