Researching a Novel and Play

The Book Report
Researching a Novel and Play
Compiled by Dzaki Jabbar Mahdi
NIM : 16211144004
Major : English literatur
Faculty of Language and Art
Generation of 2016/2017

The Reviews Results Of Sherlock Holmes
Vol 2
The Complete Novels and Stories
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

THE REPORT COVERS
full title : The Hound of the Baskervilles
author : Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
type of work : Novel
genre : Mystery
language : English
time and place written : Returning from the Boer War in South Africa, Doyle wrote and
published Hound of the Baskervilles in England in 1901.
date of first publication : 1901, serialized in The Strand; 1902, published by Newnes
publisher : George Newnes, Ltd.
narrator : Dr. Watson
climax ·:Holmes' secret plan comes to fruition when a guileless Sir Henry heads home across
the moor, only to be attacked by the hound. Hindered by a thick fog and sheer fright,
Holmes and Watson nonetheless shoot the beast and solve the mystery.
protagonist : Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes
antagonist : Jack Stapleton
setting (time) : 1889. Holmes notes that the date 1884, engraved on Dr. Mortimer's walking
stick, is five years old.
setting (place) : The novel starts and ends in London, in Holmes' office at 221b Baker Street.
Most of the rest of the novel takes place in Devonshire, at the imposing Baskerville Hall, the
lonely moorlands, and the rundown Merripit House where Stapleton lives.
point of view : The mystery is told entirely from Watson's point of view, although the
author regularly switches from straight narrative to diary to letters home.
falling action : Holmes explains the intricacies of the case; Sir Henry and Mortimer head off
on vacation to heal Henry's nerves
tense : Modulates from past (as in Watson's narration of London events) to recent past (as
in Watson's diary and letters)
foreshadowing : The deaths of some wild horses prefigure Stapleton's own death by
drowning in the Grimpen mire. There is a sense in which all the clues serve as
foreshadowing for later discoveries.

tone : At different times, the novel's tone is earnest, reverent (of Holmes), uncertain, and
ominous.
themes : Good and evil; natural and supernatural; truth and fantasy; classism, hierarchy,
and entitlement
motifs : Superstition and folk tales; disguised identities; the red herring
symbols : The moor (the mire); the hound

THEME
“Natural and supernatural; truth and fantasy”
In this novel, a man narrates his comrade’s astute logical reasoning, his ability to take
almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve difficult cases that led
them to an amazing adventure. Synopsis: The story opens with a mini mystery—Sherlock
Holmes and Dr. Watson speculate on the identity of the owner of a cane that has been left
in their office by an unknown visitor. Wowing Watson with his amazing powers of
observation, Holmes predicts the appearance of James Mortimer, owner of the found object
and a convenient entrée into the baffling curse of the Baskervilles. Entering the office, Dr.
Mortimer reports that the Baskerville line has been plagued by a mysterious and
supernatural black hound. The recent death of Sir Charles Baskerville has rekindled
suspicions and fears. The next of kin, the duo finds out, has arrived in London to take up his
post at Baskerville Hall, but he has already been intimidated by an anonymous note of
warning. They decided That Dr. Watson should temporarily hold the case.
Dr. Watson then went to Dartmoor in Devon to hold the case and to protect Sir Henry
Baskerville, the next heir. Sir Henry then meets Miss Stapleton and becomes romantically
interested even the brother, Jack Stapleton is opposed to Sir Henry He held the case
seriously letting Holmes know every detail that he observed and what strange things that
happen but Dr. Watson didn’t know that Sherlock Homes is just at the Dartmoor and
observing and gaining information as Dr. Watson does. Then he found out that Miss
Stapleton is actually married to Jack Stapleton and also found out that the Hugo Baskerville,
the founder of the Baskerville line has a similarity to Mr. Stapleton clearing out that
Mr. Stapleton “do” the crime so that he can be the next heir.
So they made a plan to know who the criminal is and the younger Baskerville will be used as
bait to catch Stapleton red-handed. A fog comes in, and Holmes is worried. Finally, Henry
comes running through the fog, pursued by the hound. The hound is huge (as big as a lion)
and black, and fire seems to come from its eyes and mouth. Then they fought and kill the
hound. Then they find Mrs. Stapleton tied up and said tell that his husband maybe ran to
the hideout and probably drowned, so they went to the place and find no Stapleton but
found out where he hide the hound.
As soon as Dr. Mortimer arrives to unveil the mysterious curse of the Baskervilles, Hound
wrestles with questions of natural and supernatural occurrences. The doctor himself decides
that the marauding hound in question is a supernatural beast, and all he wants to ask
Sherlock Holmes is what to do with the next of kin.
From Holmes' point of view, every set of clues points toward a logical, real- world solution.
Considering the supernatural explanation, Holmes decides to consider all other options

before falling back on that one. Sherlock Holmes personifies the intellectual's faith in logic,
and on examining facts to find the answers.
In this sense, the story takes on the Gothic tradition, a brand of storytelling that highlights
the bizarre and unexplained. Doyles' mysterious hound, an ancient family curse, even the
ominous Baskerville Hall all set up a Gothic- style mystery that, in the end, will fall victim to
Holmes' powerful logic.
Doyle's own faith in spiritualism, a doctrine of life after death and psychic powers, might at
first seem to contradict a Sherlockian belief in logical solutions and real world answers.
Holmes is probably based more on Doyle's scientific training than his belief system. But the
struggle for understanding, the search for a coherent conception of the world we live in,
links the spiritualist Doyle with his fictional counterpart. Throughout the novel, Holmes is
able to come up with far-flung if ultimately true accounts of the world around him, much as
his author strove for understanding in fiction and in fact.
Classism and hierarchy
Hound's focus on the natural and supernatural spills over into other thematic territory—the
rigid classism of Doyle's milieu. Well-to-do intellectual that he was, Doyle translated many of
the assumptions of turn-of- the-century English society into his fiction. The natural and
supernatural is one example.
Throughout the story, the superstitions of the shapeless mass of common folk- everyone
attributes an unbending faith in the curse to the commoners-are denigrated and, often,
dismissed. If Mortimer and Sir Henry have their doubts, it is the gullible common folk who
take the curse seriously. In the end, when Watson's reportage and Holmes' insight have
shed light on the situation, the curse and the commoners who believed it end up looking
silly.
At the same time, Sir Henry's servants evince a kind of docility, and their brother the convict
is reduced from dangerous murderer to pathetic rodent under Watson's gaze. Hound's
classism is also enmeshed in questions of entitlement: who has the right to Baskerville Hall,
to Holmes' attention, to our attention.

