A Midsummer Night’s Dream Plot Summary
Here is a brief plot summary of A Midsummer Night’s Dream:
Theseus, the Duke of Athens, is preparing for his marriage to Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, A courtier seeks the Duke’s intervention because his daughter, Hermia, will not agree to his choice of Demetrius as a husband: she’s in love with Lysander. The Duke tells Hermia to obey her father, or either die or accept a life as a nun in Diana’s temple. Lysander and Hermia plan to elope, and they tell Helena, who is in love with Demetrius, but he hates her and loves Hermia. The lovers run away from Athens but get lost in the woods. They are followed by Demetrius, and then by Helena, who has told him of their intentions.
Oberon, king of the fairies, who lives in the woods, has quarrelled with his queen, Titania, over an Indian boy she refuses to give him. Oberon overhears Helena and Demetrius arguing and sends his mischievous servant, Puck, to get a flower whose juice has the power to make people fall in love with the first creature they see when the juice is placed on their eyelids while asleep. He instructs Puck to put some drops on Demetrius’ eyes. Mistaking the Athenian he seeks, Puck puts the flower juice on the eyes of the sleeping Lysander so that when he is woken by Helena he immediately falls in love with her and rejects Hermia.
Some artisans are rehearsing a play about the tragic love-story of Pyramus and Thisbe to present before Theseus on his wedding day. Bottom, the weaver, is to play the lover, Pyramus, while Flute, the bellows-mender, is to play Thisbe. The others play the parts of the Moon, the Wall and the Lion and they are directed by Quince, the carpenter. Puck overhears their rehearsals in the wood and he plays a trick on them by giving Bottom an ass’s head which frightens the others away. Bottom is lured towards the sleeping Titania whom Oberon has treated with the flower juice. On waking, she falls in love with the ass and entertains him with her fairies, but when Bottom falls asleep beside her, Oberon restores Titania’s sight and wakes her. She is appalled at the sight of what she has been in love with and is reunited with Oberon.
Puck removes the ass’s head and Bottom returns to Athens and rejoins his friends as they prepare to perform their play. Meanwhile the lovers’ arguments tire them out as they chase one another through the woods and when Demetrius rests, Oberon puts magic juice on his eyes so that both he and Lysander pursue Helena until the fourlovers fall asleep, exhausted. Puck puts juice on Lysander’s eyes before the lovers are woken by Theseus and Hippolyta and their dawn hunting party. Happily reunited to each other, Lysander with Hermia, Demetrius with Helena, they agree to share the Duke’s wedding day. The rustics perform the play of Pyramus and Thisbe before the wedding guests. As the three couples retire Puck and the fairies return to bless the palace and its people.
See A Midsummer Night’s Dream translated to modern English >>
18 Responses to A Midsummer Night’s Dream Plot Summary
This -play is kinda confusing
Boring
This is a wonderful play. I used some of this information as my book report and it was great. My idol is William Shakespeare, he is an incredilble writer. I <3 WS.
wow this is so exciting. i love William Shakespeare he is my favorite writer.
Wow this really helped me, this helped me do my story board for school, thanks
Cool Beans. It really helped me
this helped me for my English story border on midsummer’s nights dreams ;D
kool<3
i’m happy that there are sites like this….it helps those who need it for something and those who are curious about the story…now i know i want to read midsummer nights dream. shakespeare is not my favorite in particular but i dig him sometimes…
LOL
awww thanks helped alottttt
Thanku!!!!!!this saved me I am about to write a test a great summary I am ready now you know reading the whole book I do forget certain parts and certain key factors thanks allot
this play is not easy to understant but it also makes people think to read again so i love it
This play is so confusing! I can’t understand anything!
thankyou its a nice short summary well written .
very confusing!!!! and i have to do a storyboard on this
it’s very simple and easy to understand
this is really confusing… but it helpt me under my english lesson.
good play….
this was not useful im doing homework on this story but my information that i got given from both my textbook and teachers are totally different it was like more of a life story of the characters not a summary the story itself
This collection of plot overviews really helped my drama club choose a play to perform, thank you very much