25+ Best 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' Quotes You'll Love
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‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is a comedy play penned by William Shakespeare.
It is one of the most popular plays by William Shakespeare. It remains relevant today because of its themes of love and dreams.
The play continues to be widely read and performed on stage today, a fact which highlights its cultural significance. Dreams are an especially important theme that dominates through the course of this play.
At the end of the play, the character Puck (or Robin Goodfellow) even urges the audience or the reader to think of the story as a dream.
‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is set at the time of the wedding of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, to Hippolyta. Meanwhile, an Athenian named Egeus visits the Duke saying that his daughter, Hermia, must marry Demetrius, or else die according to the ancient law of the land.
Hermia, on the other hand, is in love with Lysander. Theseus offers her time to think.
Hermia and Lysander plan to escape Athens to marry each other, so they go to the nearby woods. Meanwhile, Helena, Hermia’s best friend who is Demetrius’s former lover and is in love with him, tells Demetrius of their elopement.
She hopes that she can gain his love by doing so, but Demetrius sets off for the woods in search of the lovers and Helena follows.
In the same woods are Oberon, the King of fairies, and Titania, his Queen. They have come to attend Theseus and Hippolyta’s wedding.
The King and Queen are at odds with each other because Titania refuses to give him a prince who had been gifted to her. Oberon wants to make the prince his henchman. Oberon, intent on avenging this, asks Puck who is his servant to make juice out of a magical flower.
This juice, when spread over the eyelids of a person, makes them fall in love with the first person they see upon waking up. Due to confusion, both Lysander and Demetrius fall in love with Helena because of the juice.
Oberon orders Puck to confuse the four of them to avoid conflict, and the four go their separate ways in the woods, still pursuing each other.
Meanwhile, Titania falls in love with Nick Bottom, one of the six actors who are rehearsing a play that they hope to perform at the wedding. Nick Bottom’s head is transformed into a donkey’s by Puck, and Oberon then steals the prince while Titania is distracted.
Bottom’s head is turned back to normal and Titania’s spell is released. Finally, the four lovers fall asleep in the woods and Puck administers the magical juice on Lysander’s eyelids once again.
When Lysander wakes up, he is in love with Hermia once again. The two couples marry under Theseus’s command and all is well now that Demetrius is not in love with Hermia.
The fairies later bless the couples when night falls. A happy ending is reached, but all of this confusion, with different characters, constantly falling in love with each other, makes the play funny for audiences over the centuries.
One of the most memorable William Shakespeare quotes from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is by Puck. he says, “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” Another great quote is by Helena about Hermia, her best friend. She describes her by saying, “Though she is but little, she is fierce!” These two quotes are iconic lines today.
Here are some of the best William Shakespeare quotes from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ that we have collected for you. Be it Lysander and Hermia quotes, or Oberon and Titania quotes, you’ll find your share here. We hope that you enjoy these memorable William Shakespeare quotes from ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
Interested in more William Shakespeare Quotes? Take a look at these [Shakespeare love quotes] and these [Shakespeare quotes about death] too!
Lysander Quotes
Lysander is Hermia’s lover who utters the famous words, “The course of true love never did run smooth”. Here is a list of his other noteworthy quotes.
1. “The course of true love never did run smooth.”
- Lysander, Act 1, Scene 1.
2. “Love’s stories written in love’s richest books. To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes.”
- Lysander, Act 2, Scene 6.
3. “And won her soul, and she, sweet lady, dotes, devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry, upon this spotted and inconstant man.”
- Lysander, Act 1, Scene 1.
Hermia Quotes
Hermia is a headstrong woman and Lysander’s lover. In fact, she is one the strongest female characters of William Shakespeare. When her father forces her to marry Demetrius saying that he would kill her otherwise, she escapes into the woods with Lysander. Below are a few of her best lines by William Shakespeare himself.
4. “If then true lovers have been ever crossed, it stands as an edict in destiny.”
- Hermia, Act 1, Scene 1.
5. “And are you grown so high in his esteem because I am so dwarfish and so low? How low am I, thou painted maypole? Speak.”
- Hermia, Act 3, Scene 2.
6. “Before the time I did Lysander see seem’d Athens as a paradise to me. O, then, what graces in my love do dwell that he hath turned a heaven unto a hell!”
- Hermia, Act 1, Scene 1.
Helena Quotes
Helena is Hermia’s best friend. She is initially in unrequited love with Demetrius.
Helena is desperately in love and tries to do everything to gain back Demetrius’s affection.
One of her most famous quotes is, “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” She also has another memorable line: “Though she be but little, she is fierce.” The following are some of her most famous lines penned by William Shakespeare.
7. “O, when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd. She was a vixen when she went to school. Though she be but little, she is fierce.”
- Helena, Act 3, Scene 2.
