English 9 – Shakespeare – A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Graphic Novel Adaptation

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a play by William Shakespeare written in about 1595. It follows multiple different plot arcs throughout the story, switching between 2 men fighting over different women, the works of a play developed by laborers, and the feud between the King and Queen of the Fairies over a young boy. In the first plot arc, lovers Lysander and Hermia try to work out their relationship amidst her father Egeus attempting to undo it, and the man who her father gave consent, Demetrius, helping Egeus, all the while being followed by Helena, Hermia’s strange friend. For the laborers, they decide to perform the play, ‘The A Very Tragic Comedy about The Horrible Deaths of Pyramus and Thisbe’, for the Duke and Duchess, Theseus and Hippolyta, on their wedding night. Tragedy strikes however, when the play’s lead, Nick Bottom, is found with a donkey’s head and is left in the forest. The feud between Oberon and Titania grows when Oberon puts Titania into a trance where she falls in love with Nick Bottom, who has a donkey’s head. The love potion he uses messes up the story for the other 2 arcs, mish-mashing them together. In the end, the problems are all solved, and Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena, and Theseus and Hippolyta watch the play given by the laborers.