A Mid-summer Night's Dream Logs

Act III Sc i

-“Well, we will have such prologue, and it shall be written in eight and six” : denominates the meter of the verse
- There will be two prologues where they mention that Pyramus won’t die and that the lion won’t be real.- “These are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisbe that will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill himself, which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that?”- “Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?”- Robin arrives and transforms Bottom’s head in a ass head.- Titania falls in love with Bottom´



Act III Sc ii
“Capatain of our fairy band,Helena is here at hand,And the youth mistook by me,Pleading for a lover’s fee.Shall we their fond pageant see?Lord, what fools these mortals be!” (112-117)- Pun: “The hate I bear thee made me leave thee so?” (195)- Lysander loves Helena: “Helen I love thee. By my life, I do” (258)- Demetrius as well loves Helena: “I say I love thee more than he can do” (261)- Helena loves Demetrius- Hermia loves Demetrius - Hermia thinks Helena is a “thief of love” because she stole Demetrius’ love to her.“O me! (To Helena) You juggler, you cankerblossom,You thief of love! What, have you come by nightAnd stol’n my loves heart from him?” (296-298)-turns into a sort of love square
Demetrius loves Helens, Helena Loves Demetrius, Lysander loves Helena, and no one loves Hermia
- Helena and Hermia fight for Demetrius’ love.
- Athenian Lovers and Fairies occupy the stage simulaneously.
- Lysander and Demetrius have a duel for Helena's love (both switch their love from Hermia to Helena).
- Here we start to see the repercussions of the potion which was previously used to provoke a confusion amongst the four Athenian lovers.
We can see aggresive effects between Hermia and Helena.- Hermia threatens Helena to scratch out her eyes.
- Lysander and Demetrius vow to protect Helena from Hermia.
- Helena runs away from Hermia, while she disappears.
- Oberon sends Robin Goodfellow to prevent Demetrius and Lysander from fighting.
- He leaves them in a confusion, and consequently applies the nectar on Lysander's eyes while he is asleep.
"And the country proverb known,That every man should take his own,In your waking shall be shown.Jack shall have Jill;Naught shall go ill;The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well" (487-492).





Act IV Sc i
- Act IV of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is very different to the previous three acts of the play. Why? In the three first ones, Shakespeare emphasized on introducing the different characters (the royalty, the craftsmen, and the fairies) and the conflict amongst them. These conflicts seem to be centered in the love triangle or square between the four Athenian Lovers.
- Titania shows her love towards Bottom, who is still an ass head, “O, how I love thee! How I dote on thee!” (46).- This creates a feeling of jealousy on Oberon who takes advantage of her being asleep to undo the effect of the love potion.-
Effectively, Titania wakes up wondering why she was sleeping with a donkey head like Bottom.- They mention the lark here, “Fairy king, attend and mark. I do hear the morning lark” (97-98), which reminds me of Romeo and Juliet where Romeo says he hears the morning lark so he must go, but, Juliet says she hears the nightingale. These two birds symbolize the contrast between day and night.
- Thenceforth, Robin Goodfellow applies a charm on Bottom which repairs his ass head and brings back his normal face.
- After this, we can see how the scene divides by the fairies exiting, and by Theseus, Hippolyta, and Egeus entering.
- They find the Athenian Lovers lying asleep and wake them up to question them their story, which for them was partly real, it was only a dream. The only aspect that is clear for everyone is that Demetrius and Helena love other, such as Lysander and Hermia do.
- When they leave, Bottom wakes up and tells the crowd that he just had a dream. In this part of the play is where we start to see the relevance of its content with the title. Especially with the plot of the Athenian Lovers we see how dreams have an effect on the events, and how these are connected to all the odd events that happen in the forest. As well, with the intervention of dreams and magic in the play, Shakespeare tries to make things happen without a clear explanation, because in the long run, magic and dreams are unexplainable.
“The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report what my dream was” (220-224).
Here we see how dreams are unexplainable and indescribable that man cannot see, taste nor conceive.

Act IV Sc ii

- All the actors are united before the start of the play and the see that Bottom is missing
- “Have you sent to Bottom’s house? He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is transported.”
- As soon as they are going to start to get dressed up and be ready to present the play Bottom arrives. This really is like the typical plot of a sport movie that their best player is missing and as soon as the referee is going to start the match the player arrives.



Act V Sc i

The Act opens with Theseus and Hippolyta discussing the previous events concerning the four Athenian lovers, caused by magical “love potions”.
- Theseus doesn’t believe Hippolyta because he argues that darkness and love excite the imagination, “The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact” (8-9).
- Hippolyta replies, “But all the story of the night told over, and all their minds transfigured so together” (24-25).
- When the lovers arrive, Shakespeare uses Theseus in order to connect the two substories of the play, the one of the craftsmen and the one of the royals. Hence, Theseus proposes the lovers that a perfect way to end this harsh conflict would be by watching a performance of the myth of Pyramus and Thisbe.
- The comments that Egeus makes about the play of the craftsmen reflect discrimination towards them since he judges the play for the social status of its actors.
- However, Theseus says that eventhough the craftsmen are of a lower social class, their intentions of making a good work will make the play worth of being seen.
“For never anything can be amissWhen simpleness and duty tender it” (88-89)
.- As the play within the play demonstrates being a clumsy performance of the actual myth of Pyramus and Thysbe, it ends being a comedy rather than a tragedy, both for the audience and the reader.
- Highlighted by Quince’s mediocre prologue, full of pauses and abrupt sentences, he changes completely the meaning of it to the height of making it say the opposite: “We do not come, as minding to content you, our true intent is. All for your delight we are not here. That you should here repent you” (119-122).
- At this point, Shakespeare leaves the play within the play aside and takes the reader to the context of the fairies, where Puck, Oberon and Titania end the story of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by saying to the audience that they shall remember the events of the play as only a dream.
“Sent with broom before,To sweep the dust behind the door” (406-407).“If we shadows have offended,Think but this and all is mended:That you have but slumbered hereWhile these visions did appear” (440-444).
- Puck ends the play extending the barriers between reality and the world of magic. He insinuates the audience to remember A Midsummer Night’s Dream only as a dream.