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Plot Construction of a Midsummer Night's Dream Essay

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Shakespeare was one of the greatest dramatists of English literature. His dramas are universally known and popular. He wrote comedies and tragedies with a great success. Particularly, his comedies like As You Like It, A Midsummer Night Dream are very popular. His comedies provoke mirth and laughter and present sunnier aspects of life. The laughter of his comedies comes from characters and their actions. He took more interest in characters than plots yet his plots are woven properly.

His comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream was written in his youth days. Yet it has good plot construction. In it different stories of love are joined together artistically and skilfully. Shakespeare does not known for original plot and many a times …show more content…

Lysander and Hermia plan to run away from Athens. They are followed by Demetrius, who is followed by Helena. Bottom, the fool and his friends also come to the same forest. Thus by the end of the first Act the lovers and the rustics are in the wood near Athens.

While the Second Act opens with the wood and its romantic atmosphere. Here the wood is haunted by the king and the queen of the fairies. The fairy King Oberon's order to puck of dropping love Juice in lovers' eyes complicates the plot and its actions. The complication begins because Oberon has desire to make the human lovers happy and Puck is fond of mischief. This brings all the three stories together. The main story of Athenian lovers and the rustic comedy - Bottom's play and fairy - all influence one another. Thus the quarrel between the fairy king and the queen brings into action, the flower which complicates the plot of the comedy i.e. love in idleness.

The Captain of fairy - Puck makes a mistake. He applies the juice to the eyes of both Lysander and Demetrius. When Lysander opens his eyes, he sees Helena before him. He at once falls in lover with her. Oberon wants to correct the mistake made by puck. The lovers go through dreamlike experiences. Puck controls their dreams. The lovers awake and feel that they had dream. Thus all the complications are happily resolved. At the end Helena is married to

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