Puck is a Help, Not a Hindrance, in "Midsummer Night"

     The second essay for Dr. Ford's Shakespeare class at Rogers State University; I enlisted the help of my friend and sometimes writing partner Ashland for proofreading. She pointed out that it wasn't all that helpful if the reader wasn't familiar with A Midsummer Night's Dream. But the instructions were a character sketch, so that's why it's written the way it is. 

     In William Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the character of Robin Goodfellow, also known as Puck, is somewhat of a wild card among the fairies of the woods. But while his antics might perhaps be mischievous at times, overall he is a positive force.

     As an audience, we first meet him at the beginning of the second act, after the pairs of lovers run into the forest, and the tradesmen rehearse their play. His primary job is to be a servant of Oberon, and so one of his first speeches is exposition about the conflict between Oberon and Titania over the Indian changeling (II.1.18-31). We first learn of his rakish reputation from the anonymous fairy’s reply, “Are you not he that frights the maidens of the villagery?” (II.1.34-35). In addition to this, he spoils beer and milk, misleads travelers and greatly enjoys scaring unsuspecting people (II.1.36-39). Following a spat between the royal couple of faeriedom, Oberon sends Puck on an errand to retrieve a love potion: “Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again ere the leviathan can swim a league” (II.1.173-74). Demetrius and Helena have a spat of their own while Puck is on his errand, leading to romantic-hearted Oberon’s command to use it on Demetrius. Puck executes this duty well – in all except that he had the wrong patient: “Weeds of Athens he doth wear; this is he(my master said) despised the Athenian maid” (II.2.71-73).

     Lysander, by unhappy chance, spies Helena first on awaking instead of Hermia, and so they verbally spar for a while, mortifying Helena. But Puck, unimpressed with the rehearsal of “The Most Lamentable Comedy of Pyramus and Thisby”, and also possibly wanting to reward himself for obeying Oberon so precisely, sets an ass’s head on Bottom’s shoulders, for as he says, “I’ll be an auditor, an actor too perhaps, if I see cause” (III.1.74-75). This is harmless fun, really; but from a certain point of view would be hysterical. Further on in the third act’s first scene, Titania also having partaken the love-potion eyedrops, she falls instantly for Bottom, much to his confusion and her (later) humiliation. Puck gleefully reports all this to his master, only to find his mistake: “This is the woman; but this is not the man” (III.1.42). On watching Hermia rebuff Demetrius’s advances, Puck comments happily, “Shall we their fond pageant see? Lord, what fools these mortals be!” (III.1.114-15) He has a point here: Lovers’ quarrels are amusing from a distance, because love is very foolish and makes you do stupid things. After a further battle of wits between all four of the human lovers, Puck defends himself as best he can: “Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook. Did not you tell me I should know the man by the Athenian garments he had on? And so far blameless proves my enterprise that I have ‘nointed an Athenian’s eyes; and so far am I glad it so did sort, as this their jangling I esteem a sport” (III.2.347-53). He then misleads Lysander and Demetrius in opposite directions lest they harm each other; and then upon reuniting everyone, applies the reversal charm to Lysander, restoring the proper order of things: “Jack shall have Jill, naught shall go ill; the man shall have his mate again, and all shall be well” (III.2.461-63).  Similarly, in the first scene of act four, Robin Goodfellow removes the ass’s head from Bottom at line 83: “Now when thou wak’st, with thine own fool’s eyes peep,” while at the same time Oberon is undoing the charm on Titania. So all ends well; well before the play ought to conclude. In order to fill that time, we get to see the mechanicals’ performance, snickering along with the royal audience at the players’ ineptitude.

     But then there is that epilogue which Puck delivers, which follows right on the heels of the “proper” close of the play. In this epilogue, Puck beings by saying “If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended – that you have but slumbered here while these visions did appear” (V.1.415-18). Given the noble response of Theseus to the play-within-the-play on V.1.210-11, “The best of this kind are bust shadows, and the worst no worse if imagination amend them,” it would seem that this is a reference to the actors of “Pryamus and Thisby”. But it could also apply to the sprites themselves; as the faeries throughout history, especially in Elizabethan times, were viewed with a mixture of appreciation and distrust for their temperamental practical jokes like the audience has just witnessed. So what he means by “shadows” is unclear; but he is polite regardless of who the apology is for. This apology continues in lines 421-26: “Gentles, do not reprehend. If you pardon, we will mend. And as I am an honest Puck, if we have unearned luck now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue, we will make amends ere long.”

     Throughout the script Puck is a cheerful and merry presence, who is situated as to being in placed as an audiencial stand-in as – principally – an observer of the misunderstandings and disputes which arise. Puck also delivers highly quotable zingers such as “Lord, what fools these mortals be!.”; the ability to be snarky delivered with dry humor is a highly-prized skillset for characters to possess. He is prompt to fulfill the commands of his master to the utmost of his ability; tries not to play favorites in the changeling quarrel, and once he realized his error in mistaking Lysander for Demetrius, does all he can to rectify the situation. Indeed, after Theseus and Hippolyta’s marriage is blessed and both couples are back together again, he apologizes if the actions depicted offended anyone.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 1595? Ed. Stephen Orgel and A.R. Braunmuller. William Shakespeare: The Complete Works. 258-284. New York: Penguin Books, 2004. Print.