Act I begins with Athenian duke Theseus and his future

wife, Hippolyta, preparing for their wedding. One of

Theseus’s subjects, Egeus, arrives seeking his support.
Egeus wants his daughter, Hermia, to marry Demetrius,
but he says another man, Lysander, has stolen her heart.

Theseus reminds Hermia of the cost of her disobedience.

Athenian law dictates that if Hermia disobeys her father,
she will be put to death or forced to live the rest of her
life as a nun. Hermia declares that she would rather be a
nun than marry Demetrius. Theseus says she must make
her final decision before his wedding in four days. Once
Hermia and Lysander are alone, he asks her to run away
with him the next night, and she agrees.

Hermia’s friend Helena appears. She is jealous that

Demetrius loves Hermia instead of her. Hermia tells
Helena of her plan with Lysander. Helena secretly vows
to betray Hermia’s confidence and tell Demetrius, hoping
that doing so will put her in his favor.

In local carpenter Peter Quince’s house, he and fellow

craftsmen discuss plans to perform a play for Theseus
and Hippolyta’s wedding. The other craftsmen are Nick
Bottom, the weaver; Frances Flute, the bellows-mender;
Robin Starveling, the tailor; Tom Snout, the tinker; and
Snug, the joiner.

Though they take the play seriously, it is clear they know

nothing about how to perform it well. They agree to meet
in the woods the next night to practice in secret so that
no one else in town can steal their idea.
In act II, Puck, a trickster fairy, is in the forest at night
when his king, Oberon, and queen, Titania, show up.
They are quarreling about an Indian prince who has
become Titania’s favorite squire. Oberon covets the
squire for himself, but Titania refuses to part with him.

After Titania leaves, Oberon asks Puck to bring him a

magical flower, the juice of which, when laid on a
sleeper’s eyelids, will make them fall in love with the first
person they see upon waking. Puck goes in search of the
flower. During Puck’s absence, Oberon vows to use the
flower on Titania and trick her into loving an animal of
the forest. Oberon hopes to rid Titania of her love for the
Indian prince so Oberon can have him. During his
plotting, he hears someone approaching and becomes
invisible so he can listen in secret.

Oberon discovers that the approaching sounds are those

of Helena and Demetrius. Helena begs Demetrius to love
her, but he is unreceptive and warns her to stop
following him. When they leave, Puck returns with the
flower. Oberon tells Puck to use it on Demetrius,
referring to him as an Athenian man because he doesn’t
know his name. Puck agrees.

After Titania’s fairy servants sing her to sleep, Oberon

sneaks up and puts the flower’s juice on her eyes. He
leaves, and Hermia and Lysander enter, tired from their
escape together. They rest, but Hermia asks him not to
sleep right by her.

Puck comes upon them, mistaking Lysander for the

Athenian man Oberon told him about. He uses the flower
on Lysander and sneaks away. Demetrius passes
through, running from Helena. She grows tired from her
chase and falls behind.

Lysander wakes to see Helena and falls in love with her.

She thinks he’s mocking her and leaves, but Lysander
gives chase. When Hermia wakes, alone, she is scared
from a nightmare and wonders why Lysander is gone.
She goes to find him.

At the start of act III, Bottom, Quince, Snout,

Starveling, Snug, and Flute meet in the woods to practice
the play. Puck, unseen, sneaks up on them and watches
their rehearsal. Bottom briefly leaves, and when he
returns, he has a donkey’s head, courtesy of Puck. The
others run away from him. Bottom thinks they’re playing
a trick on him to make him look foolish. To show that
he’s unaffected by the other craftsmen’s behavior,
Bottom starts to sing.

Titania, hearing him, wakes up and falls in love with him.

She summons her fairies—Cobweb, Peas-Blossom, Moth,
and Mustard-seed—to dote on Bottom and bring him to
her bower.

