In 1972, Ralph Berry argued that Shakespeare was chiefly concerned with epistemology in this play. The lovers declare illusion to be reality, the actors declare reality to be illusion. The play ultimately reconciles the seemingly opposing views and vindicates imagination. [47] Also in 1972, Thomas McFarland argued that the play is dominated by a mood of happiness and that it is one of the happiest literary creations ever produced. The mood is so lovely that the audience never feels fear or worry about the fate of the characters. [48] According to Kehler, significant 19th-century criticism began in 1808 with August Wilhelm Schlegel. Schlegel perceived unity in the multiple plot lines. He noted that the donkey's head is not a random transformation, but reflects Bottom's true nature. He identified the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe as a burlesque of the Athenian lovers. [32] In 1817, William Hazlitt found the play to be better as a written work than a staged production. He found the work to be "a delightful fiction" [32] but when staged, it is reduced to a dull pantomime. He concluded that poetry and the stage do not fit together. [32] Kehler finds the comment to be more of an indication of the quality of the theatrical productions available to Hazlitt, rather than a true indication of the play's supposed unsuitability to the stage. She notes that prior to the 1840s, all stage productions of this play were adaptations unfaithful to the original text. [32] Kopf, Dan (22 September 2016). "What Is Shakespeare's Most Popular Play?". Priceonomics . Retrieved 11 October 2022. As a public school superintendent, you must build and get funding to achieve the status of greatest public school district in the world.

A 1996 French film, The Apartment ( L'Appartement), directed by Gilles Mimouni, has many references to the play. A character is told a deep family secret that they must protect until their death, no matter how much it torments them. A peace treaty becomes a standoff when someone mistakenly makes an offensive gesture towards the other party. A roadside assistance technician stops to help a couple with their car, only to be roped into a strange affair. Charles Gildon in the early 18th century recommended this play for its beautiful reflections, descriptions, similes, and topics. Gildon thought that Shakespeare drew inspiration from the works of Ovid and Virgil, and that he could read them in the original Latin and not in later translations. [30]In 2011, Opera Memphis, Playhouse on the Square, and contemporary a cappella groups DeltaCappella and Riva, premiered Michael Ching's A Midsummer Night's Dream: Opera A Cappella. [93]

William Duff, writing in the 1770s, also recommended this play. He felt the depiction of the supernatural was among Shakespeare's strengths, not weaknesses. He especially praised the poetry and wit of the fairies, and the quality of the verse involved. [30] His contemporary Francis Gentleman, an admirer of Shakespeare, was much less appreciative of this play. He felt that the poetry, the characterisation, and the originality of the play were its strengths, but that its major weaknesses were a "puerile" plot and that it consists of an odd mixture of incidents. The connection of the incidents to each other seemed rather forced to Gentleman. [31] A character participates in a march for a cause they believe in when violence breaks out against the people. Upon his return home, Albertina awakens and describes a dream she has had: While making love to the Danish officer from her sexual fantasies, she had watched without sympathy as Fridolin was tortured and crucified before her eyes. Fridolin is outraged because he believes that this proves his wife wants to betray him. He resolves to pursue his own sexual temptations.In 1872, Henry N. Hudson, an American clergyman and editor of Shakespeare, also wrote comments on this play. Kehler pays little attention to his writings, as they were largely derivative of previous works. She notes, however, that Hudson too believed that the play should be viewed as a dream. He cited the lightness of the characterisation as supporting of his view. [39] In 1881, Edward Dowden argued that Theseus and his reflections on art are central to the play. He also argued that Theseus was one of the "heroic men of action" [39] so central to Shakespeare's theatrical works. [39] Horace Howard Furness defended A Midsummer Night's Dream from claims of inconsistency, and felt this did not detract from the quality of the play. [30] After their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, a group of women spend the rest of their road trip waiting for help. In 1887, Denton Jacques Snider argued that the play should be read as a dialectic, either between understanding and imagination or between prose and poetry. He also viewed the play as representing three phases or movements. The first is the Real World of the play, which represents reason. The second is the Fairy World, an ideal world which represents imagination and the supernatural. The third is their representation in art, where the action is self-reflective. Snider viewed Titania and her caprice as solely to blame for her marital strife with Oberon. She therefore deserves punishment, and Oberon is a dutiful husband who provides her with one. For failing to live in peace with Oberon and her kind, Titania is sentenced to fall in love with a human. And this human, unlike Oberon is a "horrid brute". [39] Broich, Ulrich (2006). "Oberon and Titania in the City Park: The Magic of Other Texts as the Subject of Der Park by Botho Strauß". In Jansohn, Christa (ed.). German Shakespeare Studies at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century. International studies in Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Newark, Delaware: University of Delaware Press. pp.144–60. ISBN 978-0-87413-911-2.