A Midsummer Night's Dream Literary Elements

Drama

English

The play takes place in Athens, Greece, with the majority of the action occurring in the woods surrounding the city.

Because the text is a drama, there is no singular point of view or narrator in the play. However, it is significant that Theseus only appears at the beginning and end of the play, signifying a sense of order and control that disappears while the characters are in the woods.

The tone of the play is mostly playful and romantic. The mood of the play is dreamy and mysterious.

There are no true antagonists in the play, though one could consider Egeus and Theseus obstacles that Hermia and the rest of the characters must overcome in the name of love. Though the fairies trick the humans with love potions, they are not necessarily antagonistic figures as they are simply attempting to entertain themselves and, by extension, the audience.

The play is comprised of mostly small, low-stakes conflicts like that between Titania and Oberon, as well as the conflicts that arise from the mistaken distribution of Oberon's love potion. However, the most serious conflict in the play is between Hermia and her father, who demands that Hermia be killed if she refuses to marry the suitor he has chosen for her.

The climax of the play occurs when Puck removes the spell from Lysander and normalcy among the lovers is restored: Lysander returns to Hermia and Demetrius declares his love for Helena.

There is little foreshadowing in the play, as characters' fates are often left up to the whims of the fairies in the woods. However, the first act in some ways foreshadows the rest of the play, as Lysander laments that love has never been an easy or smooth enterprise. As the play unfolds, the lovers are faced with a number of obstacles that they must overcome to restore order around them.

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The play makes a number of allusions to ancient Greek mythology, especially to Cupid, the god of erotic desire often personified as a child who shoots arrows at potential lovers.

The entire play is rife with certain types of imagery. Notably, characters seem particularly intrigued by the moon, Cupid, women's bodies as they relate to fertility, and the mystery of the natural world around them.

The play that the laborers perform represents paradox because the story, Pyramus and Thisbe, is a rather serious and dramatic one. However, when performed by the inept and unprepared actors, the play becomes a mockery, suggesting a difference between worthy theatrical performances and sub-par ones.

Many of the marriages in the play parallel one another, as love and its tribulations is the central theme of the performance. The marriage between Theseus and Hippolyta represents order and control, while that between Hermia and Lysander showcases a fated love that can overcome any obstacle. The relationship between Titania and Oberon is in many ways an ironic take on human marriage, as the two playfully spar with one another throughout the performance, using the humans as pawns for entertainment.

The moon is personified throughout the play as either a barren or fertile woman, as the moon is often considered a symbol of femininity in English literature.

This play, like many of Shakespeare's plays, features a metatheatrical plot in which characters perform a play-within-a-play. This structure allows Shakespeare to comment on the nature of playwriting and playgoing simultaneously, as it suggests the value and power that worthwhile performances can have for an audience.