Supporting characters, who help out the main characters, are not given similar spotlight as major characters do even when they are the important source of revelation in the story. They help guide the main character in creating the major plot and even offer hope, a new perspective, and principal themes of the story. A comedy play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, written by William Shakespeare portrays unskilled actors playing Pyramus and Thisbe and the adventure of four young star-crossed lovers against a misguided parent and the lovers interactions with the world of the Fairy King and Queen. Within the plot, Puck, a fairy, is a minor character that serves the king of the fairies, Oberon. Throughout the play, Puck is given important orders from Oberon such as fetching flower with magic love juice to humiliate his wife, sprinkling the juice in the “Athenian man’s” eyes to fix the main characters’ love problem, …show more content…
and making everything seem like a dream at the end of the play to seal all the problems that have happened. These orders are taken by Puck which progressed the storyline giving him an important role to shine in the play. Throughout the play, Shakespeare used social commentary about gender roles in society which was dangerous at times, and comic reliefs, humor added into a piece of writing after an intense scene to lighten up the mood, which is a very important element to keep the story interesting and entertaining. Puck is the true heart and soul of the play due to the fact that he provides a comic relief, highlights the major theme, and creates the major conflict despite being a minor character. Puck is well-known for his love of playing tricks on people which are also known as a comic relief in the story. In intense circumstances where there is a significant amount of problem within the acting crew during their rehearsal time for a forthcoming play, he turns Bottom, one of the actors, into a head of a donkey because he deemed that Bottom was very narcissistic and a horrible performer. This already gives comedic relief because Bottom is the best character that is suited for being an ass and Puck literally made him a bottom; the fact that Bottom does not know that he is looking like an ass contributes to the humor. Furthermore, this makes his mistress, Titania, fall in love with a mortal with a head of an ass. Puck gleefully declares, “My mistress with a monster is in love” (III.ii.6). It is even more entertaining since she fell in love against her will and exclaimed how handsome Bottom is which is not true at all. This comedic relief that Puck provides throughout the play is very significant because this makes A Midsummer Night’s Dream, more playful creating a fun overall atmosphere which matches his personality and enhancing the entertainment value in the play. Not only does Puck create the overall mood of the play and save the entertainment value but also does bring out the major theme of illusion versus reality in the story. In order to not offend the people in power through his social commentary, he mostly ended his play with this particular theme, illusion versus reality, and usually stated that this only occurred in the theatrical world “of illusion” unlike the everyday world of “reality”. As Puck is ending the play, he states, “If we shadows have offended… all is mended— That you have but slumbered here while these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding but a dream” (V.i.440-445). This directly tells the audience that this play means no harm to anyone and this can be taken realistically or unrealistically depending on one’s preference and provokes people to think outside the box to the world with different gender roles than the gender roles in the Elizabethan Era. Because of Puck’s image of being silly, the monarchy would have taken this whole thing as a humorous joke which stopped them from feeling threatened; this was extremely important part in this time period thus making Puck a character with an important role. Puck has another important role in the play as a developer of the plot.
He is ordered to sprinkle the magic love juice in the “Athenian man’s” eyes to fix the main characters’ love problem by Oberon. Through miscommunication and unclearness of the direction, Puck accidently puts the love juice into a different Athenian man’s eyes making the love relationship more complicated. He finds this out through Oberon when he comments, “What hast thou done? Thou hast mistaken quite, and laid the love juice on some true love’s sight. Of thy misprision must perforce ensue some true love turned, and not a false turned true” (III.ii.90-94). When the fate of the lovers completely changes, he creates the main conflict in the story because without him, the plot would have ended with one single drop of love juice fixing the star-crossed-ness between the lovers. However, with the mistake that Puck makes while trying to achieve the solution it develops the conflict continuing the story line. Thus, making Puck an important character because he is the one who expands the major
problem. Some critics argue that the lovers are the most important characters instead of Puck because they are independent. Their own star-crossed relationship caused the disapproval of the parent leading to the interaction with Oberon. Additionally, they believe Puck only became the important character because of the problems that the lovers had in the beginning of the play and ways Oberon controlled him with his orders such as forcing him to put magic love juice into the eye of an Athenian man. However, though the lovers are independent in the beginning of the play, the play comes down to whether the relationship can be mended and only Oberon and Puck have the ability to do so. Also, Puck can not be fully controlled by Oberon; Oberon wanted him to apply the love juice onto a specific person but Puck fails to do so since Oberon cannot control each and every movement that Puck takes. Puck becomes the most important character by the end of the play since the lovers now depend on him to undo the magic and Oberon cannot fully control Puck with his orders. Shakespeare created the character, Puck, in order to provide light-hearted scenes that add playfulness and entertainment value in the whole play and Puck becomes a more significant character as the book goes along with more roles such as emphasizing the main message in the play and causing a major conflict. This play illustrates that spotlight and attention do not measure how important a character in a play is. What truly matters is the role of the character and how that one character can impact the overall story plot. Not only is this used in the early years of English language such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare but also is applicable to today’s text.
