INTRODUCTION
Puck was a popular figure who had existed in the English folklore since medieval times. However, Shakespeare was the first author to put Puck on stage, though this Robin Goodfellow depicted by Shakespeare withdraws from the trickster Elizabethans were familiar with. Shakespeare based his character on the figure belonging to the English tradition but the final product we got was slightly different from the original one.
Traditional
Puck
All along the English tradition Puck has been regarded as a devil. In fact, Pouk was a traditional medieval term for the devil. One of his main features was shape-shifting (Puck was often disguised in the form of an animal to trick people in the village). Robin Goodfellow was the name of a fairy or hobgoblin. “Robin itself was a medieval nickname for the devil. Robin Goodfellow was not only famous for shape-shifting and misleading travellers. He was also a helpful domestic sprite (…) He would clean houses and such in exchange for some cream or milk.” (http://www.boldoutlaw.com)
We cannot assure whether Puck’s origin is Scandinavian, German or Irish, but whatever its place of birth was, he was considered a prankish little devil that misled and deceived normal people who did not belong to the fairies’ world. Robin Goodfellow or Puck has always been depicted, along with fairies, as a wicked figure.
Shakespeare’s Puck
Shakespeare departs from
this image and, though keeping some of its typical features, creates a whole new
concept of the Fairy world which still persists in our tradition. This new
concept, contrary to the Elizabethan tradition which regarded fairies as
fear-inspiring creatures, draws hobgoblins and sprites as more benevolent
figures. “Puck is one of the most famous
English sprites. In the
Some of the features Shakespeare maintains about the archetypical figure of Robin Goodfellow are described when Puck comes across one of Titania’s fairies:
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.
(“MND”, II: I,
33- 57)
The Robin Goodfellow of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is “a fairy spirit who serves Oberon, King of the Fairies. (…) He is sent by Oberon to fetch the flower "love-in-idleness" and is told to apply its juice to the eyes of a youth "in Athenian garments". He erroneously administers the charm to the sleeping Lysander. He provides Nick Bottom with a donkey's head so that Titania (Fairy Queen) will fall in love with a beast and forget her attachment to the Indian changeling boy. He enjoys the confusion brought about by his blunders. Later, he is ordered by Oberon to produce a dark fog, and to lead the rival lovers astray within it by imitating their voices, and then to apply a counter-charm to Lysander's eyes.” (http://en.wikipedia.org).
As we can see, Puck is responsible for most of the mix-ups in the play. He makes several mistakes when carrying out Oberon’s commands, which will result in a more complicated situation. He, however, seems to enjoy his oversight and to consider mortal’s suffering an enjoyment: “And those things do best please me, that befall preposterously” (“MND”, III: II, 120-121), “As this their jangling I esteem a sport” (“MND”, III: II, 353). Nevertheless, Shakespeare’s Puck is not a malevolent character but a prankish figure that misleads the “fool mortals” more by accident than on purpose. “While Shakespeare maintains Robin Goodfellow's mischievous personality, he completely changes some significant facets of his character. (…) Robin Goodfellow was not a fairy. Shakespeare not only makes him a fairy in “A Midsummer Night's Dream”, but he also makes him Oberon's jester and servant.(…)only his sense of humor and prankish nature remain from the famous figure of Elizabethan folklore.” (http://www.about-shakespeare.com)
He is the joker of
the play and to understand better his behavior we should now take a look at his
relationship with other characters.
ROBIN GOODFELLOW AND HIS FELLOW WORKERS
There is no way we can get to understand Puck if we do not first
understand the character of Oberon. He is Puck’s master, the King of fairies
and, at first glance, the puppeteer who handles the story line. He is the figure
controlling everything and everyone. Not only does he control the Fairy world
but he is also able to peep at mortals and change their fate. However, he does
not interfere directly with other characters’ lives but makes use of an
instrument to do so: Robin Goodfellow. “Fetch me that flower” (“MND”, II, I, 169); “About the wood go swifter than the wind,
and
Now let us look at the connection between Robin Goodfellow and the mortals he plays tricks on. Some people have stated that Puck is genuinely wicked and that he is a malevolent figure who misleads and cheats just for fun. “Puck is a mad-cap sprite, full of wantonness and mischief, who laughs at those whom he misleads.” (http://www.theatredatabase.com)
He has been said to be insensible to humans and their problems, even when it is him who causes the trouble. “There is some malice in Puck's taste for pranks, and Puck reminds us that the fairy world is not all sweetness and light; this contributes to an undertone of potential evil that makes the comedy, while still benign, a more richly textured tale. (…) He is coolly indifferent to human suffering.” (http://www.hudsonshakespeare.org)
Though at first sight this statement could seem right it is so just superficially. That is, if we go a little deeper into Puck’s personality we will discover that he does care about humans, although he looks unconcerned about them and sometimes even enjoys their misery.
