Role Of Dreams In A Midsummer Night's Dream

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of the play. Even the very title of the play suggests that there is a dreamlike quality about the story and that 'sleeping' is to play a major role throughout. The first dream situation takes place when Oberon, the fairy King orders his faithful servant Puck to drop a certain love-potion on the eyes of his wife.

Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once:
The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees. (Act 11, Scene 1)

Another very important thing to understand is that in this story dreams play their part in various forms. They are not always to be taken in the sense of an ordinary dream because dreams here signify state of unconsciousness and the things that take place during that period. There are no significant actual dreams in the play but rather some dreamlike situations that add to the magical quality of the story. For example, after Titania, the fairy queen whom Oberon wanted to fall ...

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