William Shakespeare often compares imagination and reality in his works. Explore this comparison through the role and purpose of forests in A Midsummer Night's Dream and As You Like It. A Midsummer Night's Dream focuses on imagination and escape, while As You Like It focuses on reality and self-discovery. Imagination plays a key role in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Puck, a fairy servant and friend of Oberon, watches six Athenian men practice a play to be performed for Theseus' wedding in the forest. Puck turns Nick Bottom's head into that of a donkey. The other players see Bottom and run away screaming. He follows them by saying, “Sometimes I will be a horse, sometimes a hound, a pig, a headless bear, sometimes a fire.” “And neighs, barks, grunts, roars, and burns, like horse, hound, pig, bear, fire, at every turn” (3.1.110-113). Towards the end of the play Theseus and Hippolyta discuss what the four lovers have experienced. Theseus states: "I will never be able to believe in these ancient fables nor in these fairy toys." The madman, the lover and the poet are all united in the imagination" (5.1.2-3 and 5.1.7-8). At the end of the show the fairies arrive to bless the three couples. Puck tells us: "Now it is the hour of the night when all the tombs open wide, each one lets out his goblin, to slide on the paths of the churches." "And we fairies, who do not run from the team of the triple Hecate from the presence of the sun, following the darkness like a dream, now we're kidding. (5.1.396-404). Oberon and Titania sing: "So will all couples three ever true in love." "And the blemishes of Nature's hand will not resist in their cause. Never mole, harelip, nor scar, nor prodigious mark, such as those despised in nativity, will be on their children" (5.1.424-431)..... .. half of the paper... a person to escape reality. Through the Forest of Arden, a person has time to contemplate life. Or is life a dream, as Puck says: "If we shadows have wronged, think only of this, and all will be mended: what you have is but I slept here while these visions appeared. And this theme weak and idle, no longer yielding but a dream..." (5.1.440-445). Works Cited Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Comp. Folger Shakespeare Library. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperback, 2009. Print.Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream, trans. John Crowther, New York, New York : Simon & Schuster Paperback, 2009. Shakespeare, William As You Like It, trans. Gayle Hauppauge, NY: Barron's Educational Series, 2009.