The Poet

The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from Heaven to Earth, from Earth to Heaven.
And, as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination,
That if it would but apprehend some joy
It comprehends some bringer of that joy.

(V, I, 10-20).

In this quote by Theseus, Shakespeare shares his apparent philosophy on the poet's purpose.
The poet is supposed to bring joy to the lives of others by giving the imagination an outlet. The poet's pen "gives airy nothing a local habitation and a name." Shakespeare certainly accomplished that in A Midsummer Night's Dream. He connected the fanciful with reality, by writing about fairies and other fantasies coexisting in the same world as us. Fairy folk and mortals alike shared the same anxieties about love, and struggled with similar problems. I think that Shakespeare's ultimate goal in writing A Midsummer Night's Dream was to bring cheerfulness into the lives of the watchers, as shared in this quote.

It is impossible to be sad or angry while reading or watching A Midsummer Night's Dream. Shakespeare writes about pure human emotion and its effects in a way that connects splendidly to each reader.