A Midsummer Night’s Dream

1) William Shakespeare wrote this story.

2) The play has three parts to it: the story of the humans, the story about the fairies and the story of the workers.

3) The story is about magic and confusion.

The Characters

The fairies

Oberon – King of the fairies

Titania – Queen of the fairies

Robin Goodfellow (he is also called Puck) – Oberon’s servant

The workers

Nick Bottom

Peter Quince

Francis Flute

Robin Starveling

Tom Snout

Snug

The Plot

1) Titania and Oberon are fighting. They have found a small boy and each fairy wants him to be their servant. Titania has the boy but Oberon wants him.

2) Oberon is very angry with Titania and sends Puck to go and fetch a small flower. This magic flower has a special juice which can make somebody fall in love with the first thing they see.

3) That night, when Titania goes to sleep Oberon squeezes some of the magic flower juice into her eyes. When she wakes up she will fall in love with the first thing she sees.

4) At the same time, there are a group of workers who are rehearsing a play they are going to perform at the Duke of Athens’ wedding. Without realising, they were rehearsing right next to the sleeping Titania.

5) Puck saw how close they were and wanted to play another trick. He used magic to turn Nick Bottom’s head into the head of a donkey. Nick Bottom did not realise and was confused when all his friends ran away screaming!

6) Nick Bottom thought all his friends were playing a trick on him. He started walking around the woods pretending he was not scared.

7) Puck wanted to play even more tricks and pushed Nick Bottom to where Titania was sleeping.

8) When Titania awoke, the first thing she saw was Nick Bottom with the head of a donkey! Instantly she fell in love with him.

9) Titania ordered all her fairy servants to make Nick Bottom happy. They brought him the best food and drink. He was very pleased.

10) Oberon waited a few hours for Titania to fall asleep again. He put the antidote to the magic flower juice on her eyes. This meant that when she woke up, she would no longer love Nick Bottom and it would be like a dream.

11) When Titania woke up, she saw Nick Bottom as a donkey and screamed! She was very embarrassed that everyone had seen her fall in love with a donkey.

12) Titania was so upset with herself for looking like a fool that she promised Oberon that he could have the small boy as his servant.

13) Puck restored Nick Bottom to a human while Titania and Oberon danced happily away.

14) The wedding of the Duke of Athens went ahead and the workers performed their play. The fairy king, queen and Puck attended the wedding and blessed it.

15) At the end of the story, Puck says:

‘If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended. That you have but slumber’d here, while these visions did appear.’

This means that if anybody didn’t like the story Shakespeare just told then they should just pretend it was a dream and forget about it.