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Critical Analysis of "Midsummer Night's Dream
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Recommended: Critical Analysis of "Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of William Shakespeare’s few comedies that really gets the comedic interest of is readers. A fairytale story of four teenagers, who found themselves in a magical forest, two of whom plan to run off and start a new life together, the other two on a search for love. At the same time a fairy king and queen are battling each other. A mischievous fairy named Puck is charged with turning the queens lover against her using a magic potion, and this leads to a series of events for our young lovers, as well as anyone else stuck in the forest.
Puck is the most interesting of all characters. As a fairy Puck has many appearances, which he employs to cause mischief. The mischievous fairy sets most of the plays events with magic. Although Puck serves his master, the fairy king Oberon, he still has his own charm that he uses not just for his master, but for his own personal purposes, which are usually for
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Puck doesn’t care what goes on, as long as it is funny and amusing to him he feels good. He doesn’t feel sorry for what he did in the forest as Oberon does; he enjoys teasing them. Puck is cruel and mischievous, but in a weird way is good hearted. He tries his very best to correct his first mistakes with the love potion and after having his fun he fixes it. He also asks the audience to show him mercy, and in doing this he is mindful of what he has done and feels guilty. The comedic or satirical side of the play is built around Puck and Someone who asks for forgiveness after causing so much chaos and injuries throughout the play isn’t a bed person, mischievous like an imp but yet kindles a lot of drama and excitement, nowadays they pay a lot to be a reality star, because he is the play, he is the plot and without him, it would be any other normal or brilliant Shakespeare play involving lovers who overcome several difficulties to be together in the
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.
Fairies, mortals, magic, love, and hate all intertwine to make A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare a very enchanting tale, that takes the reader on a truly dream-like adventure. The action takes place in Athens, Greece in ancient times, but has the atmosphere of a land of fantasy and illusion which could be anywhere. The mischievousness and the emotions exhibited by characters in the play, along with their attempts to double-cross destiny, not only make the tale entertaining, but also help solidify one of the play’s major themes; that true love and it’s cleverly disguised counterparts can drive beings to do seemingly irrational things.
To begin with, Oberon fights with his queen Titania for a little Indian boy, which creates problems in the world as there are now gigantic changes in humans, climate, weather etc. While Oberon and Titania argue, Titania states the following…”Contagious fogs; which, falling in the land, / Hath every pelting river made so proud/ That they have overborne their continents” (2.1.90-93). To highlight, this means the fights between the fairies are causing problems in the world like floods, fogs, poor farming, bad seasons etc. Since Oberon argues and fights for the little boy, Titania is innocent as she has the right to keep the boy because her friend died keeping him, but Oberon is too selfish and wants him as his own henchmen. That being the case, Oberon is doing nothing better than causing more problems in the play. Furthermore, Oberon becomes so desperate for the little boy, that he anoints Titania to take the little boy. Titania falls in love with Bottom; however, Oberon is too selfish and does not care as he pretends that nothing ever happens. After Oberon gets the boy, he states to Puck “Which straight she gave, and her fairy sent/ to bear him to my bower in Fairyland. / And now I have the boy, I will undo this hateful imperfection of her eyes” (4.1.59-62).To clarify, Oberon shows his selfishness because he creates the problem between Bottom and Titania and he also does not even care about his hateful imperfections to
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. Strangely Titania falls in love with the creature that Puck has created. This results in Oberon becoming extreamly fu...
Puck causes the disruption initially, when he intervenes in the lovers' business. Jester and jokester, Puck, otherwise known as Robin Goodfellow, is like a wild, untamed memb...
