Analysis of the title allows for thoughts on the four words that make it up— “a”, “midsummer”, “night’s”, “dream”—and for consideration of their combination. The indefinite article, “a”, opening the affair, the title sports an irreverent tone, implying an everyday nature to the events of the play. “Midsummer” references the festival of Midsummer’s Day, while neatly introducing part of the temporal setting. (Please see the section The Natural World → Midsummer’s Day and May Day for more information on midsummer.) “Night” further expands on setting, evoking thought of the shadowy and indefinite perception of nighttime happenings; a certain feral quality is introduced, in addition to suggestively carnal. “Dream”, the most open-ended of all, may initially evoke the idea of ambition (a form of desire), or otherwise sleeping. The possessive in “night’s” may feel, initially, an excessive specification that the dream in question is of the night, and may subsequently begin to suggest the more elusive feeling of a dream. In combination, it is the indefinite article, “a”, that gives, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, a certain quality of a shrug and wink. 

In consideration of the title with the context of the plot and narrative, the title refers to the events of Day 2 of the plot, from the perspective of Day 3’s morning, in which the lovers and Bottom wake up with memories of the previous night as a “dream.” (Please see the section The Play → Timeline for more information on the timeline of the story.) The irreverence of the title falls in line with the fairies’, especially Puck’s, epilogue, blessing the house and asking the audience to think of the play as a dream if it offends at all. In a way, then, the title grants ownership of the events of the play to the fairies, who in fact are the drivers of conflict and resolution. Thus, walking away from the night, audience members may in fact remember this “Dream” as a mystical one, indeed a “dream.”