A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A short 13 minute read about love and mischief by William Shakespeare.
This short adaptation is about the love triangle of three couples; two of the couples focus on their behaviors of youthful love and one couple focus on their aged, but renewed love. The play wholly depends on the role of magic, and centers on the forces of reason versus imagination and rationality versus fantasy. This version of the play is adapted to help introduce Shakespeare’s work to young readers.
Once Upon a Time in Athens, there was a rather strict law regarding the marriage of girls. It had been decided by the Duke that every father had the right to give his daughter’s hand in marriage to a man of his choice — and if his daughter were to refuse his offer, then she would be put to death. Now this law was seldom carried out, as no father wanted to see his daughter dead, but in the case of Egeus and his daughter Hermia, it was a different story altogether.
Lead Characters
Hermia
She is young, strong-willed and independent. She does not hesitate to go against her father’s wishes, even in the face of death. She is in love with a nobleman called Lysander. She is also loved By Demetrios, another nobleman, but she does not return his love.
Lysander
He is a young nobleman in Athens. He is in love with Hermia, though Hermia’s father does not want his daughter to marry him. Lysander believes that he will be able to convince Hermia’s father, so he persuades Hermia to run away with him.
Demetrius
Another nobleman, and the favored son-in-law of Egeus, Hermia’s father. Demetrius admitted once that he loved her me asHermia’s friend, Helena, but later abandoned her. He pursues Hermia even though he knows she does not love him.
Helena
She is Hermia’s friend with low self-esteem issues; her love toward Demetrius is almost woefully shameful and her personality lacks confidence.
Oberon
Oberon is King of the Fairies. He wants to win his argument from his wife Tatiana, Queen of the Fairies, but his method creates confusion and humor in the play.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Egeus wanted Hermia to marry Demetrius, a noble youth of his liking. But Hermia knew that Demetrius had already professed his love for her dear friend Helena, who was madly in love with him.
Of course, she did not mention that she herself was in love with a handsome man called Lysander. For that, she refused to obey her father’s orders.
Theseus, the Duke of Athens, was a noble and a kind ruler. He knows that Hermia’s decision should be respected, but it was beyond his power to bend the law in her favor. So he gave her an ultimatum — she must either marry Demetrius in four days’ time, or she would be sent to the gallows.
Hermia now faced a Dilemma. She immediately went to Lysander and explained the problem to him. She told him that she only had four days to make up her mind, or she would die. Lysander said that one of his aunts lived not too far away, in a place where he knew this law would not affect Hermia, as its rule were limited to the city of Athens. He asked her to run away with him that night, and told her he would wait for her in the woods outside the city.
Hermia willingly agreed to this proposal and went off to make preparations for the escape. However, she made one little mistake in the whole plan. Like the innocent young girl that she was, she told her friend Helena about the plan, who went and told Demetrius. She knew that Demetrius would surely follow Hermia into the woods that night, and she would follow him. Helena was in love with Demetrius, and to be in the woods at night with him was one of her oldest fantasies.
Little did everyone concerned to know that the woods were the favorite domain of tiny people known as fairies. Oberon was King of the Fairies and Tatiana was his Queen. They would usually come out at midnight, along with their entourage of little fairies and elves.
However, during Hermia and Lysander escape, the King and Queen of the fairies were having another argument and this same disagreement had b for seeen going on for several months. Because of their quarreling, the seasons are being devastated by the weather.
The cause of the disagreement was that one of Tatiana’s friends, upon her death, had left the queen with a small but special fairy. Oberon now wanted Tatiana to give him that little fairy as his page, an idea Tatiana was completely averse to.
Now, on the night in question, Tatiana was walking through the woods with her maids-in-waiting, when suddenly, Oberon and his merry band of men came before her. The minute Tatiana saw her husband, she immediately asked her companions to leave. This infuriated Oberon, who said, “Am I not your lord, O rash fairy? Why do you cross me? Give me that fairy as my page.
