"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a comedy written by William Shakespeare, believed to have been composed between 1595 and 1596. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.
The story is set in Athens and revolves around the marriage of Theseus, the Duke of Athens, to Hippolyta, the former queen of the Amazons. The plot includes four interconnecting plots, all linked by the celebration of the wedding.
The first plot involves the love affairs of two young couples: Hermia loves Lysander, but her father Egeus wants her to marry Demetrius. Helena, who is in love with Demetrius, tells him of Hermia and Lysander's plan to elope, and they all end up in the forest.
The second plot revolves around a group of amateur actors, the "rude mechanicals," who are preparing a play to perform at the Duke's wedding. Among them is Nick Bottom, a weaver who is transformed into a donkey by the fairy Puck.
The third plot involves the fairy world, with the king and queen of the fairies, Oberon and Titania, who are in the midst of a quarrel. Oberon orders Puck to use a magical flower to make Titania fall in love with the first creature she sees upon waking, which turns out to be Bottom with his donkey head.
The fourth plot is the resolution of the first plot, where the love potion causes confusion among the young lovers, but eventually, all is resolved, and the couples are rightly paired.
The play is known for its humor, its exploration of the nature of love, and its magical and fantastical elements. It concludes with a play-within-a-play performed by the mechanicals at the wedding feast, and the fairies blessing the sleeping couples, ensuring that they will wake to find their dreams have come true. The play ends with Puck's famous epilogue, asking the audience to consider the entire play as if it were a dream.