There are “the lovers”: Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena (there are other lovers, but these lovers are the main focus of the story). This is a comedy, so in the end they all end up with who they belong and live happily ever after as do all archetypal lovers in comedys. Shakespeare dives even more in archetypal depth than that. There are the clowns, or what might be called “the fools”: Quince, Snug, Bottom, Flute, Snout, and Starveling. They are poor in wealth, they are poor actors, and lack a reasonable amount of common sense, which is shown when they feel the need to explain themselves in the play. Any rational person knows that it is just a play and that the actors are not actually experiencing the events they are acting out, but they are "the fools," who are never rational. They decide it is a good idea to make sure the audience knows that it is not real, which is clearly absurd. Even within their group there is the ruler or leader of the fools, Bottom. He even gets his chance at being a more powerful ruler when Titania falls in love with him. He orders around the fairies like servants and is an ass both literally and figuratively, the kind of foolish ass of a ruler that would abuse his servants and subjects. Oberon is “the magician”, who is pulling the strings and basically conducting the whole play from the background. He decides who loves who, and orders his servant, Robin Goodfellow/Puck to conduct business for him. Puck is slightly mischievous, and although he messes up on accident, he doesn’t hesitate to sit back and laugh at the trouble he has caused, which earns him the archetype of “the
Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, is established in the play as the jester to the King of Fairies, Oberon. He first appears in Act 2, Scene 1 when he and another fairy discuss the disagreement between Oberon and Titania are having. The fairy gives us some indication of Puck's character as she describes how Puck “frights the maidens of the villagery” and “Misleading the night wanderers” (Act 2.1, line 35). When Titania refuses to give up the boy servant that Oberon wants, he comes up with a plan to steal the child, and enlists Puck's help to do so. Oberon is fully aware of Puck’s desire to have a good time at the expense of others, but trusts him with the task of retrieving the flower to make Titania fall in love with “Lion, Bear, Wolf, or Bull.” (Act 2.1, line 180) The idea here is to convince Titania to hand over the changeling boy while she is infatuated with a beast. Being attracted to mischief, Puck seems excited to be tasked to this adventure, and claims to return “Within forty minutes” (Act 2.1, line 176) so that they can get started on their plan.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream portrays magic through many places in the text. Magic is a key component to the plot of the story. Magic can make a problem disappear, or it can intensify the problem. There are many reasons magic is powerful, but one of the main ones is because not everyone understands it. Magic in one way or another affects everyone in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but the perspective with which each character views magic is different. The power of magic is something that is hard to understand, even those who use magic often cannot fully understand magic because in many ways it is irrational and inexplicable.
So from all of this I still have to say Puck is a good character. He
The use and misuse of magic has an important role in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. As a reoccurring theme, Puck’s use of magic creates humor, conflict and balance in the play.
To emphasize, in Act III, the reader is presented with the play’s most extraordinary contrast, the relationship between Titania and Bottom. “What wakes me from my flow’ry bed?” (III.i.131). Titania is awoken by the so-called melodic singing of Bottom. In the present scene, both characters are under some particular sort of spell. Titania’s eyes were anointed with the nectar of the love flower, thus causing her to fall in love with the next living thing she encounters. In the meantime, Puck pulled a prank on Bottom, turning his head into that of an ass. Both characters of the play are interpreted as complete opposites. Titania, characterized as the beautiful, graceful fairy queen; Bottom is portrayed as overdramatic, self centered, and as of now, not keen on the eyes. However, the love nectar never fails and seems to bring the two into a state of lust. The contrast between the two is overwhelming. An important scene in the pl...
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is often read as a dramatization of the incompatibility of “reason and love” (III.i. 127), yet many critics pay little attention to how Shakespeare manages to draw his audience into meditating on these notions independently (Burke 116). The play is as much about the conflict between passion and reason concerning love, as it is a warning against attempting to understand love rationally. Similarly, trying to understand the play by reason alone results in an impoverished reading of the play as a whole – it is much better suited to the kind of emotive, arbitrary understanding that is characteristic of dreams. Puck apologises directly to us, the audience, in case the play “offend[s]” us, but the primary offence we can take from it is to our rational capacity to understand the narrative, which takes place in a world of inverses and contrasts. The fantastical woods is contrasted to the order of the Athenian law, and Elizabethan values of the time are polarised throughout the narrative, such as Helena’s feeling ugly even though she is tall and fair. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is thus not solely a comedic meditation on the nature of the origin or meaning of love, it also cautions against trying to rationalise the message of the play. Puck, who by his very nature cannot exist in rational society, propels the action of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He is a manifestation of mischief and the unpredictability of nature, which governs not only the fantastical woods outside of Athens, but also the Athenians themselves when it comes to love. Yet, it is Puck, and thus nature, which rectifies the imbalance of the lovers in the beginning of the play. Rationalising, o...
He is the type of fairy that likes to be around mortals and cause them trouble, as opposed to other fairies. This is why Puck's little job with a love potion and a young couple is perfect for him, and he is perfect for the job. Puck is a likable character who tends to create mischief around himself. Everything is a game to crafty little Puck. Yet once he realizes that he has caused a problem, he will make sure to the best of his ability and power that it is rectified.
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Comp. Folger Shakespeare Library. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2009. Print.
The title of the play A Midsummer Night's Dream can have many interpretations. I will give you my thoughts on the relationship of the title to the different situations that take place in the play. These interpretations give insight and overall meaning to the thematic nature of Shakespeare's work. Although I am only going to describe three interpretations of the title, there are many other meanings to the title. The first interpretation of the title of the play that came to my mind was the magical dream-like night in the woods, when Robin Goodfellow and Oberon, the king of the fairies, used several kinds of love potions, and messed everything up.