A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Puck, Bottom, and Dichotomy in Comedy

One of William Shakespeare’s best remembered plays for its comical and ironic tone is A Midnight’s Summer Dream. There were characters designed to be humorous and that alone. Puck and Bottom behave very much alike, and have similar roles for different people. Both Puck and Bottom are comic relief characters in one way or the other. Both of them are needed for the play, because Puck’s spirits controls the whole story, which sets the tone for it, and Bottoms comic relief for the audience and play.

William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of his most popular plays involving fairies, mischief, and love. The play features a play-within-a-play that has an eccentric acting troupe playing the parts. Together, they hope to perform “‘The most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe,’” (1.1.10-11). Of all the characters in the play and movie, Francis Flute, a member of the acting troupe, is the most rounded character because the audience can see him grow, he exhibits traits of comedy and drama, and he ultimately has an inconsistent personality that makes him seem real.

Throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream, while the story involving Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, Helena, Oberon and Titania is developing, the rustic gentlemen (Bottom and his friends) are shown rehearsing for a play that they will perform in honor of the upcoming wedding of Theseus (the Duke of Athens) and Hippolyta. The play, “Pyramus and Thisby,” is based on a story that was told by the ancient Roman writer Ovid and retold by Chaucer. The “Pyramus and Thisby” play is not performed until the fifth and final act of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. By then, as Barton points out, the major problems of Lysander, Demetrius and the rest have all been neatly resolved. As such, the “Pyramus and Thisby” play-within-a-play “seems, in effect, to take place beyond the normal, plot-defined boundaries of comedy” (Barton 110).

It is commonly said that “all’s well that ends well.” In the case of the comedies of William Shakespeare, this is almost universally true. With specific regard to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the machinations of Oberon are able to bring together Lysander and Hermia, as well as Helena and Demetrius, in a way that provides for the happiest of conclusions. As readers of the play, however, this is also a conclusion that we can anticipate from the first scene. The comedies trace formulaic patterns in which even the most unbelievable circumstances can be resolved by the play’s end, and the performance can end with marriage

In A Midsummer Night's Dream, playwright William Shakespeare creates in Bottom, Oberon, and Puck unique characters that represent different aspects of him. Like Bottom, Shakespeare aspires to rise socially; Bottom has high aims and, however slightly, interacts with a queen. Through Bottom, Shakespeare mocks these pretensions within himself. Shakespeare also resembles King Oberon, controlling the magic we see on the stage. Unseen, he and Oberon pull the strings that control what the characters act and say. Finally, Shakespeare is like Puck, standing back from the other characters, acutely aware of their weaknesses and mocks them, relishing in mischief at their expense. With these three characters and some play-within-a-play enchantment,

His distinctive features provide wild contrast to the rest of Shakespeare’s fairies. Shakespeare’s Puck has the reputation of being the master of wickedness among the other fairies, what is most memorable image of A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s Puck. Both, folk Pooka and Puck, are presented as mischievous, deceitful creatures. The English Pooka was a respected and feared fairy. But merry Shakespeare’s Puck seems to stay against the pivotal, evil reputation of his kind that was rooted in tradition, and is presented as someone who brings joy and entertainment. He is capable of cruel tricks but good-hearted. This fairy is rather harmless but has tendency to perform unpleasant, annoying tricks for his enjoyment. Both characters were tricksters, nevertheless, due to fairy lore, Pooka was performing his pranks just to amuse himself,

     In the movie version of A Midsummer Nights Dream, Puck has a more overt sense of humor. Although the dialogue is purely Shakespeare, the actions and direction of Puck’s character bring a new perspective to the story. When we are first introduced to Puck in the tree, he plays some jokes, such as vanishing, and turning up in a goblet of wine. He is speaking the same lines as in the play, but the addition of visual humor adds to the appeal of the original play. One is again exposed to this when Oberon and Puck discuss the flower while lying in the forest. Puck imitates Oberon’s position, adjusting himself in a friendly mocking manner towards his master. One also gets the impression from Puck’s body language that, although he

The Behaviour of Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' is a play where the line between dream and reality disappears. It's about how love is magical. The play was written around 1598 and would have been preformed in the Globe Theatre. It is a comedy, because like almost all of Shakespeare's comedies it ends in marriage. In the play we get introduced to a character named Puck.

