Hello,this is a short criticism of the two plays of shakespear, hopefuly it can help any of you
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Introduction
Hamlet, the first in Shakespeare's series of great tragedies, is believed to be written between 1599 and 1601. Hamlet focuses on the complications arising from love, death, revenge, moral corruption and betrayal, without offering the audience a decisive and positive answer to these complications. This, for Hamlet, is because of the simple fact that there can be no definitive answers to life's most scary questions. In this paper, I am going to give you a brief commentary on the most important characters and themes in the play.
A Brief summary
Prince Hamlet returns home to Denmark from school in Germany to attend his father’s funeral. He is shocked to find his mother Gertrude already remarried his Uncle Claudius. Claudius has had himself crowned King although it was the right of hamlet to be the king, so Hamlet suspects dirty play.
Hamlet’s suspicions are confirmed when his father’s ghost visits the castle. The Ghost tells hamlet that his uncle was the one who killed him and he will not be in rest till he avenges his death and he asked him to forgive Gertrude and let Heaven decide her fate.
Hamlet pretends to be mad to be able to observe the interactions in the castle; however, he is more confused than ever. In his continual confusion, he doubts whether to trust the ghost or not. What if the Ghost is not a true spirit, but an agent of the devil sent to tempt him? Hamlet suffers a lot as he realizes that he is coward because he cannot stop himself from thinking.
In order to test the Ghost’s sincerity, Hamlet asks a troupe of players to perform a play called The Murder of Gonzago describes the murder the Ghost talked about. As Hamlet had hoped, Claudius’ reaction to the staged murder shows that he was so stricken. Hamlet is convinced now that Claudius is a villain, so he has to kill him. But, as Hamlet feels coward again.
In his continued reluctance to kill Claudius, Hamlet actually causes six additional deaths. The first death belongs to Polonius, whom Hamlet hanged as the old man spies on Hamlet and Gertrude in the Queen’s private chamber. Claudius punishes Hamlet for Polonius’ death by exiling him to England. He has brought Hamlet’s school friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to Denmark from Germany to spy on his nephew, and now he instructs them to deliver Hamlet into the English king’s hands for execution. Hamlet discovers the plot and arranges for the hanging of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern instead. Ophelia, hysterical over her father’s death and Hamlet’s behavior, kills herself. Her brother, Laertes, falls next. Laertes, returned to Denmark from France to avenge his father’s death. After her funeral, where he and Hamlet come to blows over which of them loved Ophelia best, Laertes vows to punish Hamlet for her death as well.
Laertes intends with Claudius to kill Hamlet. In the midst of the sword fight, however, Laertes drops his poisoned sword. Hamlet retrieves the sword and cuts Laertes. Before he dies, Laertes tells Hamlet that because Hamlet has already been cut with the same sword, he too will shortly die of poison. At this moment, Horatio calls “The Queen falls.”Gertrude, believing that Hamlet’s hitting Laertes means her son is winning, has drunk a toast to her son from the poisoned cup Claudius had intended for Hamlet. The Queen dies.
As Laertes lies dying, he confesses to Hamlet his part in the plot and explains that Gertrude’s death is because of Claudius. Finally enraged, Hamlet stabs Claudius with the poisoned sword and then pours the last of the poisoned wine down the King’s throat. Before he dies, Hamlet declares that the throne should now pass to Prince Fortinbras of Norway. With his last breath, he releases himself from the prison of his words: “The rest is silence.”
The play ends as Prince Fortinbras, in his first act as King of Denmark, orders a funeral with full military honors for slain Prince Hamlet.
Character Analyses
Hamlet
Hamlet is a mysteries character because no absolute truth emerges about him and everyone understands him in a personal way. The challenge is the fact that every time we look at Hamlet, he is different. Hamlet is so complete, a character that like an old friend or relative. Our relationship to him changes each time we visit him, and he never stop surprising us.
