The tale of A Midsummer Night’s Dream follows the two lovers Lysander and Hermia. Hermia is being forced by her father to marry another man, Demetrius, to which she objects greatly, stating her love to Lysander. Her father brings them before the Duke of Athens, whose marriage with the Queen of the Amazons is due in only a few days. The Duke sides with her father, giving Hermia only until the night of his wedding to weigh her options; he warns that if she does not abide by Athenian law, she’d be sent to a convent or even executed. Despite the warnings, Lysander and Hermia plan to meet in the forest outside of Athens the following night and escape the city. They tell their plan to Hermia’s friend, Helena, who also used to be engaged to Demetrius before he fell for Hermia. She still hopes to regain his love, and so she tells Demetrius of their plan and stalks into the forest after him. In the woods, Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of fairies, are at odds with each other over a beautiful Indian prince that Titania has received. Oberon calls over his mischievous servant, Puck, and asks him to retrieve a magical flower whose juice could make one fall deeply in love with the first thing they see, be it human or not. Oberon tells Puck to spread the juice on the eyelids of Titania while she sleeps. Also having seen how cruelly Demetrius acts towards Helena, he orders Puck to spread the juice on his eyelids too. Puck searches for Demetrius and encounters Lysander and Hermia sleeping, thinking that Lysander was the man that Oberon spoke of, Puck uses the flower on him. Lysander wakes and happens to see Helena and falls in love with her. Puck tries to undo his mistake and both Lysander and Demetrius end up in love with Helena, who thinks it is all a cruel joke. Hermia challenges Helena to a fight out of pure jealousy, but Puck leads each person away into a different part of the woods by mimicking their voices. When Titania wakes, she sees a member of a rag-tag theatre troupe who hoped to perform at the Duke’s wedding, and whose head was transformed into a donkey’s by Puck. She falls in love with him and Oberon takes the Indian prince for himself. Puck finds Lysander and spreads the flower on his eyes again and by the next morning, everything is returned to normal. The Duke finds the sleeping lovers in the forest and takes them back to Athens to get married, Lysander getting married to Hermia and Helena to Demetrius. After the group wedding, they watch the theatre troupe perform their own fumbling and humorous version of the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. And the play ends with Puck asking for the audience’s forgiveness and to remember the play only as if it were a dream.
Although I enjoyed the book, it became tiresome to read at some points, but the confusion and lover’s drama is definitely enough to keep one entertained. So are Puck's several mishaps and attempts at reconciliation.
Overall it was a good book, it is short enough to be read in one sitting, and I think it’s best to do so. Picking up where you left off is a bit difficult and you lose the pace of the story easily. Reading Shakespeare’s plays is always a good idea though, you start to notice the references to his works and the mythology he references himself too. A good classic.
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