Author: William Shakespeare

Genre: Shakespeare

Publication Date: 1605

Overview

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of William Shakespeare’s most famous comedies. It is believed that the play might have been written in 1595 or 1596, which was around the same time Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet. On 8 October 1600, bookseller Thomas Fisher entered A Midsummer Night’s Dream into the Register of the Stationers’ Company. He published the first quarto later in the same year. William Jaggard published the second quarto as part of his False Folio in 1619. Finally, it appeared in the First Folio of Shakespeare’s collected plays in 1623.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a well-structured play featuring four interconnected plots revolving around the wedding of the Theseus, the Duke of Athens, and Hippolyta, the Amazonian queen. The inter-woven plotlines are enacted in the backdrop of a full moon on a midsummer evening. The characters are from very different realms, with one set of people belonging to the human world and another set dwelling in the fantastical realm of the fairyland. A Midsummer Night’s Dream does not follow the classical elements of a play: it lacks a protagonist, and conflicts are resolved in a non-complex way. However, Shakespeare has successfully been able to create a multi-layered juxtaposition of reality and illusion in the play.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Biography

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Background

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Characters

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Summary and Analysis

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Themes

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Quotes

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Discussion Questions