Irene Dash, Hunter College of the City University of New York And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,  And make her full of hateful fantasies. II.i.257-58

In the following essay, Kott examines the significance of Bottom's metamorphosis in A Midsummer Night's Dream, particularly focusing on why Shakespeare alluded to both St. Paul and Apuleius in reference to Bottom's transformation.

In the following essay, Cox examines the discordant nature of A Midsummer Night's Dream, asserting that in Shakespeare's comic treatment of Theseus, and in the serious undertones of his portrayal of the artisans and especially Bottom, the playwright used comedy to teach his audience serious lessons about civic life.

In the following excerpt, Montrose argues that A Midsummer Night's Dream calls attention to itself as both a product and a producer of Elizabethan attitudes regarding the relationship between gender and power.

In the following essay, Clayton highlights the brighter, more lighthearted aspects of A Midsummer Night's Dream, emphasizing the civilized and complementary features of the relationship between Theseus and Hippolyta and downplaying the bestial connotation in the relationship between the transformed Bottom and Titania.

In the following essay, Hunt alleges that A Midsummer Night's Dream functions as a cryptic allegory that criticizes Elizabeth I and the problem of securing a successor to her throne.

In the following essay, Green explores the homoerotic aspects of A Midsummer Night's Dream by examining Bottom's explication of his “dream,” Oberon's attraction to the changeling boy, and the relationship between Helena and Hermia. The critic contends, however, that the play ultimately upholds conservative cultural ideologies.

In the following essay, originally published in 1983, Boehrer claims that A Midsummer Night's Dream presents bestiality as associated with the maintenance of domestic order. The social arrangements in the play, Boehrer states, presume that human nature must be policed since it is threatened by the bestial, and/or female, “other.”

In the following essay, Leggatt surveys the plot, themes, and characters of A Midsummer Night's Dream, emphasizing the wide dispersal of power and authority in the play.

In the following essay, Montrose examines the mythological subtext of A Midsummer Night's Dream, claiming that Hippolyta's presence at the play's opening invokes Amazonian mythology, which Montrose describes as the "embodiment of a collective, masculine anxiety about women's power to dominate, create, and destroy men. "

In the following excerpt, Young argues that Shakespeare uses the dream motif and fairy magic in A Midsummer Night's Dream to explore philosophical and psychological ideas, focusing in particular on the relationship between nature and art.

In the following essay, Morén contends that Puck is a representative of sexuality in A Midsummer Night's Dream and examines the distinctive meanings of the word “Puck” in the text of the play in order to support this claim.

In the following essay, Olson suggests that A Midsummer Night's Dream was intended to serve as a guidebook for married aristocratic couples and, by extension, for a moral society.

In the following essay, Tave examines the structure of A Midsummer Night's Dream, including the arrangement of the characters, the plot, and the language, and praises the play as "perfect in its detailed beauty and its practical workmanship."

In the following essay, Plasse discusses the human body as a performance medium that conveys the various themes expressed in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

In the following essay, Girard maintains that Bottom's transformation, as well as the world of the fairies, are products of the mimetic process acting on the mechanicals and the four lovers. Girard explores in particular how Bottom's eagerness to take on so many theatrical roles contributes to his metamorphosis.

In the following essay, Garber studies the role of dreams in A Midsummer Night's Dream, arguing that dreams are a source of creative insight and have the power to transform reality. The creative, transforming process of dreams, Garber states, is not only the subject of the play, but the force which guides the play's action.

In the following essay, Brown explores the relationship between the themes of imagination and love in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and argues that the play is allegorical rather than mimetic in its emphasis on the importance of love as means of knowing a higher truth.

In the following essay, Hinley contends that in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare uses the "accepted Mogie of the dream" as a means of examining the psychological basis of the lovers' sexual anxieties. Hinley concludes that in the end the lovers establish stable romantic relationships within the boundaries of patriarchal society.

In the following essay, Montrose analyzes A Midsummer Night's Dream as it displays Shakespeare's concern with the artist's place in the Elizabethan social order.

In the following essay, Girard explores the relationship between rhetoric, reversals, and conflicts of imitative desire in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Shakespeare's representation of “a serious genetic theory of myth” in the play.

In the following essay, Girard studies the role that animal and metaphysical images in A Midsummer Night's Dream play in the process leading from mimetic desire to myth.

In the following excerpt, Girard argues that in A Midsummer Night's Dream Shakespeare exploits the clichés of romantic love and the structure of myth to expose the violent and self-destructive nature of desire.

In the following essay, Wyrick explores the symbolism associated with the ass motif in A Midsummer Night's Dream and examines how the word “ass” is used to create a complex code that is the key to many of the play's themes.

In the following essay, Wiles examines the festive and carnivalesque elements in A Midsummer Night's Dream. According to the critic, the play was historically part of an “aristocratic carnival” used to celebrate weddings in upper-class society.