Motifs
Superstition and folk tales
The story opens with the folk tale of the Baskerville curse, presented on eighteenth century
parchment. The reproduction of the curse, both in the novel and in Mortimer's reading,
serves to start the story off with a bang-a shadowy folk tale, nothing if not mysterious. At
the same time, it offers a nice contrast to Watson's straight-forward reporting, a style
insisted upon by the master and one which will ultimately dispel any foolish belief in curses
and hounds of hell.
Red Herring
A classic of the mystery/detective genre, the red herring throws us off the right trail. Much
like the folk tale, it offers a too-easy answer to the question at hand, tempting us to take the
bait and making fools of us if we do. In Hound, the largest red herring is the convict. After
all, who better to pin a murder on than a convicted murderer. Barrymore's late-night
mischief turns out to be innocent, and the convicted murderer turns out to not be involved
in the mysterious deaths.
CHARACTERS & CHARACTERIZATION
Sherlock Holmes is the ever-observant, world-renowned detective of 221b Baker Street. For
all his assumed genius and intuition he is virtually omniscient in these stories, and Holmes
becomes more accessible in the context of his constant posturing and pretension.
Holmes lets down his guard and admits of a fragile ego. When challenged at the beginning
of the book—Mortimer calls him the second best crime solver in Europe and Holmes lets
down his guard and asks who could possibly be the first. By and large, however, Holmes' ego
is kept in check by a constant dose of adulation from Watson. Holmes regularly announces
some absurd and unsubstantiated conclusion only to mock Watson by revealing the most
obvious of clues. In the end, Holmes toys with his associates (and particularly Watson) at
least as much as he flouts his enemies, equivocating, misleading, and making fools out of
them only to up his own crime-solving cachet.
Dr. Watson
The good doctor plays the sidekick to Holmes' self-obsessed hero figure. Watson is a lowly
apprentice and live-in friend, who spends most of the book trying to solve a difficult case in
his master's stead. Always on hand to stroke Holmes' ego, Watson is nonetheless intent on
proving his own mettle by applying Holmes' techniques.

Watson's never-ending adulation, which is presumably meant to mirror our own
understanding of the legendary detective, comes through most forcefully at the end of the
novel, when Holmes arrives at Devonshire. Holmes announces that he meant for Watson to
think he was in London, and a pouty Watson reacts: "Then you use me, and yet you do not
trust me!" Codependent throughout, Holmes and Watson fill each other's needs. Watson
provides Holmes with an ego boost, and Holmes needs Watson's eyes and ears to
inconspicuously gather clues. Watson is awestruck by Holmes' power of observation, and
Watson feels more powerful by association.
Mr. Jack Stapleton
Intended to incarnate ill will and malice, Stapleton is conflated at various points with the
lecherous libertine Hugo, whom he resembles. Stapleton is a black-hearted, violent villain
hidden beneath a benign, bookish surface.
If Hugo operates as a kind of Doppelganger for his entomologist heir, then the convict offers
an interesting parallel as well. Serving mainly as a red herring in the mysterious death of Sir
Charles Baskerville, the convict also operates as a foil for the real culprit, Stapleton.
Personifying "peculiar ferocity," "wonton brutality," and even dubious sanity, the convict is
shown to be a pathetic, animalistic figure on whom the detectives ultimately take pity. Not
so with Stapleton, a man with a "murderous heart," and a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Stapleton is a worthy adversary because of his birthright. If the convict is a simple murderer,
he is also simply born, related by blood to the Baskerville's domestic help. Thus, the convict
is part of a lower class than Holmes, and therefore is not a worthy adversary. Stapleton,
however, is an intellectual, and when his evil side comes out, his hidden nobility comes out
as well. Once Holmes is handling an educated and noble rival, he begins to take things much
more seriously. In this sense, Stapleton's character adds to the strong classist themes
imbedded in this book.

The Reviews Results Of Richard III
William Shakespeare

THE REPORT COVERS
full title : The Tragedy of King Richard the Third
author : William Shakespeare
type of work : Play
genre : History play
language : English
time and place written : Around 1592, London
date of first publication : 1597
tone : Shakespeare’s attitude toward Richard is one of condemnation and disgust,
combined with a penetrating fascination with the mind of the power-hungry psychopath.
settings (time) : Around 1485, though the actual historical events of the play took place
over a much longer period, around 1471–1485
settings (place) : Various palaces and locales in England
protagonist : Richard III
major conflict : Richard, the power-hungry younger brother of the king of England, longs to
seize control of the throne, but he is far back in the line of succession. He plots and
manipulates his way past the obstacles in his path to power, betraying and murdering with
reckless abandon as he proceeds.
rising action : Richard persuades Lady Anne, Prince Edward’s widow, to marry him; he has
his brother Clarence murdered; he has the two young princes in line for the throne
murdered .
climax : In Act III, scene vii, Buckingham and others entreat Richard to accept the crown,
which he pretends to refuse and then accepts.
falling action : Richard turns against Buckingham and murders the young princes and his
wife Anne; Richmond defeats Richard at the Battle of Bosworth Field.
themes : The allure of evil; the relationship between ruler and state; the power of
language; the rise of the Tudor dynasty in England

motifs : The supernatural, dreams
symbols : The boar
foreshadowing : The play is full of foreshadowing, including Margaret’s curses (which
foreshadow almost all the future action of the play), Richard’s monologues, the prophetic
dreams of Clarence and Stanley, and the pronouncements of the ghosts in Act V.
PLOT
a long civil war between the royal family of York and the royal family of Lancaster, England
enjoys a period of peace under King Edward IV and the victorious Yorks. But Edward’s
younger brother, Richard, resents Edward’s power and the happiness of those around him.
Malicious, power-hungry, and bitter about his physical deformity, Richard begins to aspire
secretly to the throne—and decides to kill anyone he has to in order to become king.
Using his intelligence and his skills of deception and political manipulation, Richard begins
his campaign for the throne. He manipulates a noblewoman, Lady Anne, into marrying
him—even though she knows that he murdered her first husband. He has his own older
brother, Clarence, executed, and shifts the burden of guilt onto his sick older brother King
Edward in order to accelerate Edward’s illness and death. After King Edward dies, Richard
becomes lord protector of England—the figure in charge until the elder of Edward’s two
sons grows up.
Next Richard kills the court noblemen who are loyal to the princes, most notably Lord
Hastings, the lord chamberlain of England. He then has the boys’ relatives on their mother’s
side—the powerful kinsmen of Edward’s wife, Queen Elizabeth—arrested and executed.
With Elizabeth and the princes now unprotected, Richard has his political allies, particularly
his right-hand man, Lord Buckingham, campaign to have Richard crowned king. Richard then
imprisons the young princes in the Tower and, in his bloodiest move yet, sends hired
murderers to kill both children.
By this time, Richard’s reign of terror has caused the common people of England to fear and
loathe him, and he has alienated nearly all the noblemen of the court—even the power-
hungry Buckingham. When rumors begin to circulate about a challenger to the throne who
is gathering forces in France, noblemen defect in droves to join his forces. The challenger is
the earl of Richmond, a descendant of a secondary arm of the Lancaster family, and England
is ready to welcome him.
Richard, in the meantime, tries to consolidate his power. He has his wife, Queen Anne,
murdered, so that he can marry young Elizabeth, the daughter of the former Queen
Elizabeth and the dead King Edward. Though young Elizabeth is his niece, the alliance would

