A Midsummer Night's Dream | Characters, Summary, & Facts

Fairy world and the magic flower (Acts II–III)

The forest is also full of fairies who have come for the duke’s wedding. Oberon, the king of the fairies, quarrels with his queen, Titania, and bids his mischievous servant Puck to drop magic juice into her eyes as she sleeps:

Fetch me that flower; the herb I showed thee once. The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid Will make or man or woman madly dote Upon the next live creature that it sees.

His intent is to punish her for her disobedience by causing her to fall hopelessly in love with whatever person or creature she happens to see when she awakes. Noting that the human lovers in the forest are also at odds, he orders Puck to drop the love juice into Demetrius’s eyes so that Demetrius’s one-time affection for Helena will be restored.

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A sweet Athenian lady is in love With a disdainful youth. Anoint his eyes, But do it when the next thing he espies May be the lady.

Dating the Dream

Scholars suggest that Shakespeare composed A Midsummer Night’s Dream about 1595–96, based on the play’s style and historical references. It is mentioned in Francis Meres’s Palladis Tamia (1598), a literary anthology praising contemporary writers, confirming it was performed by that year.

Since the two young Athenian men look much alike, Puck mistakenly administers the love juice to Lysander, who then happens to see Helena when he awakes. He falls hopelessly in love with her. Now both young men are in love with Helena and neither with the poor deserted Hermia. This situation does not make Helena any happier, though. She comes to the conclusion that they are all making fun of her. Hermia and Helena fall out over this contretemps, while the young men have become fierce and even would-be murderous rivals of one another for Helena. All is at sixes and sevens.