Holland is an American educator and critic who employs a Freudian psychoanalytic approach to literature and emphasizes the subjective nature of our response to literature. In the following excerpt, originally published in 1979, he analyzes Hermia's dream in A Midsummer Night's Dream, relating it to the play's ambivalent treatment of love.

In the following excerpt, Herbert investigates Elizabethan attitudes to the supernatural elements present in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

In the following excerpt, Ornstein identifies the "complex and perfectly assured dramatic structure" of A Midsummer Night's Dream as the principal element distinguishing it from Shakespeare's earlier comedies.

In the following essay, originally published in 1986, Leinwand examines the conflict between social classes in A Midsummer Night's Dream and discusses its influence on the actions of the characters.

In the following excerpt, Holland suggests that evocations of the Theseus myth in A Midsummer Night's Dream complicate and undermine the play's comic tone and its celebration of marriage.

In the following excerpt, Wells reviews trends in critical reception of A Midsummer Night's Dream in the 1970s and 1980s, reaffirming his doubts that the play was originally written for a wedding and examining the relationship between recent literary criticism of the play and its performance history.

In the following essay, Holland reviews the history of dream analysis and discusses the Elizabethan conception of dreams and their meaning, concluding that the play may be taken not as a "false or trivial" dream, but as a "revelation of another reality. "

In the following essay, Ramsey examines the scenic structure in A Midsummer Night's Dream, maintaining that it expresses diversity and opposition, and yet it also emphasizes harmony and integration. According to the critic, the scenic structure ultimately underscores the play's dual themes of the power of love and the power of imagination.

Sidney Homann, University of Florida "What do I do now?" my Hippolyta asked me, the first day of rehearsals for a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream I was directing for the Florida Theatre.1 "After those first four lines, I've got nothing until act 4—and that's after intermission. So, do I just stand there like an idiot while Theseus talks to Hermia? Waiting around for my exit?" She was right about the lines—as far as the charact...

In the following essay, Mikics examines the dichotomy between poetry and politics in A Midsummer Night's Dream and contends that Shakespeare makes a claim “for poetry in the face of power.”

In the following essay, Schneider asserts that the issue of class tension and aggression is suggested in A Midsummer Night's Dream through the language of the working class characters (Bottom and his associates), and especially through the Bottom and Titania episode, whose source is "classical social satire."

In the following excerpt, Macdonald examines ways in which A Midsummer Night's Dream plays on the interrelationship of illusion and reality, focusing in particular on Shakespeare's use of theatrical and literary conventions.

In the following essay, Hall examines the play's treatment of the potential violence inherent in the patriarchal order, represented in A Midsummer Night's Dream by Theseus.

In the following essay, Nuttall contends that in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare used comedy to suppress, however incompletely, the darker aspects of the myths that influence the play.

[In the following excerpt, noting that Hippolyta speaks Oberon, Titania, and Puck with Fairies Dancing: watercolor by William Blake, c. 1785-87. relatively few lines in A Midsummer Night's Dream, McGuire examines various interpretations of her silence that are allowed by Shakespeare's text and the implications of these interpretations for the meaning of the play.]

In the following essay, Hutton explores the religious and philosophical issues which he claims Shakespeare deliberately raised in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

In the following essay, Hackett explores the way A Midsummer Night's Dream vascillates between tragic and comic possibilities.

In the following essay, McPeek explores Shakespeare's treatment of the Psyche myth in A Midsummer Night's Dream, contending that the play provides a mythic translation of the Psyche legend.

In the following excerpt, Taylor examines the relationship between gender and the operation of desire in A Midsummer Night's Dream, asserting that "inside men, desire tends to eradicate the person of the other; inside women, it does not."

In the following essay, Freake interprets Shakespeare's recasting of the classical myth of Theseus in A Midsummer Night's Dream, particularly focusing on issues of gender dynamics and patriarchal power contained in the story.

In the following essay, McGuire explores the ways in which Egeus's silence in Act IV, scene i has been interpreted by modern directors.

In the following essay, originally published in 1980, Nevo contends that A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's original inventions—“a complex and witty exploration of the infirmities and frailties and deficiencies and possibilities of the imaginative faculty itself.”

In the following essay, Slights contends that the changeling boy reflects the irresolution and indeterminancy of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

In the following essay, Wiles asserts that A Midsummer Night's Dream is effectively an epithalamium—a poem in honor of marriage.

In the following essay, Burnett discusses Adrian Noble's 1996 film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, noting that while Noble's 1994-95 Royal Shakespeare Company stage production of the play was lauded by critics, the film adaptation received primarily negative reviews. Burnett reevaluates the film, praising it as a reinvention of the comedy “for the millennium.”

In the following essay, Halio maintains that the language of the play, in its darkness, complexity, and in the contradictions it contains suggests that, contrary to the apparently happy ending, "benevolent providence does not always or inevitably enter into human affairs to make things right."

In the following essay, Pearson contends that in A Midsummer Night's Dream Shakespeare questioned the notion that male supremacy and feminine obedience lead to matrimonial harmony.

In the following essay, Comtois asserts that the lovers' contribution to the play is primarily in the realm of farce.