Puck reports back to Oberon about his shenanigans with

the flower. They hide as Hermia and Demetrius enter.
She accuses him of killing Lysander, but he denies it. She
goes off to look for Lysander, and Demetrius falls asleep.

Oberon chides Puck for using the flower on the wrong

Athenian man, saying he ruined true love by making
false love true. He orders Puck to fetch Helena and puts
the flower’s juice on Demetrius himself.
Lysander and Helena show up. He tries to convince her
of his love for her, but she reminds him that he has
already made a vow to Hermia. Demetrius, waking, sees
her and declares his love. She believes he, too, is
mocking her and ridicules both of them.

Hermia comes upon them. She asks Lysander why he

left, and he says he doesn’t love her, to which she
responds with disbelief. Helena thinks all three of them
are conspiring against her.

Lysander and Demetrius argue about who loves Helena

more while Hermia turns on Helena and threatens
violence. Helena entreats the men to protect her and
confesses that she told Demetrius of Hermia’s plan to
escape with Lysander. The men leave to fight over
Helena. Helena runs away to escape Hermia, but Hermia
leaves, too.

Oberon orders Puck to veil the night in fog and transform

his voice to confuse the men so that they stop fighting.
He tells Puck to crush an herb into Lysander’s eyes. Once
he falls asleep, the herb will remove the love spell and
restore his love for Hermia. Oberon makes plans to go to
Titania, ask for her pageboy, and, once she hands him
over, rid her of her love for the ass-headed Bottom. He
leaves.

Lysander returns, looking for Demetrius. Puck, despite

his own amusement at the chaos, obeys Oberon by
changing his voice to sound like Demetrius’s, thereby
tricking Lysander to follow him. He uses the same trick
on Demetrius, making sure the two men don’t run into
each other.
When Lysander returns, tired from having unsuccessfully
chased Puck’s disguised voice, he falls asleep. Puck,
pretending to be Lysander, returns with Demetrius in
tow. Demetrius, exhausted, also falls asleep. Separately,
Helena and Hermia arrive and also fall asleep. Puck puts
the herb on Lysander’s eyes, declaring that all will now
be well.

Act IV begins with the return of Titania and Bottom

while the Athenians rest. Oberon lurks, unseen, behind
them. Titania’s fairy servants dote on Bottom at Titania’s
bidding. Titania and Bottom fall asleep together, and the
fairy attendants leave.

Oberon tells Puck that he successfully convinced Titania

to give up her pageboy. Because of this, he uses herbs to
break the love-spell and wake her. He tells Puck to undo
the spell on Bottom. Titania thinks her infatuation with
Bottom was a dream, but she sees Bottom sleeping near
her and is confused. Titania calls up music to keep
Bottom asleep. Oberon declares that the “pairs of faithful
lovers” shall be wed. He and Titania leave.

Theseus enters with Hippolyta, Egeus, his servants, and

his hounds, for he intends to go hunting. The group
stumbles upon the young Athenians and wakes them.
Lysander doesn’t remember how he got into the forest
but confesses that he and Hermia were going to run
away. This angers Egeus, but Demetrius says he no
longer wants Hermia because he loves Helena.

The hunt forgotten, Theseus says the couples will be

married. He goes with Hippolyta, Egeus, and the
servants to oversee the preparation of a feast. The
Athenians feel like the entire night was one long dream.
Though they are somewhat bewildered, they follow the
others. Bottom awakens, also thinking that he has had a
strange dream.

At Quince’s house, the players wonder where Bottom is.

They are sad because without him they can’t go on with
the play, which they hope to profit from. Bottom
manages to arrive in time but doesn’t explain where he’s
been, because he deems it too strange. He tells the
players to get ready to perform.

