What is the significance of the title midsummer nights dream

I want to understand the importance dreams may have had to Shakespeare and his audience in Elizabethan England.

Both of these instances imply dreams and dreaming have a sort of temporal quality. Dreams are the feelings of experiences that have happened and have passed. Oberon intends to weaken the memories of the ones who were under spells by the fairies, but is he actually able to do this?

He feels as if his dream is so distant and unfamiliar it is unknowable to man. JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. The title suggests an atmosphere of fantasy, whimsy, and imagination, which is a pretty accurate description of the magical wood where characters experience events that seem more like a dream than reality. Shakespeare also knows that, after watching the play, we, the audience, might also experience some uncertainty about the difference between reality and illusion.

This is why Puck invites us to think of the play as a nothing more than a "dream" during the Epilogue. Go to " What's Up With the Ending? The title is also a pretty obvious shout-out to Midsummer's Eve June 23 , or the summer solstice. Elizabethans would have heard this title and thought "party time!

In fact, the word appears not more than sixteen times throughout the entire play. Demetrius, Hermia, and Bottom all use the word to depict the events that occur whilst they are in the woods. It is in Scene One of Act Four that Theseus and his train stumble upon the four lovers, asleep on the ground, he asks his huntsmen to wake them with their horns; for Hippolyta, Egeus and himself would like to know why the lovers are there. It seems to meThat yet we sleep, we dream.

Do not you thinkThe Duke was here, and bid us follow him? He believes he is still dreaming. It is not only Demetrius who makes such a direct reference to experiencing a dream. Bottom mentions the word dream several times in Act Four Scene Two. It is after the four lovers have been rudely roused that Bottom awakes himself. We know that Puck, the knavish sprite, transformed Bottom and changed his head to that of an ass.

We also know that while in this transformed state Titania, under the influence of the love potion, fell madly in love with Bottom. He is simply explaining to the audience, through talking to himself, that no one would be able to comprehend the dream he had. Bottom decides to appeal to Quince to write a play about his dream.

It is at this point that he makes a most remarkable comment. The first is quite obvious; the play would be about his experiences with Titania. However, the second requires a little more thought. Bottom is portrayed as a very enthusiastic person, and when Quince is casting for the play, he wants to play every part.

I believe Bottom aspires to have a play written all about him; it is his dream.