A Midsummer Night's Dream Lesson Plan

Updated 27 Nov 2012 | Go to index of all free lesson plans

Lesson objective: Students will be able to perform a complete Shakespeare play (simplified version).

Materials: copies of the play

Over the next two weeks you will be practicing and performing a simplified version of one of Shakespeare's most popular plays - a romantic comedy called A Midsummer Night's Dream. Before we begin, here's some background about the story:

Script of the play: A Midsummer Night's Dream (simplified version) - click to downloand as a PDF

Setting:

Ancient Athens, mostly in a forest outside the city

Characters:

There are three sets of characters in the story. The main set of characters includes:

Theseus - ruler of Athens
Hippolyta - bride of Theseus
Egeus - friend of Theseus
Hermia - daughter of Egeus
Demetrius - boy chosen by Egeus to marry Hermia
Lysander - boy who Hermia actually loves
Helena - Hermia's best friend (who is in love with Demetrius)

There is also a group of clowns who are in the forest practicing for a play called "Pyramus & Thisbe"

Quince - leader of the actors who later plays the Moon
Bottom - who gets a donkey head and then later plays Pyramus
Flute - who plays Thisbe
Snout - who plays a wall
Snug - who plays a lion

...as well as a group of fairies that live in the forest (a fairy is a small human-like creature with wings from which we get the term "fairy tale"):

Oberon - King of the fairies
Titania - Queen of the fairies (Note: two of the moons of Uranus have been named after Oberon & Titania)
Puck - Oberon's servant

Plot Summary:

Egeus wants Hermia to marry Demetrius but Hermia loves Lysander. Hermia and Lysander escape to the forest but Hermia's friend Helena tells Demetrius. Helena loves Demetrius but Demetrius treats her badly. While in the forest the fairies put spells on both Lysander and Demetrius so that they both fall in love with Helena. Oberon also puts a spell on Titania so that she falls in love with Bottom, an actor who has his head turned into a donkey.

In the end everything is made right and there is a triple wedding: Thesues & Hippolyta, Lysander & Hermia, and Demetrius & Helena. The actors perform their play, which is similar to Romeo & Juliet.

Vocabulary:

duke (n.) - a ruler
severe (adj.) - very bad
gratitude (n.) - thankfulness
humiliate (v.) - to make someone feel low
idle (n.) - doing nothing
luscious (adj.) - good to the senses
scorn (v.) - to look down on someone
revenge (n.) - getting even
rage (n.) - great anger
sarcastic (adj.) - not really meaning what you say
mischief (n.) - naughtiness
weary (adj.) - tired
quarrel (v.) - to fight
rascal (n.) - a naughty person
courteous (adj.) - kind