In act V, Hermia, Lysander, Helena, and Demetrius

arrive at the palace. Theseus calls to Philostrate, his
master of revels, who gives him a list of potential
entertainment. Theseus chooses to see the craftsmen’s
play. The play is about two star-crossed lovers, Pyramus
and Thisbe, who meet untimely ends. Thisbe, scared by a
lion, runs away and loses her mantle. Pyramus finds the
mantle in the lion’s bloody jaws and assumes Thisby is
dead. Out of grief, Pyramus kills himself. Thisbe finds his
body and kills herself as well. The audience takes
amusement in how poorly acted the play is.

The fairies arrive after the couples retire to bed. Puck

vows not to let anything, even a mouse, disturb the
house where the lovers lie. Oberon and Titania sing and
dance to bless the house, and Oberon orders the fairies
to go to each bedchamber and bless each couple. Puck
ends the play with a short monologue, hoping the
audience has not not been offended by the play. He then
suggests that if the play has offended, it may be nothing
more than a dream.
Personaje
Hermia

Hermia is the daughter of Egeus, an Athenian noble. She

is in love with Lysander, but her father wishes her to
marry Demetrius instead. When her father tells the duke
of her disobedience, Theseus informs her that she must
obey Egeus or face the consequences: life in a nunnery
or death. Instead, Hermia decides to elope with Lysander
and flee Athens. Unfortunately, chaos ensues when
Demetrius and Helena follow her and Lysander into the
forest. Under the influence of the fairies' magic,
Demetrius and Lysander both switch their affections from
Hermia to her best friend, Helena, who now becomes her
romantic rival. Several of the comic devices during their
quarrels reflect their disparity in height, as Hermia is
much shorter than Helena. In the end, Hermia is allowed
to marry the man of her choosing: Lysander.

Helena

Also a young woman of a noble Athenian family, Helena

is in love with Demetrius. Though they were betrothed,
the fickle Demetrius deserted Helena to court her friend
Hermia—a match Hermia's father approves of. When
Hermia and Lysander run away together, Helena alerts
Demetrius—thinking that this may help her win back his
love—and they follow the eloping couple into the forest.
Oberon witnesses Demetrius's rejection of Helena, and
pitying her, he orders Puck to give Demetrius a love
potion that will make him fall for Helena. Puck
accidentally gives the potion to Lysander, and then
Demetrius, leading both men to declare their love for
Helena. Taken aback by this turn of events, and perhaps
lacking in self-confidence, Helena is convinced the two
men are playing a cruel trick on her. Puck eventually
fixes his mistake by restoring the bond between Hermia
and Lysander, leaving Demetrius in love with Helena.

Lysander

Lysander is a young man in love with Hermia. Although

Hermia's father, Egeus, would prefer her to marry
Demetrius, Lysander does not relent. When pleading
their case to Thesus fails to work, Lysander suggests to
Hermia that they run away to his aunt's house. Since she
dwells outside of Athens, they will be free to from the
duke's rule and may marry. Their plan goes awry,
however, when Puck accidentally gives a magic potion to
Lysander (believing him to be Demetrius). The magic
causes Lysander to temporarily fall in love with Hermia's
friend Helena—much to Hermia's confusion and dismay.
Eventually, the effects of the potion are undone, and
Lysander goes back to loving Hermia, thinking his
strange adventure in the woods a dream. At the end of
the play, the duke changes his mind, and allows
Lysander and Hermia to marry.

Demetrius

A somewhat fickle young man, Demetrius was initially in

love with—and betrothed to—Helena but switched his
affections to Hermia upon seeing her for the first time.
With the support of Egeus, Demetrius pursues Hermia
relentlessly at the beginning of the play, even though she
has openly declared her love for Lysander. Demetrius
even follows them into the forest when they attempt to
elope. In the chaos of the woods, Demetrius is given a
potion that leads him to fall in love with Helena. Unlike
Lysander, who has the effects of the love potion
reversed, Demetrius remains in love with Helena, which
allows both couples to find happiness.

