A Midsummer Night’s Dream Characters

He is essential to the plot of the play. He is also known as Robin Goodfellow, is a fairy with magical powers who serves Oberon. He is a figure from English folk legend, mischievous but not malevolent. He is a loyal servant but is liable to misinterpreting instructions, and he likes to have a bit of fun of his own while he's carrying out Oberon's missions

A weaver who will be performing in Quince's play at Theseus's wedding. He is a "mechanical," a lower-class figure introduced for comic effect. Puck gives him the head of a donkey and makes Titania fall in love with him. His extreme self-confidence, despite his foolish ideas and manner, serves as a point of humor throughout the play—particularly when he is paired with the elegant Titania, who has been enchanted into thinking she loves him.

Also a young woman of a noble Athenian family, she is in love with Demetrius. Though they were betrothed (engaged), the fickle Demetrius deserted Helena to court her friend Hermia—a match Hermia's father approves of.

The daughter of Egeus, an Athenian noble. She is in love with Lysander, but her father wishes her to marry Demetrius instead. When her father tells the duke of her disobedience, Theseus informs her that she must obey Egeus or face the consequences: life in a nunnery or death.

A young man in love with Hermia. Although Hermia's father, Egeus, would prefer her to marry Demetrius, he does not relent. When pleading their case to Thesus fails to work, he suggests to Hermia that they run away to his aunt's house. Since she dwells outside of Athens, they will be free from the duke's rule and may marry.

A somewhat fickle young man, he was initially in love with—and betrothed (engaged) to—Helena but switched his affections to Hermia upon seeing her for the first time. With the support of Egeus, he pursues Hermia relentlessly at the beginning of the play, even though she has openly declared her love for Lysander.

A legendary duke of Athens. When the play opens, he is preparing to marry Hippolyta, the former queen of the Amazons. He is known in legend for his wisdom and sense of justice.

The queen of the Amazons. She is captured by Theseus and forced to become his wife.

An Athenian noble and Hermia's father. He wishes his daughter to make an advantageous marriage to Demetrius. When Hermia refuses, on account of her love for Lysander, he involves the duke and implores him to enforce the law, which states that Hermia must obey him or suffer dire consequences.

The king of the fairies and a being with magical powers. He is feuding with his wife, Titania, over a changeling boy, whom he wants for a knight. During their feud, he uses magic to make Titania fall in love with Bottom, but he later restores her to her senses.

The queen of the fairies, she is beautiful and regal. She refuses to relinquish a changeling boy to her husband, and their feud over the boy leads her husband to give her a love potion. Under the influence of the potion, she becomes infatuated with Bottom, whom Puck has enchanted to have the head of an ass. After Oberon claims the changeling boy, he restores her to her senses.

A carpenter, is the director of the bumbling troop of craftsmen ("mechanicals") rehearsing the play to present at the wedding of Theseus. Though he is the director, he is often overshadowed by the Bottom, who confidently offers unsolicited and silly advice on how the play should be performed.

A bellows-mender by occupation, he is cast as Thisbe in the craftsmen's production of Pyramus and Thisbe. He isn't pleased to have been cast in the role of a woman, and he decides that he should adopt a falsetto voice for his speaking parts.

A joiner who is cast as the lion in the craftsmen's play. He worries about remembering his lines, until he's informed that his only job is to roar. The role of the lion is later revised to include a disclaimer that he is not, in fact, a lion—added due to the craftsmen's fear that his portrayal of a lion might frighten any ladies in the audience.

He is a tailor. He starts out in the role of Thisbe's mother but ends up with the role of Moonshine.