A Midsummer Night's Dream: Act 5, scene 2

The color-coded bars in this section make it easy to track the themes throughout the work. Each color corresponds to one of the themes explained in the Themes section of this LitChart. For instance, indicates that all five themes apply to that part of the summary.

Summary Analysis Themes

Puck enters, followed by Oberon, Titania and their fairy followers. They dance and sing to bless the three marriages and all the children the marriages will produce.

Oberon’s “comedy” ends with everything resolved and the marriages blessed.

Everyone exits but Puck, who delivers an epilogue, in which he advises the audience that “If we shadows have offended” (5.1.440), they should just think of the play as if it was a dream.

Puck extends the idea of dreams and plays within plays out into the world. After all, hasn’t the audience, like the lovers earlier, had a collective dream?