A Midsummer Night's Dream Puck Essay

Analysis of Puck Considered by most as one of William Shakespeare's greatest plays, A Midsummer Nights Dream reads like a fantastical, creative tale; however, its romantic lines contain a message of love, reality, and chance that are not usually present in works of such kind. All characters in the play are playful, careless and thoughtless, and Puck, one of the central characters in the play, is significant to the plot and meaning of A Midsummer Nights Dream, consequently becoming a representative of the above-mentioned themes.
The plot of this Shakespeare's plays is comical and, at times, ironic. As summarized by Puck in the last stanza of the play. Puck suggests to both the watchers and, consequently, to the readers, that if they did not

Historically, Puck has been part of English folklore for a long time, even before Shakespeare. His other name of Robin Goodfellow meant that "[t]he spirit was not actually good by nature, but was called Goodfellow as a sort of appeasement, meant to deflect the spirit's pranks towards other people" (Bulfinch). Puck during Shakespeare's time was a mischievous creature that was known for his evil-like, unserious, playful ways. His other name, Hobgoblin, suggests the true meaning of his nature. In the second half of the play, the characters undergo a change in attitude towards each other, because of the tricks Puck played on them, all by accident. Puck wanders around dispensing a love potion into characters eyes, making them fall in love with the wrong member of the opposite sex. The author is playing with the characters and because of Puck, the roles of the characters are switched, giving the play a comical sense of view. To make the play flow and give it deep meaning despite the comical plot, metaphors were said by many of the characters such as this one, "I go, I go; look how I go/ Swifter than arrow form the Tarter's bow" (G. J. Thomas R. Arp). The Tarters were people whom fought with the Mongol hordes, and had bows that contained a special power, to make them faster than a bolt of lightning (Britannica). These lines demonstrate that Puck was meandering around the forest so fast that he

"What fools these mortals be!" (G. J. Thomas R. Arp) expresses Puck. His one line hinting at several possible interpretations. One could interpret that Shakespeare's idea is that humans become too willingly affected by their feelings. Puck states that mortals are fools because they cannot control their emotions properly and are never sure on what they feel. Chance is too often taken as shown in "A Midsummer Nights Dream" by Puck, when Puck states "[t]his is the women, but not this the man" (G. J. Thomas R. Arp). Oberon takes a chance with love when he describes the Athenian man Puck is to distribute the love potion on, and that chance was taken without thinking or at least better directions, for Puck put the potion onto some other man, who was not supposed to be rubbed on. This also shows that there is some sarcasm to Pucks statement for not do only mortals fool around with love, so do fairies. Reality is often mixed up with, mystical thoughts as well as feelings. Shakespeare must have realized this because he often showed suggestions in this play, for example: when Titania expresses her love for a mortal with an asses head on him and she says "Come, sit thee down upon this flow'ry bed, While I thy amiable cheeks do coy, And stick musk roses