Midsummer Night's Dream Forest

In William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the various settings provide a distinct contrast of many elements of the play. Athens and a neighboring forest — the two main settings of the play — represent order and disorder, as well as reality and fantasy. Within Athens, the palace of the Theseus and Quince’s house (the setting of Act 1 Scene 2) represent different social classes. Additionally, the time of the year provides a setting for festivities. Athens is an ancient city well known for its law and order. In Athens, the young lovers, Hermia and Lysander, desire to be together; however, Hermia’s father, Egeus, forbids it. As dictated by the society, Egeus has power over his daughter, and she is to do as he says. Theseus, as the Duke, says to Hermia, “To you, your father should be as a god” (1.1). To further depict the order

Athens, as the word of humans, represents reality. In the play, the mundane and normal Athens is overshadowed by the mysterious and magical forest, which depicts fantasy. In the forest, the fairies, specifically Robin Goodfellow, are mischievous and perform varying fantastical things, such as turning Bottom’s head into that of an ass donkey or using the nectar of a flower to make people fall into and out of love with each other. In the forest, the characters also feel distant from reality, and constantly feel as if they are in a dream. For example, upon waking one day, Lysander says, “Half sleep, half waking. But as yet, I swear, / I cannot truly say how I came here” (4.1). Demetrius, waking soon after Lysander, says “are you sure / That we are awake? It seems to me / That yet we sleep, we dream.” (4.1). Bottom, after getting the donkey head removed, says, “I have had a most rare / vision. I have had a dream past the wit of man to say / what dream it was”