A Midsummer Night's Dream is a complex play, one that
truly showcases Shakespeare's expertise as a playwright. There is not one but 4 separate
plots intertwined in the play.
Theseus and Hippolyta are
engaged to be married, and since Theseus is the Duke of Athens he acts as civil
arbitrator. He makes a ruling on the case regarding Egeus' defiant daughter, who wishes
to marry a man who is not the one her father has chosen for her. Meanwhile in the fairy
kingdom in the woods, King Oberon and his Queen Titania are fighting over a child
Titania refuses to hand over. Add in some bumbling actors trying to produce a play for
the Duke's entertainment, and some fairy magic, and the reader must realize why teachers
insist on students taking notes!
Several characters have
heroic qualities: Lysander for his romantic efforts, Nick Bottom for his strange and
magical journey, and Oberon for his winning ways. But perhaps Theseus comes closest to
the general answer of what a hero is. He wins over the woman he loves (for it is clear
she does not love him at the play's beginning), he uses wisdom and clarity to rule over
the case of Egeus' claim over his daughter, he is generous to the well-meaning drama
troupe who entertains the wedding guests, and he is blessed by the fairy king and queen
(with whom he apparently had an affair prior to his engagement to Hippolyta). He's
probably what one would consider "heroic."
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