A Midsummer’s Night Dream – A Tribute to an Idealized Summer

I love summer; it’s the time of year where I start believing many more things are possible, where things start anew, where love and dreams come alive again. It’s a time where things, as Shakespeare says, can occur just as quickly as a dream. Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” captures the theme of dreams in the last lines which the character Puck says,

“If we shadows have offended,

Think but this, and all is mended:

That you have but slumbered here,

While these visions did appear;

And this weak and idle theme,

No more yielding but a dream,

Gentles, do not reprehend.

If you pardon, we will mend.”

This theme is established from the beginning when Hippolyta says, “Four days will quickly steep themselves in night, / Four nights will quickly dream away the time” (Act I.i 7).

How quick summer flies, and sometimes the friendships we create come and go just as fast. I first picked out this Shakespeare novel for class and I noticed it was incredibly short. Perhaps Shakespeare designed the play for this length to show how this story goes very quickly and obscurely, like a dream.

Another theme was love's struggle. Haven't many authors of love stories written on summer love and the hardship? This novel could serve as the precedent for many to follow. Lysander worded it best to his lover, "The course of true love never did run smooth" (I.i.132–134). 

Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream is a excellent summer read because it's light-hearted, a fast read, and it brings forth the spirit of love and dreams of summer evenings.