There are many themes in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Explore the main themes of love, appearance and reality, and order and disorder - looking at how they affect characters and influence the story.
Key themes
The themes are the main ideas that keep appearing in the play. Here are some of the important themes in A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
- love
- appearance and reality
- order and disorder
Love
Shakespeare was obviously interested in love and how it affects us as human beings. In some plays, like Romeo and Juliet, he explores the tragic side of love. He also understood how funny love can be.
A summary exploring the theme of love in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream
VOICEOVER
Love is powerful.
Shakespeare knew that against love,
our poor brains didn’t stand a chance!
In Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare…
…hang on. You – leave that poor brain alone!
I’m sorry. Someone point the camera away. Ah good.You lot. Do something. Love is out of control. We’re doingMidsummer Night’s Dream.
Could you do a little sketch about the – RUN!
[SFX – LOUD CHAINSAW NOISES]
Oh dear. Oh dear. Well, I suppose this does illustratewhat happens in the play. Love does create chaos.
Love makes Hermia risk death by disobeying her father.
Love makes people waste their lives loving peoplewho don’t love them back, like Demetrius and Helena.
And then we see how jealous Oberon can be!
Yes, jealousy is very destructive!
And then Oberon’s love potion makes everything worsebefore it makes it better.
Sounds quiet. Let’s take a peek.
Ah. Well, in the play there’s only one way to sort out thechaos that love creates! And that’s more love!
Summon Lovezilla!
I’d love to show you the fight, but it’s pay per view
Shakespeare explores the lighter side of love in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Love makes us behave in strange ways – the lovers fight in a most uncivilised way in the woods. It can bring out the best and bravest qualities in a character – Hermia risks her life for love. Lovers often feel invincible against a world that doesn’t understand them, just as Hermia and Lysander stand alone against Athens’s law. Love can make us ridiculous – Helena asks a boy to treat her like a dog, whilst Titania falls in love with a donkey. Love can be cruel – Helena and Demetrius fall desperately in love with someone who doesn’t love them back. Love also has a powerful magical quality: falling in love can be like being under a spell.
Analysis of love in the play
What obstacles challenge Lysander and Hermia’s love?
In spite of parental objections, threats of death and Being sent away from your home and not allowed to return., an angry and armed rival suitor and meddling fairies, Hermia and Lysander manage to stay strong and together (apart from a short break, when they are under the influence of fairy magic).
Lysander sympathises with Hermia’s distress:
LYSANDER
The course of true love never did run smooth
Act 1 Scene 1
Why does love make Helena and Demetrius so miserable?
Helena loves Demetrius who doesn’t love her, and Demetrius wants Hermia, who doesn’t love him.
Helena promises Demetrius:
HELENA
I’ll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell,
To die upon the hand I love so well.
Act 1 Scene 1
Helena’s chasing after Demetrius seems so pointless. He hates her. Likewise, Hermia will never love Demetrius. Love makes Helena and Demetrius miserable, whilst it makes the audience laugh. However, as a result of Puck’s magic, these two are brought together to find an unlikely happily-ever-after.
Oberon thinks that Titania has had an affair with the Duke of Athens. Why does he find a potion to make her fall in love with someone else for revenge?
Love makes people vulnerable and takes away their reason. Titania’s temporary love interest is absurd, so Oberon needn’t worry about feeling jealous.
Puck is delighted to report to Oberon that:
PUCKMy mistress with a monster is in love.
Act 3 Scene 12
Titania is made to look ridiculous and whilst she’s distracted, Oberon takes away the little Indian boy. What’s more, Titania is relieved to be back with Oberon, once the spell is broken.
How does Shakespeare remind us that love is often blind?
We see that love is blind when Titania falls in love with Bottom. The beautiful and powerful fairy queen wakes up and sees an angel where we see a ridiculous man who has been made even more ridiculous by the donkey’s head magic has given him.
You can find the theme of love in lots of plays by Shakespeare:
- look at Romeo and Juliet for love in the form of a tragedy
- look at The Tempest for love inspired by magic spells
- look at Much Ado About Nothing for a couple who hate each other until they finally fall in love
Appearance and reality
Sometimes things are not quite what they seem. Sometimes we fail to see situations as they really are. People often pretend to be something that they’re not, hiding their true selves for one reason or another. Shakespeare was really interested in this idea and explored it in many of his plays. This theme is usually referred to as appearance and reality.
A summary exploring the theme of appearance and reality in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream
VOICEOVER
Have you ever seen a fairy?
You’ve heard of sunglasses. Well these are night glasses.With a Midsummer lens.
Try them on.
I don’t know why he’s so shocked. He wrote this crazy play.
You really can’t trust your senses in a fairy wood on Midsummer’s Eve.
There’s a love potion making you fall in love with anybody you see!
Lysander and Demetrius both see Helena as the love of their lives!
Whereas Titania falls in love with an ass-headed Bottom!
And when Oberon reverses the spell, and Bottom becomes a man again,they think that what was real, was just a dream.
Midsummer Night’s Dream? If Shakespeare wrote the play today,he could call it, ‘Crazy Crazy Bonkers Time’.
You going to stick them on again?