The paradox of Hamlet’s nature draws people to the character. He is at once the skillful fighter, in self-imposed exile from Elsinore Society, while, at the same time, he is the flattering champion of Denmark—the people’s hero. He has no friends left, but Horatio loves him unconditionally. Hamlet is angry, dejected, depressed, and brooding; he is manic, overjoyed, enthusiastic, and energetic. He is dark and suicidal, a man who feels disgusted from himself and his fate. However, at the same time, he is an existential thinker who accepts that he must deal with life on its own terms.
Hamlet not only participates in his life, but smartly observes it as well. He recognizes the decay of the Danish society (represented by his Uncle Claudius), but also understands that he can not blame all society for just one person. He remains aware of the ironies that constitute human attempts, and he enjoys them. Though he says, “Man delights not me,” these contradictions are so confusing.
Hamlet is frustratingly proficient at twisting and manipulating words. He confuses his so-called friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, whom he trusts, with his long speech on ambition, turning their observations around. And he leads them on a merry chase in search of Polonius’ body. He openly mocks the foolish Polonius with his word plays, which elude the old man’s understanding.
Words are Hamlet’s constant companions, his weapons, and his defenses. Hamlet has chosen his words so smartly to achieve his aims. And yet, words also serve as Hamlet’s prison. He analyzes and examines every hint of his situation until he has exhausted every angle. They cause him to be indecisive. He manipulates in his own wit, intoxicated by the mix of words he can invent; he frustrates his own burning desire to be more like his father. When he says that Claudius is “. . . no more like my father than I to Hercules” he recognizes his enslavement to words, his inability trust himself again. Hamlet is stuck, unable to avenge his father’s death because words control him.
Is Hamlet a tragic hero? The Greek philosopher Aristotle defined the tragic hero with Oedipus as the model a great man at the top of his power who, through a flaw in his own character, topples, taking everyone in his power with him. Shakespeare modified Aristotle’s definition for his own age and created a tragic hero who can appeal to a larger, more lasting part of the population. Hamlet fulfills the Aristotelian requirement that the tragic hero leaves in us a deep sense of pity and fear. Hamlet is our hero because he is, as we are, at once both confused and a by endless dilemmas that come from being, after all, merely human.
Claudius
Shakespeare’s villains are complex. That is because Shakespearean criminals lack the simple clarity of absolute evil. Claudius is a perfect example of a typical Shakespearean antagonist.
Claudius is socially skillful, and his charm is authentic. He can be in deep pain over his “dear brother’s death” but in the same time, he could quickly turns mourning into celebration and moves his life on. He is a decisive man, fair in his politics and commanding.
Claudius is sincere in loving the queen. This is confusing since a character who loves is not merely a cold-blooded killer. Like Hamlet, his conflicting duties tear him apart.
When Claudius recognizes that his crime is going to be discovered soon, he admits that he will not ask god for forgiveness because he refuses to give up what his crime has bought him. He is willing to take the consequences of his actions.
The mark of a great Shakespearean antagonist is how completely he mirrors the protagonist. Claudius is no more Machiavellian than Hamlet; both ultimately believe that the end justifies the means, and both sacrifice humanity and humaneness in the acquisition of their goals. What makes Claudius a villain is that he is wrong, and Hamlet is right. Claudius is a sneak who murdered and lied. Hamlet commits his murders in the open and suffers the pangs of his own conscience. Claudius ruins his conscience and refuses to ask for divine forgiveness. Hamlet seeks regret before he dies; Claudius receives no forgiveness and seeks none.
Gertrude
Gertrude is the antithesis of her son, Hamlet. Hamlet is a scholar and a philosopher, searching for life's most mysterious answers. Gertrude, though, is shallow, and thinks only about her body and external pleasures.
