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A Midsummer Night's Dream

by William Shakespeare

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Themes in A Midsummer Night's Dream

Summary:

A Midsummer Night's Dream explores themes of love, order vs. disorder, reality vs. illusion, and the irrationality of human behavior. The play contrasts the structured world of Athens with the chaotic, magical forest, highlighting how enchantment disrupts natural order and societal norms. Love's irrational nature is exemplified by the mismatched lovers and comedic misunderstandings. The play-within-a-play, "Pyramus and Thisbe," underscores these themes, illustrating tragic consequences of misunderstanding while providing comedic relief through irony and farce.

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How do lines 45-74 in Act 4, Scene 1 of A Midsummer Night's Dream exemplify the play's key themes?

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, act 4, scene 1, lines 45–74, Oberon is speaking to Puck about Titania as she lies sleeping with Bottom. Robin Goodfellow is another name for Puck. Oberon is king of the Fairies, and Titania is his queen. Earlier, at Oberon’s request, Puck had bewitched both of them so that Bottom would acquire the head of an ass, and Titania would fall in love with him.

In this passage, Oberon is satisfied that the trick has worked, and he is feeling a bit remorseful about the jealousy that provoked his behavior. Describing a meeting they had, he emphasizes the fond attention she lavished on the transformed Bottom, such as putting a “coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers” on his “hairy temples.”

Seeing her acting so foolish, he regrets that they argued (“I did … fall out with her”) but also presses the advantage to get what he wants. Oberon goes on to describe how the two of them both wanted a lovely boy (the “changeling child”) as their attendant and, possibly, lover. During the meeting, she agreed to give him up and had him sent to Oberon. Content, he is ready to lift the spell and restore both his wife’s dignity and Bottom’s humanity.

And now I have the boy, I will undo

This hateful imperfection of her eyes.

He next commands Puck to remove the magic spells from both her and Bottom (the “Athenian swain”) and make him forget what happened.

These lines encompass several interrelated ideas, themes, and motifs that appear throughout the play. The main ideas and themes conveyed are transformation, magic, and the rightful restoration of things that were temporarily rearranged. Throughout the play, characters who are supposed to be together are separated, altered, lost, or confused. While these errors and faulty alliances are often directly concerned with love and desire, flawed and sometimes comical matches also include humans and animals, elites and commoners, and mortals and fairies.

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What is the theme of order and disorder in A Midsummer Night's Dream?

The theme of order and disorder is evident throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream. William Shakespeare weaves this theme into every aspect of the play. Most of the play is concerned with love, and much of the disorder is manifested as the separation of couples who belong together or joining of two people who should not be paired. In the end, all the appropriate couples are matched up.

The idea of midsummer as a time out of time also corresponds to that of the disruption of the normal order, which occurs during one night out of the year. Shakespeare locates that inverted state in the forest, which contrasts sharply with the normal order of the court.

Magic is used—and sometimes abused—to put into effect the disordering of appropriate pairs of lovers. Notably, Oberon has Puck put a spell on Titania. This results in her falling in love with the transformed Bottom. Even his name connects with the disordering of natural events, as he temporarily assumes a very high social position as fair queen’s lover.

The importance of the couples being correctly matched up at the end goes beyond the endorsement of true love. It also reinforces the idea of proper social hierarchy. The couples assume their proper places in society, with the four Athenians’ marriages endorsed by their ruler, Theseus.

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What is the theme of the play A Midsummer Night's Dream?

Both love and dreams are the two major themes of A Midsummer Night's Dream. No less than three couples eventually marry by the end of the play; the feuding lovers of the fairy world, Titania and Oberon, also reunite. Shakespeare examines both the romantic love that dominates the younger characters as well as the marriage of convenience that unites Theseus and Hippolyta. In all cases, Shakespeare stresses the "love is blind" irrationality of the act. Dreams and fantasies are also a prevalent theme: They are the actions that spur the imagination of all humans (and fairies), a life's blood that creates new experiences with each new day.

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What is the theme of the play A Midsummer Night's Dream?

One theme that can be seen is the irrationality of love. We especially see this theme when Helena points out in the opening scene that she is just as beautiful as Hermia, yet, Demetrius has abandoned her for Hermia instead. Helena points out that Demetrius's choice is neither rational nor based on any objective reason, such as beauty, but instead irrational because love is governed by imagination, as we see in her lines:

Love looks not with the eyes, but with teh mind;
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.
Nor hath Love's mind any judgement taste. (I.i.239-241)

Another theme found in the play is the irrationality of human beings in general. We especially see this theme portrayed in the animosity the four lovers display once Puck muddles them, making the two men pursue Helena instead of Hermia. Puck rightly sees Helena's response of believing the two men are mocking her as irrational, but he further sees her response of believing her best friend to be in on the joke as equally irrational. We especially see the theme of the irrationality of human beings portrayed in Puck's famous line, "Lord, what fools these mortals be!" (III.ii.116).

A third theme we see presented in the play is reality vs. illusion. Shakespeare makes it very clear that he views reality as being dominated and manipulated by illusion. We see one instance of this theme presented in Puck's manipulation of the Athenians in the forest. Puck creates a completely different reality for all of the Athenians by first using enchantment to manipulate Lysander and Demetrius into falling in love with Helena and then using enchantment to correct the situation. He further creates a different reality for the mechanicals, especially Bottom, by turning Bottom into a donkey.