Shakespeare tells us that fairyland, fantasy and dreams are great, but like Puck’s potion,can be strong medicine. Best take sparingly with a large dose of reality.
Once a night on Midsummer’s Eve is quite enough
Analysis of appearance and reality in the play
Is Titiania’s love for Bottom real?
Bottom, already not the best catch amongst men, is magically given a donkey’s head by Puck’s spell. Titania thinks he’s beautiful.
She tells him:
TITIANIA
Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.
Act 3 Scene 1
The words are funny here because Bottom is neither wise nor beautiful! It is hilarious that the beautiful fairy queen can fall in love with something so hideous. The reality is that it is not love, it’s a spell. On another level, there’s something very touching though in this love where the lover fails to see the loved one’s faults.
How does the confusion with the lovers in the woods highlight the theme of appearance and reality?
When Puck casts his spell the lovers can’t tell if their feelings are real or not. Both Lysander and Demetrius become convinced that they are in love with Helena. Helena thinks it’s a trick.
Helena scolds them:
HELENA
I see you are all bent
To set against me for your merriment.
Act 3 Scene 2
Lysander and Demetrius know nothing about the spell but truly believe that they are in love. Hermia sees it all but cannot believe what is happening. She is left speechless and confused.
What concept of reality do the Mechanicals find hard to grasp?
The Mechanicals are worried that the audience might believe the events of Pyramus and Thisbe are true, rather than accepting that it is a play.
Snug who is playing the lion worries,
SNUG
Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?
Act 3 Scene 1
A good play seems real to an audience whilst they’re watching it, but they know, of course, that it’s just a play. The Mechanicals find this hard to grasp. When we laugh at this, the joke’s on us, too: Snug is not really a man who is pretending to be a lion – he’s an actor pretending to be Snug.
How does Oberon explain the antics in the woods?
He makes everybody think what happened wasn’t real and that it was all dream.
He says:
OBERON
When they next awake, all this derision
Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision.
Act 3 Scene 2
Dreams seem real enough when you’re dreaming them, but they are not. In the play, the events did happen, but the characters can’t accept them as true.
You can find the theme of appearance and reality in lots of plays by Shakespeare:
- look at Macbeth for lies, intrigue, tricks and spells
- look at Much Ado About Nothing for misunderstandings, masques and cover-ups
- look at Othello for the nastiest, cleverest villain who twists reality and doesn’t get found out until the very end
Order and disorder
Much of the comedy of A Midsummer Night’s Dream comes from the chaos created when the natural order of things is disrupted. But there’s a darker side too. There’s not one character that isn’t relieved when Oberon finally restores the midnight world to a happier one by day.
Exploring the theme of order and disorder in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream
VOICEOVERIn Midsummer Night’s Dream, lots of things go wrong.
You can get up now.
C’mon, it couldn’t have been that sore.It is a comedy after all…
We can expect a little disorder to happen.Ok. A lot of disorder.
For example, Hermia is at odds with her father,and Oberon and Titania are at odds with each other.
The worlds of man-made law and natural law are in disorder…So much so, that nature itself goes wrong,The worlds of humans and fairies collide.
Men are turned into animals…hate is turned into love, and love into confusion!
But it’s not a tragedy. It’s a comedy. The disorder is funny.For the audience at least.
Shakespeare shows us that disorder can make things change for the better! It doesn’t haveto be all doom and gloom disorder.
Disorder can be fun! And remember, nobody dies in this play.
I said – nobody dies! Nobody!
Off you go! Hop it boney!
Really. Poor Shakespeare.
Analysis of order and disorder in the play
How does Hermia cause disorder?
She rebels against her dad. He tells her:
OBERON
To you your father should be as a god.
Act 3 Scene 1
Athens’s society expects daughters to do what their fathers tell them. When Hermia rejects this order, she sets chaos in motion.
How is the natural world disrupted from its normal weather and seasons?
As a result of the bad feeling between Oberon and Titania all of nature rebels. It’s as if that whilst the fairies row, the seasons, the seas, the rivers and the weather are their dysfunctional children, upset with their parents’ bad behaviour.
Titania complains:
TITANIA
And thorough this distemperature we see
The seasons alter.
Act 2 Scene 1
How does Puck play a part in order and disorder?
Even though we have laughed along with Puck at the chaos and confusion suffered by the mortals in the play, the audience needs a happy ending to feel satisfied. Oberon’s magic ties up all of the loose ends and the world makes sense once again.
Oberon promises:
OBERON
all things shall be peace.
Act 3 Scene 2
Why does Shakespeare make Oberon restore order?
Even though we have laughed along with Puck at the chaos and confusion suffered by the mortals in the play, the audience needs a happy ending to feel satisfied. Oberon’s magic ties up all of the loose ends and the world makes sense once again.
Oberon promises:
OBERON
all things shall be peace.
Act 3 Scene 2
You can find the theme of order and disorder in lots of plays by Shakespeare:
- look at Macbeth to see how nature rebels against the unnatural act of killing a king (and Julius Caesar for a similar idea with the murder of a ruler)
- look at Twelfth Night, to see humorous characters creating chaos by rebelling against a character who can’t deal with a world without rules
- look at Othello, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest and The Merchant of Venice for more daughters that rebel against their fathers
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