<P> Prior to the Christian St. John's Day, in Ancient Greece, marking Midsummer was an event called Adonia . It was the first festive day (and night) when Adonis was allowed to depart the underworld to spend six months with his paramour, Aphrodite . It was considered a time to celebrate the first bliss of new and reunited lovers . The wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta and the mistaken and waylaid lovers, Titania and Bottom, even the erstwhile acting troupe, model various aspects (and forms) of love . </P> <P> Both David Wiles of the University of London and Harold Bloom of Yale University have strongly endorsed the reading of this play under the themes of Carnivalesque, Bacchanalia, and Saturnalia . Writing in 1998, David Wiles stated that: "The starting point for my own analysis will be the proposition that although we encounter A Midsummer Night's Dream as a text, it was historically part of an aristocratic carnival . It was written for a wedding, and part of the festive structure of the wedding night . The audience who saw the play in the public theatre in the months that followed became vicarious participants in an aristocratic festival from which they were physically excluded . My purpose will be to demonstrate how closely the play is integrated with a historically specific upper - class celebration ." </P> <P> David Bevington argues that the play represents the dark side of love . He writes that the fairies make light of love by mistaking the lovers and by applying a love potion to Titania's eyes, forcing her to fall in love with an ass . In the forest, both couples are beset by problems . Hermia and Lysander are both met by Puck, who provides some comic relief in the play by confounding the four lovers in the forest . However, the play also alludes to serious themes . At the end of the play, Hippolyta and Theseus, happily married, watch the play about the unfortunate lovers, Pyramus and Thisbe, and are able to enjoy and laugh at it . Helena and Demetrius are both oblivious to the dark side of their love, totally unaware of what may have come of the events in the forest . </P> <P> There is a dispute over the scenario of the play as it is cited at first by Theseus that "four happy days bring in another moon". The wood episode then takes place at a night of no moon, but Lysander asserts that there will be so much light in the very night they will escape that dew on the grass will be shining like liquid pearls . Also, in the next scene, Quince states that they will rehearse in moonlight, which creates a real confusion . It is possible that the Moon set during the night allowing Lysander to escape in the moonlight and for the actors to rehearse, then for the wood episode to occur without moonlight . Theseus's statement can also be interpreted to mean "four days until the next month". Another possibility is that, since each month there are roughly four consecutive nights that the moon is not seen due to its closeness to the sun in the sky (the two nights before the moment of new moon, followed by the two following it), it may in this fashion indicate a liminal "dark of the moon" period full of magical possibilities . This is further supported by Hippolyta's opening lines exclaiming "And then the moon, like to a silver bow New - bent in heaven, shall behold the night of our solemnities ."; the thin crescent - shaped moon being the hallmark of the new moon's return to the skies each month . The play also intertwines the Midsummer Eve of the title with May Day, furthering the idea of a confusion of time and the seasons . This is evidenced by Theseus commenting on some slumbering youths, that they "observe The rite of May". </P>

Who gets married in a midsummer nights dream