"A Midsummer Night's Dream": The Athenian Lovers vs The Craftsmen

The Athenian lovers and the craftsmen share symbolic similarities, but in reality they are very different. The Athenian lovers are so serious that they are the cause to their own misfortunes. On the other hand, the craftsmen are so idiotic and clumsy that they cause their own issues as well. The play the craftsmen put on in Act V, scene i, is a play-within-a-play that represents the important themes from the main plot. Both plays are about the difficulty of love, but since the craftsmen are such terrible actors, their play is a satire of the melodramatic Athenian lovers. Both sets of lovers (Lysander-Hermia and Pyramus-Thisbe) have parents preventing any public display of affection, so they can only meet at night. Lysander and Hermia plan to flee in the dead of night so they can marry, while Pyramus and Thisbe meet only at night. Both pairs of lovers encounter pain and suffering that is brought on by their relationships. The Athenian lovers suffering is brought on by Puck’s mix up when he charmed Lysander instead of Demetrius, so he falls in love with Helena, much to the dismay of Hermia. Pyramus believes that a lion killed Thisbe, so he kills himself and when Thisbe returns and realizes Pyramus is dead, she too commits suicide. The craftsmen’s play-within-a-play is more tragic and shares more similarities to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but it is performed so poorly it is received as comedy to the characters watching the play and the audience. Even though the play-within-a-play has a tragic ending, the characters are all happy and celebrate their love. It is the comedic presentation of the powerful emotions experienced by the lovers that makes the play-within-a-play a symbol for A Midsummer Night’s Dream.