The significance of the magical forest in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'

Elizabethans believed that everyone had their place in society, a hierarchy they called The Great Chain of Being. To question or disrupt this hierarchy was a threat to society. The theatre was a place you could explore disorder because what was on stage wasn’t real life. It was even safer to explore disorder in a setting that wasn’t associated with law and order, a setting like a forest. Whilst much disorder takes place in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, order is restored at the end of the play.