The most important question about Gertrude’s character is whether she knows that Claudius is a criminal. Is she a woman who just needs a man to live with or she is a woman who used her power to plan with Claudius to kill King Hamlet and take the power from her son? No textual references are conclusive. The ghost of King Hamlet calls her his “most seeming virtuous queen.” These words could imply that she has reason to be guilty, that she is not blameless. Later, the ghost begs Hamlet to comfort her. This is evidence that she may be excused.
Gertrude is sincere in her love for her son. She describes her love for Hamlet when she asks him not to return to Wittenberg. Also, when she tells Ophelia she hopes all happiness for her Hamlet. However, even after Hamlet has told her what he knows about Claudius, even after he has shared his fears of the trip to England, even after Hamlet has clearly proven that something huge is going on, she never opposes Claudius to protect Hamlet. Some critics, though, say that she drinks the poisoned wine as a kind of maternal protectiveness. Does she know the wine is poisoned? Is she deliberately drinking to prevent Hamlet’s death? If Gertrude has heard Claudius and Laertes plotting, she would know all. But if she trusts Claudius, she would agree with all his conspiracies. On the other hand, though Claudius professes love and admiration for Gertrude, something which he has never done to anyone else, she never declares any kind of emotion for him, either positive or negative.
Ultimately, Gertrude’s character remains flexible; she can come across as either Claudius’ co-conspirator or Hamlet’s defender. Either interpretation works, if built significantly.
Ophelia
Ophelia is the most static and none-dimensional. She has the ability to change her miserable misfortune, but she instead collapses and become insane and merely tragic. This is because Ophelia herself is not as important as her representation of the double nature of women in the play. On one hand, she wants to show Hamlet’s sick attitudes towards women, and the innocence and virtue of women on the other hand.
The extent to which Hamlet feels betrayed by Gertrude is far more apparent with the addition of Ophelia to the play. Hamlet's feelings of rage against his mother can be directed toward Ophelia, who is, in his estimation, hiding her base nature behind a guise of impeccability.
Through Ophelia we witness Hamlet's evolution into a man convinced that all women are bad; that the women who seem most pure are inside black with corruption and desire.
However, Ophelia could represent something very different. Ophelia is the essence of goodness. Very much like Gertrude, young Ophelia is childlike and immature. But unlike Queen Gertrude, Ophelia has good reason to be unaware of the harsh realities of life. She is very young, and has lost her mother very early. Her father, Polonius, and brother, Laertes, love her greatly and they have suffered a lot in protecting her.
Even though her love for Hamlet is strong, she obeys her father when he tells her not to see Hamlet again or accept any letters that Hamlet writes. Her heart is pure, and even when she does something wrong, it is only because she is so scared. Ophelia stays loving Hamlet to the very end despite his brutality. She is incapable of defending herself, but she suffers greatly.
Her weakness and innocence work against her as she cannot cope with the painful event one after another. Ophelia's darling Hamlet causes all her emotional pain throughout the play, and when his hate is responsible for her father's death, she has endured all that she is capable of enduring and goes insane. But even in her insanity she symbolizes, to everyone but Hamlet, incorruption and virtue.
The bawdy songs that she sings in front of Laertes, Gertrude, and Claudius are black reminders of the cruel world where has no place for innocence and kindness.
Laertes
Hamlet and Laertes are friends since childhood; they love each other and trust each other. But then they parted their friendship when Hamlet went away to Wittenberg and Laertes to Paris. Still, Hamlet refers to Laertes as “a very noble youth.”
Laertes is Hamlet’s contradictory. He mirrors Hamlet but behaves in the opposite manner. Where Hamlet is verbal, Laertes is physical; where Hamlet is calm, Laertes is violent. Laertes’ love for Ophelia and duty to Polonius drive him to passionate action, while Hamlet’s love for Gertrude and duty to King Hamlet drive him to passionate inaction. Laertes mirrors the picture of what Hamlet could be if the sound of his own words did not control him.
