A Midsummer Night's Dream · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare.
Skim names here — open a free preview to see character cards and Character Web beside the page as you read.
Demetrius
major
Also known as Lysander Demetrius, Demetrius Yea, Demetrius Ay, Demetrius Well roared
Demetrius holds Egeus's blessing to marry Hermia, but she loathes him, and he spurns Helena, who once had his oaths and now dogs his steps. His cruelty to Helena — 'I charge thee, hence' — exposes how love in Athens behaves like property and punishment. When he and Lysander chase the runaways into the wood, he becomes the play's clearest test case for whether affection is chosen or inflicted.
Lysander
major
Also known as Lysander One, Lysander Demetrius, Reenter Lysander, Lysander Proceed
Lysander is the romantic who talks his way past Egeus's fury and Theseus's law, arranging a midnight escape through Athens's gates. His confidence in 'reason' and 'the will of man' is exactly what the fairy wood dismantles, leaving him declaring love for the wrong woman while Hermia sleeps a few feet away. He matters because his overnight reversal turns private devotion into public chaos.
Hermia
major
Also known as fair Hermia, sweet Hermia, beauteous Hermia, gentle Hermia, Hermia Lysander, Hermia Methinks, Hermia Yea
Hermia stands accused by Egeus of being 'stubborn' and 'harden'd,' yet she answers Theseus with startling composure, asking to know the worst and choosing it anyway. Her bond with Helena — 'two lovely berries moulded on one stem' — is the play's tenderest friendship, and the wood's cruelty to it cuts deep. She drives the flight plot and gives the comedy its stake: a woman who will not be traded.
Helena
major
Also known as Helena Good Hermia, gentle Helena, This Helena, Helena of Athens, Helena Ay, Fair Helena, Helena So methinks, Helena Lo, Helena O
Helena opens the play comparing herself unfavorably to Hermia — 'I am as ugly as a bear' — and closes Act I deciding to betray her friend's escape for one more glimpse of Demetrius. Her pursuit of a man who spurns her is both comic and genuinely painful, and her long lament about love's blindness ('Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind') is the play's sharpest diagnosis of its own subject. She sets the chase in motion.
Oberon
major
Also known as Oberon Tarry, Enter Oberon, Oberon Advancing
Oberon is locked in a bitter quarrel with Titania over a changeling boy, and his response is not negotiation but enchantment — a flower struck by Cupid's arrow, squeezed onto sleeping eyes. He commands Puck with the casual authority of a king who assumes the world will rearrange itself on his word. His meddling turns four Athenian lovers into a tangle of misplaced desire, making him the engine of the play's central chaos.
Titania
major
Also known as Titania Sleep
Titania holds her ground against Oberon over the Indian boy, and her defiance — rooted in memory of the child's mother — is the one thing in the wood that will not bend to a king's will. Drugged with love-juice, she dotes on Bottom with lavish, uncomprehending tenderness, a queen reduced to adoring a monster. Her waking horror ('how mine eyes do loathe his visage now') restores the fairy marriage and lets the mortal plot resolve.
Puck
major
Also known as Puck Thou, sweet Puck, Puck This, Puck Ho, gentle Puck, the Puck, Robin Goodfellow, Robin
Puck is Oberon's servant and the fairy world's resident prankster, known to villagers as Robin Goodfellow: he skims milk, spoils ale, and leads night-wanderers astray for the sheer fun of it. His loyalty to Oberon is playful rather than solemn, and he treats even serious errands—like anointing a young Athenian's eyes with love-juice—as opportunities for mischief. That casual carelessness is what makes him matter: one wrong pair of eyes, and the play's romantic chaos is off and running.
Theseus
supporting
Also known as Duke Theseus, mighty Theseus, Theseus Pyramus, Theseus The, Theseus Moonshine
Theseus opens the play impatient for his nuptials with Hippolyta, the Amazon queen he won by conquest and now means to wed 'in another key.' When Egeus drags Hermia before him, Theseus upholds the harsh Athenian law—marriage, death, or a cloister—even while counseling her to obey. His authority frames the lovers' flight into the woods, making the forest's wild reversals a kind of answer to the rigid order he represents.
Hippolyta
supporting
Also known as fair Hippolyta, Hippolyta Methinks
Hippolyta stands beside Theseus as his conquered bride, soon to be Athens's duchess, and her few early lines reveal a poised, unflustered temperament. Where Theseus frets that the moon 'lingers' his desires, she answers that four nights will 'quickly dream away the time'—a gentle corrective that hints at the patience of a warrior who has already endured far worse. She anchors the court scenes with a stillness that the lovers' and fairies' frenzy will soon throw into relief.
Egeus
supporting
Also known as good Egeus, Egeus Scornful Lysander
Egeus arrives at Theseus's palace 'full of vexation,' accusing Lysander of stealing Hermia's heart with rhymes, rings, and moonlight serenades. He insists she marry Demetrius, and when she refuses, he invokes an Athenian law that lets a father dispose of his daughter absolutely. His unbending claim of ownership is the spark that sends the young lovers into the forest, where the play's real argument about who gets to choose love begins.
Nick Bottom
supporting
Also known as Bottom, Bottom Thisby, sweet Bottom, Nick Bottom, Bottom Good Master Mustardseed, Bottom Mounsieur Cobweb
Nick Bottom is the loudest of the 'rude mechanicals,' a crew of tradesmen rehearsing a play for Theseus's wedding, and he cannot resist auditioning for every role—Pyramus, Thisbe, even the lion. His comic self-importance is matched only by his good-natured obliviousness, which makes him the perfect target for Puck's prank. Transformed and doted on by Titania, he becomes the play's strangest love object, and his eventual return to his friends keeps the fairy mischief tethered to ordinary, hilarious humanity.
Peter Quince
supporting
Also known as Quince, Quince Bottom, Quince Francis Flute, Quince Flute, Quince Robin Starveling
Peter Quince is the organizer of the 'rude mechanicals,' the amateur troupe preparing 'Pyramus and Thisbe' for the Duke's wedding feast. He reads the scroll, hands out roles, and gently fends off Bottom's demands to play Pyramus, Thisbe, and the lion all at once—his exasperation is the quiet engine of the play's funniest scenes. By arranging the moonlit rehearsal in the palace wood, he unknowingly steers his actors straight into Puck's path.
Francis Flute
minor
Also known as Flute, Quince Francis Flute
Bellows-mender who plays Thisbe in the mechanicals' play.
Tom Snout
minor
Also known as Snout, Reenter Snout
Tinker who plays the Wall in the mechanicals' play.
Robin Starveling
minor
Also known as Robin Starveling, Quince Robin Starveling
Tailor who plays Moonshine in the mechanicals' play.
Philostrate
minor
Also known as Exit Philostrate
Master of revels to Theseus, arranges the wedding entertainment.
Peaseblossom
minor
Also known as Master Peaseblossom, Good Master Peaseblossom
One of Titania's fairy attendants.
Mounsieur Cobweb
minor
Also known as Mounsieur Cobweb, Bottom Mounsieur Cobweb, mounsieur
One of Titania's fairy attendants.
Good Master Mustardseed
minor
Also known as Bottom Good Master Mustardseed
One of Titania's fairy attendants.
Moth
minor
Also known as Moth Hail
One of Titania's fairy attendants.
