But first, so Silenthunder doesn't have to wait until the end: I think I could do the best job with Oberon, and maybe Robin Goodfellow or one of the six actors.
I'm having a bit of trouble with this review, honestly. William Shakespeare didn't write his stories to be consumed in the way that modern-day fiction is. Heck, the edition I have stressed that its presentation was meant to convey actors on a stage, rather than a fictional setting. Which annoyed me, because I always think of fiction as the events of another world. (This also confused me, for the record, when Goodfellow turned Bottom's head into that of a donkey, because the stage directions made me think he had simply placed a prop donkey head on Bottom, and didn't understand why the other actors freaked out so badly at a prop.)
But I'll try to talk about it in my usual way, if I can. As an ace-and-maybe-aro guy, I certainly appreciated the many ways A Midsummer Night's Dream mocked feelings of love and attraction for being irrational. I love that, in the confusion with the love-in-idleness nectar, both young en end up completely changing their feelings to the wrong lady. This, plus the detail that Demetrius was into another lady before he met Hermia, shows how shallow their romantic feelings are, but also how shallow their rivalry against one another is. I'm also amused by the fact that while Titania is smitten with donkey!Bottom, Bottom himself has no real reaction to the literal Queen of Fairies doting on him, and focuses all his interest on eating sweet food and having servants scratch his face during that time period. Bottom is my kind of guy; he's got a good, practical head on his shoulders, even though it's a donkey head for about half his page time.
I had heard about the so-called "Puck" as a character around the internet and such before reading AMND, so I was quite surprised to learn that it wasn't a name at all, but the species of fae creature he is, while his real name is Robin Goodfellow. And apparently Goodfellow was a "recurring" character in fairy legends of Shakespeare's time. It's interesting how a character who would have been recognized by nearly all of Shakespeare's audience in his time is now pretty much only remembered (in any general public sense) as a character in that play, and not even remembered by his proper name.
As far as I can remember, this is the first of Shakespeare's comedies I've read; all his other plays I've read so far have been the more serious drama ones. Honestly, I think I like the dramas better. They fit better tonally with the written medium, and just feel a bit more authentic and fleshed-out, like modern fiction presents itself. That said, I did like that the rhyming structure was more constant and structured in this play compared to his others I've read. (Or maybe I just remember the rhyming in the others well enough?) It was very poetic, and fit the tone of both the comic genre and the fae mythological elements that appear inside.
I can't help but feel that the Indian child Titania swapped with a changeling probably has a much more interesting life story than anything that actually happened in this play. I'd love to read an exploration of that off-page character some day.
I was expecting the play to end with all the effects of the love-in-idleness being erased, but it actually ends with Demetrius still enthralled. I was a little bothered at first, as it seemed weird that his marriage to Helena was being founded on mind-altering magic. But then I remembered that Demetrius and Helena had been courting before he met Hermia. I wonder if this is hinting that Helena is the woman Demetrius really wanted all along, and that he was going along with Egeus's marriage plans for economic or other reasons. The fairies, as a "force of nature" in a way, allow him to go back to thinking with his heart rather than his head, to allow him to marry for the right reasons, like he ought to be. Just a thought.
—doctorlit, nearly empty of scorpion venom by now
Hermia: What, can you do me greater harm than spoil?
Spoil me? Wherefore? O me, what news, my love?
What, can you do me greater harm than spoil?
Spoil me? Wherefore? O me, what news, my love?