Meanwhile, Bottom wakes up and thinks he’s still practicing the play with his friends. He begins to speak his lines, which were interrupted by Puck’s spell the night before. At Peter Quince’s house, Bottom’s friends are gathered, wondering what on earth has happened to their pal. When Bottom walks in, they’re overjoyed to see him back to normal. Act 5 is the last act of the play. It includes the weddings of all three couples: Theseus and Hippolyta, Lysander and Hermia, and Demetrius and Helena. The Duke and Duchess decide to hear the play performed by Bottom and his friends, and settle back to watch the play-within-a-play. A Midsummer Night’s Dream ends with the married couples going off to bed and a blessing on the mortal couples by Puck, Oberon, and Titania. Puck’s last speech concludes the play. This play has both a realistic and fantastic setting. It begins in the court of Athens, but also includes the world of the fairies and the enchanted woods. All turns out well in the end, as comedies traditionally did in Shakespeare’s time. This comedy ends with the happy occasion of not just one wedding, but three.

Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Drama
Sophocles and Shakespeare were the founders of a great dramatic tradition. Later playwrights have used the theater in different ways to tell stories and to provoke thought. In this section, you’ll be looking at nineteenth- and twentiethcentury plays to gain understanding of how theater has evolved and changed over the years.