A Midsummer Night's Dream Theme

Love’s Difficulty

“The course of true love never did run smooth,” comments Lysander, articulating one of A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s most important themes—that of the difficulty of love (I.i.134). Though most of the conflict in the play stems from the troubles of romance, and though the play involves a number of romantic elements, it is not truly a love story; it distances the audience from the emotions of the characters in order to poke fun at the torments and afflictions that those in love suffer. The tone of the play is so lighthearted that the audience never doubts that things will end happily, and it is therefore free to enjoy the comedy without being caught up in the tension of an uncertain outcome.

The theme of love’s difficulty is often explored through the motif of love out of balance—that is, romantic situations in which a disparity or inequality interferes with the harmony of a relationship. The prime instance of this imbalance is the asymmetrical love among the four young Athenians: Hermia loves Lysander, Lysander loves Hermia, Helena loves Demetrius, and Demetrius loves Hermia instead of Helena—a simple numeric imbalance in which two men love the same woman, leaving one woman with too many suitors and one with too few. The play has strong potential for a traditional outcome, and the plot is in many ways based on a quest for internal balance; that is, when the lovers’ tangle resolves itself into symmetrical pairings, the traditional happy ending will have been achieved. Somewhat similarly, in the relationship between Titania and Oberon, an imbalance arises out of the fact that Oberon’s coveting of Titania’s Indian boy outweighs his love for her. Later, Titania’s passion for the ass-headed Bottom represents an imbalance of appearance and nature: Titania is beautiful and graceful, while Bottom is clumsy and grotesque.

Magic

The fairies’ magic, which brings about many of the most bizarre and hilarious situations in the play, is another element central to the fantastic atmosphere of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare uses magic both to embody the almost supernatural power of love (symbolized by the love potion) and to create a surreal world. Although the misuse of magic causes chaos, as when Puck mistakenly applies the love potion to Lysander’s eyelids, magic ultimately resolves the play’s tensions by restoring love to balance among the quartet of Athenian youths. Additionally, the ease with which Puck uses magic to his own ends, as when he reshapes Bottom’s head into that of an ass and recreates the voices of Lysander and Demetrius, stands in contrast to the laboriousness and gracelessness of the craftsmen’s attempt to stage their play.

Dreams

As the title suggests, dreams are an important theme in A Midsummer Night’s Dream; they are linked to the bizarre, magical mishaps in the forest. Hippolyta’s first words in the play evidence the prevalence of dreams (“Four days will quickly steep themselves in night, / Four nights will quickly dream away the time”), and various characters mention dreams throughout (I.i.7–8). The theme of dreaming recurs predominantly when characters attempt to explain bizarre events in which these characters are involved: “I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what / dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about t’expound this dream,” Bottom says, unable to fathom the magical happenings that have affected him as anything but the result of slumber.

Shakespeare is also interested in the actual workings of dreams, in how events occur without explanation, time loses its normal sense of flow, and the impossible occurs as a matter of course; he seeks to recreate this environment in the play through the intervention of the fairies in the magical forest. At the end of the play, Puck extends the idea of dreams to the audience members themselves, saying that, if they have been offended by the play, they should remember it as nothing more than a dream. This sense of illusion and gauzy fragility is crucial to the atmosphere of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as it helps render the play a fantastical experience rather than a heavy drama.

Versions of Reality

With so many subplots in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and so many intersections between people from different worlds, there's got to be some way to account for the different ways they each perceive reality.  Dreams serve as a way to explain away plot holes or add a gauzy mystery, but the different versions of reality also extend to perspectives.  In Lysander's book, if you don't have to fight for it, it isn't true love.  Puck sees the mortal world as full of fools, and Theseus is certain fairies aren't real.  These differing perspectives are central to the play, revealing that each man envisions his reality according to his circumstances.

Foolishness and Folly

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy, so it's going to have its fair share of slapstick humor. It's obviously funny to watch a man with a donkey's head wander around on stage, but it's a different kind of humor than when Egeus gets absurdly mad at his daughter and decides to have her killed.  Really, it all ends up being two sides of the same coin – nothing, not even murder and death, is taken seriously here.  Misunderstanding is as central to the play as any other element of plot.  Finally, as the play is really about love, you can't avoid embarrassing foolishness.  We all know that.

Man and the Natural World

Part of the strength of A Midsummer Night's Dream is that we're not always sure where humans and the natural world, as two separate elements, fall in relation to each other. Sometimes humans are part of the natural world, and complemented by it, like women becoming fertile with the midsummer fest, or crops that agree with seasons to put food on the table.  Other times the natural world seems alien to man because he has separated himself from it – especially with his urban life. Some Athenian workers want to rehearse a play in the woods to escape the city distractions, but all the sprite Puck needs to do to frighten them from their wits is to pretend he's a regular woodland creature or element – a fire, hound, or bear.  Even at the end of their tough evening, the four young lovers, who have a lot to escape, decide to go back to Athens.  Regardless of all the drama in the city, their courtly beds are no doubt better than this dirty forest floor.  In this way, the natural world is an escape for man, but it's also a reminder of how good man has it in his other home.