After observing the senseless behavior of the Athenian lovers, Puck exclaims to Oberon, “Lord, what fools these mortals be” (III.ii.115)! This line, aimed at Lysander’s foolish behavior is meant to be humorous, but it also cleverly addresses the prominent theme of the story: that love is not under human control. Puck is clearly referring to the foolishness and exaggerated emotions of the four lovers in the play; however, Shakespeare also intends to target the audience members by emphasizing that humans in general have the tendency to do and say crazy things because of love’s powerful grasp on their emotions. Therefore, a character such as Puck, according to Robert Diyanni, “may remind us in some ways of ourselves; they may appeal to us because they differ from us” (Diyanni 1270). Although the Athenian lovers neglect to realize the extent of their ludicrous behavior, their unbalanced emotions are very noticeable to the fairies, who replace the audience’s role in this scene. Moreover, it signifies the contrast between both the human lovers, who become so entangled in a disarray of emotion, and the enchanting fairies, always playful and rascally in

Nick Bottom A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, introduces a wild variety of characters and their differently unique personalities. Shakespeare offers a special perspective on how hard the inter-personal conflict between making decisions of what the heart wants versus what the mind wants. In a world where Athens stands for the realistic, cognitive view of things with its expanding regime and social structure; and fairy woods bring out the crazier, unstructured side.

The world of A Midsummer Night dream is constructed of three different social classes, these being, royalty, nobility and commoners. As well as social classes there are also two being types- humans and fairies. Bottom and puck are two characters of different class and Being type. Bottom a commoner and Puck a fairy. Although it doesn't seem like it there are many similarities and differences between the two. There are also many instances where Shakespeare uses the aforementioned case above to create comic relief, which can be seen when Puck turns Bottom into an Ass. This essay will advance on similarities and differences between these two characters. There is a distinctive difference between the two when it comes to intelligence as Puck is

64: The most Obvious mischievous character in Shakespeare’s MSND is Puck. Not only does he cause the chaos that took place in the play, but he also enjoys doing so. The reader can see one of the first acts Puck is part of when he sees the mechanics performing in the woods for their own play. Whilst performing a practice session, Puck says that he’ll “be an auditor; an actor too, perhaps, if I see cause”, (MND 3.1.74-75). Little did the audience know that Puck actually turned one of the actor's (Nick Bottom) head into a donkey. This action shows that Puck does not take anything seriously When Puck mistook which Athenian man to put the potion on, he says “and so far am I glad it so did sort. As this their jangling I esteem a sport,” (MND 3.2.352-353).

In Shakespeare’s mind, the definition of a minor character is to bring humor into the story and help lighten the mood. In his play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare’s use of the characters Puck and Bottom, although in minor roles, are integral parts of the play's development. Through both of their lightheartedness and general foolishness they help bring the play into a more comedic light. Also through the absurdity of their actions they create conflict and develop the plot, but in the end are essential to the resolution of the play.

Puck’s role in the play is that of a supernatural creature that answers to the King Oberon. King Oberon and Queen Titania are the leaders of the fairies, goblins, and elf’s. The king, queen, and fairies typically want to bring happiness and love to the mortals. However, this one goblin called ‘Puck’ is a prankster, one that loves to wreak havoc in his mischievous ways onto mortals. Because of Puck’s mischief, he accidently makes two men, Lysander and Demetrius, fall in love with the same women, Helena, who only returns Demetrius’ love. While this plot takes place Puck, unbeknownst the king for the moment, enjoys watching the love triangle of chaos unfold before his very eyes.

Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is often read as a dramatization of the incompatibility of “reason and love” (III.i. 127), yet many critics pay little attention to how Shakespeare manages to draw his audience into meditating on these notions independently (Burke 116). The play is as much about the conflict between passion and reason concerning love, as it is a warning against attempting to understand love rationally. Similarly, trying to understand the play by reason alone results in an impoverished reading of the play as a whole – it is much better suited to the kind of emotive, arbitrary understanding that is characteristic of dreams. Puck apologises directly to us, the audience,