A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is Shakespeare's best-loved comedy. Four young Athenians flee into a forest to escape arranged marriages, where mischievous fairies and a love potion turn their romances upside down overnight. Around them, a feuding fairy king and queen and a troupe of bumbling amateur actors get tangled in the same enchanted wood. It is a fast, funny, dreamlike play about how love makes fools of everyone, and the confusion sorts itself out by morning.
Characters
Famous Quotes
See all quotes →“The course of true love never did run smooth.”
Lysander — Act 1, Scene 1
“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”
Puck — Act 3, Scene 2
“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows.”
Oberon — Act 2, Scene 1
Further Reading
10 Powerful Female Characters in Shakespeare
From Lady Macbeth to Beatrice, these ten women prove that Shakespeare's female characters are anything but dated. Meet the heroines who seize agency, mock patriarchy and still set the bar for complexity.
What Type of Plays Did Shakespeare Write?
Shakespeare's plays fall into three iconic genres: tragedies, comedies and histories. Learn what defines each type, with examples from Hamlet to Twelfth Night, plus the clever flag system the Globe Theatre used to advertise them.
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