Are you sure
That we are awake? It seems to me
That yet we sleep, we dream.
– William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 4, Scene 1. Demetrius says this after all the confusing events of the play are resolved. He says that the lovers feel as though they have been dreaming. He cannot tell whether everything is real or not. Shakespeare is suggesting that love is like a dream, real and vivid when you’re experiencing it, but then when it’s over you look back and think it wasn’t real.