Acts I and II of A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Answering these questions may help you engage with this play.
1. What are the characters’ names in Act I? There are essentially two sets of
characters: the royalty (both human and fairy) and the working tradesmen
(mechanicals and fairy-servants).
2. What kinds of clues do we see in Act I that tell us what economic level they’re on?
3. What are the names of the fairies? What are their roles?
4. What is the setting for Act I (all scenes)?
5. What does Puck apply to Lysander’s eyes? Who applies the same thing to Titania’s?
6. Do the names of the characters reveal anything about them?
7. What clues can we find in both Acts I and II to make us think that love is out of
balance and why?
8. How were the women treated?
9. Which character says this quote from Act I, scene I, lines 132-34? (I.i.132-34).
10. Who speaks the lines in I.i.227-235?
Acts III, IV and V
1. In Act III, scene I, why are the tradesmen mechanicals meeting?
2. What transformational prank does Puck pull on one of the mechanicals, and which
worker is it?
3. One of the young female characters taunts the other one by calling her short. Which
one is shorter?
4. How does Puck keep the two young men from physically fighting?
5. Why do the two young women get in a fight?
6. Which one of them thinks she’s a victim of the young men’s prank (which isn’t their
fault, by the way!) ?
7. Describe Oberon and Titania’s relationship. Are they happy with one another?
8. Who is the Indian boy?
9. At the beginning of the play, how many weddings are scheduled? How many at the
end?
10. How does the situation with the young lovers wandering in the woods get resolved?
11. Who are Pyramis and Thisbe?
12. Why does Puck apologize to the audience?