MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM - Act I Scene.1

ACT I

Characters:

Theseus, Duke of Athens

Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons

Egeus, Hermia's Father

Hermia, in love with Lysander

Demetrius, in love with Hermia

Lysander, in love with Hermia

Helena, in love with Demetrius

SCENE I. Athens. The palace of THESEUS.

Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and Attendants

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM - Act II Scene 1

ACT II

CHARACTERS

Puck, (Robin Goodfellow) Oberon's Lieutenant

Fairy, Servant of Titania

Oberon, King of the Fairies

Titania, Queen of the Fairies

Demetrius, in love with Hermia

Helena, in love with Demetrius

SCENE I. A wood near Athens.

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM - Act I Scene 2

SCENE II. Athens. QUINCE'S house.

CHARACTERS:

Peter Quince, a carpenter

Nick Bottom, a weaver

Francis Flute, a bellows mender

Tom Snout, a tinker

Robin Starveling, a tailor

NOTE: If you are unsure of what their individual jobs are, click on the description for more information.

Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING

QUINCE

Is all our company here?

BOTTOM

You were best to call them generally, man by man,
according to the scrip.

QUINCE

Here is the scroll of every man's name, which is
thought fit, through all Athens, to play in our
interlude before the duke and the duchess, on his
wedding-day at night.

BOTTOM

First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats
on, then read the names of the actors, and so grow
to a point.

THE GLOBE THEATER

Interior panoramic shot of the Globe Theater

Did you know that the theater where most of Shakespeare's plays were performed is almost as famous as the playwright himself? The original playhouse where he performed was simply called The Theatre. Even though it made plenty of money and was considered a financial success, an argument over who owned the land resulted in the The Theatre being closed and torn down in 1598.1  The theater reopened later in a new location and under a new name, The Globe Theatre. The Globe Theatre can be considered a small theater by our modern standards since the building isn't even 30 meters across.  Despite this, the theater could hold between two and three thousand people.2 

Elizabethan sketch of the Globe Theater

Plays were advertised by putting playbills all around the city.  Because part of the theater is open to the elements like an amphitheater, the plays could only take place when the weather was nice.  In order to let theatergoers know if a show was being performed or not, a white flag would be flown to announce that all was well and the show was going on.  Since there was no electricity, shows would also take place during the daylight hours so that audiences would benefit from the most daylight hours possible. 3

Click here to learn some other quick facts about The Globe Theatre. Come to class prepared to offer a 3-2-1 (3 facts, 2 Questions, 1 personal connection) about The Globe.

1. Durband, Alan, (1984) Shakespeare Made Easy: Midsummer Night's Dream. Hutchinson & Co., New York. pg 10

2. ibid.

3. ibid.

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM- Cast of Characters

Below you will find a list of the characters in William Shakespeare's MidSummer Night's Dream as described by the website SparkNotes. As we read together in class, think of which character you would most like to play and why.

Puck -  Also known as Robin Goodfellow, Puck is Oberon’s jester, a mischievous fairy who delights in playing pranks on mortals. Though A Midsummer Night’s Dream divides its action between several groups of characters, Puck is the closest thing the play has to a protagonist. His enchanting, mischievous spirit pervades the atmosphere, and his antics are responsible for many of the complications that propel the other main plots: he mistakes the young Athenians, applying the love potion to Lysander instead of Demetrius, thereby causing chaos within the group of young lovers; he also transforms Bottom’s head into that of an donkey.

Oberon -  The king of the fairies, Oberon is initially at odds with his wife, Titania, because she refuses to relinquish control of a young Indian prince whom he wants for a knight. Oberon’s desire for revenge on Titania leads him to send Puck to obtain the love-potion flower that creates so much of the play’s confusion and farce.

Titania -  The beautiful queen of the fairies, Titania resists the attempts of her husband, Oberon, to make a knight of the young Indian prince that she has been given. Titania’s brief, potion-induced love for Nick Bottom, whose head Puck has transformed into that of an ass, yields the play’s foremost example of the contrast motif.

Lysander -  A young man of Athens, in love with Hermia. Lysander’s relationship with Hermia invokes the theme of love’s difficulty: he cannot marry her openly because Egeus, her father, wishes her to wed Demetrius; when Lysander and Hermia run away into the forest, Lysander becomes the victim of misapplied magic and wakes up in love with Helena.

Demetrius -  A young man of Athens, initially in love with Hermia and ultimately in love with Helena. Demetrius’s obstinate pursuit of Hermia throws love out of balance among the quartet of Athenian youths and precludes a symmetrical two-couple arrangement.

Hermia -  Egeus’s daughter, a young woman of Athens. Hermia is in love with Lysander and is a childhood friend of Helena. As a result of the fairies’ mischief with Oberon’s love potion, both Lysander and Demetrius suddenly fall in love with Helena. Self-conscious about her short stature, Hermia suspects that Helena has wooed the men with her height. By morning, however, Puck has sorted matters out with the love potion, and Lysander’s love for Hermia is restored.

Helena -  A young woman of Athens, in love with Demetrius. Demetrius and Helena were once betrothed, but when Demetrius met Helena’s friend Hermia, he fell in love with her and abandoned Helena. Lacking confidence in her looks, Helena thinks that Demetrius and Lysander are mocking her when the fairies’ mischief causes them to fall in love with her.

Egeus -  Hermia’s father, who brings a complaint against his daughter to Theseus: Egeus has given Demetrius permission to marry Hermia, but Hermia, in love with Lysander, refuses to marry Demetrius. Egeus’s severe insistence that Hermia either respect his wishes or be held accountable to Athenian law places him squarely outside the whimsical dream realm of the forest.

Theseus -  The heroic duke of Athens, engaged to Hippolyta. Theseus represents power and order throughout the play. He appears only at the beginning and end of the story, removed from the dreamlike events of the forest.

Hippolyta -  The legendary queen of the Amazons, engaged to Theseus. Like Theseus, she symbolizes order.

Nick Bottom -  The overconfident weaver chosen to play Pyramus in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. Bottom is full of advice and self-confidence but frequently makes silly mistakes and misuses language. His simultaneous nonchalance about the beautiful Titania’s sudden love for him and unawareness of the fact that Puck has transformed his head into that of an donkey marks the pinnacle of his foolish arrogance.

Peter Quince -  A carpenter and the nominal leader of the craftsmen’s attempt to put on a play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. Quince is often shoved aside by the abundantly confident Bottom. During the craftsmen’s play, Quince plays the Prologue.

Francis Flute -  The bellows-mender chosen to play Thisbe in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. Forced to play a young girl in love, the bearded craftsman determines to speak his lines in a high, squeaky voice.

Robin Starveling -  The tailor chosen to play Thisbe’s mother in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. He ends up playing the part of Moonshine.

Tom Snout -  The tinker chosen to play Pyramus’s father in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. He ends up playing the part of Wall, dividing the two lovers.

Snug -  The joiner chosen to play the lion in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. Snug worries that his roaring will frighten the ladies in the audience.

Philostrate -  Theseus’s Master of the Revels, responsible for organizing the entertainment for the duke’s marriage celebration.

Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, and Mustardseed -  The fairies ordered by Titania to attend to Bottom after she falls in love with him.

Think you know the characters pretty well? Click here to take a quick quiz to see how well you know them. Break a leg!