Mischievous Puck In Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Robin Goodfellow, also known as puck, is more than just another character. Puck is known from English mythology known for creating mischief, and Shakespeare makes a fitting character to the name. Puck is an important character in the play. What Puck is known for plays a big role. He creates tension among other characters, and restores the peace. Puck’s mythological origins are played well in A Midsummer Night’s Dream as Puck creates mischief and restores balance. Puck’s English mythology says that he is known to be either a hobgoblin, devil, or fairy. “Puck was the medieval name for The Devil.” (Wright). There are also other names for Puck in other mythology like Pwca, Puki, or
…show more content…
But Puck is not as ethereal as the play’s other fairies; rather, he is courser, prone to misadventure and goblin-like.” (Jamieson). Shakespeare made Puck an excellent role in A Midsummer Night’s Dream that really fits who Puck is in English mythology. Puck is known in mythology for shapeshifting and causing mischief, and in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. When we first meet Puck, he says “I am the merry wanderer of the night.” and then says “When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,/ neighing in the likeliness of a filly foal.” (2. 1. 45-49). Shakespeare writes about how Puck likes to turn into a horse and fooling mortals, this being an obvious reference to the mythology. Robin also serves and is a jester to the fairy king, Oberon, and he obeys what he tells him to do. He is seen to be very ignorant in the play. An example in A Midsummer’s Night Dream he accidentally puts love juice on Lysander’s eyes when Oberon told him to put it on Demetrius’ eyes. When he and Oberon are watching the chaos that it creates among the lovers, Puck says “Captain of our fairy band,/ Helena is here at hand,/ And the youth, mistook by me,/ Pleading for a lovers fee./ Shall we their fond pageant see?/ Lord, what fools these mortals be!.” (Shakespeare 3.2.112-117). Puck denies that it’s his fault that the lovers are turning on each other and is saying that it was all their own …show more content…
After Puck messes everything up, Oberon demands him to fix what he has done and make the lovers love their correct other, and turn Nick Bottom back into a human. Puck goes out into the middle of the night while the two men of the lovers are trying to hunt each other down. He imitates both of their voices to tire them out and lead them to close by each other. Once the lovers are all sleeping near each other, he cancels the love potion on Lysander so that when he awakes he will love Hermia. “In your waking shall be shown./ Jack shall have Jill;/ Naught shall go ill;/ The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be/ well.” (Shakespeare 3.2.489-493). “The forest is magically plunged into darkness and Puck imitates the voices of the lovers to lead them astray. This time he successfully smears the love potion on Lysander 's eyes and he falls back in love with Hermia.” (Jamieson). He then turns Nick Bottom back to human after Oberon undoes Titania’s love potion. Then he make it seem like it was all a dream for all the characters and everyone is convinced that they just tried to sneak out and then all was a blank after that. At the very end of the book in scene 5, Puck speaks directly to the audience and says “If we shadows have offended,/ Think but this and all is mended:/ That you have but slumbered here/ While these visions did appear.” (Shakespeare 5.1.440-444). He
But Puck is not as ethereal as the play’s other fairies; rather, he is courser, prone to misadventure and goblin-like.” (Jamieson). Shakespeare made Puck an excellent role in A Midsummer Night’s Dream that really fits who Puck is in English mythology. Puck is known in mythology for shapeshifting and causing mischief, and in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. When we first meet Puck, he says “I am the merry wanderer of the night.” and then says “When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,/ neighing in the likeliness of a filly foal.” (2. 1. 45-49). Shakespeare writes about how Puck likes to turn into a horse and fooling mortals, this being an obvious reference to the mythology. Robin also serves and is a jester to the fairy king, Oberon, and he obeys what he tells him to do. He is seen to be very ignorant in the play. An example in A Midsummer’s Night Dream he accidentally puts love juice on Lysander’s eyes when Oberon told him to put it on Demetrius’ eyes. When he and Oberon are watching the chaos that it creates among the lovers, Puck says “Captain of our fairy band,/ Helena is here at hand,/ And the youth, mistook by me,/ Pleading for a lovers fee./ Shall we their fond pageant see?/ Lord, what fools these mortals be!.” (Shakespeare 3.2.112-117). Puck denies that it’s his fault that the lovers are turning on each other and is saying that it was all their own …show more content…
After Puck messes everything up, Oberon demands him to fix what he has done and make the lovers love their correct other, and turn Nick Bottom back into a human. Puck goes out into the middle of the night while the two men of the lovers are trying to hunt each other down. He imitates both of their voices to tire them out and lead them to close by each other. Once the lovers are all sleeping near each other, he cancels the love potion on Lysander so that when he awakes he will love Hermia. “In your waking shall be shown./ Jack shall have Jill;/ Naught shall go ill;/ The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be/ well.” (Shakespeare 3.2.489-493). “The forest is magically plunged into darkness and Puck imitates the voices of the lovers to lead them astray. This time he successfully smears the love potion on Lysander 's eyes and he falls back in love with Hermia.” (Jamieson). He then turns Nick Bottom back to human after Oberon undoes Titania’s love potion. Then he make it seem like it was all a dream for all the characters and everyone is convinced that they just tried to sneak out and then all was a blank after that. At the very end of the book in scene 5, Puck speaks directly to the audience and says “If we shadows have offended,/ Think but this and all is mended:/ That you have but slumbered here/ While these visions did appear.” (Shakespeare 5.1.440-444). He