What is the main plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream?

verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a romantic comedy that follows four young Athenians who flee to the forest to escape arranged marriages and unrequited love. In the woods they become entangled in the magical world of Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of the fairies. Meanwhile, a group of amateur actors is also in the forest rehearsing a play for the duke Theseus’s wedding. The mischievous fairy Puck uses a magic flower to enchant characters into falling in love with the first person or creature they see, initiating a plot full of mistaken identities, shifting affections, and comic confusion. In the end the enchantments are undone, the couples are properly matched, and everyone returns to Athens for a joyful triple wedding and a hilarious performance of the actors’ play.