A Midsummer Night’s Dream

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This is one of my favourite plays, that’s for sure! As the plot can be rather confusing, let’s get started with a video:

Short video – Learn english through story : A midsummer’s night dream

You might be interested in reading the full text, which is available here:

Testo in inglese

Testo in italiano

Now you should be able to reorder the main events!

  1. Puck puts magic juice in Lysander’s eyes.
  2. Theseus, Hippolyta and Egeus find Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helena asleep in the forest.
  3. Lysander and Demetrius and Hermia and Helena have a big argument in the forest.
  4. Egeus asks Theseus to make his daughter obey him and marry Demetrius.
  5. Some workmen decide to perform a play at the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta.
  6. Bottom returns and tells the other workmen to get ready to perform their play.
  7. Theseus gives Hermia four days to choose between death, marriage to Demetrius, or life in a convent.
  8. The six workmen go into the forest to rehearse their play.
  9. Titania falls in love with Bottom.
  10. Puck leads Lysander and Demetrius through the forest.
  11. Demetrius goes into the forest to look for Lysander and Hermia. Hermia follows him.
  12. The workmen perform their play for the newly -weds and all their wedding guests.
  13. Lysander and Hermia plan to run away together to get married.
  14. Puck gives Bottom the head of an ass.
  15. The Fairy King and Fairy Queen argue about a servant boy.
  16. Theseus marries Hippolyta, Lysander marries Hermia, and Demetrius marries Helena.
  17. The fairies sing and dance to bring happiness to all the newly-weds.

Shakespeare’s plays influenced and inspired a lot of artists. Among them:

blake_la danza di oberon titania e puck con le fate 1785

William Blake, La danza di Oberon, Titania e Puck con le fate (Sogno di una notte di mezza estate, V, 2), c. 1785, Matita e acquerello su carta. © Tate, Londra

fussli_titania e bottom 1790

Johann Heinrich Füssli, Titania e Bottom (Sogno di una notte di mezza estate), c. 1790, olio su tela. © Tate, Londra

 

One of the greatest Shakespeare movie adaptation – in my opinion – is the one directed by Michael Hoffman, whose trailer is  here.

If you can, watch the full movie.

Did you know?

  • Workmen belonging to a guild (an organisation of workers in just one trade, such as weavers), like Bottom and Quince often performed in amateur plays in Medieval and Tudor England. Guilds performed Bible stories as short plays.
  • Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, was part of England’s fairy mithology. He was a fairy, but not of the kind we often imagine. He was naughty, could turn himself into something or somebody else, played tricks on people.
  • Titania’s changeling boy has been taken from India. A changeling is a child who has been swapped for another child. Elizabethans believed that fairies might take a pretty baby and leave behind an ugly one. This was a way of punishing humans for bad behaviour.