secure his claim to the throne. Nevertheless, Richard has begun to lose control of events,
and Queen Elizabeth manages to forestall him. Meanwhile, she secretly promises to marry
young Elizabeth to Richmond.
Richmond finally invades England. The night before the battle that will decide everything,
Richard has a terrible dream in which the ghosts of all the people he has murdered appear
and curse him, telling him that he will die the next day. In the battle on the following
morning, Richard is killed, and Richmond is crowned King Henry VII. Promising a new era of
peace for England, the new king is betrothed to young Elizabeth in order to unite the
warring houses of Lancaster and York.
Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
The Allure of Evil
When Richard claims that his deformity is the cause of his wicked ways, he seems to be
manipulating us for sympathy, just as he manipulates the other characters throughout the
play. As a result, Richard III does not explore the cause of evil in the human mind so much as
it explores its operation, depicting the workings of Richard’s mind and the methods he uses
to manipulate, control, and injure others for his own gain. Central to this aspect of the play
is the idea that Richard’s victims are complicit in their own destruction. Just as Lady Anne
allows herself to be seduced by Richard, even knowing that he will kill her, other characters
allow themselves to be taken in by his charisma and overlook his dishonesty and violent
behavior. This tendency is echoed in Richard’s relationship with the audience for much of
the play. Even though the audience is likely to be repulsed by Richard’s actions, his gleeful,
brilliant, revealing monologues cause most viewers to like him and even hope that he will
succeed despite his obvious malice.
The Connection Between Ruler and State
The so-called window scenes in Richard III—the conversation of the common people in Act
II, scene iii; Buckingham’s speech to the masses and Richard’s acceptance of the crown in
Act III; and the scene of the Scrivener in Act III, scene iv—provide a glimpse of how the
drama in the royal palace affects the lives of the common people outside its walls. As a
history play, Richard III is at least somewhat concerned with the consequences of the
behavior of those in power, and with ideas of good rulership and governance. It is significant
that the common people come to fear and distrust Richard long before most of the nobles
in the palace, and that the opposition of the common people to Richard is one of the main
forces that enables Richmond to overthrow him. In these ways, Richard III explores a theme
Shakespeare later revisited in Hamlet and Macbeth—the idea that the moral righteousness
of a political ruler has a direct bearing on the health of the state. A state with a good ruler

will tend to flourish (as Denmark does under King Hamlet), while a state with a bad ruler will
tend to suffer (as Scotland does under Macbeth).
The Power of Language
An interesting secondary theme of Richard III is the power of language, or the importance of
language in achieving political power. Language may not always be a necessary instrument
of power, but for Richard, it is a crucial weapon. His extraordinary skill with words enables
him to manipulate, confuse, and control those around him. Richard’s skill with language and
argument is what enables him to woo Lady Anne, have Clarence thrown in prison, keep the
Woodvilles off his track, blame the king for Clarence’s death, and achieve Hastings’s
execution, all at very little risk to himself. Interestingly, language also seems to be the only
defense against Richard, as is shown when the princes match his skill at wordplay and thus
indicate their ability to see through his schemes. In such cases, Richard simply uses violence
as an expedient and has his enemies, including the princes, put to death.
The Birth of the Tudor Dynasty
Richard III dramatizes a key turning point in English history: the end of the Wars of the Roses
and the rise to power of the Tudor dynasty in the figure of Henry VII. The Tudors continued
to rule England in Shakespeare’s day—Queen Elizabeth I, who sat on the throne when
Richard III was written, was a Tudor. As a playwright in sixteenth-century England,
Shakespeare had to court the favor of those in power, who literally could make or break his
career. As a result, Shakespeare’s portrayal of Richard III as a vile, hateful villain is in part
designed to set up a glorious ascension for Henry VII at the end of the play. Henry overthrew
Richard, after all, and the worse Richard seems, the better Henry will seem for defeating
him; moreover, the better Henry seems, the more likely the Tudors are to approve of
Shakespeare’s play. Had Shakespeare portrayed Richard as a hero, then Henry might have
seemed villainous for usurping his throne, and Shakespeare might have fallen from favor
with Queen Elizabeth. Of course, these political considerations are by no means the main
focus of the play—Shakespeare’s exploration of the psychology of evil stands on its own and
transcends mere propaganda. Still, it is important to realize that the history Shakespeare
recounts in his story was still very much alive when he wrote it, and that the considerations
of his own time strongly affected his portrayal of the past.

Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the
text’s major themes.
The Supernatural
For a play supposedly based on actual history, Richard III involves an extraordinary number
of supernatural elements. Some of these elements are Margaret’s prophetic curses,
Clarence and Stanley’s prophetic dreams, the allegations of witchcraft Richard levels at
Elizabeth and mistress Shore, the continual association of Richard with devils and demons
(for example, he is often called a hellhound), Richard’s comparison of himself to the shape-
shifting Proteus, the Princes’ discussion of the ghosts of their dead uncles, and—most
significant—the parade of eleven ghosts that visits Richard and Richmond the night before
the battle. These supernatural elements serve to create an atmosphere of intense dread
and gloom that matches the malice and evil of Richard’s inner self, and also serve to
heighten the sense that Richard’s reign is innately evil, transforming England into a kind of
Gothic netherworld.
Dreams
The motif of prophetic dreams is part of the play’s larger preoccupation with the
supernatural, but the idea of dreams emerges as its own separate motif after Stanley’s
dream about Hastings’s death. Clarence and Stanley both have dreams that not only predict
the future, but that are also heavy with important symbolism. For example, Clarence’s
dream involves Richard causing his drowning at sea. Immediately after it, he is drowned in a
cask of wine by murderers hired by Richard. In addition, Stanley’s dream involves Hastings
being gored by a boar—Richard’s heraldic symbol. Immediately after it, Richard orders
Hastings’s execution.
Symbols
“Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
The Boar”
The boar is Richard’s heraldic symbol, and is used several times throughout the play to
represent him, most notably in Stanley’s dream about Hastings’s death. The idea of the boar
is also played on in describing Richard’s deformity, and Richard is cursed by the duchess as
an “abortive, rooting hog” (I.iii.225). The boar was one of the most dangerous animals that
people hunted in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and Shakespeare’s audience would
have associated it with untamed aggression and uncontrollable violence.