The most important themes of the play
Revenge and Vengeance
Revenge is one strong theme that holds throughout Hamlet. We see Prince Hamlet try to execute a kind of private vengeance, an eye for an eye, which is completely opposite of the Christian teachings. Hamlet is a man who believes in heaven and hell and who feels that a man who challenges great order will ultimately face judgment. We might look at the ghost of the late king Hamlet as the part of us that wants to take vengeance into our own minds.
One can sense revenge in the attendance of the ghost. The ghost or the spirit of King Hamlet walks the night in order to send a message to his son Hamlet. When the ghost approaches Hamlet, he is told that Claudius murdered his father for the crown and Gertrude's marriage. He is also told not to punish his mother and Leave her to heaven to punish her. Although Hamlet believed the words of the ghost, he considers his mother to be the enemy and make a plan to get evidence of these actions accused. Hamlet's plan was to contrive a play for which the players would present to Claudius and Gertrude. The play reforms his father's murder. Hamlet watched Claudius's reactions and discovered the ghost had not lied. Yet he did nothing.
The ghost is Hamlet's conscious that is always reminding him of his duty and questioning the delay. Although the ghost tortured him daily by use of his conscious, Hamlet puts off vengeance. even after the ghost visited him a second time demanding vengeance and giving one last warning about Gertrude, he do nothing. Hamlet kills Claudius only after he had brought Gertrude and himself to death. This makes us wonder who Hamlet really is and what was at the top of his priorities- his father's murder being avenged or his mother's.
Many critics said that “Vengeance can confuse a man's mind and soul to the point where he may not be sure of whom he is really avenging." Some say Hamlet was a coward and some say he was completely crazy. Others say he may have suffered from an Oedipus complex, which made him closer to his mother than his father. If that were the case, then it would explain the delay of vengeance for his father's murder and the immediate display of vengeance for his mother's.
Madness
Since the death of King Hamlet, young Hamlet has pretended madness. In a discussion between Hamlet and Polonius Hamlet questions Polonius by asking him "have you a daughter."(Act II, Sc.2, 182) In this discussion Hamlet shows strange behavior towards Polonius by mocking him which is so humiliating since he must show great respect for Polonius because of his age and his high position in the court. This sudden question to Polonius has caused Polonius to believe that Hamlet has a form of love-sickness and that Polonius must to tell Claudius of his condition. Hamlet also accuses Polonius of being the "Jephthah, judge of Israel,"(Act II, Sc.2, 399) meaning that Polonius would put his country in front of his daughter. Hamlet has now convinced Polonius that he is in a state of madness because he knows that Polonius cares for his daughter very much and would never put her second. By convincing Polonius of his insanity, Hamlet is then hoping that Polonius will tell the court of his emotional madness.
Laertes has a different kind of madness, a madness that is controlled by revenge. When Laertes is talking to Claudius, he feels so angry at Hamlet that he wants to "cut his throat."(Act 4, Sc.7, 125) Laertes behaves like this because of the sudden death of his father, and his sister who became mad, this behavior has contributed to the madness that is being built up inside Laertes. This madness grows even stronger when Claudius promises "no wind of blame"(Act IV.Sc7, 66) when he kills Hamlet. Laertes was like a doll in Claudius hands which inabled Claudius to turn Laertes into a savage beast to avenge for his fathers' death. The madness of Leartes goes high increasingly because he has such a high motivation.
