Ana Isabel Bordas del
Prado.
Universitat de València, 2006.
Although
there is little character development in A
Midsummer Night’s Dream and no true protagonist, critics generally point to
Puck as the most important character in the play. The mischievous and witty
sprite sets many of the play’s events with his magic, through deliberate pranks
on the human characters and unfortunate mistakes. (http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/characters.html).
The aim of this paper
is to show who is Puck, his functions in the play, his relationships with other
characters and his importance.
1. The origins of “that shrewd and knavish sprite”.
Puck or Robin
Goodfellow is one of the most
popular characters in English and Celtic folklore, being a faerie, goblin or
devil. In fact, “Pouk” was a typical medieval term for the devil. Sometimes
Puck was pictured as a frightening creature with the head of an ass, or as a
queer little figure, long and grotesque, or as a rough, hairy creature, or as
the representation of the Greek god Pan, as in the above picture. As a
shape-shifter, Puck had many appearances, and he used them to make mischief.
The
term “Robin Goodfellow” was a medieval nickname for the devil as well. Robin
Goodfellow is one of the faeries known as “hobgoblins”, also famous for
shape-shifting and misleading travellers, but sometimes a helpful domestic
sprite. (http://www.boldoutlaw.com/puckrobin/puckages.html).
The Shakespearean Puck well illustrates the traditional nature of this
creature:
“Through bog,
through bush, through brake, through brier:
Sometime a horse I’ll be, sometime a hound,
A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire;
And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn
Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.”
(A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, act III scene I).
(http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/HTML.php?recordID=0612.09)
Puck is a representative of the Trickster figure, which appears in most folklores. The story of the
trickster being tricked is a common motif. Shakespeare used this to create his
Puck, since the character gets confused in A
Midsummer Night's Dream and gives the love potion to the wrong couple of
lovers. (http://quarles.unbc.ca/midsummer/myth.html). Aside from Shakespeare’s famous use of
Puck, many other writers have referred to the spirit as well, like Ben Johnson,
John Milton, Goethe or Rudyard Kipling. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puck_(mythology).
2. Who is Puck in A Midsummer
Night’s Dream?
In A Midsummer
Nigh’st Dream, William Shakespeare gave his Puck the name and nature of the
more benevolent Robin Goodfellow. However, Shakespeare’s Puck is more closely
tied to the fairy court than most Pucks or Robin Goodfellows. In a meeting
between Puck and one fairy, the goblin sums up his nature in a perfect way:
FAIRY
“Either I mistake your
shape and making quite,
Or else you are
that shrewd and knavish sprite
Called Robin
Goodfellow. Are not you he
That frights the
maidens of the villagery,
Skim milk, and
sometimes labour in the quern,
And bootless make
the breathless housewife churn,
And sometime make
the drink to bear no barm,
Mislead
night-wanders, laughing at their harm?
Those that
Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,
You do their work,
and they shall have good luck.
Are you not he?”
PUCK
“Thou speakest
aright;
I am that merry wanderer
of the night.
I jest to Oberon,
and make him smile
When I a fat and
bean-fed horse beguile,
Neighing in
likeness of a filly foal;
And sometime lurk I
in a gossip's bowl
In very likeness of
a roasted crab,
And when she
drinks, against her lips I bob
And on her withered
dewlap pour the ale.
The wisest aunt,
telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for
three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from
her bum, down topples she,
And 'tailor' cries,
and falls into a cough;
And then the whole
quire hold their hips and laugh,
And waxen in their
mirth, and neeze, and swear
A merrier hour was
never wasted there.”
(A
Midsummer Night's Dream, Act II, scene I).
(http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/HTML.php?recordID=0612.09).
Puck serves
Oberon, the fairy king. He freely admits to be “a shrewd and knavish sprite”.
He is sent by Oberon to find the flower “love-in-idleness” and is told to apply
its juice to the eyes of Demetrius to make him fall in love with
For the sake of enjoyment, he also transforms
the actor Nick Bottom’s head in that of an ass, so that Titania, the fairy
queen, will fall in love with him, a beast, and will forget to look after a
little Indian boy, whom Oberon wants to turn into a knight. Later, Oberon
realises Puck’s mistakes, and orders him to produce a dark fog to lead the
rival lovers within it by imitating their voices, and then to apply an antidote
to Lysander’s eyes.
3. The role of Puck.
Though A Midsummer Night’s Dream divides
its action between several groups of characters, Puck is the closest thing the
play has to a protagonist. His mischievous spirit pervades the atmosphere, and
his actions are responsible for many of the complications that develop the main
plots in a chaotic way.
More important, Puck’s capricious spirit, magical fancy,
fun-loving humor, and lovely, evocative language permeate the atmosphere of the
play. Wild contrasts, such as the implicit comparison between the rough, earthy
craftsmen and the delicate, graceful fairies, dominate the play. Puck seems to
illustrate many of these contrasts within his own character: he is graceful but
not so sweet as the other fairies, and he is given to a certain coarseness,
which leads him to transform Bottom’s head into that of an ass just for
enjoyment.
(http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/characters.html).
Puck is good-hearted, but capable of
cruel tricks. Finally, whereas most of the fairies are beautiful and ethereal,
Puck is often portrayed as somewhat bizarre looking. In fact, the fairy
mentions that some call Puck a
“hobgoblin,” a term whose connotations are decidedly less glamorous than those
of “fairy”. (http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/characters.html).