Theseus

Theseus is a legendary duke of Athens. When the play

opens, he is preparing to marry Hippolyta, the former
queen of the Amazons. He is known in legend for his
wisdom and sense of justice. Initially, he sides with
Egeus in the dispute over whom Hermia should marry,
but by the end of the play, he has changed his mind and
allows her to wed Lysander. It is for his spectacular
wedding feast that the craftsmen are preparing their
play.

Hippolyta

In Greek mythology (and this play), Hippolyta was the

queen of the Amazons. She is captured by Theseus and
forced to become his wife. Shakespeare portrays her as
eventually willing to marry Theseus rather than as a
victim of rape, which was the case in earlier portrayals of
her.

Egeus

Egeus is an Athenian noble and Hermia's father. He

wishes his daughter to make an advantageous marriage
to Demetrius. When Hermia refuses, on account of her
love for Lysander, Egeus involves the duke and implores
him to enforce the law, which states that Hermia must
obey him or suffer dire consequences.
Oberon

Oberon is the king of the fairies and a being with magical

powers. He is feuding with his wife, Titania, over a
changeling boy, whom he wants for a knight. During
their feud, he uses magic to make Titania fall in love with
Bottom, but he later restores her to her senses. It is
Oberon who orders Puck to enchant the feuding lovers,
and chaos ensues when Puck gives a love potion to the
wrong Athenian man.

Titania

The queen of the fairies, Titania is beautiful and regal.

She refuses to relinquish a changeling boy to her
husband, and their feud over the boy leads her husband
to give her a love potion. Under the influence of the
potion, she becomes infatuated with Bottom, whom Puck
has enchanted to have the head of an ass. After Oberon
claims the changeling boy, he restores her to her senses.

Puck

Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, is a fairy with magical powers

who serves Oberon. He is a figure from English folk
legend, mischievous but not malevolent. He is a loyal
servant but is liable to misinterpreting instructions, and
he likes to have a bit of fun of his own while he's carrying
out Oberon's missions (for example, turning Bottom's
head into that of an ass was Puck's idea).

Nick Bottom

Bottom is a weaver who will be performing in Quince's

play at Theseus's wedding. He is a "mechanical," a
lower-class figure introduced for comic effect. Puck gives
him the head of a donkey and makes Titania fall in love
with him. Bottom is somewhat confused by this but
retains his cheerful nature. Bottom's extreme self-
confidence, despite his foolish ideas and manner, serves
as a point of humor throughout the play—particularly
when he is paired with the elegant Titania, who has been
enchanted into thinking she loves him.

Peter Quince

Peter Quince, a carpenter, is the director of the bumbling

troop of craftsmen ("mechanicals") rehearsing the play to
present at the wedding of Theseus. Though he is the
director, he is often overshadowed by the Bottom, who
confidently offers unsolicited and silly advice on how the
play should be performed.

Francis Flute

A bellows-mender by occupation, Flute is cast as Thisbe

in the craftsmen's production of Pyramus and Thisbe.
Flute isn't pleased to have been cast in the role of
woman, and he decides that he should adopt a falsetto
voice for his speaking parts.

Snug

Snug is a joiner who is cast as the lion in the craftsmen's

play. He worries about remembering his lines, until he's
informed that his only job is to roar. The role of the lion
is later revised to include a disclaimer that Snug is not, in
fact, a lion—added due to the craftsmen's fear that his
portrayal of a lion might frighten any ladies in the
audience.
Robin Starveling

Starveling is a tailor. He starts out in the role of Thisbe's

mother but ends up with the role of Moonshine.

Tom Snout

A tinker, Snout is originally cast as Pyramus's father but

is later given the part of Wall, where he pretends to be
the literal wall that separates the two lovers in the play.

Philostrate

Philostrate is Thesus's master of revels and, in some

versions of the play, is the one who offers Theseus the
list of performances to choose from (one of which is the
craftsmen's play).

Titania's Fairies

Cobweb, Mote, Mustardseed, and Peaseblossom are the

fairies who serve Titania. She orders them to wait on
Bottom when she is under the love spell.