The plot of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream" is not about the growth of a single character, but rather the interaction and entanglement between four groups of people with different lust and power hierarchies. The royalty, the lovers, the fairies, and the rustics represent different types of themes. The power dynamics between them are what make the story so intriguing. As these different groups interact with and influence each other in the forest, the audience gradually gains chances to grasp what the play is actually talking about，realizing it is not only about the conflict between the lovers.

 The royalty are the characters who first appear in the play. Theseus is excited and can’t wait for their upcoming wedding at the new moon. Theseus says this to Hippolyta: “Hippolyta, I woo’d thee with my sword/ And won thy love, doing thee injuries.”(Shakespeare, lines 16–17) From this dialogue, we can tell that the marriage between these two characters is not a simple willingness of love or an alliance, but rather a result of conquest. The fact that he obtained Hippolyta with his sword justifies the involuntary possession in love and marriage by placing love along with violence in the same sentence. Theseus emphasizes the victory, turning love into something that can be won by force. It established a standard structure for love at the beginning of the story, which is a patriarchal framework under the control of the father and the leaders. Then Egeus appears, accusing Hermia of not being willing to marry the one he decided. His control over Hermia proves the existence of the meaning of love and marriage in Athens, represented by Theseus. Theseus’s judgment on Hermia is not about love and the choice made by Hermia herself. It depends on the father’s decision and the law of Anthem. He told Hermia that those who violate the will of her father will be executed or forever barred from male, again pinpointing the framework where love is based on obedience, not free will. Royalty is the concrete background of the play, representing love controlled by power, and what they established leads to the plot that follows.

Then there are the lovers. The Lovers have the clearest storyline in the entire play, with the most conflicts and the most complete storytelling structure. They are consistent with traditional narrative structure. The cause is that Hermia is forced to marry Demetrius, but Hermia loves Lysander, while Helena loves Demetrius. The conflict is caused by the oppression of the system, regarding who should be with whom, and the rising action is the elopement of Lysander and Hermia into the forest. The climax of the story is when the potion makes Lysander and Demetrius both fall in love with Helena, leading to a fight between the two males and an argument between the two females, and showing the audience the blindness and fickleness of love. The final resolution is that Puck corrects the mistake. Theseus goes hunting in the forest, Hermia is allowed to marry Lysander, and Demetrius also chooses Helena. Finally, they return to Athens for their wedding. Shakespeare uses this storyline and the conflict between the lovers to show how love can destroy trust, tear apart friendships, and turn private emotions into a chain reaction. The love shown by the lovers is completely blind. Helena follows Demetrius to the point of self-humiliation. She is rejected and insulted by Demetrius multiple times, but she still remains unconcerned. She knows full well that her love is blind, as her own soliloquy: “And therefore is wing’d Cupid painted blind:/ Nor hath Love’s mind of any judgement taste;/ Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste:/ And therefore is Love said to be a child" (Shakespeare lines 234-238). Her love is not about really getting Demetrius, not a belief in the greatness of love, but about pursuing a kind narrative she desires. She places her self-worth in another’s hands, longing to be chosen. Demetrius’s coldness towards Helena and his endless pursuit of Hermia, seemingly similar to Helena’s love towards him, reveal an unequal nature of love. Shakespeare also uses the lovers to discuss the diverse nature of love. The friendship between Helena and Hermia is also a form of love, but their rivalry almost destroys it. During their argument in the forest, Helena tells Hermia, “Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me. / I evermore did love you, Hermia" (Shakespeare 307-308). Their relationship transformed from a friendship where they could lie together, confessing troubles to each other, into a brutal competition consisting of insults and suspicion. At the same time, Lysander’s love seems loyal and everlasting, but once the potion affects him, his attitude changes dramatically. His past promises to Hermia become the words that attack his lover. Through the lovers, Shakespeare shows how different types of love can influence each other, how they can activate the evil inside them, and how they lead to harm. These loves are a chain reaction of mutual reactions.

The Fairies’ power dynamics in love are similar to those of the Royalty. The conflict between Oberon and Titania is a power struggle. The ownership of the little boy reflects Oberon’s jealous view of the child of a dead mother as a resource, and at the same time, their argument is a resemblance to trying to get more rights over others. They repeat the power dynamic of the royalty. They share a similar structure where love of those who are in power is not only about the relationship itself, but a conflict of power. Both Oberon and Theseus tried to rule over love, the difference being the process of law or magic. Unlike the law, magic directly bypasses the process, through Puck’s execution, alters the Lovers’ and Titania’s feelings and choices. It manipulates people’s decisions forcefully. This allows the audience to realize that, whether in Athens or the Fairies, rulers can directly shape people’s decisions about love.

The reason these three groups of characters shed light on each other is that they are all revisiting similar discussions of love. Shakespeare uses these three groups of people to question whether love is a personal choice or something that can be assigned and rewritten, revealing the flaws of love through the entanglement of power and relationships. It also shows how, when power intervenes in love, the loyalty of love is quickly ended, and friendship and trust are destroyed. The royalty and the fairies are presented as two different power holders, while the lovers are shown as a consequence of power.

What makes “A Midsummer Night’s Dream" so compelling is that it doesn’t simply tell the story of one group of people. Shakespeare explores multiple themes through the interactions between different characters, discussing not only love but also his thoughts on imagination in theater, and so many more topics. Audiences can develop their own interpretations by connecting the interactions between the various characters.