The Character list
Richard - Also called the duke of Gloucester, and eventually crowned King Richard III.
Deformed in body and twisted in mind, Richard is both the central character and the villain
of the play. He is evil, corrupt, sadistic, and manipulative, and he will stop at nothing to
become king. His intelligence, political brilliance, and dazzling use of language keep the
audience fascinated—and his subjects and rivals under his thumb.
Read an in-depth analysis of Richard.
Buckingham - Richard’s right-hand man in his schemes to gain power. The duke of
Buckingham is almost as amoral and ambitious as Richard himself.
King Edward IV - The older brother of Richard and Clarence, and the king of England at the
start of the play. Edward was deeply involved in the Yorkists’ brutal overthrow of the
Lancaster regime, but as king he is devoted to achieving a reconciliation among the various
political factions of his reign. He is unaware that Richard attempts to thwart him at every
turn.
Clarence - The gentle, trusting brother born between Edward and Richard in the York
family. Richard has Clarence murdered in order to get him out of the way. Clarence leaves
two children, a son and a daughter.
Queen Elizabeth - The wife of King Edward IV and the mother of the two young princes (the
heirs to the throne) and their older sister, young Elizabeth. After Edward’s death, Queen
Elizabeth (also called Lady Gray) is at Richard’s mercy. Richard rightly views her as an enemy
because she opposes his rise to power, and because she is intelligent and fairly strong-
willed. Elizabeth is part of the Woodeville family; her kinsmen—Dorset, Rivers, and Gray—
are her allies in the court.
Dorset, Rivers, and Gray - The kinsmen and allies of Elizabeth, and members of the
Woodeville and Gray families. Rivers is Elizabeth’s brother, while Gray and Dorset are her
sons from her first marriage. Richard eventually executes Rivers and Gray, but Dorset flees
and survives.
Anne - The young widow of Prince Edward, who was the son of the former king, Henry VI.
Lady Anne hates Richard for the death of her husband, but for reasons of politics—and for
sadistic pleasure—Richard persuades Anne to marry him.
Duchess of York - Widowed mother of Richard, Clarence, and King Edward IV. The duchess
of York is Elizabeth’s mother-in-law, and she is very protective of Elizabeth and her children,
who are the duchess’s grandchildren. She is angry with, and eventually curses, Richard for
his heinous actions.
Margaret - Widow of the dead King Henry VI, and mother of the slain Prince Edward. In
medieval times, when kings were deposed, their children were often killed to remove any
threat from the royal line of descent—but their wives were left alive because they were
considered harmless. Margaret was the wife of the king before Edward, the Lancastrian

Henry VI, who was subsequently deposed and murdered (along with their children) by the
family of King Edward IV and Richard. She is embittered and hates both Richard and the
people he is trying to get rid of, all of whom were complicit in the destruction of the
Lancasters.
Read an in-depth analysis of Margaret.
The princes - The two young sons of King Edward IV and his wife, Elizabeth, their names are
actually Prince Edward and the young duke of York, but they are often referred to
collectively. Agents of Richard murder these boys—Richard’s nephews—in the Tower of
London. Young Prince Edward, the rightful heir to the throne, should not be confused with
the elder Edward, prince of Wales (the first husband of Lady Anne, and the son of the
former king, Henry VI.), who was killed before the play begins.
Young Elizabeth - The former Queen Elizabeth’s daughter. Young Elizabeth enjoys the fate
of many Renaissance noblewomen. She becomes a pawn in political power-brokering, and is
promised in marriage at the end of the play to Richmond, the Lancastrian rebel leader, in
order to unite the warring houses of York and Lancaster.
Ratcliffe, Catesby - Two of Richard’s flunkies among the nobility.
Tyrrell - A murderer whom Richard hires to kill his young cousins, the princes in the Tower
of London.
Richmond - A member of a branch of the Lancaster royal family. Richmond gathers a force
of rebels to challenge Richard for the throne. He is meant to represent goodness, justice,
and fairness—all the things Richard does not. Richmond is portrayed in such a glowing light
in part because he founded the Tudor dynasty, which still ruled England in Shakespeare’s
day.
Hastings - A lord who maintains his integrity, remaining loyal to the family of King Edward
IV. Hastings winds up dead for making the mistake of trusting Richard.
Stanley - The stepfather of Richmond. Lord Stanley, earl of Derby, secretly helps Richmond,
although he cannot escape Richard’s watchful gaze.
Lord Mayor of London - A gullible and suggestible fellow whom Richard and Buckingham
use as a pawn in their ploy to make Richard king.
Vaughan - A friend of Elizabeth, Dorset, Rivers, and Gray who is executed by Richard along
with Rivers and Grey.

The Reviews results
Of
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
William Shakespeare

full title · A Midsummer Night’s Dream
author · William Shakespeare
type of work · Play
genres · Comedy; fantasy; romance; farce
language · English
time and place written · London, 1594 or 1595
date of first publication · 1600
publisher · Thomas Fisher
narrator · None
climax · In the strictest sense, there is no real climax, as the conflicts of the play are all
resolved swiftly by magical means in Act IV; the moment of greatest tension is probably the
quarrel between the lovers in Act III, scene ii.
protagonist · Because there are three main groups of characters, there is no single
protagonist in the play; however, Puck is generally considered the most important
character.
antagonist · None; the play’s tensions are mostly the result of circumstances, accidents,
and mistakes.
settings (time) · Combines elements of Ancient Greece with elements of Renaissance
England
settings (place) · Athens and the forest outside its walls
point of view · Varies from scene to scene
falling action · Act V, scene i, which centers on the craftsmen’s play
tense · Present
foreshadowing · Comments made in Act I, scene i about the difficulties that lovers face
tones · Romantic; comedic; fantastic; satirical; dreamlike; joyful; farcical

symbols · Theseus and Hippolyta represent order, stability, and wakefulness; Theseus’s
hounds represent the coming of morning; Oberon’s love potion represents the power and
instability of love.
themes · The difficulties of love; magic; the nature of dreams; the relationships between
fantasy and reality and between environment and experience
motifs · Love out of balance; contrast (juxtaposed opposites, such as beautiful and ugly,
short and tall, clumsy and graceful, ethereal and earthy)
Context
The most influential writer in all of English literature, William Shakespeare was born in 1564
to a successful middle-class glove-maker in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Shakespeare
attended grammar school, but his formal education proceeded no further. In 1582 he
married an older woman, Anne Hathaway, and had three children with her. Around 1590 he
left his family behind and traveled to London to work as an actor and playwright. Public and
critical success quickly followed, and Shakespeare eventually became the most popular
playwright in England and part-owner of the Globe Theater. His career bridged the reigns of
Elizabeth I (ruled 1558–1603) and James I (ruled 1603–1625), and he was a favorite of both
monarchs. Indeed, James granted Shakespeare’s company the greatest possible compliment
by bestowing upon its members the title of King’s Men. Wealthy and renowned,
Shakespeare retired to Stratford and died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two. At the time of
Shakespeare’s death, literary luminaries such as Ben Jonson hailed his works as timeless.
Shakespeare’s works were collected and printed in various editions in the century following
his death, and by the early eighteenth century his reputation as the greatest poet ever to
write in English was well established. The unprecedented admiration garnered by his works
led to a fierce curiosity about Shakespeare’s life, but the dearth of biographical information
has left many details of Shakespeare’s personal history shrouded in mystery. Some people
have concluded from this fact that Shakespeare’s plays were really written by someone
else—Francis Bacon and the Earl of Oxford are the two most popular candidates—but the
support for this claim is overwhelmingly circumstantial, and the theory is not taken seriously
by many scholars.
In the absence of credible evidence to the contrary, Shakespeare must be viewed as the
author of the thirty-seven plays and 154 sonnets that bear his name. The legacy of this body
of work is immense. A number of Shakespeare’s plays seem to have transcended even the
category of brilliance, becoming so influential as to profoundly affect the course of Western
literature and culture ever after.