8. “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”
- Helena, Act 1, Scene 1.
9. “I’ll follow thee and make a heaven of hell, to die upon the hand I love so well.”
- Helena, Act 2, Scene 1.
10. “And sleep, that sometime shuts up sorrow's eye, steal me awhile from mine own company.”
- Helena, Act 3, Scene 3.
Titania Quotes
Titania is the Queen of Fairies and wife to Oberon. Titania’s speech to Oberon in Act 2, Scene 1 is remembered as one of the best by William Shakespeare. Titania is tricked by her husband, Oberon, into falling in love with a donkey-faced Nick Bottom. Below are a few of her memorable quotes.
11. "My Oberon! What visions have I seen! Methought I was enamour'd of an ass."
- Titania, Act 4, Scene 1.
12. “Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away! We shall chide downright, if I longer stay.”
- Titania, Act 2, Scene 1.
13. “What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?”
- Titania, Act 3, Scene 1.
Theseus Quotes
Perhaps the most important scene of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ by William Shakespeare is Act 5, Scene 1. This is the scene where all characters come together and the conflicts get resolved.
The scene marks a joyous ending to the story, but this is also the scene where Theseus has some remarkable dialogues. Theseus is the Duke of Athens who is engaged to be married to Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons. Below are a couple of his memorable lines.
14. “The lunatic, the lover, and the poet are of imagination all compact.”
- Theseus, Act 5, Scene 1.
15. “Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, such shaping fantasies, that apprehend more than cool reason ever comprehends.”
- Theseus, Act 5, Scene 1.
Puck Quotes
Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, is Oberon’s servant and henchman. He does the latter’s bidding whenever ordered to.
He has some of the most important quotes from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, written by William Shakespeare.
His ending lines in the play are one of the most famous quotes from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’: “If we shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended that you have but slumbered here, while these visions did appear.” Here he tells the audience that the story in the play might as well have been their own visions in their dream.
The following are some of his best quotes.
16. “And those things do best please me, that befall preposterously.”
- Puck, Act 3, Scene 2.
17. “Jack shall have Jill. Nought shall go ill.”
- Puck, Act 3, Scene 2.
18. “If we shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended, that you have but slumbered here, while these visions did appear.”
- Puck, Act 5, Scene 1.
19. “Lord, what fools these mortals be!”
- Puck, Act 3, Scene 2.
Nick Bottom Quotes
Apart from the romance and drama, William Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is quite comedic too. The play has mindless moments such as when Titania falls for Nick Bottom and nobody questions it.
Puck too is a whimsical character playing pranks.
A prime example of humor in the play, however, is the band of artisans who are rehearsing the play ‘Pyramus And Thisbe’ for the upcoming wedding of the Duke of Athens and the Queen of Amazons.
They seem to always mess up the lines of the play and do not seem competent in performing at all, especially in the closing scene of the play.
Nick Bottom is one of the six craftsmen rehearsing to perform the play ‘Pyramus And Thisbe’ at Theseus and Hippolyta’s wedding.
He gets his head transformed into a donkey’s by Puck and Titania temporarily falls in love with him because of the magical flower juice. Below are some of Nick Bottom’s best lines.
20. “I have had a most rare vision. I have had a dream past the wit of man to say what dream it was.”
- Nick Bottom, Act 4, Scene 1.
21. “To say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays.”
- Nick Bottom, Act 3, Scene 1.
22. “Yet my chief humor is for a tyrant. I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat in, to make all split.”
- Nick Bottom, Scene 1, Act 2.
Quotes By Other Characters
William Shakespeare made sure that the other characters in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ had some delightful lines as well. The following are a few quotes that would entertain you from other characters. 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' fans, listen up! This list also includes one of the famous Oberon quotes.
23. “Are you sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream.”
- Demetrius, Act 4, Scene 1.
24. Tongue, lose thy light. Moon, take thy flight.”
- Pyramus, Act 5, Scene 1.
25. “There lies your love.”
- Oberon, Act 4, Scene 1.
26. “My heart visited her as if it was on a little journey, but how my heart has returned home to Helena and it will remain with her.”
- Demetrius, Act 3, Scene 2.
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ quotes, then why not take a look at these 'The Tempest' quotes or 'King Lear' quotes for more?
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Bachelor of Arts and Law specializing in Political Science and Intellectual Property Rights
Anusuya MukherjeeBachelor of Arts and Law specializing in Political Science and Intellectual Property Rights
With a wealth of international experience spanning Europe, Africa, North America, and the Middle East, Anusuya brings a unique perspective to her work as a Content Assistant and Content Updating Coordinator. She holds a law degree from India and has practiced law in India and Kuwait. Anusuya is a fan of rap music and enjoys a good cup of coffee in her free time. Currently, she is working on her novel, "Mr. Ivory Merchant".
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