In A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare constructs a dramatic world that contains two contrasting settings: the court and the forest. By situating most of the action in the forest, Shakespeare suggests randomness and disorder that contrast with the correct order of the court. Two values that are emphasized largely correspond to those setting. One positive value that the play emphasizes is the importance of true love. This importance is demonstrated by the multiple pairs of lovers who ultimately are reunited with their proper partners. Another value is the need for honesty and integrity that can be achieved by overcoming human folly. The behavior of Puck, the Rustics, and some of the lovers demonstrates how human folly threatens individual happiness and the importance of overcoming such folly.

Shakespeare uses devices such as enchantment to show how true love is diverted from its correct, or smoooth, course. The fairy king and queen, Oberon and Titania, particularly display the uses and misuses of magical powers, but finally they get back together. The two pairs of mortal lovers, Hermia and Lysander and Helena and Demetrius, get mixed up in part through Hermia’s father’s misguided efforts. Ultimately the two couples end up correctly matched. The unswavering love of Theseus and Hippolyta epitomizes the steadfastness of a proper match, which corresponds to stable social order.

With his pronouncement “What fools these mortals be,” Puck sums up the theme of folly. His role in the play is largely to wreak havoc by promoting foolhardy behavior among the characters. Among the Rustics, the character of Bottom plays a key role in this foolishness when he is transformed into an ass. The lovers’ behavior as they chase each other around, including the fights between Helena and Hermia, likewise show how such folly threatens happiness and important relationships such as friendship.