Written in the mid-1590s, probably shortly before Shakespeare turned to Romeo and Juliet,
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of his strangest and most delightful creations, and it
marks a departure from his earlier works and from others of the English Renaissance. The
play demonstrates both the extent of Shakespeare’s learning and the expansiveness of his
imagination. The range of references in the play is among its most extraordinary attributes:
Shakespeare draws on sources as various as Greek mythology (Theseus, for instance, is
loosely based on the Greek hero of the same name, and the play is peppered with
references to Greek gods and goddesses); English country fairy lore (the character of Puck,
or Robin Goodfellow, was a popular figure in sixteenth-century stories); and the theatrical
practices of Shakespeare’s London (the craftsmen’s play refers to and parodies many
conventions of English Renaissance theater, such as men playing the roles of women).
Further, many of the characters are drawn from diverse texts: Titania comes from Ovid’s
Metamorphoses, and Oberon may have been taken from the medieval romance Huan of
Bordeaux, translated by Lord Berners in the mid-1530s. Unlike the plots of many of
Shakespeare’s plays, however, the story in A Midsummer Night’s Dream seems not to have
been drawn from any particular source but rather to be the original product of the
playwright’s imagination.
Plot Overview
Theseus, duke of Athens, is preparing for his marriage to Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons,
with a four-day festival of pomp and entertainment. He commissions his Master of the
Revels, Philostrate, to find suitable amusements for the occasion. Egeus, an Athenian
nobleman, marches into Theseus’s court with his daughter, Hermia, and two young men,
Demetrius and Lysander. Egeus wishes Hermia to marry Demetrius (who loves Hermia), but
Hermia is in love with Lysander and refuses to comply. Egeus asks for the full penalty of law
to fall on Hermia’s head if she flouts her father’s will. Theseus gives Hermia until his
wedding to consider her options, warning her that disobeying her father’s wishes could
result in her being sent to a convent or even executed. Nonetheless, Hermia and Lysander
plan to escape Athens the following night and marry in the house of Lysander’s aunt, some
seven leagues distant from the city. They make their intentions known to Hermia’s friend
Helena, who was once engaged to Demetrius and still loves him even though he jilted her
after meeting Hermia. Hoping to regain his love, Helena tells Demetrius of the elopement
that Hermia and Lysander have planned. At the appointed time, Demetrius stalks into the
woods after his intended bride and her lover; Helena follows behind him.
In these same woods are two very different groups of characters. The first is a band of
fairies, including Oberon, the fairy king, and Titania, his queen, who has recently returned
from India to bless the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. The second is a band of Athenian
craftsmen rehearsing a play that they hope to perform for the duke and his bride. Oberon
and Titania are at odds over a young Indian prince given to Titania by the prince’s mother;
the boy is so beautiful that Oberon wishes to make him a knight, but Titania refuses. Seeking

revenge, Oberon sends his merry servant, Puck, to acquire a magical flower, the juice of
which can be spread over a sleeping person’s eyelids to make that person fall in love with
the first thing he or she sees upon waking. Puck obtains the flower, and Oberon tells him of
his plan to spread its juice on the sleeping Titania’s eyelids. Having seen Demetrius act
cruelly toward Helena, he orders Puck to spread some of the juice on the eyelids of the
young Athenian man. Puck encounters Lysander and Hermia; thinking that Lysander is the
Athenian of whom Oberon spoke, Puck afflicts him with the love potion. Lysander happens
to see Helena upon awaking and falls deeply in love with her, abandoning Hermia. As the
night progresses and Puck attempts to undo his mistake, both Lysander and Demetrius end
up in love with Helena, who believes that they are mocking her. Hermia becomes so jealous
that she tries to challenge Helena to a fight. Demetrius and Lysander nearly do fight over
Helena’s love, but Puck confuses them by mimicking their voices, leading them apart until
they are lost separately in the forest.
When Titania wakes, the first creature she sees is Bottom, the most ridiculous of the
Athenian craftsmen, whose head Puck has mockingly transformed into that of an ass. Titania
passes a ludicrous interlude doting on the ass-headed weaver. Eventually, Oberon obtains
the Indian boy, Puck spreads the love potion on Lysander’s eyelids, and by morning all is
well. Theseus and Hippolyta discover the sleeping lovers in the forest and take them back to
Athens to be married—Demetrius now loves Helena, and Lysander now loves Hermia. After
the group wedding, the lovers watch Bottom and his fellow craftsmen perform their play, a
fumbling, hilarious version of the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. When the play is completed,
the lovers go to bed; the fairies briefly emerge to bless the sleeping couples with a
protective charm and then disappear. Only Puck remains, to ask the audience for its
forgiveness and approval and to urge it to remember the play as though it had all been a
dream.
Conflict
Titania and Oberon quarrel. Lysander and Hermia run off together and get lost in the
woods, and Demetrius and Helena follow them.
Further conflict arises in yet another set of main characters: Oberon and Titania. The fairies'
fight (over a relatively small thing) has very serious consequences on the entire natural
world. In contrast, the young lovers are worried about a serious thing (love), but the way
they deal with it only matters to themselves and their families. The scene is set for our
Athenian heroes to get involved in this other conflict. As Titania and Oberon announce that
the natural world is all mixed up, the four lovers go wandering into that very natural world,
with predictably zany results. We're all set for the young Athenians' problems to become
even more complicated, reflecting the conflict that brews in the wood around them.

Themes
“Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.”
Love’s Difficulty
“The course of true love never did run smooth,” comments Lysander, articulating one of A
Midsummer Night’s Dream’s most important themes—that of the difficulty of love (I.i.134).
Though most of the conflict in the play stems from the troubles of romance, and though the
play involves a number of romantic elements, it is not truly a love story; it distances the
audience from the emotions of the characters in order to poke fun at the torments and
afflictions that those in love suffer. The tone of the play is so lighthearted that the audience
never doubts that things will end happily, and it is therefore free to enjoy the comedy
without being caught up in the tension of an uncertain outcome.
Magic
The fairies’ magic, which brings about many of the most bizarre and hilarious situations in
the play, is another element central to the fantastic atmosphere of A Midsummer Night’s
Dream. Shakespeare uses magic both to embody the almost supernatural power of love
(symbolized by the love potion) and to create a surreal world. Although the misuse of magic
causes chaos, as when Puck mistakenly applies the love potion to Lysander’s eyelids, magic
ultimately resolves the play’s tensions by restoring love to balance among the quartet of
Athenian youths. Additionally, the ease with which Puck uses magic to his own ends, as
when he reshapes Bottom’s head into that of an ass and recreates the voices of Lysander
and Demetrius, stands in contrast to the laboriousness and gracelessness of the craftsmen’s
attempt to stage their play.
Dreams
As the title suggests, dreams are an important theme in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; they
are linked to the bizarre, magical mishaps in the forest. Hippolyta’s first words in the play
evidence the prevalence of dreams (“Four days will quickly steep themselves in night, / Four
nights will quickly dream away the time”), and various characters mention dreams
throughout (I.i.7–8). The theme of dreaming recurs predominantly when characters attempt
to explain bizarre events in which these characters are involved: “I have had a dream, past
the wit of man to say what / dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about t’expound this
dream,” Bottom says, unable to fathom the magical happenings that have affected him as
anything but the result of slumber.

