A Midsummer Nights Dream Essay Topics:

1. The play presents several different couples: Theseus and Hippolyta, Hermia and Lysander,
Helena and Demetrius, Titania and Bottom, and Titania and Oberon. What aspects of love
are explored in each of these relationships?

2. Compare and contrast Shakespeares play to a modern day romantic comedy.

3. Are Hermia and Helena treated as more foolish in the play than Demetrius and Lysander?
Is this a commentary on gender? How do we interpret the fact that Hermia and Helena
seem just as foolish as the guys, though they are not under an enchantment?

4. It has been argued that the characters of the Athenian lovers are not particularly
differentiated from one anotherthat Hermia is quite like Helena (even down to her name)
and that Demetrius resembles Lysander. Do you think that this is the case, or do you think
that the lovers emerge as individuals? If you believe that these characters are quite similar
to one another, what do you think Shakespeares intent was in making them so?

5. Theseus is constantly portrayed as the most practical and level- headed character in the
play, and criticizes lovers, madmen, and poets for having too much imagination. Still, the
bulk of the play is about lovers, the play is made by a poet, and all the action is pretty
much madness. So, does this play argue that love, madness, and poetry are essential to
human life and relationships, or the opposite?

6. Support or refute the following thesis statement: When Lysander tells Hermia, The course
of true love never did run smooth (1.1.134) he is uttering a central theme of the play. You
may wish to consider the following:
a) Hippolyta and Theseus engagement
b) Hermias conflict with her father
c) The complications between the four young lovers
d) The trouble between Oberon and Titania

Choose one of the above topics and write a literary essay, with a strong thesis statement.
You will also be marked using the District 18 Writing Rubric which evaluates you on the
writing traits: content (your our knowledge of the play), organization, word choice, voice,
sentence fluency, and conventions.
Your essay must include a properly formatted according to MLA.
Essays are due on
Take pride in your work. This assignment should reflect your best writing.