PUCK’S MOTIVATION
I have already mentioned some examples of Puck’s negative attitude towards human suffering (“MND”, III: II, 120-121; III: II, 353). There is still one more line which has been used as a piece of evidence by those stating Puck’s indifference to mortals: “Then fate o’er-rules” (“MND”, II: II, 92). This was Robin’s answer to Oberon’s reproach for mistaking when applying the love-juice. Of course there is also Puck’s most famous statement: “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” (“MND”, III: II, 115).
However, despite the fact that Puck may be insensible to mortal’s distress at the beginning, he always ends up helping them when there is no reward. Besides, his misdeeds are not due to his wicked personality but to his clumsy use of magic. We see this when Oberon accuses him of having committed his “knaveries wilfully” and Puck answers: “Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook” (“MND”, III: II, 347). Shakespeare made this Robin a helpful and honest character, as we can see in the epilogue of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” when Robin confesses: “And, as I am an honest Puck” (“MND”, V: I, 420). In any case, there is one sentence in the play that from my point of view reveals, more than any other, Puck’s attitude towards humans: “Cupid is a knavish lad, thus to make poor females mad” (“MND”, III, II, 440-441). What Puck says is that he feels sorry for these females (Helena and Hermia), but what he is actually saying is that he feels sorry for mortals, in general. So what makes him behave in such a way with humans is not wickedness but pity. He states that mortals are fools. Puck lives within the fairy world, but he is able to peep at the mortals’ world and interfere. He is in a more powerful position, and humans, by comparison, look like “poor” puppets. Humans are in the hands of fate, but also in the hands of fairies. Cupid, as well as Oberon and Robin Goodfellow, is a fairy whose actions interfere and change mortal’s lives.
All in all, what motivates Puck to enjoy any messy situation he is involved in is his necessity of having fun, and what leads him to fix it up is his inevitable sympathy for humans.
PUCK: A TRUE
PROTAGONIST?
“Though 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, quick-witted sprite
sets many of the play’s events in motion with his magic, by means of both
deliberate pranks on the human characters (transforming Bottom’s head into that
of an ass) and unfortunate mistakes (smearing the love potion on Lysander’s
eyelids instead of Demetrius’s).” (http://www.sparknotes.com)
Somewhere else in
this paper I dropped the idea that Oberon may be seen as the puppeteer
controling the story line. At this point, and after all I have discussed about
Puck and his great importance within this play, I would like to change this
point. If there is a character under control who drives the story line, that is
Robin Goodfellow. The play’s action is always around him, and most of the
episodes depend on him.
Finally, I would like to comment on something that drew my attention since I first read the play: the epilogue. When a play encloses an epilogue, we should always wonder: why is this character been chosen to give the last speech and what is he/she telling us? In this case, Shakespeare picked out Robin Goodfellow to be the last one to speak, and not only that, but he also provided him with a long speech addressed to the audience. In the epilogue, Puck tries to reconcile himself with the public. “Puck makes a speech explaining his actions that serves to trivialize the play itself if it has offended the audience.” (http://oll.libertyfund.org)
Oberon is the character who speaks right
before Puck’s epilogue, and he closes the story, though not the play. Puck is
the true protagonist of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. He is a joker and a
prankster. He is not only Oberon’s jester, but also the audience’s jester. He
represents love’s up-and-downs, the wonders of magic and also its clumsiness.
Puck reminds us about the sweetness of the fairy world, and sometimes also about
its bitterness while weaving reality into fantasy. He is the tie binding this
whole story together and when Puck’s gone, all’s gone.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Accessed
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