Motifs
“Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and
inform the text’s major themes.”
Contrast
The idea of contrast is the basic building block of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The entire
play is constructed around groups of opposites and doubles. Nearly every characteristic
presented in the play has an opposite: Helena is tall, Hermia is short; Puck plays pranks,
Bottom is the victim of pranks; Titania is beautiful, Bottom is grotesque. Further, the three
main groups of characters (who are developed from sources as varied as Greek mythology,
English folklore, and classical literature) are designed to contrast powerfully with one
another: the fairies are graceful and magical, while the craftsmen are clumsy and earthy; the
craftsmen are merry, while the lovers are overly serious. Contrast serves as the defining
visual characteristic of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, with the play’s most indelible image
being that of the beautiful, delicate Titania weaving flowers into the hair of the ass-headed
Bottom. It seems impossible to imagine two figures less compatible with each other. The
juxtaposition of extraordinary differences is the most important characteristic of the play’s
surreal atmosphere and is thus perhaps the play’s central motif; there is no scene in which
extraordinary contrast is not present.
Symbols
“Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or
concepts.”
Theseus and Hippolyta
Theseus and Hippolyta bookend A Midsummer Night’s Dream, appearing in the daylight at
both the beginning and the end of the play’s main action. They disappear, however, for the
duration of the action, leaving in the middle of Act I, scene i and not reappearing until Act
IV, as the sun is coming up to end the magical night in the forest. Shakespeare uses Theseus
and Hippolyta, the ruler of Athens and his warrior bride, to represent order and stability, to
contrast with the uncertainty, instability, and darkness of most of the play. Whereas an
important element of the dream realm is that one is not in control of one’s environment,
Theseus and Hippolyta are always entirely in control of theirs. Their reappearance in the
daylight of Act IV to hear Theseus’s hounds signifies the end of the dream state of the
previous night and a return to rationality.

The Love Potion
The love potion is made from the juice of a flower that was struck with one of Cupid’s
misfired arrows; it is used by the fairies to wreak romantic havoc throughout Acts II, III, and
IV. Because the meddling fairies are careless with the love potion, the situation of the young
Athenian lovers becomes increasingly chaotic and confusing (Demetrius and Lysander are
magically compelled to transfer their love from Hermia to Helena), and Titania is hilariously
humiliated (she is magically compelled to fall deeply in love with the ass-headed Bottom).
The love potion thus becomes a symbol of the unreasoning, fickle, erratic, and undeniably
powerful nature of love, which can lead to inexplicable and bizarre behavior and cannot be
resisted.
The Craftsmen’s Play
The play-within-a-play that takes up most of Act V, scene i is used to represent, in
condensed form, many of the important ideas and themes of the main plot. Because the
craftsmen are such bumbling actors, their performance satirizes the melodramatic Athenian
lovers and gives the play a purely joyful, comedic ending. Pyramus and Thisbe face parental
disapproval in the play-within-a-play, just as Hermia and Lysander do; the theme of
romantic confusion enhanced by the darkness of night is rehashed, as Pyramus mistakenly
believes that Thisbe has been killed by the lion, just as the Athenian lovers experience
intense misery because of the mix-ups caused by the fairies’ meddling. The craftsmen’s play
is, therefore, a kind of symbol for A Midsummer Night’s Dream itself: a story involving
powerful emotions that is made hilarious by its comical presentation.
Spectacle
The Elizabethan Theater
Attending the theater in Shakespeare's time was quite unlike attending a professional
performance today. First, the theaters were of two distinct kinds: public and private. The
government closely regulated both, but particularly the public theaters. Public theaters such
as the one in which Shakespeare made his livelihood were fairly large open-air structures,
able to hold about 3,000 people.
In order to compete with rival theaters, as well as the popular pastimes of bullbaiting and
bearbaiting, acting troupes changed their show bills often, generally daily. They introduced
new plays regularly, helping partially explain why about 2,000 plays were written by more
than 250 dramatists between 1590 and the closing of the theaters in 1642. Public
performances generally started in the mid-afternoon so spectators could return home by
nightfall.

Because of weather, plague, Puritan opposition, and religious observances, theaters often
advertised on a day-to-day basis (unlike today when we know in advance the dates a show
will run). One of the most memorable advertising techniques troupes employed involved
running a specific flag atop the theater to signal a performance that day (a black flag for a
tragedy, a red flag for a history, and white flag for a comedy). Scholars estimate that during
the first part of the seventeenth century, performances in public theaters took place about
214 days (about 7 months) each year.
Although we commonly associate elaborate lighting and scenery with producing plays, in
the public playhouses of Elizabethan England, the only lighting came from natural sources.
All action took place in front of a general three-tiered façade, eliminating the need for
elaborate sets. Public theaters varied in shape (circular, octagonal, square), yet their
purpose was the same: to surround a playing area in such a way as to accommodate a large
number of paying spectators. Most theaters had tree-roofed galleries for spectators, one
above the other, surrounding the yard. Each theater was also made up of three distinct
seating areas, each increasingly more expensive: the pit (standing room only, used primarily
by the lower classes), the public gallery (bench seats for the middle classes), and the box
seats (appropriate for the Puritan aristocracy).
The private theaters of Shakespeare's day offered a definite alternative to the more
common public playhouse. These venues were open to the public, but special
considerations made it unusual for commoners to attend. First, the private playhouses
accommodated only about 300 spectators. In addition, they provided actual seats for
patrons, helping to justify a considerably higher admission than the public theaters. Unlike
the open-air theaters, private theaters were roofed and lit by candles, allowing for evening
performances (a time when most commoners needed to be doing chores around their own
homes). During performances, too, the private theaters would often separate the acts with
musical interludes rather than performing the entire play without any intermissions, as they
did in the public theaters.
Tools of Character and Characterization
Character Analysis
Social Status
You probably noticed that there's a major social divide in Athens, where people are divided
into hierarchical groups: royalty (Theseus and Hippolyta), nobility (Hermia, Lysander,
Demetrius, Helena, and Egeus), and commoners (the "Mechanicals" or craftsmen who
perform a play at Theseus and Hippolyta's wedding). Obviously, those at the top have a lot
more power than the characters at the bottom of the social ladder.

