Analysis
Shakespeare named his character Puck or Robin Goodfellow, because these names are an allusion to shape-shifting and mischievous creatures of English and Celtic folklore. In A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Puck is a witty sprite who sets many of the play’s events with his magic and foolish pranks on the human characters. Shakespeare named him Robin Goodfellow and Puck in reference to popular characters in English and Celtic folklore, which were depicted as either fairies, goblins or devils. As a shape-shifter, Pouk had many appearances: a frightening creature with the head of an ass, or an odd little figure, or a rough, hairy creature. “The fabled Robin Goodfellow was one of the fairies known as “hobgoblins”, also famous for shape-shifting and misleading travellers, but sometimes a helpful domestic sprite” (Wright). The Shakespearean Puck well illustrates the
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The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she (II.i.47-55)
This shows that Shakespeare’s Puck is a shape-shifting creature, just like the mystical Pouk.
Surely, Shakespeare also chose these names for the mischievous traits of the creatures in old folklore. The terms “Robin Goodfellow,” and “Pouk” were typical medieval terms for the devil. Pouk would turn into a horse and lead people on a wild ride, sometimes dumping them in water. Robin Goodfellow would lead travelers with a lantern and then blow it out when they were at the edge of a cliff. An expression for being lost is "Robin Goodfellow has been with you tonight" (Wright). Puck’s antics are also characterized this way by a Fairy: “Are not you he /
That frights the maidens of the villagery … Mislead night wanderers, laughing at their harm?” (II.i.35-40). All of Puck’s troublesome tricks have made him infamous to the other fairies. His fondness for shenanigans is shared with the ancient creatures of the same name.
Tom, the agent for change gains sight and knowledge into the acceptance of his impending death. The opening of the play starts with the ending of A Midsummer Night’s Dream where Tom as Puck says “Gentles, do not reprehend. If you pardon, we will mend.” This foreshadows Tom’s healing role in the play. Although Tom seems to be the character in the least need of a discovery, he still gains sight into the reality of his condition and knowledge that he needs to accept this. This is evident through reading King Lear. The scene is set outside, as instructed by
In his comedic play, A Midsummers Night Dream (1595), William Shakespeare utilizes the enchanting adventures of young Athenian lovers and a group of low-class rudimentary actors and their shared experiences with supernatural creatures to portray the opportunity of being in command of their destiny. By presenting conflicts to these three diverse realms, Shakespeare allows these characters to connect despite their hierarchical distinctions to reveal their determination to conquer their adversity. He uses dramatic irony, metaphor, and symbolism to heighten the audience's awareness of their self-determination and their firm control on their future. Shakespeare inspires the public by instilling in them that despite their challenging circumstances, they can still be masters of their own fate, bestowing a feeling of newfound hope and freewill.
Michael Gow’s play, ‘Away’ exhibits the foregoing revelations encountered by the protagonist Character Tom as he learns to accept his impending death. The opening scene of ‘Away’ incorporates intertextuality with reference to the Shakespearean play ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ as Tom takes up the role as Puck. “We will make amends ere long” foreshadows the prominent “amends” that are made at the end of the play within the characters. These amends are made through the process of self-discovery that promote a
One of the most fascinating characters in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow. In English and Celtic folklore, the word “Pouk” was a medieval term for the devil: “Robin Goodfellow” was also a nickname for the devil. Although Puck shows antagonistic qualities, many critics believe Puck to be the closest thing to a protagonist A Midsummer Night’s Dream has.
Puck, the very troublesome fairy, decides to have some questionable fun with an actor from the nearby play rehearsal. Amused
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.
