A Midsummer Night's Dream

I chose to knock out this story first. Instead, it's knocked me out. Days of the daze, looking back it seems that I might have been dreaming? I mean, I understood what generally was happening, but Shakespeare's style is more unorthodox than I had anticipated. Themes interrelated; for example, it's a playwright, has a play within its text, and the overall storyline is loosely based on the play within the playwright. This, I understood when reading.

Contrary to my understanding, there was a lacuna where my brain must've been moonstricken because I could not figure out the fairies' purposes. After I finished Act III Saturday afternoon I asked my friend for some help dissecting the differentiated realities (dream/sleep vs. real/awake) and roles. He, having not read Shakespeare for some time, advised that they might represent "the changing of the seasons," but instead they're purposes run more parallel with what's going on in the story. The Fairy King wants a Fairy Queen as do the other two aristocrats and four lovers.

A great deal can change overnight, but how much of what's changed is real? How much a dream? The fairies actions fabricate, yet balance, the emotions of the lovers. It's a true comedy because everything falls into place. Lysander loves Hermia, that's real. Hermia loves Lysander, that's real. Helena loves Demetrius, that's real. Demetrius loves Helena, that's debatable.

Finally, I'm curious to find if there are any parallels that conjoin Puck and the Mechanicals. Does Puck's story overlap with any of the actors' or their production's story, "Pyramus and Thisby"? Why these two? The obvious similarity, Puck is a jester and the troupe are the comic relief. It seems as if they're all individuals, lower workers, and/or wildcards.