In Shakespeare’s Midsummer’s Night Dream he entices the reader using character development, imagery, and symbolism. These tools help make it a wonderful play for teens, teaching them what a well-written comedy looks like. As well as taking them into a story they won’t soon forget.
He sends his jester, Puck, to use a flower that, if its juice is dropped onto someone who’s sleeping’s eyes, will make the person fall madly in love with the first person they lie their eyes on. “Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove; A sweet Athenian lady is in love with a disdainful youth; anoint his eyes; but do it when the next thing he espies may be the lady. Thou shalt know the man by the Athenian garments he hath on. ”(64) Puck, following Oberon’s orders, finds Lysander and Hermia instead of Demetrius and Helena.
Oberon starts a chain of problems by ordering Puck to bring the flower from which the love juice can be created. Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell: /It fell upon a little western flower, /Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound, /And maidens call it love-in-idleness. /Fetch me that flower; the herb I shew'd thee once: /The juice of it on sleeping eye-lids laid /Will make or man or woman madly dote /Upon
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s most popular and frequently performed comical plays (Berardinelli). The play transformed into a cinematic production by Michael Hoffman has not changed in its basic plot and dialogue, but the setting and some character traits have. The play setting has been gracefully moved from 16th century Greece to 19th century Tuscany (Berardinelli). The addition of bicycles to the play affects the characters in that they no longer have to chase each other around the woods, but can take chase in a more efficient fashion. As far as characters are concerned, Demetrius is no longer the smug and somewhat rude character we find in act 1, scene 1 (Shakespeare pg. 6, line 91), but rather a seemingly indifferent gentleman placed in an unfortunate circumstance set to delay his wedding to Hermia. Perhaps the most noticeable change in the character set from stage to film occurs in the characters of Puck and Nick Bottom.
Next, the misuse of magic causes conflict among the four Athenian lovers. When Puck mistakenly applies the love potion to Lysander’s eyelids. At this point, both male characters of the main plot have fallen in love with Helena, leaving Hermia out of balance. The struggle of the four lovers is one of the more complicated conflicts in the play. The conflict could have been avoided if Puck did not misuse his magic. However, because Puck mistakenly used his magic on Lysander, conflict erupted.
There is drama caused between the young lovers initially, when Hermia loves Lysander, Lysander loves Hermia, Demetrius loves Hermia, Helena loves Demetrius, but no one loves Helena. Through this short, complicated ‘love story’, arguments and fights occur. The fairy world then comes into contact with the world of the young lovers. Mischievous Puck causes further complications when he uses magic to anoint a young Athenian male’s eyes, who is in fact the wrong Athenian that Oberon assigned Puck. Puck misuses magic when he plays a silly prank on Bottom, who is one of the Mechanicals, by giving Bottom a head of an ass.
Similar to other works by Shakespeare, such as The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream embellishes the pressures that arise between genders dealing with complicated family and romantic situations. The plot includes a duke who is going to marry a woman he conquered in battle, the king and queen of the fairies embroiled in a fight so fierce that it unbalances the natural world, and a daughter fighting with her father for her right to marry the man she chooses. The girl’s father selects Demetrius to marry his daughter, but she is in love with another man, Lysander, who loves her in return, and her friend Helena is in love Demetrius, but he wants nothing to do with her. Considering the fact that males were dominant during that era, whereas, men chased women, and women remained submissive, Shakespeare dallies with those traditional roles and there are several possible reasons why. Perhaps he made women a stronger force in his plays because he wanted to give his audience a break fr...
William Shakespeare’s writings are famous for containing timeless, universal themes. A particular theme that is explored frequently in his writings is the relationship between men and women. A Midsummer Night’s Dream contains a multitude of couplings, which are often attributed to the fairies in the play. Each of these pairings has positive and negative aspects, however, some relationships are more ideal than others. From A Midsummer Night’s Dream the optimal pairings are Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena, and Oberon and Titania; while the less desirable pairings are Theseus and Hippolyta, Hermia and Demetrius, Lysander and Helena, and Titania and Bottom. Throughout A Midsummer
Even when he did put the love juice into the right people's eyes, they still fell in love with the wrong people sometimes. The first example of this mistake of Puck's is where he puts the love juice in Lysander's eyes, mistaking him for Demetrius. Oberon tells Puck to put the love juice in the eyes of an Athenian man, Demetrius, and to make sure that the first thing he sees after this is the woman whom he hates, but who loves him so much, Helena. Puck ends up finding Lysander and Hermia, lovers, sleeping on the forest floor. He puts the love juice in Lysander's eyes and leaves.
