A Midsummer Night's Dream: by William ShakespeareWilliam Shakespeare was born in April 1564. He married at the age of eighteen with a twenty-six-year-old woman named Anne Hathaway in 1582. He had a daughter named Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, his only son, died at age eleven. Shakespeare died in April 1616. Although Shakespeare wrote some thirty-seven plays, owned part of his theater company, acted in plays, and retired as a relatively wealthy man in his hometown, there is a lot we don't know about this subject. him (Jacobus, 167-169). One of the plays written by Shakespeare was A Midsummer Night's Dream. A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595-1596) is one of Shakespeare's earliest comedies and one of Shakespeare's most beloved works. It is also one of his most imaginative pieces, introducing us to the world of fairies and the realm of dreams. A Midsummer Night's Dream has attracted many of the great directors of modern times, although in the late 17th and 18th centuries the play was adapted primarily as a vehicle for presenting the world of fairies. It even became an opera in 1692 (Jacobus 169-170). In the fairy world, this is where everything comes together. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hermia's father Egeus wants her to marry Demetrius. Hermia, however, is in love with Lysander and wants to marry him. Demetrius and Lysander are in love with Hermia and Helena is in love with Demetrius. Aegeus wants Theseus, the Duke of Athens, to take Hermia away and kill her because she refuses to marry Demetrius. Instead of killing Hermia, Theseus sent her away and never returned. Once in the woods, Lysander, Hermia, Demetrius and Helen meet Oberon, the king of the fairies, Titania, queen of the fairies.... middle of paper ......a gentle charm that could not be attached to a figure omnipotent, who must remain as unlovable as a cliff impossible to climb. But above all, the fairy world represents an ideal because, as many have noted, it symbolizes, like the Homeric world, a union between man and nature (Hutton, 289-305). Works Cited Hutton, Virgil. "A Midsummer Night's Dream: A Tragedy Disguised as a Comic Strip." (2001): 289-305. Jacobus, Lee A. Bedford's compact introduction to drama. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2009. Kott, January “Shakespeare Our Contemporary.” Kehler, Dorothée. Critical essays on A Midsummer Night's Dream. New York and London: Garland Inc., 1998. Montrose, Louis A. “A Kingdom of Shadows.” Kehler, Dorothée. Critical Essays on A Midsummer Night's Dream. New York/London: Garland Inc., 1998. Ormerod, David. "A Midsummer Night's Dream: The Monster in the Labyrinth"." (2002): 39-53.