The final use of the word tongue occurs in Puck’s final soliloquy in which he breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience, reminding them that if they are unsatisfied with the events, it is merely a play--“but a dream” (V.i.428)--and not reality. The play and its contents are fake (emphasized by acknowledgement of the audience), much like the love depicted within it is. Puck remarks, “Now to 'scape the serpent's tongue” (V.i.433), suggesting that by ending the play now, the audience and the characters are escaping the negative events similar to the pain of a snake bite which would surely follow; the magically-induced love will soon end and chaos will ensue, but the audience is not forced to watch this, as it might have “offended” (423)
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The use of the word tongue in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in reference to both speech and a snake’s stinging asserts that humans’ tongues can inflict harm just as painful as snakes can, albeit figuratively, and through its application of the latter definition, equates love with a snake bite, criticizing the nature of love and questioning its existence. Upon happening across rehearsals of the play within a play, Puck notes, “What, a play toward! I'll be an auditor; / An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause” (III.i.79-80). This likens the entirety of the events of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to a play (which it is, but to these characters it is reality) which is altered by Puck’s “acting” and interference. Puck acts, in some ways, as an author for this “play” due to his obtrusion upon the action of the other characters and the resulting alterations upon the course of the plot. At the end of the actual play, Puck acknowledges this with his final soliloquy in which he breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience, reminding them that if they are unsatisfied with the events, it is merely a play--“but a dream” (V.i.428)--and not reality. He refers to himself and his fellow characters as “shadows,” which at the time could mean an “actor or a play in contrast with the reality represented” (OED, “shadow,” n. II.6.b). This play is like a snake bite and its
The use of the word tongue in A Midsummer Night’s Dream in reference to both speech and a snake’s stinging asserts that humans’ tongues can inflict harm just as painful as snakes can, albeit figuratively, and through its application of the latter definition, equates love with a snake bite, criticizing the nature of love and questioning its existence. Upon happening across rehearsals of the play within a play, Puck notes, “What, a play toward! I'll be an auditor; / An actor too, perhaps, if I see cause” (III.i.79-80). This likens the entirety of the events of A Midsummer Night’s Dream to a play (which it is, but to these characters it is reality) which is altered by Puck’s “acting” and interference. Puck acts, in some ways, as an author for this “play” due to his obtrusion upon the action of the other characters and the resulting alterations upon the course of the plot. At the end of the actual play, Puck acknowledges this with his final soliloquy in which he breaks the fourth wall and addresses the audience, reminding them that if they are unsatisfied with the events, it is merely a play--“but a dream” (V.i.428)--and not reality. He refers to himself and his fellow characters as “shadows,” which at the time could mean an “actor or a play in contrast with the reality represented” (OED, “shadow,” n. II.6.b). This play is like a snake bite and its