...eatured one last time in the epilogue to this scene, where he tells the audience that if they do not enjoy the play, they should think of it as nothing more than a dream. If the audience does enjoy the play, they should give Puck "their hands," or applaud. Thus Puck is cleaning up for more than the fairies problems in the last soliloquy, as he cleans up for the entire play as well. Both of the fools were necessary in this play. Puck's tricks and loyalty makes Oberon's goals and the happiness of the lovers possible. Bottom's foolishness provides for comedy for both the characters in the play and the audience, and it’s his transformation which enables Oberon to obtain the boy from Titania. Puck, Oberon's fool, and Bottom, the fool of the play, both provide comedy and some-what intelligent observations, which make them an important part of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Love, lust and infatuation all beguile the senses of the characters in this dreamy and whimsical work of Shakespeare, and leads them to act in outlandish ways, which throughly amuses the reader. True love does prevail in the end for Hermia and Lysander, and the initial charm of infatuation ends up proving to have happy consequence for Helena and Demetrius as well. Even when at first the reader thinks that, in theory, the effects the potion will wear off and Lysander will once again reject Helena, Oberon places a blessings on all the couples that they should live happily ever after.
The entire cast of A Midsummer Night Dream was full of many, many fun and interesting characters. They kept the play alive and intriguing as they each had very separate personalities. Each person was alive and left a very vivid impression in our brains after reading through the play. It is very hard just to choose one particular favorite character as they all are amazing. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, my personal favorite character would have to be Hermia because she is loving, virtuous, and patient.
The Role Of Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream & nbsp; The role and character of Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, is not only entertaining, but quite useful. & nbsp; William Shakespeare seems to have created the character of Puck from his own childhood. In Shakespeare's time it was believed that fairies and little people did exist. Whenever something went wrong around the farmyard or house or village, incidents such as buckets of milk ‘accidentally' spilling over, or tools suddenly disappearing, or doors opening for no reason, it was blamed on ‘ those damn little people are amazing! i.e. a sym & nbsp; The idea of Puck's character is a lovely one. One can't help but be attracted to him and his innocent, little pranks. He is also known by the name Robin Goodfellow. The audience can only see this ‘Robin Goodfellow' side of. Puck when he is trying to fix something he disrupted, hence the name Goodfellow. & nbsp; When compared to Oberon, King of the Fairies and Titania, Queen of the Fairies and the remaining fairies of the play, Puck does not seem to fit in as well. well. While Oberon and Titania belong to the forest and the world of dainty fairies, a small village setting seems more appropriate for Puck. He is the type of fairy that likes to be around mortals and cause them trouble, as opposed to the snare. to other fairies. This is why Puck's little job with a love potion and a young couple is perfect for him and perfect for the job. & nbsp; Puck is a likable character who tends to create mischief around himself.
Love plays a very significant role in this Shakespearian comedy, as it is the driving force of the play: Hermia and Lysander’s forbidden love and their choice to flee Athens is what sets the plot into motion. Love is also what drives many of the characters, and through readers’ perspectives, their actions may seem strange, even comical to us: from Helena pursuing Demetrius and risking her reputation, to fairy queen Titania falling in love with Bottom. However, all these things are done out of love. In conclusion, A Midsummer Night’s Dream displays the blindness of love and how it greatly contradicts with reason.
William Shakespeare, born in 1594, is one of the greatest writers in literature. He dies in 1616 after completing many sonnets and plays. One of which is "A Midsummer Night’s Dream." They say that this play is the most purely romantic of Shakespeare’s comedies. The themes of the play are dreams and reality, love and magic. This extraordinary play is a play-with-in-a-play, which master writers only write successfully. Shakespeare proves here to be a master writer. Critics find it a task to explain the intricateness of the play, audiences find it very pleasing to read and watch. "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" is a comedy combining elements of love, fairies, magic, and dreams. This play is a comedy about five couples who suffer through love’s strange games and the evil behind the devious tricks. This play begins as Theseus, the Duke, is preparing to marry Hippolyta. He woos her with his sword. Hermia is in love with Lysander. Egeus, Hermia’s father, forbids the relationship with Lysander and orders her to marry Demetrius. Demetrius loves Hermia, but she does not love him. On the other hand, Helena is in love with Demetrius. To settle the confusion, Theseus decides that Hermia must marry Demetrius or become a nun. In retaliation to her father’s command, Hermia and Lysander run away together. Amidst all the problems in the human world, Titania and Oberon, the fairy queen and king, continually argue about their various relationships that they have taken part in. (Scott 336) Titania leaves Oberon as a result of the arguments. Oberon is hurt and wants revenge on Titania. So he tells Puck, Oberon’s servant, to put a magic flower juice on her eyelids while she is sleeping. This potion causes the victim to desperately in love with the first creature that they see. Oberon’s plan is carried out, but the potion is also placed on Lysander’s eyes. Lysander awakes to see Helena, who is aimlessly walking through the woods, and instantly falls in love with her. She thinks that he is making fun of her being in love with Demetrius, so she leaves and Lysander follows. This leaves Hermia to wake up alone. Puck now has journeyed to the area where several actors are rehearsing. He uses his magic to turn one of them into a donkey, in hopes that Titania will awake to see it.