But Tatiana merely turned her head away and replied, “Your entire fairy kingdom cannot buy that special fairy from me.” This brought greater anguish to Oberon, who declared that before dawn the next day, she would be begging for his forgiveness. As Tatiana left him, Oberon sent for his favorite counselor, Puck.
Puck was a clever and naughty Sprite who would spend his entire day playing pranks in the neighboring villages. He would either spoiled the milk, or, using his magical powers, not allow the cream to be turned into butter. As if that were not enough, he would make people spill ale on themselves, or pull chairs out from under people seated on them.
Oberon asked the mischievous Puck to get him a purple flower called ‘Love in Idleness’, the juice of which was a magic potion — when dropped on the eyelids of a person asleep,
it would make them fall in love with the first person they saw upon waking up. Oberon knew of another magic potion that would make the charm created by this flower wear off, but he would not tell anyone about this until he had taken the little fairy from Tatiana.
Puck, prankster as he was, was overjoyed at these new orders and rushed off immediately. While Oberon waited for Puck to return, he saw Demetrius walking into the forest, followed by Helena. He could see Demetrius trying to ward off Helena. Insulting her at every opportunity, but the innocent young woman kept following him.
Oberon was always friendly towards true lovers and felt sorry for poor Helena. So when Puck returned with the flower, Oberon ordered him to follow Demetrius and once he settles to rest, splash some of the juice on his eyelids. All that puck needed to remember was to make sure that when Demetrius awoke, it was Helena he saw first. As Puck left to carry out his assignment, Oberon walked off to find Tatiana.
The Queen of the Fairies was about to fall asleep, while the fairies were busy singing her a lullaby. Within a few moments, Tatiana was fast asleep. Oberon walked up to her and drop the liquid off to her eyelids, saying,
“What do you see when you wake, do it for your true love take.”
While Oberon was trying to convince Tatiana to hand over the fairy to him through magic, Hermia and Lysander arrived in the woods just outside of Athens. The escape had been long and Hermia declared that she was very tired and wanted to rest for the night.
So the two lovers lay down on a bed of moss and were soon fast asleep.
Just then, Puck turned up and concluded that these must be the two people his King had told him about. Without thinking any further, he poured the juice of the purple flower onto Lysander’s eyelids and left.
Unfortunately, when Lysander next opened his eyes, the first person he would see was Helena, not Hermia.
This was because Demetrius, tired of being followed around by Helena, had started to run and was soon out of her sight. Walking sadly through the woods, Helena had come upon the sleeping pair, Hermia and Lysander.
Overjoyed at them, she nudged Lysander to wake him up. When he opened his eyes, the magic began…
The minute he saw Helena, Lysander began expressing his love for her. Helena was naturally shocked to hear him speak that way. She knew that he was madly in love with Hermia and thought he was making fun of her.
This made her very upset. Telling him that she had not expected this, Helena ran away, tears streaming down her face, while a distraught Lysander was left wondering what had happened.
He left to look for her and had forgotten all about Hermia, who was still fast asleep.By the time Hermia awoke, Lysander was gone.
Meanwhile, Demetrius, who was searching the forest for Hermia and Lysander, realized he was lost. Since he was very tired now, he decided to stop for a while and rest. He soon fell asleep.
Oberon, who was passing through the forest at the time, saw Demetrius asleep. Puck had told him about the mistake and, finding the original recipient of his scheme, decided to act himself. He poured a few drops of the magical juice on to Demetrius’ eyelids and left him to sleep.
When Demetrius woke up, lo and behold! The first person he saw was Helena. As he started to give the same speech that Lysander had made to her before. Soon afterwards, Lysander arrived finding Demetrius and Helena.
Then they both started to claim their love to the mystified Helena.
Hermia, who was searching the woods for her beloved Lysander, arrived and could not believe what she was seeing. Helena was now of the impression that all three of them had decided to make fun of her and that she was seething with anger.
So the two women got into a war of words, and the men decided to find a suitable place where they could argue over Helena.
