Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Story of Magic & Heartbreak

A Midsummer Night’s Dream was written by William Shakespeare and first performed around 1595. But while this comedy involving a cast of fairies, humans, and a donkey-headed fool may seem pretty light-hearted when compared to masterpieces like Hamlet, it has captured the hearts of people around the world like no other. According to statistics, it is the most-performed Shakespeare play of all time.

The main story of A Midsummer Night’s Dream centers on two young women and two young men who have wrapped themselves up in a complicated love square. But this is just the beginning of the drama: The forest that the lovers escape to is populated by fairies who are involved in their own set of shenanigans. Once you also throw in a troupe of actors, the ensuing chaos seems to be unresolvable.

It All Starts With a Greek Hero

At the beginning of Shakespeare’s play, the Greek hero Theseus is preparing to get married to Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons. But right in the first scene, their wedding preparations are interrupted by a dispute. The young woman Hermia is supposed to marry Demetrius, a man whom her father has chosen for her. Hermia refuses to agree to the marriage, however, because she has fallen in love with Lysander. Theseus is less than amused over the interruption and tells Hermia she must follow through with the wedding or spend the rest of her life in a monastery.

Four Lovers Lost in a Forest

Hermia and Lysander are devastated by the decision, so they elope to the nearby forest where they can finally be together. But Demetrius is unwilling to let Hermia go so easily. He decides to follow them into the forest in the hopes of getting his bride back. If matters were not already complicated enough, Hermia’s friend Helena, who happens to be in love with Demetrius, joins them in the forest. As the four lovers chase each other through the forest, they get lost in the depths of the wilderness, causing the king of the fairies to take note of their telenovela.

When Oberon, the king of the fairies, notices the quarreling humans, he decides to help them out. He asks his servant Puck to place a magical juice on the eyelids of sleeping Demetrius, which will make him fall in love with the first person he sees upon waking up. Unfortunately, the well-intended plan goes wrong. Instead of making Demetrius fall in love with Helena, Puck puts the potion on the eyes of Lysander, who falls in love with Helena upon waking. As you can imagine, Hermia is everything but amused when she suddenly finds Lysander and Demetrius pining after her friend Helena. As it turns out, the human world is far from being the only place filled with conflict.

A Man With a Donkey’s Head

Oberon, the king of the fairies, has also had a falling out with his queen, Titania. When trying to figure out a way of teaching her a lesson, Oberon and Puck notice a group of actors who happen to be rehearsing a play in the woods. After giving one of the actors the head of a donkey, they place a love potion on the eyes of Titania. When the latter wakes up, she falls in love with the donkey-headed man and starts giving him a lot of attention.

The Resolution of All Conflict

The love-struck Titania spends various hours showering the donkey-headed man with affection and feels incredibly embarrassed once the love spell is undone. Having gained his revenge on his queen, Oberon and Titania kiss and make up. Once peace is restored in the world of fairies, Oberon sets out to rectify the human situation. While the lovers go to sleep, he uses the love potion to make everyone fall in love with the right person. When they wake up the next morning, Lysander is back in love with Hermia, and Demetrius has fallen in love with Helena.

Deciding that what has happened to them must have been a dream, the four lovers return to Athens. In the end, there are three weddings: Theseus marries Hippolyta, Hermia marries Lysander, and Demetrius marries Helena. Given the quick changes of affection shown in this magical play, Shakespeare seems to ask us whether such a thing as true love actually exists.

Midsummer Night’s Dream touches on many themes like jealousy, magic, and the transitory nature of love. Most of us have experienced heartbreak and the feeling that we will never be able to get over it. And yet, a few years down the line, we can’t even remember why we were feeling so hurt in the first place. If love is nothing but a temporary feeling, why are we taking its hurts and pains so seriously? The suffering and feelings of humiliation the characters of the play experience feel incredibly real at one moment but are completely forgotten shortly after. Maybe love truly is nothing but a dream.

But A Midsummer Night’s Dream is about much more than the transitory nature of love. It is a play that questions the nature of reality itself. In writing this play, Shakespeare has skillfully merged fiction and reality by bringing together Greek mythology (via the characters of Theseus and Hippolyta), the human world (via the four lovers), the world of theater (via the group of actors), and the world of magic and fairies. The fact that various characters of the play are willingly and unwillingly intoxicated by various substances only adds to the confusion. By the end of the play, even the characters themselves conclude that what they experienced must have been a dream.

Famous Theater Performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Given that A Midsummer Night’s Dream is Shakespeare’s most performed play, it hardly comes as a surprise that famous directors like Peter Brook, Michael Boyd, and others have tried their hand at directing it. While every production is different, directors often use this play as a chance to pump up the magic. Productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream often involve lavish costumes, spectacular acrobatics, and highly eroticized acting.

There are various film adaptations of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Most recently, a 2017 adaptation directed by Casey Wilder Mott has successfully transported the story into modern-day reality. By casting Hermia as a young starlet, Helena as a slightly nerdy poet, Demetrius as a hustling businessman, and Lysander as a bad boy, the director manages to bring this magical tale into the 21st century. There is also a film version starring Michelle Pfeiffer as Titania, which opened to mixed reviews in 1999, as well as a 1968 film directed by Peter Hall starring Judi Dench. Movie producers have even tried to transport this magical story into rave culture. However, the resulting film called A Midsummer Night’s Rave (2002) received little attention from critics and largely negative reviews.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream: The Ballet

Given its dreamlike quality, it is hardly surprising that A Midsummer Night’s Dream has also been adapted into a ballet. One famous version was choreographed by George Balanchine and set to the music of Felix Mendelssohn in 1962. Two years later, the choreographer Frederick Ashton used Mendelssohn’s music to choreograph his own version, which he simply called The Dream. Both of these versions simplify the plot slightly but stay true to the core of this magical love story. There is also a version choreographed by John Neumeier, which premiered in 1977.

William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: The Opera

It seems that the 1960s were a particularly fruitful time when it came to adaptations of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This decade also birthed a contemporary opera production which was composed by Benjamin Britten. While the opera is less atonal than Britten’s other work, its main character Oberon is set for the voice of a countertenor. In the world of opera, this was a highly unusual choice. Given its popularity, we are sure to see many new interpretations of this magical story in the years to come. A Midsummer Night’s Dream has also inspired visual artists like John Simmons, Sir Joseph Noel Paton, and Marc Chagall to create paintings based on its storyline.