In the following essay, Frame focuses on the voyeurism of the male and female characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream and suggests that the motif emphasizes the characters' maneuvers for power over one another.

In the following essay, Shulman studies the relationship between illusion, love, and art in A Midsummer Night's Dream, arguing that the "process of illusion" offers insight into both love and art, and that Shakespeare uses illusion to guide his characters to more mature perspectives about love and marriage.

In the following essay, Clary discusses the Pyramus and Thisbe interlude in A Midsummer Night's Dream in terms of the ritual of wedding-night revelry. The critic argues that although traditionally the principal function of this rite is to allay male fears of domestication, here it is also designed to initiate Hippolyta into Athenian society.

In the following excerpt, Halio examines how "verbal inconsistencies" in A Midsummer Night's Dream complicate and subvert the play's comic tone by providing continual reminders of the fragility of its harmonious resolution.

In the following essay, Reynolds and Sawyer examine Titania's four fairy servants in A Midsummer Night's Dream—Cobweb, Peaseblossom, Mustardseed, and Moth—and contend that their presence represents the healing properties of folk medicine as well as its role in establishing a connection between the natural and supernatural world.

In the following essay, Hartman identifies oedipal conflict originating in the incestuous desires of Egeus as well as Titania, and maintains that the play optimistically presents the resolution of such conflict within the confines of the “dream.”

In the following excerpt, Stewart examines Bottom's insights regarding the relationship between dream and drama, and the language he uses to express his revelation.

In the following essay, Rhoads contends that in A Midsummer Night's Dream Shakespeare portrayed Theseus as both an ideal ruler and a ruler who lacks the ability to understand love in order to highlight the incompatibility of “desire and politics.”

In the following essay, Vlasopolos explores the parallels between the ritual of Midsummer, or St. John's Day, and the play's structure.

In the following essay, Paster and Howard survey the themes and central action of A Midsummer Night's Dream and provide a general review of critical trends.

In the following essay, Willson asserts that Shakespeare uses anticlimax in A Midsummer Night's Dream as a device that underlies the entire plot of the play.

In the following essay, Liston claims that the Protestant idealization of marriage is a theme of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and that this theme is explored through the conflicting image of the moon as barren or fertile, for example, and through Oberon's restoration of Titania's sight as a signal of "the triumph of chastity over erotic love."

In the following essay, originally published in 1974, Barton comments on A Midsummer Night's Dream's “preoccupation with the idea of imagination” and contends that the products of imagination, including “dreams, the illusions of love, poetry and plays,” are central to the play.

In the following excerpt, Hamilton analyzes the father-daughter conflict between Egeus and Hermia in a A Midsummer Night's Dream.

In the following review, Jackson comments on Michael Boyd's 1999-2000 stage production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Boyd discusses the production's emphasis on the sexuality of the forest and its inhabitants and its use of dance and movement as unifying elements within the play.

In the following essay, Bloom praises Bottom as the heart of the play, and as its most original figure. Bloom goes on to contrast Bottom's goodness, common sense, homeliness and humanity with Puck and his world, which threaten to "ravish reality away."

In the following excerpt, Clarke offers a Freudian analysis of the changeling child and his significance to Oberon and Titania.

In the following review, Alleva offers a mixed assessment of Michael Hoffman's 1999 film adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The critic censures some of the actors' performances, most notably Michelle Pfeiffer's “gracelessly spoken performance” as Titania. Alleva further claims that while Kevin Kline reduces Bottom to an emotionally fragile clown, this approach works well in Hoffman's production.

In the following review, Welsh compares Michael Hoffman's 1999 film adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream to the 1935 Max Reinhardt-William Dieterle film production. The critic contends that the more recent version of the play is generally less compelling, despite the success of Calista Flockhart's Helena.

In the following review of the Royal Shakespeare Company's 2002 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream directed by Richard Jones, Weber notes that Jones's unique and nightmarish take on the play created a kind of “anti-Midsummer Night's Dream” that confounded expectations.

In the following review of Michael Hoffman's 1999 film adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Rothwell praises the film as a visual masterpiece and lauds Kevin Kline's ability to turn the cartoonish character of Bottom into “a living, breathing, and very vulnerable, human being.”

In the following review, Bemrose assesses the 1999 film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, starring Kevin Kline and Michelle Pfeiffer and directed by Michael Hoffman. Bemrose praises the performances of Kline as Bottom and Pfeiffer as Titania, but finds fault with the rest of the film, which seems to be, in Bemrose's opinion, a battle between a “tedious Hollywood costume drama” and an effort to remain true to Shakespeare's play.

McQueen-Thomson reviews the Bell Shakespeare Company's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream directed by Elke Neidhardt, arguing that the play's “unrelieved austerity and frostiness” produced a “tired disjointedness rather than original coherence.”

In the following review of Mike Alfreds's 2002 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream for Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Neill notes the director's highlighting of the “dream” aspect of the play by dressing the cast in pyjamas and negligees.