At the height of the transition of Philadelphia’s economy from agricultural to industrial, Philadelphia experienced a period of economic prosperity for almost all its citizens. Businesses were booming, new projects and development were established, the banking and commerce industries soared and a record number of jobs were created enabling the city to reach full employment rate, something that the city has yet to experience since. Citizens were confident in the government and financial institutions were equally confident in their citizens as evident by lax lending habits. As all good things typically come to an end, Philadelphia had an economic turn for the absolute worse. In 1920, the stock market crashed with several major bank failures and employment rate plummeted. The city then went through the worse financial time in the history of the U.S. known as the Great Depression. Citizens looked to their government for ways and means of ending the suffrage wreaking havoc on a once thriving and prosperous city. The significant increase in unemployment rate resulted in citizens losing trust and hope in the Republican Party, the party in power at the time. The New Deal initiative was then developed under President Roosevelt, which slowly ushered in the recovery of the economy and the city as a whole. The effects of the Great Depressions were alleviated to some degree; nevertheless the city struggled to achieve economic stability once more, but there was hope in sight. Despite the
I’ll be an auditor; an actor perhaps, if I see cause” (Shakespeare). He begins by asking himself why these common people are so near to Titania, when he sees that they are preparing a play, he decides to watch, and maybe cause some trouble too. Turns out he does cause some trouble, by turning the head of Bottom into the head of an ass, the interesting thing is that Bottom does not realize that he has changed. Puck does this to frighten the other players, and it conveniently turns out to be the object of Titania’s obsession. This could be by Puck’s design because he gets the pleasure of seeing the players frightened and accomplishes the task of awaking Titania when some beast is nearby.
Once again Shakespeare has beautifully illustrated the bi-polar nature of human emotions. Although the character Puck was an impish fellow, he certainly knew how to develop a study in falling in and out of love.
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
Shakespeare’s usage of metaphor and simile in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is best understood as an attempt to provide some useful context for relationships and emotions, most often love and friendship, or the lack thereof. One example of such a usage is in Act 3, Scene 2 of the play. Here, the two Athenian couples wake up in the forest and fall under the effects of the flower, thus confusing the romantic relationships between them. Hermia comes to find her Lysander has fallen for Helena. Hermia suspects that the two have both conspired against her in some cruel joke, and begins lashing out against Helena. She says “We, Hermia, like two artificial gods, / Have with our needles created both one flower, / Both one sampler sitting on one cushion, / Both warbling of one song, both in one key; / As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds, / Had been incorporate. So we grew together, / Like a double cherry, seeming parted; / But yet a union in partition / Two lovely berries moulded on one stem: / So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart; / Two of the first, like coats in heraldry, / Due but to one, and crowned with one crest.” (Shakespeare 2.3.206-13). Shakespeare writes this list of vibrant metaphors to establish the prior relationship between these two characters and to make it evident how affected Helena is by this unexpected turn of events, as well as to add a greater range of emotion to the comedy, thereby lending it more literary and popular appeal.
What is Lynching? In this chapter Tom Robinson is being held at the county’s jail before the trail but Atticus feels that Tom’s safety is at risk so he stays at outside the county’s jail with a chair and a light so he can read but a mob of men shows up at the jail to get Tom but Atticus won’t allow them to go in but when Jem, Dill, and Scout saw the mob walking towards Atticus Scout runs towards Atticus so she can figure out what was happening but Jem notice what the mob was there for so he tried to grab Scout’s arm but he wasn’t fast enough so Dill and Jem had to go with scout but when Atticus sees the children he gets a little bit scared so he tells Jem to take Dill and Scout home but Jem refuses and refuses Atticus’s orders but as Atticus
In the writing Fremont High School by Jonathan Kozol he discusses the reality of urban schools and how they are unable to obtain the proper education. At Fremont High School children are not always able to eat during their lunch period, the proper education needed for college is not obtained, the school reflects institutional discrimination, and the building is overcrowded limiting course offerings for children.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play about four Athenian lovers. Theseus listens to both Hermia and her father’s request and he tells her to bend to her father’s will or die due to the old Athenian law. Hermia and Lysander flee Athens, into the domain of the fairy kingdom. At this time, Oberon is in a fight with Titania. This fight is over a human child of Titania’s friend. Oberon tells Puck, one of his loyal servants, to get a flower hit by Cupid’s arrow, and drop the oil into Demetrius’s and Titania’s eyes. However, Puck drops the oil into Lysander’s eyes due to Oberon’s vague description, making him fall in love with Helena and despise Hermia. Titania falls in love Bottom, who has the head of an ass, after Oberon places the oil
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,