Comment on the significance of the title with special reference to the word 'Dream' in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Dreams are clearly an essential part of this play, as is
made clear by the dream-like magic that occurs in the wood. In particular, it is key to
realise how they are explicitly associated with the chaotic events that occur in the
forest and how they relate to the chaotic arena of human emotions, as characters fall in
and out of love with each other and become transformed, if not in their affections, then
in their physical appearance. In particular, you might want to analyse the response of
characters when they "wake up" from their various "dreams" after leaving the forest. For
example, Bottom famously in Act IV scene 1 delivers a speech that points towards the
difficulties in quantifying and explaining dreams:

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I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say
what dream it was. Man is but an ass if he go about to expound this
dream.

Ironically he refers
to man being "an ass," which is of course something he has had recent experience of,
which helps point towards the imprecise and nebulous nature of
dreams.

Of course, the dreams that feature so heavily in
the play are related to the work of the fairies and magic, that help distort time and
make impossibilities possible. Magic and dreams are inextricably intertwined, and are
crucial to the way that this play presents us with a sense of illusion and unreality.
Consider how Puck ends the play in his final speech delivered directly to the
audience:

If
we shadows have offended,

Think but this, and all is
mended,

That you have but slumbered
here

While these visions did
appear.

And this weak and idle
theme,

No more yielding but a
dream.

Puck says that if we
have been offended by the play, we can pretent it is nothing more than a dream that can
therefore be forgotten and dismissed. There is an element of ironic humour in this final
speech, as Puck suggests that if we do not want to pay attention to the lessons the play
has to offer regarding how love impacts us and can change our affections so quickly, we
can, like the lovers, pretend it was just a dream and ignore such discomforting
lessons.