Ophelia has a unique form of madness unlike Hamlet's and Laertes' because it is a mixture of love and hate. An example of hate is when she sings about a "baker's daughter."(Act IV, Sc.5, 42) Ophelia is referring to the way her father used to treat her before the tragic incident of his death. A love within her madness is when she speaks about the events on "Valentine's day."(Act IV, Sc.5, 48) When Ophelia speaks about Valentines day she is referring to the events of romance with Hamlet. Ophelia has become mad because she could not cope with the harsh and brutal events that she went through as she is so delicate and sweet
For Hamlet, he could have controlled his feigned madness, so he had the capability of controlling his conscious mind into acting traditional. Yet, Laertes could not control his madness because he was so influenced by Claudius' sway. Ophelia was the most innocent victim of all because she was the side affect of everyone else's actions and had no idea that she was mentally decayed
Soliloquy
Hamlet offered us many soliloquies like: emptiness of existence, suicide, death, suffering, action, a fear of death which puts off the most momentous decisions, the fear of the beyond, the degradation of the flesh, the triumph of vice over virtue, the pride and hypocrisy of human beings, and the difficulty of acting under the weight of a thought which makes cowards of us all. The most important of these soliloquies are the following: 'O that this too sullied flesh would melt', 'O what a rogue and peasant slave am I!', 'To be, or not to be, that is the question', and 'How all occasions do inform against me'.
Readings of these soliloquies are varied and diverse. However, there are three remarks that should be noticed. Firstly, the density of Hamlet's thought is extraordinary. Not a word is wasted; every syllable and each sound expresses the depth of his reflection and the great amount of his emotion. Secondly, the language is extremely beautiful. Shakespeare was in love with words. His soliloquies are pieces of pure poetry, written in blank verse, supported with a rhythm which is sometimes smooth and sometimes rugged, by a fast or a slow pace, offering us surprises in every line. Thirdly, The soliloquies are in effect the hidden plot of the play because, if one puts them side by side, one notices that the character of Hamlet goes through a development which, in substance, is nothing other than the history of human thinking from the Renaissance to the existentialism of the twentieth century.
Introduction
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare's strangest and most delightful creations. Most critics believe the play was written for and performed at an aristocratic wedding, with Queen Elizabeth I in attendance. They believ it was written in 1595 or 1596. The play shows clearly the extent of Shakespeare’s learning and imagination. Most of the characters of the play are drawn from other texts: Theseus, for instance, is based on the Greek hero of the same name .also, Titania comes from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and Oberon is taken from the medieval romance Huan of Bordeaux. Unlike the plots of many of Shakespeare’s plays, though, the story in A Midsummer Night’s Dream seems not to have been drawn from any particular source but rather to be the original product of the playwright’s imagination
Summary
Act I: Scene 1
This scene opens in Theseus’ palace in Athens. It is four days before his wedding to Hippolyta, the former queen of the Amazons. Theseus wants these days to move fast so that he finally can merry his beloved.
Egeus and his daughter, Hermia, arrive with Lysander and Demetruis while Theseus and Hippolyta are planing their wedding festivities. Egeus wants his daughter to merry Demetrius, the man of his choice, but she refuses because she is in love with Lysander. Egeus accuses Lysander of bewitching his daughter and stealing her love by sneaky means. Theseus agrees with Egeus that a daughter should obey her father and if she insets on disobeying, then she should be dead or a nun for her all life. Lysander argues that he is equal to Demetrius in everything and is more honest in his love than Demetrius, who was recently in love with Helena.
Finally, everyone except Lysander and Hermia leave the stage. Lysander tells Hermia that true love has never been easy. He has a plan for escaping Athenian law. The two lovers will run away from Athens and live with his childless widow aunt. Living with her, they will be outside of Athenian law so that Hermia can avoid Theseus’ death sentence and can marry. As the lovers complete their plan, Helena enters the scene. Helena wonders what magic Hermia has on Demetrius that makes him love her in this way. Hermia swears that she has no interest in Demetrius. Then Hermia and Lysander confess their intention of fleeing Athens, and Helena decides to tell Demetrius about it in a final attempt to win his love.
Act I: Scene 2
In this scene, a new character appears, Peter Quince, the director of a band of amateur actors who are planning a play to perform for Theseus and Hippolyta’s wedding. The play talks about the tragic story of Pyramus and Thisbe, two young lovers who die during a secret meeting. Quince is in the process of assigning roles to the various players but meets with many objections to his casting efforts.
