A Midsummer Night's Dream

Theseus prepares his wedding to Hippolyta. Egeus forces Hermia to choose between Demetrius and death. Hermia and Lysander plan to flee Athens. Helena, hopeless over Demetrius, is told the plan.

Puck and a fairy reveal the war between Oberon and Titania over a changeling boy. Oberon plans revenge using a love flower. Puck enchants the wrong Athenian man. Titania sleeps, and Demetrius cruelly rejects Helena before the wood.

The mechanicals rehearse. Puck gives Bottom a donkey's head. His friends flee. Titania wakes and falls in love with Bottom, commanding her fairies to serve him.

Puck corrects Oberon's mistake — now both men love Helena instead of Hermia. Helena thinks she is being mocked. Hermia thinks Helena has betrayed her. The four lovers nearly come to blows before Puck herds them to sleep.

Oberon releases Titania from the spell. The fairy king and queen reconcile. Theseus discovers the lovers and overrides Egeus — both couples will marry. Bottom wakes alone, unable to describe his dream.

The couples debate whether dreams are real. The mechanicals perform 'Pyramus and Thisbe' to spectacular comic failure. The court retires; the fairies bless the house. Puck delivers the epilogue.

A thematic overview: how the four speech registers, the play-within-a-play structure, the dream framework, and the question of imagination's truth work together to make A Midsummer Night's Dream Shakespeare's most coherent meditation on art.