A Midsummer Night's Dream

Theseus

Duke of Athens, betrothed to Hippolyta and host of the wedding festivities. He rules on Hermia’s marriage dispute and orders the lovers’ marriages.

Hippolyta

Queen of the Amazons, betrothed to Theseus. She joins him in welcoming the lovers and attending the wedding festivities.

Philostrate

Master of the Revels to Theseus, who organizes the wedding entertainment and presents the amateur play.

Egeus

Hermia’s father, who wants her to marry Demetrius and invokes Athenian law when she refuses.

Hermia

Daughter of Egeus, in love with Lysander and initially pursued by Demetrius. She flees Athens with Lysander and is eventually freed to marry him.

Demetrius

Athenian suitor whom Egeus favors for Hermia. He once loved Helena, then pursues Hermia, but ultimately returns to Helena and marries her.

Lysander

Athenian in love with Hermia, who plans to flee with her. Under a fairy charm he briefly loves Helena, but the charm is undone and he marries Hermia.

Helena

In love with Demetrius and Hermia’s childhood friend. She follows Demetrius into the woods and eventually wins his love and marries him.

Lysander’s widow aunt

A wealthy, childless aunt who lives outside Athens and regards Lysander as her only son. She offers the lovers a refuge beyond Athenian law.

Nedar

Helena’s father, mentioned by Lysander and Egeus; he does not appear directly.

Peter Quince

Also known as Quince

A carpenter who organizes the amateur actors and directs their play for Theseus’s wedding.

Nick Bottom

Also known as Bottom

A weaver who plays Pyramus in Quince’s play. Puck gives him an ass’s head, and Titania falls in love with him under a spell.

Francis Flute

Also known as Flute

A bellows-mender who plays Thisbe in the amateur play.

Robin Starveling

Also known as Starveling

A tailor who is assigned the role of Thisbe’s mother, and later Moonshine, in the amateur play.

Tom Snout

Also known as Snout

A tinker who is assigned Pyramus’s father, and later Wall, in the amateur play.

Snug

A joiner assigned the lion’s role in the amateur play.

Oberon

King of the fairies and Titania’s husband. He uses a love charm to make Titania surrender the Indian boy she is raising, then blesses the wedding household.

Titania

Queen of the fairies and Oberon’s wife. She raises the son of a deceased mortal friend and briefly falls under a spell that makes her love Bottom.

Puck

Also known as Robin Goodfellow · Hobgoblin

A mischievous fairy who serves Oberon and uses magic to meddle with the lovers. He mistakenly charms Lysander, gives Bottom an ass’s head, and later helps restore order.

Fairy serving Titania

An unnamed fairy who serves Titania and tells Puck about the quarrel between Oberon and the queen.

Titania’s Indian boy

Also known as changeling boy · lovèd boy · page

The son of a mortal woman who was Titania’s friend. Titania raises him after his mother dies, and Oberon wants him as a page.

Indian boy’s mother

Also known as Titania’s vot’ress

A mortal woman who was devoted to Titania and died after giving birth to the boy Titania raises. She is described as Titania’s friend.

Corin

A figure Oberon allegedly impersonated while playing pipes and singing to Phillida; mentioned by Titania and does not appear directly.

Phillida

A figure to whom Titania alleges Oberon sang in the guise of Corin; she does not appear directly.

Perigenia

A woman whom Titania says Theseus left after ravishing her; she is mentioned but does not appear directly.

Aegles

A woman whom Titania says Theseus loved after breaking faith with Ariadne and Antiopa; she is mentioned but does not appear directly.

Ariadne

A woman whom Titania says Theseus was unfaithful to; she is mentioned but does not appear directly.

Antiopa

A woman whom Titania says Theseus was unfaithful to; she is mentioned but does not appear directly.

Cupid

Also known as Love

A personified god of love whose arrow strikes a flower and gives it the power to inspire sudden love. Oberon recounts seeing Cupid aim at a vestal.

The fair vestal

Also known as imperial votress

An unnamed chaste woman whom Cupid’s arrow fails to strike; Oberon says she passes by in maiden meditation. She is mentioned but does not appear directly.

Neptune

A sea god invoked in Titania’s account of sitting with the Indian boy’s mother on the shore; mentioned but does not appear directly.

Venus

A goddess invoked in comparisons of beauty and love; she does not appear directly.

Diana

A goddess whose altar is named as a place where Hermia could vow to remain unmarried, and whose herb can undo Cupid’s flower charm.

Pyramus

A lover in the amateur play who dies for love of Thisbe. Bottom plays him.

Thisbe

Pyramus’s beloved in the amateur play. Flute plays her.

Wall

A character in the amateur play who represents the wall through whose crack Pyramus and Thisbe speak. Snout plays the role.

Moonshine

A character in the amateur play who represents moonlight. Starveling plays the role.

Lion

A character in the amateur play whose appearance frightens Thisbe. Snug plays the role.

Mistress Squash

Cobweb’s mother, mentioned by Bottom; she does not appear directly.

Master Peascod

Peaseblossom’s father, mentioned by Bottom; he does not appear directly.

Peaseblossom

A fairy who attends Titania and is assigned to serve Bottom during his enchantment.

Cobweb

A fairy who attends Titania and is assigned to serve Bottom during his enchantment.

Moth

A fairy who attends Titania and is assigned to serve Bottom during his enchantment.

Mustardseed

A fairy who attends Titania and is assigned to serve Bottom during his enchantment.

Hercules

A mythic hero whom Hippolyta recalls accompanying on a hunt in Crete; Theseus also calls him his kinsman. He is mentioned but does not appear directly.

Cadmus

A figure Hippolyta recalls accompanying on a hunt in Crete; he is mentioned but does not appear directly.

The forester

An unnamed person Theseus orders an attendant to find before the hunt; does not appear directly.

First Fairy

An unnamed fairy who sings to protect Titania from harmful creatures and spells.

Second Fairy

An unnamed fairy who announces that all is well and tells another fairy to stand sentinel.

Fairy sentinel

An unnamed fairy assigned to keep watch while Titania sleeps.

Attendant sent to find the forester

An unnamed attendant of Theseus, sent to find the forester before the hunt.

Helen

A woman whose beauty is invoked as a comparison by Theseus; mentioned but does not appear directly.

Prologue

An unnamed performer who introduces the amateur play and explains its story to the wedding guests.

Ninus

A person whose tomb is named as the lovers’ meeting place in the amateur play; he does not appear directly.

Limander

A figure Pyramus names as a comparison for his faithfulness to Thisbe; mentioned but does not appear directly.

Shafalus

A figure Pyramus names in a comparison of faithfulness to Procrus; mentioned but does not appear directly.

Procrus

A figure Thisbe names in a comparison of faithfulness to Shafalus; mentioned but does not appear directly.

Hecate

Also known as triple Hecate

A goddess whose team the fairies are said to follow through the darkness; she does not appear directly.