Nick Bottom, the weaver who is an entertaining but foolish man, usurps Quince’s authority as director and claims he would like to play all of the roles in the drama. He is cast as lover Pyramus. Flute, the bellows mender, is assigned the role of the heroine, Thisbe. Not happy to play a female role because he wants to let his beard grow, Flute is pleased to learn that he can wear a mask for the performance so he won’t need to shave. Snug, the joiner is cast in the role of the lion.
Bottom wants to take this role, as he wanted to take the others, claiming his roar could make the ladies shriek. The players felt nervous of what he says because this may scare the women in the audience to death. They fear that Theseus might have them hanged for scaring the ladies. In order to solve this problem, Quince flatters Bottom by insisting that Snug must keep the part of the lion because only Bottom can play the leading role of Pyramus. When the casting is finally finished, Quince sends the players off to learn their lines and tells them to meet for a rehearsal the following evening at the Duke’s oak.
Act II: Scene 1
The actions of this scene happen in the woods outside of the city, the home of Oberon, Titania, and their band of fairies. The scene begins with a conversation between Oberon’s naughty elf Robin Goodfellow, also known as Puck, and one of Titania’s followers. Puck warns her to keep Titania away from this part of the woods l. Oberon is angry with Titania because she refuses to give him a sweet Indian boy upon whom she dotes. Titania’s assistant suddenly recognizes Puck, accusing him of being the elf who is blamed for wicked acts in the village, such as frightening young women or misleading night travelers. Puck admits that he is this “merry wanderer of the night.”
Suddenly Oberon and Titania enter the scene from opposite directions and starts fighting. Titania says Oberon’s harassment of her has caused the current disorder in the world: The rivers are flooding, the corn is rotting, and people are plagued by diseases. Oberon blames Titania; if she would simply give up the Indian boy, peace would be restored. Titania refuses to let the boy go because his mother was a close friend of hers, and when she died in childbirth, Titania agreed to raise her son.
Hatching a plan to win the Indian boy, Oberon sends Puck in search of a flower called love-in-idleness. When the juice of this magical flower is poured on sleepers’ eyelids, it makes them love the first live creature they see when they awake. In this way, Oberon plans to make Titania fall in love with some wild beast; he won’t release her from this unpleasant spell until she gives him the Indian boy.
At this time, Oberon hears Helena trying to make Demetrius loveher, but Demetrius ask her to leave him alone or she will be hurt. After they have left, Puck returns. Taking pity on Helena, Oberon tells Puck to anoint the eyes of the Demetrius so that he will fall in love with this kind woman. Puck promises to fulfill Oberon’s order, though he hasn’t seen Demetrius, so he doesn’t know him.
Act II: Scene 2
Oberon squeezes the potion onto Titania’s eyelids and utters a curse to make her awaken when something vile is near. When Oberon leaves, Lysander and Hermia arrive into Titania’s placer, but she is invisible to them. The lovers are lost, and Lysander suggests they stop to sleep for the night. Hermia refuses to sleep next to each other, so they sleep a short distance apart. During their sleep, Puck arrives and put the love juice in Lysander's eyes thinking that he is Demetrius because he was sleeping away from Hermia.
After Puck exits, Demetrius and Helena run into the bower. Helena feels tiered from chasing her beloved, so she stops to rest and notices Lysander asleep on the ground. She wakes him and because of the magical juice, he immediately falls in love with her. He tells her that Hermia is dull and unattractive, Helena thinks that he is mocking her, so she runs away. Lysander chases after her, and Hermia awakens. She has been dreaming about a fearful snake that ate her heart awake. Frightened that Lysander has disappeared, she, too, rushes into the woods.
Act III: Scene 1
At the beginning of this scene, Peter Quince and his company have serious worries about the play: Pyramus kills himself with a sword, and the lion is frightening, both factors that are sure to terrify the women in the audience. But Bottom finds a solution. A preface needs to be written to explain that Pyramus is only an actor, and the actor playing the lion must show half of his face during his performance. Other difficulties show up: the play requires moonshine and a wall. After consulting a calendar, they discover that the moon will be shining on the night of the performance, so this problem is solved. For the other problem, Bottom discovers a solution: An actor covered in plaster will play the role of the wall. Everyone agrees, and the practice begins.