We further see the theme of reality vs. illusion in the mechanicals' aspiration to write and perform a play. The mechanicals, who are Athenian laborers, are being particularly ambitious in desiring to present this play, especially because they are uneducated and have never written nor ever performed a play before. Philostrate, the man in charge of organizing Theseus's wedding celebration, describes their ambition and the reality of their abilities best when he describes them as "[h]ard-handed men that work in Athens here / Which never labour'd in their minds till now" (V.i.76-77). However, despite the mechanicals' visions of putting on a grand performance, especially Bottom's vision, the reality is that they turn a tragedy into a play that is extremely laughable, as we see from both our own observation of their performance  and also from the other characters' responses to the performers.

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What is the theme of the play A Midsummer Night's Dream?

Order of one kind or another is an important theme in the play. The forest represents a natural order, with its own rules, norms, and standards, far removed from the artificial standards that prevail in the city. Hermia and Lysander are constricted by the established social conventions of Athens; they are unable to express their love through marriage due to the disapproval of Egeus, Hermia's father. In order to be together, they have no choice but to elope to the forest. In doing so, they subject themselves to the primordial rhythms of nature—what in Athens would be regarded as a chaotic, disordered fantasy world.

Yet even in the natural world, the established order can be turned upside down. An almighty row between Oberon and Titania over a mere page boy results in the order of the seasons being disrupted. Members of the royal family of the forest are no less subject to petty rules of conduct and social propriety than their Athenian counterparts, it would seem. But the difference is that the violation of the natural order leads to much more serious consequences than defiance of social conventions in the city. The natural world depends, for its continued existence, on the regularity of the seasons. If this process is in any way disrupted, then the life of the forest, and the society on which it is founded, is in serious jeopardy.

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How does the play within a play in A Midsummer Night's Dream express the main plot's themes?

In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the play of Pyramus and Thisbe demonstrates what tragedy can befall lovers, especially with misunderstanding.

It is somewhat ironic that the craftsmen choose a play about ill-fated lovers to present at a wedding.  The play has a plot similar to Romeo and Juliet.  Two young lovers are forced apart—talking to each other through a wall.  One day, Pyramus finds a shawl belonging to Thisbe, covered in blood.  He assumes that she was mauled by a lion, when in fact she was just frightened away by it.  Pyramus kills himself out of grief, and Thisbe finds him and does the same.  The themes that misunderstanding can have tragic consequences, and young lovers sometimes act pre-emptively, highlight themes of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in general. 

For some reason, Quince names his version of the play The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe.  The play is funny, but it shouldn’t be.  After all, it’s a tragedy.  This is quite similar to the idea behind A Midsummer Night’s Dream.  It’s a very funny play, but our laughter often comes from others’ misfortune.

Irony and the oxymoron are also prevalent.  For one thing, when Bottom asks if Pyramus is a “lover” or a “tyrant,” Quince replies that he is a lover who “kills himself most gallant for love” (Act 1, Scene 2).  It is ironic that a lover would kill himself for love.  He supposedly killed himself out of grief, but this is the irony of it—because his love is not really dead.  She finds him dead, and kills herself.

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How does Shakespeare explore order and disorder in A Midsummer Night's Dream?

The time and the place in which A Midsummer Night's Dream is set are entirely appropriate for an exploration of the theme of order vs disorder.

The play takes place in midsummer, or the Summer Solstice, a time of year when, according to tradition, the natural order of things is briefly suspended as men and women engage in feasting, revelry, and debauchery.

The bulk of the action takes place in a forest, where magic and enchantment reign. It says a lot that it is only there that Hermia and Lysander can feel free from the stifling conventions of the Athenian court. They can only truly be together in a disordered environment where all the traditional conventions no longer apply.

The contrast with Athens could not be greater. If the forest represents disorder, then the court of Duke Theseus represents order, stability, and a firm adherence to protocol. In Theseus's world, there is no place for enchantment and no place for people to do their own thing. In Athens, his word is law, and if he orders that Hermia shall not wed Lysander, then that's that.

In the forest, there is an order of sorts, but it can be upended at any time due to the use of magic. Even royalty in this part of the world habitually resort to magic to get what they want, such as Oberon's ordering Puck to put a spell on his queen Titania.

As a consequence, Titania falls in love with Nick Bottom, which is about as blatant a violation of the natural order of things as it's possible to get. The queen of the fairies falling in love with a humble weaver is the kind of thing that could only happen with the assistance of magic and could only take place in the enchanted forest. One certainly can't imagine such a thing happening in the ordered society of Athens under Duke Theseus.

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What is the theme of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream?

I think there are at least a couple of different themes.

One of these is clearly love.  The play is something of a farce on the topic of how it can be difficult to find love and for lovers to get together.  Much of the actual plot of the play is concerned with the various couples' difficulties -- it is concerned with how "the course of ltrue ove never did run smooth."

But it is also a play about fantasy and dreams and creativitiy.  There are lots of dreams and imaginary creatures in the play, along with fantastic dialogue.  Because there is so much of this kind of thing, it is clear that Shakespeare is also emphasizing the importance of emotion and irrational forces in human life.

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