A Midsummer Night's Dream (summary)
INTRODU CTION
This famous comedy of Shakespeare represents the history of 2 worlds; both hold in a common background: a beautiful one populated by Fairies, the
other instead characterized by the crudeness of a group of rude craftsmen, by the plots of 4 lovers, and from the wedding
of a duke, Theseus.//
SUMMARY
The play opens as Theseus and his bride-to-be, Hippolyta, the queen of
the Amazons, are discussing their upcoming marriage when Egeus, Demetrius, Lysander and Hermia enter. He hears
Egeus' complaint that his daughter Hermia refuses to marry his chosen suitor,
Demetrius, since she's in love with Lysander. Theseus declares Hermia must
marry Demetrius, or choose between death or spend her
life in a convent.
When Lysander and Hermia remain alone, in the scene enters
Helena, that is really fall in love with Demetrius, and the 2 lovers explain to
her that they would run away from Athens to marry the fallowing night.
Then, in the house of Quince; Snug, Bottom, Flute,
Snout, Starveling and him organize a play to be performed at
Theseus' wedding, the craftsmen are deciding the
parts. Bottom is an Athens's
weaver that goes in the near wood with his group of rude actors for a silly
drama's rehearsal, of the tragic love story of: Pyramus and Thisbe. The
vicissitude develops in fairies' world and the leading characters are Oberon
and Titania, the fairies' king and queen,
unfortunately divided by a quarrel because Oberon should have her orphan child
as his e. To obtain the boy, he orders the fairy Puck, to reap a magical flower
that causes on love the first person you see
when you wake up. Oberon pours a little of the juice from the
flower into Titania's eyes that falls in love with a donkey. (Puck
used his magic to change Bottom's head into the head of a donkey). Oberon
orders Puck to anoint Demetrius with this flower so he'll love Helena rather
than Hermia. In the wood, Lysander and Hermia lie down to rest. Puck, thinking
Lysander is Demetrius, anoints him with the flower. Helena appears and awakes Lysander, who
immediately falls in love with her. Puck observes that Demetrius chases Hermia,
yet she accuses him of murdering Lysander, and realizes he gave the flower to
the wrong man. Oberon tries to remedy this by anointing Lysander with the
flower so he'll fall in love with Helena,
and he does. However, now both men love Helena,
while she believes both are false. Hermia arrives and Helena accuses her of conspiring with the men
to tease her. Oberon, realizing Puck has caused these problems, orders him to
make a thick fog to separate the four people and force them into a deep sleep,
so the spell can wear off. Oberon succeeds to take
possession of the
boy that he wanted and thanks to an other flower that cancels all the magic,
all the things come to place so that it returns the peace between him and
Titania, and they love each other again.
Oberon and Puck manage to make Demetrius in love with Helena and Lysander with Hermia.
So Egeus accepts, embittered, the choice of Demetrius that admits that he
doesn't want to marry his daughter anymore. Later there are the wedding of Theseus
and Hippolyta, Demetrius and Helena and Lysander and Hermia. Then there is the
show put in scene from the craftsmen, that as
previewed is poor. The lords agree to let them marry. Separately, Bottom
awakes and remember's the night's occurrences. At dinner, they all hear
Quince's ten word, tedious, brief, tragical play. In
it, Thisbe (played by Flute) and Pyramus (played by Bottom) whisper their love
through a chink in a wall (played by Snout). They vow to meet at Ninny's tomb,
but a lion (played by Snug) attacks Thisbe. Pyramus arrives and finds her
scarf, assumes she's dead, and kills himself Thisbe arrives to find him dead,
and kills herself. After the play, at midnight, all go to bed
then the fairies appear and frolic.
CHARACTERS
The characters are : Theseus, the duke of
Athens that will marry with Hippolyta, the
queen of the Amazons; Egeus, Hermia's father, who wanted her daughter
marry Demetrius; Lysander, in love with Hermia who finally will marry; Demetrius,
also him fall in love with Hermia, but thanks to the magical flower will marry
Helena; Philostrate, Theseus's master of revels; Quince, Snug, Bottom,
Flute, Snout and Starveling, the craftsmen
that play the tragic love story of: Pyramus and Thisbe , but Bottom in particolar,
will have the head of a donkey, will fall in love with Titania; Hermia, Lysander's
lover, with whom she will marry, Helena, Demetrius' lover, with whom she
will marry thanks to the magical flower; Oberon, King of the Fairies; Titania, Queen of the Fairies, Puck, one of the King's
servant who had mixed the love of the four lovers.
PUCK
