At Its Peak

               The story A Midsummer Night's Dream is truly one of the best comedy stories ever written in the history of mankind. Infused with magic, love's difficulty and dreams, the story started when Theseus, duke of Athens, is preparing for his marriage to Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, with a four-day festival of entertainment. Egeus, an Athenian nobleman, marches into Theseus’s court with his daughter, Hermia, and two young men, Demetrius and Lysander. Egeus wishes Hermia to marry Demetrius (who loves Hermia), but Hermia is in love with Lysander and refuses to comply. Egeus asks for the full penalty of law to fall on Hermia’s head if she flouts her father’s will. Theseus gives Hermia until his wedding to consider her options, warning her that disobeying her father’s wishes could result in her being sent to a convent or even executed. Nonetheless, Hermia and Lysander plan to escape Athens the following night and marry in the house of Lysander’s aunt, some seven leagues distant from the city. They make their intentions known to Hermia’s friend Helena, who was once engaged to Demetrius and still loves him even though he jilted her after meeting Hermia. Hoping to regain his love, Helena tells Demetrius of the elopement that Hermia and Lysander have planned. At the appointed time, Demetrius stalks into the woods after his intended bride and her lover; Helena follows behind him. And the story goes on.

               But the question is, what is the real climax of the story? For me, the climax of the story happened on Act 2, Scene 2 after Hermia and Lysander sleep then Robin Goodfellow (Puck) enters thinking that Lysander was Demetrius since he was also wearing an Athenian clothes.
Here are the exact lines that Robin said upon seeing Lysander:

HERMIA and LYSANDER sleep. ROBIN enters.

ROBIN
I’ve been through the entire forest, but I haven’t found any Athenian man to use the flower on. (he sees LYSANDER and HERMIA) Wait a second, who’s this? He’s wearing Athenian clothes. This must be the guy who rejected the Athenian girl. And here’s the girl, sleeping soundly on the damp and dirty ground. Pretty girl! She shouldn’t lie near this rude and heartless man.(he puts flower juice on LYSANDER ’s eyelids) Jerk, I throw all the power of this magic charm on your eyes. When you wake up, let love keep you from going back to sleep. Wake up when I’m gone, because now I have to go to Oberon.

               Given the title A Midsummer Night’s Dream, it is no surprise that one of the main themes of the play is dreams, particularly as they relate to darkness and love. When morning comes, ending the magical night in the forest, the lovers begin to suspect that their experience in the woods was merely a dream. Theseus suggests as much to Hippolyta, who finds it strange that all the young lovers would have had the same dream. I personally enjoy the story because of the way that Shakespeare infused some lines with humors making laugh out loud. I also felt somewhat heart-broken when Lysander fell in-love with Helena because I really like Lysander's chemistry with Hermia.