The upper-class characters are also a lot more educated, and the play suggests that this
makes them better able to appreciate art and culture, unlike the "rude Mechanicals" who
bumble their way through a performance of a classic story. At one point, Egeus says the
craftsmen are "hard-handed men that work in Athens here. / Which never laboured in their
minds til now" (5.1.76-77).
We also want to point out that the play's division of power isn't limited to Athens—even in
the fairy world King Oberon and Queen Titania are elevated above regular old sprites (like
Puck) and the fairies who live to serve them. To some extent, all of this is a reflection of the
social hierarchy in Shakespeare's England, which also consisted of royals, nobles, and
commoners.
Type of Being
The characters in the play fall into two categories: humans and fairies. As we know, fairies
have supernatural powers and humans don't. Fairies can go whizzing around the globe in
under an hour and humans can't. Fairies can sprinkle magic love juice in the eyes of hapless
victims and humans can't. We could go on and on, but you get the idea.
The play also mentions some "ghosts" that come out at night and "wand'ring here and
there, / Troop home to churchyards: damned spirits all" (3.2.402-404). Still, Oberon is quick
to point out the following: "But we are sprits of another sort" (3.2.410). In other words,
fairies like Oberon might like a good practical joke or two, but they're mostly harmless and,
in some cases, they go out of their way to protect humans. (Remember how Oberon orders
his crew to run around blessing Theseus's house in Act 5, Scene 1?)
Names
Some, but not all, of the characters' names are significant in the play. Bottom, for example,
is silly and ridiculous. His name implies that he's kind of an "ass." In case we didn't get the
joke, Shakespeare literally transforms his head into that of a donkey. Bottom's name also
refers to his profession. A weaver by trade, his name is another term for a piece a wood that
weavers wrapped thread around.
In fact, all of the Mechanicals' names are clever plays on their professions. Peter Quince is a
carpenter and his name sounds like "quoins," the wooden wedges used by men in his trade.
Snug is a joiner and his name refers to the kind of "snug" joints craftsmen aimed for when
they built furniture. Starveling is a tailor and his name plays on the common idea that all
tailors were skinny. You get the idea, right?
It's interesting to us that Shakespeare gave his craftsmen names that align the men with
their trades. It's almost as if their entire identities are wrapped up in their professions, as

though the men can never be anything other than skilled laborers (no matter how hard they
try to be skilled actors).
Speech and Dialogue
In the play, Shakespeare uses different speech styles to differentiate between the various
types and classes of characters. The "rude Mechanicals" tend to speak in regular old prose
(which is how we talk every day). The more "noble" and/or educated figures tend to speak a
lot in verse (poetry). To differentiate the upper-class characters (like Theseus) from the
commoners (like Bottom), Shakespeare usually has the members of the nobility speak in a
style that's called "blank verse," or "unrhymed iambic pentameter." Sometimes, however,
the young Athenian lovers speak "rhymed verse," especially when they're all worked up
about their love lives. The fairies (Oberon, Titania, Puck, etc.) also speak in verse, but it's
usually different from the humans because they tend to speak in what's called "catalectic
trochaic tetrameter."
Before you get so stressed out that your head starts spinning around, you should relax—we
explain all of this in "Writing Style," which is where you should go now
Character List
Puck - Also known as Robin Goodfellow, Puck is Oberon’s jester, a mischievous fairy who
delights in playing pranks on mortals. Though A Midsummer Night’s Dream divides its action
between several groups of characters, Puck is the closest thing the play has to a protagonist.
His enchanting, mischievous spirit pervades the atmosphere, and his antics are responsible
for many of the complications that propel the other main plots: he mistakes the young
Athenians, applying the love potion to Lysander instead of Demetrius, thereby causing chaos
within the group of young lovers; he also transforms Bottom’s head into that of an ass.
Read an in-depth analysis of Puck.
Oberon - The king of the fairies, Oberon is initially at odds with his wife, Titania, because
she refuses to relinquish control of a young Indian prince whom he wants for a knight.
Oberon’s desire for revenge on Titania leads him to send Puck to obtain the love-potion
flower that creates so much of the play’s confusion and farce.
Titania - The beautiful queen of the fairies, Titania resists the attempts of her husband,
Oberon, to make a knight of the young Indian prince that she has been given. Titania’s brief,
potion-induced love for Nick Bottom, whose head Puck has transformed into that of an ass,
yields the play’s foremost example of the contrast motif.
Lysander - A young man of Athens, in love with Hermia. Lysander’s relationship with
Hermia invokes the theme of love’s difficulty: he cannot marry her openly because Egeus,

her father, wishes her to wed Demetrius; when Lysander and Hermia run away into the
forest, Lysander becomes the victim of misapplied magic and wakes up in love with Helena.
Demetrius - A young man of Athens, initially in love with Hermia and ultimately in love with
Helena. Demetrius’s obstinate pursuit of Hermia throws love out of balance among the
quartet of Athenian youths and precludes a symmetrical two-couple arrangement.
Hermia - Egeus’s daughter, a young woman of Athens. Hermia is in love with Lysander and
is a childhood friend of Helena. As a result of the fairies’ mischief with Oberon’s love potion,
both Lysander and Demetrius suddenly fall in love with Helena. Self-conscious about her
short stature, Hermia suspects that Helena has wooed the men with her height. By morning,
however, Puck has sorted matters out with the love potion, and Lysander’s love for Hermia
is restored.
Helena - A young woman of Athens, in love with Demetrius. Demetrius and Helena were
once betrothed, but when Demetrius met Helena’s friend Hermia, he fell in love with her
and abandoned Helena. Lacking confidence in her looks, Helena thinks that Demetrius and
Lysander are mocking her when the fairies’ mischief causes them to fall in love with her.
Read an in-depth analysis of Helena.
Egeus - Hermia’s father, who brings a complaint against his daughter to Theseus: Egeus has
given Demetrius permission to marry Hermia, but Hermia, in love with Lysander, refuses to
marry Demetrius. Egeus’s severe insistence that Hermia either respect his wishes or be held
accountable to Athenian law places him squarely outside the whimsical dream realm of the
forest.
Theseus - The heroic duke of Athens, engaged to Hippolyta. Theseus represents power and
order throughout the play. He appears only at the beginning and end of the story, removed
from the dreamlike events of the forest.
Hippolyta - The legendary queen of the Amazons, engaged to Theseus. Like Theseus, she
symbolizes order.
Nick Bottom - The overconfident weaver chosen to play Pyramus in the craftsmen’s play for
Theseus’s marriage celebration. Bottom is full of advice and self-confidence but frequently
makes silly mistakes and misuses language. His simultaneous nonchalance about the
beautiful Titania’s sudden love for him and unawareness of the fact that Puck has
transformed his head into that of an ass mark the pinnacle of his foolish arrogance.
Read an in-depth analysis of Nick Bottom.

