A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Discussion Questions

What does the love potion in the play symbolize?

The love potion and its magical properties are essential to the plotline; they symbolize the arbitrariness and blindness of love. The potion wreaks havoc in the lives of the four Athenians. Even the queen of the fairies is unable to escape its magic. The potion is a mere reflection of the essential quality of love. One has to pour the potion on the eyelids of a person, who, upon waking up, will fall in love with the first creature they see. The closed eyelids represent the blindness of love. That the person will then fall in love with the first creature they see represents arbitrariness of love.

How are the three locations explored in the play significant?

The play is set in three locations: Theseus’ palace, Quince’s cottage, and the enchanted forest. The palace lies in the real world, which is governed by rules, hierarchy, and order. Every mortal is bound by a specific set of rules and restraints; for instance, a woman cannot choose her own partner here. The cottage is where the artisans gather to discuss the play they are about to stage for Theseus; it serves as a transitional phase between the world of reality and the world of fantasy. The woods represent the world of illusion or fantasy, where order and the rules of the real world do not apply. This is a world of enchantment and illusion, much like dreams.

What is the significance of most of the play being set at night?

To create a dreamlike world, Shakespeare has set most of the action in the play in the forest at night. Oberon, the king of the fairies, declares that night is when fairies become active. Theseus appears only during the day, as he represents “cold reason” and the real world. The bizarre and fantastical nature of the play can only be justified as a dream. Magic was associated with nighttime during Shakespeare’s time. Setting the play at night enables Shakespeare to juxtapose dream and magic.

Discuss the structure of the play on a textual level.

The play is divided into five acts. The five acts fit into the dramatic structure of Freytag’s pyramid, although the climax is reached in the third act itself, unlike a traditional play, where the climax is reached in the fourth act. In the first act, the crises faced by individual characters are exposed; the second act features what Freytag calls rising action. The third act serves as the climax, whereas the fourth and the fifth acts serve as anti-climax.

Discuss Shakespeare’s writing style in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The play is a good example of Shakespeare’s penchant for wordplay. His wordplay underscores the silly and nonsensical nature of the play. It accentuates the comic mood, but remains witty nonetheless. Shakespeare uses poetic language to both mock and celebrate love. Poetic language also symbolizes the world of fantasy, represented by Oberon and Titania, as opposed to the real world, represented by Theseus and Hippolyta. The prose used in the play also represents the class divide prevalent during Shakespeare’s time. The artisans, representing the commoners, often use prose to communicate, whereas the elites, in the real world and the fantastical world, communicate in verse.