One of the most famous Shakespeare’s plays is “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, written in 1565/1596. The plot is an incredible combination of ancient mythology and English folklore. The folklore characters Shakespeare interpreted in his play became the canon and material for the creation of future plays. This play has impressed readers for a long time because it combined seemingly incompatible. In his play, Shakespeare combines funny scenes with serious feelings and real moments with magic and fantasy. The plot focuses on the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. The main conflicts lie in the relationships between Hermia and Lysander, Hermia and his father, Hermia and Demetrius, Helena and Demetrius, Oberon and Tytania, and finally, between Helena and Hermia. The ending of the play is an appropriate solution to the mentioned conflicts as all heroes get what they desire.
Shakespeare illustrated his attitude to the moral norms describing the prevalent problem between children and parents. Thus, Egeus wants Hermia to marry Demetrius, but she truly loves Lysander and wants to marry him. Egeus goes to Theseus, Duke of Athens, to ask for assistance in influencing his daughter’s choice. Theseus says that “To you, your father should be as a god.” However, Hermia does not want to obey and runs away with her lover to the forest. “Then let us teach our trial patience,/Because it is a customary cross,” tells Hermia to Lysander. In parallel, Helena loves Demetrius passionately, but he does not even look in her direction. When all the heroes get into the forest, they fall under the influence of a magic potion. Oberon’s jokes make both Lysander and Demetrius love Helena, and Hermia begins to get jealous. When the effect of the magic drops ends, Demetrius realizes that he loves Helena, and Hermia can finally be with Lysander.
The vital part of the plot is set aside for relationships between Oberon and Tytania and Bottom and Tytania. Their conflict arises over a boy stolen from an Indian sultan. Oberon demands that Titania gives him a boy to serve as a knight, but Titania does not want to give the boy away. As a result, Titania accuses her husband of treason with Hippolytus, and he accuses her of having a relationship with Theseus. Puck makes Titania love Bottom, who has a donkey’s head. When Tytania wakes up, she does not believe in her loaffairirs with Bottom. Though, after staging a play about unhappy love on the occasion of weddings, Titania wakes up and realizes that she loves Bottom. “That every man should take his own,/In your waking shall be shown:/Jack shall have Jill;/Nought shall go ill;” says Puck describing the moral of the story. Magic and jokes helped lovers to reunite.
To summarize, Shakespeare’s play is full of storylines and twists which show the persistent problems of humankind. The significant conflicts concern love affairs that often change in their form and expression. Hermia cannot marry the man she loves because of her father’s will. Helena cannot gain the attention of Demetrius because he wants to marry Hermia. Oberon and Tytania cannot live peacefully because of the boy’s future destiny. Puck, with his magical abilities and the forest with its charming atmosphere, help the main heroes to love and be loved as they wish to. The idea of dreams which suddenly change the lives of characters is reflected not only throughout the plot but in the very play’s name too. The ending of the play is relevant to the moral ideas embedded in the plot.
References
Shakespeare, William. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Web.