Peter Quince - A carpenter and the nominal leader of the craftsmen’s attempt to put on a
play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. Quince is often shoved aside by the abundantly
confident Bottom. During the craftsmen’s play, Quince plays the Prologue.
Francis Flute - The bellows-mender chosen to play Thisbe in the craftsmen’s play for
Theseus’s marriage celebration. Forced to play a young girl in love, the bearded craftsman
determines to speak his lines in a high, squeaky voice.
Robin Starveling - The tailor chosen to play Thisbe’s mother in the craftsmen’s play for
Theseus’s marriage celebration. He ends up playing the part of Moonshine.
Tom Snout - The tinker chosen to play Pyramus’s father in the craftsmen’s play for
Theseus’s marriage celebration. He ends up playing the part of Wall, dividing the two lovers.
Snug - The joiner chosen to play the lion in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage
celebration. Snug worries that his roaring will frighten the ladies in the audience.
Philostrate - Theseus’s Master of the Revels, responsible for organizing the entertainment
for the duke’s marriage celebration.
Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mote, and Mustardseed - The fairies ordered by Titania to attend
to Bottom after she falls in love with him.
Setting
Where It All Goes Down
Athens in Antiquity; A Wood Outside of Athens; Midsummer
The play begins in (ancient) Athens, where Duke Theseus and Hippolyta are preparing for an
elaborate wedding. Despite the upcoming nuptials and festivities that surround a
nobleman's marriage, Athens is also a place for law and order. Here, a father can demand
the death penalty for a disobedient daughter who refuses to marry the man of his choosing.
It's no wonder, then, that the young Athenian lovers hightail it into the enchanted wood,
where fairies reign over a gorgeous and lush natural world of magic, wonder, and mischief.
The wood is the perfect space for the suspension of man-made rules: Bottom, a lowly
workman, can cavort with the Queen of the Fairies; the Athenian lovers can fight and love as
lovers do; and, most importantly, fairy magic (not the rule of law) can reign supreme.
Still, the human characters can't make a permanent home in the wood and so they all return
to Athens in the end. Once everyone is back at Theseus's pad in Act 5, the setting looks less
like an ancient Greek palace than an Elizabethan nobleman's estate. After their elaborate
wedding, Duke Theseus and Hippolyta enjoy the kind of courtly entertainments that
Elizabethan nobles and royals would have experienced.

Genre
Comedy
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a classic example of Shakespearean comedy. What, you
don't believe us? We'll prove it to you. We've got a checklist that details all the typical
conventions and features of the genre so you can see for yourself:
Light, humorous tone: Check. The play features fairy magic (like Oberon's love potion), silly
pranks (like the transformation of a guy's head into that of a jackass), and the botched
performance of a play-within-a-play by a bunch of wannabe actors. Need we say more?
Clever dialogue and witty banter: Check. Shakespeare is a huge fan of puns and snappy
wordplay, so naturally his characters know how to get their witty repartee on. Shakespeare
reserves some of the best dialogue for his warring lovers, especially Oberon and Titania, and
even the "rude mechanicals" manage to wow us with their clever banter.
Deception and disguise: Let's see… Hermia and Lysander try to sneak away from Athens to
elope (behind Egeus's back). Also, Titania and the young lovers have no idea they've been
drugged by Oberon and his magic love juice. So, check.
Mistaken identity: Check... sort of. In most of Shakespeare's other comedies, someone
usually runs around in a disguise to mask his or her identity. (Sometimes, a lover is even
tricked into sleeping with the wrong person by mistake.) This isn't necessarily the case in A
Midsummer Night's Dream, unless we count the fact that the love juice causes Titania to fall
head over heels in love with an "ass." In other words, Titania mistakes Bottom for a creature
who is worthy of her love and affection. The same can be said of the other lovers who are
dosed with Oberon's magic love potion.
Multiple plots with twists and turns: Check. There are several lines of action in A
Midsummer Night's Dream and Shakespeare invites us to sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride.
The first plotline involves Theseus and Hippolyta's upcoming wedding. The second plotline
involves the young Athenian lovers who run around the wood in confusion. The third follows
Oberon's tiff with his wife, Titania. And as a fourth plotline, Shakespeare works in a bunch
of craftsmen (the Mechanicals), who plan to perform a play at Theseus's big, fancy wedding.
Love overcomes obstacles: Check. From the play's very beginning, Shakespeare beats us
over the head with this idea. Seriously. The only reason Theseus is even engaged to
Hippolyta is because he conquered her people (the Amazons) and basically won her in
battle. Just a few moments after we hear about Theseus and Hippolyta, we learn that
Hermia and Lysander must also overcome a major obstacle if they want to be together
because Hermia's dad wants her to marry someone else. Never mind the fact that we've got

a bunch of mischievous fairies running around the wood sloshing magic love juice into the
eyes of hapless humans, causing them to fall in and out of love with the first creature that
comes into view. In the end, though, love wins out and Theseus and the four young lovers
all hook up with a steady partner. Keep reading.
Marriage: Check. This is important so pay attention, Shmoopsters. No matter what else
happens, Shakespeare's comedies ALWAYS end with one or more marriages (or the promise
of marriage). This is Shakespeare's way of restoring social order to the world of his plays
(after turning order on its head for a few hours). At the end of A Midsummer Night's Dream,
Theseus finally gets to marry Hippolyta and spend the night with her (which he's been
talking about since the play's opening lines). As for the four humans who have been chasing
each other around the forest and falling in and out of love, they finally settle down and hook
up with a steady partner: Hermia weds Lysander and Demetrius gets hitched to Helena.
Family drama: Check. If you read the very first scene, you know that Hermia and her dad
Egeus go toe-to-toe about whom she should and shouldn't marry. Egeus is so worked up
about his daughter's disobedience that he wants Duke Theseus to uphold the Athenian law
that says daughters have to do what their fathers say or else they get sentenced to death.
Yeesh. It's a good thing A Midsummer Night's Dream isn't a tragedy, otherwise this ugly little
domestic dispute would end badly. How badly? Think Romeo and Juliet badly.
(Re)unification of families: Check. Like we said earlier, Egeus would rather see his daughter
dead than witness Hermia marry Lysander. Still, A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy so
Egeus eventually backs down and gives in to the idea that Hermia is going to marry for love.
We should point out that Egeus only changes his mind after Duke Theseus orders him to
back off (4.1), but still, Egeus sticks around for his daughter's wedding, so we're counting
that as a family reunion.

Tone
At the beginning of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the tone is pretty dark, wouldn't you say?
After all, Hermia faces the death penalty or life as a nun if she doesn't obey her father and
marry the man of his choosing. This suggests a bleak outlook, don't you think?
Still, this darkness quickly gives way to a lighthearted tone that reveals Shakespeare's sense
of humor about the pitfalls of love. Case in point,When the young lovers (some of whom
have been drugged by Oberon's magic love potion) go chasing each other around the wood,
falling in and out of love at the drop of a hat (or the drop of some magic love juice),
Shakespeare pokes fun at how erratic and foolish we can all be when it comes to romance.
Just ask Titania, who falls head-over-heels in love with a (literal) jackass.

Bibliography and sources
http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/themes.html
www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/
www.shmoop.com/midsummer-nights-dream
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/m/a-midsummer-nights-dream/about-a-
midsummer-nights-dream
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http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/hound/facts.html
Bloom, Harold. Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human. New York: Riverhead Books,
1999.
Boris, Edna Z. Shakespeare’s English Kings: The People and the Law. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh
Dickinson University Press, 1978.
More, St. Sir Thomas. History of King Richard III. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976.
Pollard, A.J. Richard III and the Princes in the Tower. Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1991.
Ross, Charles D. Richard III. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.
Spivack, Bernard. Shakespeare and the Allegory of Evil. New York: Columbia University Press,
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Weir, Alison. The Wars of the Roses. New York: Ballantine, 1996.

Researching a Novel and Play

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