"A Midsummer Night's Dream" by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream tells the story of two couples—Hermia and Lysander, and Helena and Demetrius—who venture into the forest, and are made a fool of by the workings of a love potion.


Act II, Scene II

LYSANDER:

Content with Hermia! No; I do repent

The tedious minutes I with her have spent.

Not Hermia but Helena I love:

Who will not change a raven for a dove?

...Things growing are not ripe until their season

So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason;

And touching now the point of human skill,

Reason becomes the marshal to my will

And leads me to your eyes...

Love's stories written in love's richest book.

Act III, Scene I

TITANIA

I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:

Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note;

So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;

And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me

On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.

BOTTOM

Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason

for that: and yet, to say the truth, reason and

love keep little company together now-a-days...



Satirical Elements?

Because satire is 😂

there is an indefinite humorous element to the story: the Fairy Queen Titania also falls victim to the love potion and becomes infatuated with Nick Bottom, a man who has a donkey's head. (Another word for 'donkey' is 'ass'.)

This satire in this story mocks the ideals of love and marriage through the following themes:

  1. human beings are fickle, and fall easily in and out of love.

  2. love is blind and often not based on reason.

  3. there is a difference between love and infatuation at first sight.

Questions to think/talk about:

  • Why is the Fairy Queen 'falling in love' with Nick Bottom funny?

  • What is the significance of Nick Bottom's name? (HINT: think about both his physical characteristics, and his personality characteristics. This is called a pun.)

  • In Lysander's dialogue passage above, he says "Love's stories written in love's richest book." In English Literature, we call this irony: when there is a big difference between what is stated, and what is reality. Where is the irony in this situation?

  • In Lysander's passage, he claims that reason drives his new love for Helena. In Titania and Bottom's passage, Bottom states that reason and love are rarely associated. Who do you agree with, and why?

  • What element of this story do you think makes it most satirical?