Titania
and her train enter with Bottom, as Oberon looks on unseen. The fairies
attend to Bottom's every need, and Bottom seems to enjoy every minute
of it. He goes to sleep with Titania's arms around him as she declares
how much she loves him.
Puck
enters, and Oberon confesses that he is beginning to pity Titania. He
reveals that a short while before, he had encountered her and she had
agreed to give him the changeling boy. Now that he has attained what he
wants, he removes the spell cast by the love-juice by squeezing it again
on Titania's eyelids. Titania awakes, and says she dreamed she was in
love with an ass. Oberon tells Puck to remove the ass's head from
Bottom. Oberon then calls for some music, and he and Titania dance
together.
After
the Fairy King and Queen exit, leaving the lovers and Bottom still
asleep, Theseus, Hippolyta and Egeus enter, and there is the sound of
hunting horns. It is dawn. Theseus is looking forward to watching his
hounds do their work.
They
stumble upon the four sleeping forms. Egeus wonders what they are all
doing in the wood together. Theseus has no doubt of their innocent
intent, and he then remembers that this is the day when Hermia must make
her choice. He bids the huntsmen to wake them with their horns.
Startled,
the four wake up, and it is Helena who is the first to offer an
explanation of why they are there, even though she is not sure herself.
But Egeus does not let her finish. He angrily jumps to the conclusion
(correct, as it happens) that Lysander and Hermia were trying to elope
so that she would not have to marry Demetrius. He tries to incite
Demetrius to anger over the deception. But Demetrius simply says that he
no longer loves Hermia, but now loves Helena. He points out that he was
in love with Helena first, before he ever met Hermia, and how he is
reverting to his original choice.
The
genial Theseus overrules Egeus and gives the two couples permission to
marry. Theseus, Hippolyta and Egeus make their way back to Athens. The
two couples are puzzled about what has happened and decide that they
must have been dreaming. They also return to Athens.
Bottom
awakens and finds himself alone, without his fellow-actors. He declares
that he has had a strange dream that no man could explain. He decides to
get Peter Quince to write a ballad about it, to be called Bottom's
Dream.
Analysis
As
the blocking figure, Egeus still tries to obstruct the happy ending. But
the time has come for the plot to be resolved according to the formula
of romantic comedy, so he has no success.
The
theme of the relationship between dreams and reality (or illusion and
reality) is prominent here. All the characters who have had unusual and
baffling experiences in the wood dismiss all the events there as a
dream. This includes the four lovers, as well as Bottom and Titania. But
were the lovers really dreaming, or were they being opened up to some
aspect of reality that was closed to them in the rational, day-to-day
world they usually inhabit?
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