Oberon was completely taken aback by recent developments. He was furious with Puck for having messed up earlier. But Puck replied that it was hardly his fault — Oberon had merely asked him to find two lovers, which he had done.
Oberon realized that since he had caused this mess, it was up to him to resolve it. He ordered Puck to create a thick fog throughout the forest, which would result in all four friends losing each other. He also told Puck to lead the two men away, so that they became so tired they would be unable to walk any further. Then, he gave him some juice from another plant, which would cause the effects of the purple flower to wear off.
Puck was told to drop this liquid on to Lysander’s eyelids, so that when he awoke he would forget all about Helena and go back to Hermia.
Oberon left in search of Tatiana. He found her still asleep and so dropped the magic potion onto her eyelids. Nearby, he found villager asleep as well.
Through his magic, he replaced the villager’s head with that of a donkey and woke him up.
As the foolish villager wandered along, he came across Tatiana, who was beginning to wake up.
When she saw the villager with the donkey’s head, she immediately fell in love with him. Oberon’s trick was working!
Tatiana immediately asked her fairies to tend to the man who had completely taken over her heart. The villager, who had no idea about the donkey’s head on his shoulders, was overjoyed at the services he was being offered and decided to sleep again and comfort.
As Tatyana held his head in her arms and covered him with flowers, Oberon made his appearance. He yelled at her, accusing her of taking a donkey for a lover and being unfaithful to him. Tatiana was ashamed of herself, but there was little she could do. The magic had done its work.
Oberon, playing on Tatiana’s guilt, once again asked for the fairy. Obviously, the Queen of the Fairies was in no position to fight with her husband now that she had been caught stroking a donkey in her arms.
So, without wasting any more time, she immediately sent for the fairy and handed him over to Oberon as his page.
Now that Oberon had got what he wanted, he immediately reversed the magic potion with the help of the other juice and he also gave the villager his head back. Tatiana came to her senses and Oberon told her what he had done. Although Tatiana was angry initially, she soon gave in, and the King and Queen reconciled their love for one another.
Oberon then told his beloved wife about the two couples. Tatiana was intrigued and they set off to find the confused mortals. The King and Queen saw that Puck had managed to bring all four friends to the same spot without them knowing. Since they were now asleep, Puck dropped the new liquid that Oberon had given him into Lysander’s eyelids.
Hermia was the first to wake up. She found Lysander sleeping next to her. And as she was wondering why he had suddenly started acting so strangely, he opened his eyes and saw her. He had not forgotten all about his love for Helena, and he stared into Hermia’s eyes like he had done so many times before. Hermia told him what had happened to them, but Lysander could not remember anything. They left together, thinking that it all must have been a dream.
Helena and Demetrius also woke up shortly after. Helena was much calmer after her restful sleep, while Demetrius continued in the same tone as before. Helena thought he must be speaking the truth and was very happy with the way things had turned out.
When Helena and Hermia met again later that day, they reconciled their differences and were once again the best of friends. They talked about everything that had happened the night before, but decided to forget it as they had all got what they wanted.
Demetrius, now in love with Helena, no longer wanted to marry Hermia, so it was decided that they would all go back to Athens, where Demetrius would inform Egeus of his decision. They hope that would persuade Hermia’s father to repeal the death sentence against her. Just us they were setting off for Athens, Egeus arrived. He had discovered his daughter had run away and had come to the woods in search of her.
Demetrius told Egeus that he no longer wished to marry his daughter, so Egeus could now allow Hermia to marry Lysander. Egeus declared that they would get married on the fourth day, the day on which Hermia would have been put to death. Demetrius and Helena also decided to marry on that day.
Oberon and Tatiana witnessed these events and we’re Overjoyed. Oberon immediately announced a night of revelry throughout the fairy kingdom as he declared,
“If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended; that you have but slumbered here, while these visions did appear. Give us your love, show us no spite, think this but a dream of a Midsummer night.”
