This lively and informative guide reveals A Midsummer Night's Dream as a play rich in all types of language - figurative, gestural, gendered and idiomatic - and a comedy in which language is misused. It is an ideal play from which to explore Shakespeare's imaginative and creative use of language as dramatic and poetic text. The Language and Writing series offers a new type of study aid which combines lively critical insight with practical guidance on the critical and writing skills students need to develop in order to engage fully with Shakespeare's texts. The books' core focus is on language: both understanding and enjoying Shakespeare's rich and complex dramatic language, and the student's own critical language and how she can improve and develop this to become a critical writer.