What is not clear is the gender of Puck, since the character has been
represented as male and as female along history. And he is also represented as
a little, as a young and as a quite old goblin.
At the end
of the play (in the epilogue), Puck makes a speech explaining his actions that
serves to trivialize the play itself if it has offended the audience:
“If we shadows
have offended,
Think but
this, and all is mended:
That you
have but slumbered here,
While these
visions did appear;
And this
weak and idle theme,
No more
yielding but a dream,
Gentles, do
not reprehend.
If you
pardon, we will mend.
And, as I’m
an honest Puck,
If we have
unearned luck
Now to
’scape the serpent’s tongue,
We will
make amends ere long;
Else the
Puck a liar call:
So, good
night unto you all.
Give me
your hands, if we be friends,
And Robin
shall restore amends.”
(A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act
IV, scene II).
(http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/HTML.php?recordID=0612.09).
These lines essentially connect the
audience with the play and compares them to the lovers who in the play did also
awake from the mad happenings of the fairy world as if from a dream. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puck_%28Shakespeare%29). So, we can estate that Puck’s function in the
play is crucial, since although he appears to be a kind of secondary character
in some way, all the plots develop around him. Puck represents the difficulties
of love, the power of magic, the nature of dreams and the relationships between
fantasy and reality.
4. Puck’s relationships with the other characters.
One of the aspects that may draw attention
is that although Puck seems to appear with most of the characters, he only interacts
with Oberon, his master. In fact, all the dialogues in which Puck is present
deal with Oberon, except in act II scene I, where Puck presents itself to a
fairy, and in act III scene II, where he pretends to be Lysander with Demetrius
and vice-versa. But in this case he is not present for both young men, as they
just hear Puck’s voice. So, we can estate that Puck’s relationship and
interaction with other characters is practically inexistent, but at the same
time, his actions are essential for the development of the relationship between
the other characters.
Puck sees
himself as a naughty “master” that plays with mortal people as if they were
puppets. He takes advantage of one of humankind’s weakness, love. For Puck,
love is either a nuisance (played more evil than good) or just a funny thing
that humans and other beings stupid enough to fall into it do to show him a
laughing good time. As he puts it,
“Up
and down, up and down;
I
will lead them up and down:
I am
fear’d in field and town;
Goblin,
lead them up and down.”
(A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, scene II).
(http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/HTML.php?recordID=0612.09).
In fact, one of the most famous quotations in the play is Puck’s statement:
“Lord, what fools these mortals be!” because it captures the exaggerated
silliness of the lovers’ behavior; second, because it marks the contrast
between the human lovers, completely absorbed in their emotions, and the
magical fairies, impish and never too serious. (http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/characters.html).
5. No Puck, no Play.
How can a character that is not
present in most of the play be regarded as the main one? The answer is really
easy and simple: because without his mistakes, the plot is lost and senseless.
Because without his mischief, the play would not be a comedy. Puck is the one
who ties and unties, deforms and creates as he pleases. And although he has
created all that chaos, at the end he resolves his mistakes by restoring the
love balance in the two couples of lovers, impossible without his intervention.
Finally,
is Puck who in a way carries the main message of the play and maybe “disguises”
all the possible attacks to society or personal offences in his last speech. As
Puck is magic, all happened was magic too, and as he is Puck, everybody will be
given good luck!
Web references.
o
“Puck
(Shakespeare)”, Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Ed. Wikimedia
Foundation. 28 Nov. 2006.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puck_%28Shakespeare%29>
o
“Puck
(mythology)”, Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Ed. Wikimedia
Foundation. 28 Nov. 2006.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puck_(mythology)>
o
“Shakespeare,
the complete works of William Shakespeare”, The Online Library of Liberty.
Ed. Liberty Fund. 28 Nov. 2006.
<http://oll.libertyfund.org/Home3/HTML.php?recordID=0612.09>
o
“Mythology
in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s
Dream”, Shakespeare On-line. Ed. Lisa Drysdale. 28 Nov. 2006.
<http://quarles.unbc.ca/midsummer/myth.html>
o
“Puck
Through the Ages”, Puck, that shrewd and knavish sprite called Robin
Goodfellow. Ed. Allen W. Wright. 28 Nov. 2006.
<http://www.boldoutlaw.com/puckrobin/puckages.html>
o
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream, analysis of
major characters”, Sparknotes. Eds. Phillips,
B. and Stallings, S. 28 Nov. 2006.
<http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/msnd/characters.html>
Photo links.
1 http://ise.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/images/Puck.JPG
2 http://www.shakespeare-revue.comimgpuck_header.gif
3 http://www.english.emory.edu/classes/Shakespeare_Illustrated/Reynolds.Puck.jpg
5 http://owl.irkutsk.ru/PICS/ART/PALANTIR98_FANTASY/plf98-060_a_midsummer_nights_dream.jpg
6 http://www.boldoutlaw.com/images/canstagepuck.jpg
7 http://shakespeare.emory.edu/postcards/mnd05.jpg
9 http://www.shadyshakes.org/images/shows/Midsummer.jpg
10 http://www.fierro.de/theater-am-faust/images/sommernachtstraum/puck.jpg
12 http://www.shakespearefest.org/images/MSNDObPuck.jpg
13 http://shakespeare.emory.edu/postcards/mnd01.jpg