Puck sees the cast while they are practicing and he notices the arrogant Bottom sits in the bushes, waiting his cue. Puck can’t resist playing a joke on him, so He gives Bottom an ass’ head. When the others see Bottom, they feel terrified and escape to the woods. Unaware of his transformation, Bottom has no idea what has frightened them. As he walks singing through the woods, Titania, with the love juice on her eyes, awakens and falls immediately in love with the beastly Bottom. She appoints four fairies—Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Mote, and Mustardseed—to serve the needs of her new lover.
Act III: Scene 2
Oberon is so happy that Titania has fallen in love with the monstrous Bottom. However, he is angry at Puck because he bewitched the wrong Athenian.
To correct the situation, Oberon sends Puck in search of Helena and then squeezes the magic potion into the cold-hearted Demetrius’ eyes. Lysander and Helena enter the scene and she still thinks he is mocking her. Their voices wake Demetrius, who falls in love with Helena at first sight. So now both of them are in love with her and try to get her heart. This confuses Helena and makes her very angry. When Hermia enters, the situation gets even worse. She is shocked when Lysander declares he no longer loves her. After the lovers have all fought and fled the scene, Oberon forces Puck to fix the problem before the men kill each other. He advises Puck to create a deep fog in which the lovers will get lost and, finally, fall asleep in exhaustion. When they awake in the morning, the night’s crazy events will seem like a dream except that Demetrius will be in love with Helena. Oberon then rushes to Titania’s bower to beg for the Indian boy.
Act IV: Scene 1
As Bottom sleeps in Titania’s arms, Oberon walks in. Feeling pity for Titania’s pitiful love for this ass, Oberon squeezes an herb on her eyes to release her from the spell. Titania awakens, telling Oberon about her strange dream of being in love with an ass. Oberon has Puck remove the ass’ head from Bottom. Now that Oberon has won the Indian boy from Titania, he is willing to forget their argument, and the two, reunited, dance off together so they can bless Theseus’ marriage.
Theseus, Hippolyta, and Egeus are walking through the woods when Theseus suddenly spies the sleeping lovers. Egeus recognizes them but wonders how they ended up together because Demetrius and Lysander are enemies. When the lovers are awakened, Demetrius confesses that he now loves Helena. No one really understands what has happened. Theseus decides the lovers should be married along with him and Hippolyta.
Act IV: Scene 2
In this short scene, Quince and Flute are searching for their missing friend, Bottom. They worry that “Pyramus and Thisbe” won’t be performed without him. Theseus is known for his generosity, and the actors believe they will potentially be rewarded with a lifelong pension for their stellar performance of this play. As they lament this lost opportunity, Bottom suddenly returns. His friends want to hear his story, but Bottom tells them there isn’t time for that now: They must prepare for the play. He warns them to avoid onions and garlic so their breath will be sweet for the “sweet comedy” they will perform.
Act V: Scene 1
The play has ben prepared, and the cast has now returned to the palace where Theseus and Hippolyta discuss the strange tale the lovers have told them about the events of the previous evening. The joyous lovers enter, and Theseus decides it is time to plan the festivities for the evening. Theseus is worry about the paradoxical summary of the play, which suggests it is both happy and tragical but he eventually thinks its simplicity will be refreshing.
In the remainder of the scene, the players present “Pyramus and Thisbe”.Then the Lovers comment on it. The play concludes with three epilogues. The first is Puck’s poetic monologue, delivered while he sweeps up the stage. Oberon and Titania offer their blessing on the house and on the lovers’ future children. The play ends with Puck’s final speech, in which he apologizes for the weakness of the performance and promises that the next production will be better.
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