A Midsummer Night's Dream

A short summary for a short play....


Greetings, classmates. The title says it all for our subject today; for, I'm sure, you've all heard of William Shakespeare, and his many plays and sonnets. Beautiful works of literature, including the following: Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and the one I recently read, A Midsummer Night's Dream. A Midsummer Night's Dream is about four lovers, Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius, and Helena. The play begins. Depicting the palace in Athens, it shows a scene with the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and Queen of the Amazons- whom Theseus hath wooed with his sword-, Hippolyta. Theseus promises that tho he had wooed Hippolyta with his skill with the blade, he would wed her with a grand celebration that would last until the wedding ("with pomp, with triumph, and with revelling"). After a bit of talking back and forth between the two, Egeus, a citizen of Athens, strides into the room. Following him are Hermia (his daughter), Lysander, her lover, and Demetrius, her father-chosen betrothed. Egeus complains profusely of his daughter's love of Lysander rather than Demetrius, whom he has given full permission to wed his daughter, and demands the law to be acted out on his daughter because of her atrocity. Theseus reprimands Hermia telling her to expect to be sent to a nunnery or put to death.
After Theseus, Egeus, Demetrius, and Hippolyta take their leave, Lysander schemes with Hermia to meet her near his Aunt's house (who dotes on him as her son) saying "The course of true love never did run smooth".
After this happens, Hermia's friend, Helena, walks into the room. Helena was once betrothed to Demetrius, whom she still loves deeply, but, upon meeting Hermia, Demetrius left her. Confiding in Helena, Hermia and Lysander tells her of their scheme to escape the law and be wed. This turns out to be an act of foolishness, for, in hopes of winning back his love, Helena tells Demetrius of their plan.

So there you have it, classmates, another wonderful work of literature by the even more wonderful man, William Shakespeare, with out whom we would not have our modern English.


Your friend, classmate, and comrade,