A Midsummer Night's Dream

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Nick Bottom, a foolish and conceited individual, is a comedic character.

• How does Bottom contribute to the play’s comedic nature? (topic sentence)
• Bottom believes himself to be an actor of unparalleled wit and talent; in what specific ways do his demonstrations, as well as the reactions of others, belie this opinion?
• In your conclusion, consider how the donkey’s head may be emblematic of Bottom’s personality (and why Puck may have therefore intentionally chosen this animal in his prank).

2. The laborer’s play, which constitutes a play-within-a-play, mirrors many of the thematic features of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

• How are themes and symbols from the broader play mirrored in the laborer’s play? (topic sentence)
• How is “The Most Lamentable Comedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisbe” a hyperbolic representation of The Complexity of Love? Determine and discuss at least three specific ideas.
• In your concluding sentences, evaluate the effectiveness of the playwright’s choice to use a hyperbolic play as a plot device in this romantic comedy.

3. As King and Queen of the fairies, Oberon and Titania’s moods and actions have an immense impact on the natural world.

• How does the forest symbolically reflect the health of Titania and Oberon’s relationship? (topic sentence)
• Describe the disruption to the natural order described in 2.1 by Titania and Oberon’s lover’s spat and its significance to the overall plot.
• In your conclusion, summarize the ways in which Oberon and Titania’s restored harmony result in a corresponding repair of the natural order.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Consider the setting of the play in terms of the theme The Balance of Order and Chaos. How does Athens epitomize order and strict rule? Consider Egeus and Theseus’s rulings about Hermia. How does the forest invert that order? Consider the confusing role of magic and other elements that reverse human laws and cause disorientation among the young lovers. As you compose your essay, incorporate quotes from the sections of the play based in Athens. Contrast these with textual evidence which attests to the wild lawlessness of the forest.

2. The play’s outlandish and confusing situations intentionally create a Blurring of Dreams and Reality. How do the fairies’ interventions in the lives of humans and other fairies cause dream-like unreality for the Athenian lovers and for Titania? In particular, consider the lovers’ confused reaction when they are awoken by Theseus in 4.1. How does Puck’s closing speech, “If we shadows have offended / Think but this, and all is mended / That you have but slumbered here / While these visions did appear,” encourage the audience to blur their own conception of what is a dream and what is reality? (5.1.440-444)

3. The love potion is emblematic of the chaotic and intense nature of love, in that it exaggerates qualities that are already present. Reflect on the theme The Complexity of Love in terms of the symbolic love potion. How does Titania’s love for Bottom, despite his ridiculous experience, echo Helena’s claim that “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind.” (1.1.234) Describe the violent arguments between Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena when both men are in love with Helena. How do these disagreements, which are volatile and dramatic, emphasize the already volatile, intense, and often fleeting experience of falling in love?