Puck and Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream Essay

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.

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.

Throughout the play A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare uses both fate and free will to present his philosophy towards the nature of love. The characters struggle through confusion and conflicts to be with the one they love. Although the course of their love did not go well, love ultimately triumphs over all at the end of the play. The chaos reaches a climax causing great disruption among the lovers. However, the turmoil is eventually resolved by Puck, who fixes his mistake. The confusion then ends and the lovers are with their true love. Throughout the play Shakespeare's philosophy was displayed in various scenes, and his concept still holds true in modern society.

If there was no such thing as sympathy, empathy, or love in our world, it would be a hard place to live. If there was no hard law or reason in our world, it would be a crazy place to live. Neither of these worlds would be anybody’s first choice as a home - it's just common sense take away either of these two fundamental aspects of life, and everything is immediately chaos. In fact, it is only in a world such as ours, where legal and human emotion work together, that we are happy. In William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare recognizes this truth and uses the two settings to represent the city of Athens as law, order, civility, and judgment, while the woods represent chaos, incivility, dreams, and love.

    It is not unusual that the fool should be a prominent figure and make an important contribution in forming the confusion and the humor in an Elizabethan drama. In William Shakespeare's comedy, Twelfth Night, Feste the clown is not the only fool who is subject to foolery. He and many other characters combine their silly acts and wits to invade other characters that either escape reality or live a dream. In Twelfth Night, Feste, Maria and Sir Toby are the fools that make the comedy work in many senses.

However, Shakespeare uses Bottom to draw the audience’s attention to serious themes, such as the relationship between reality and imagination. He is also the most down-to-earth character in the play as he does recognise that Titania's statements about him aren't true, when Titania devotes her love to him 'On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.', Bottoms responds with 'Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that', also when Titania

Puck is an active person who is engaged in helping his fairy King Oberon get what he wants. However, he is also very clumsy and gets into a lot of mischiefs. A few examples are: When Oberon ordered Puck to put the love potion on the eyes of Demetrius and make sure the first thing he sees after he wakes up is the woman whom he hates - Helena. Puck ended up finding Lysander, sleeping on the forest floor with Hermia. and put the love potion on poor Lysander’s eyes, thinking that he was Demetrius. This is funny because lieutenants are highly respected individuals, and they should have a lot of skill and experience. Puck, however, does not have any of the above, quite the opposite. Another funny section in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is when Puck puts an ass (Donkey) head on Bottom’s shoulders, when he is presenting a play for the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta, in front of a lot of people. Puck was invisible, therefore, people could not see the process. When the people saw Bottom, they were shocked and thought that Bottom was an ass. Peter Quince noticed Bottom, and shouted “ O monstrous! O strange! We are haunted! Pray, masters, fly, masters! Help!” (Act 3 Scene 1 Line 92). Snout also says “O Bottom, thou art changed. What do I see on thee?” (Act 3 Scene 1 Line 111) Bottom sees Peter and Snout’s reaction, he is confused, as he does not know

by the Athenian garment, he had on?” The use of dramatic irony here is effective because it creates comic relief thus helping both characters amuse the whole audience. Puck is known for his notorious pranks and skits constantly making it harder for everyone else in the play. On that note, Bottom (unconsciously) makes the audience laugh as he too makes it harder for everyone else, with his arrogance and stubbornness. In addition, Puck and Bottom both have many things in common including their similar lines of comedy, constantly making life harder for others and both being arrogant at

In Twelfth Night, the fools are the ones that control the comedy and humor in the play. They assist in the make believe game and fool around with characters who "evade reality or rather realize a dream". In Twelfth Night, Feste, Maria and Sir Toby are the fools that make the comedy work in many senses. They create the confusion through humor and it all works out in the end to make William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night a comical play of his time and today. In Twelfth Night, the clown and the fools are the ones who combine humor and wit to make the comedy work, just like in many comical plays in today’s society. Modern audiences would laugh from the foolery caused by these characters while the comic truth is unwinding to build up this comedy.

     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

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

Bottom came into the woods with his companions to rehearse a play for Theseus and Hippolyta wedding. Bottom was turned into a donkey by Oberon’s companion Puck.(Sky minds) The love experience of Titania and Bottom is playing out of power, so that when the drops of magic have hit Titania eyes, when she wakes up she will fall in love with the first person that she sees, which ends up being Bottom. Finally, there is the tragic love story of “Pyramus and Thisbe,” that was written and staged by Bottom and his working companions. In this story love leads to suicide. (Sky minds)

One of the most noticeable factors of comedy is the role of the vice. Where would a good comedy be without a prankster of some sort? Puck fulfills the role of the vice wonderfully whether it was intentional or not. Oberon, king of the fairies, and his wife Titania are in disagreement over a Indian changeling that he wishes to use as a henchman. In an attempt to punish Titania for her disobedience, he hires Puck to help him. Puck’s job is to attain a magical juice, which makes the victims fall in love with the first person or creature in sight. Oberon applies the juice in an attempt to distract his wife, so that she will give up the changeling and he can use him as a servant. This could also be looked at as another example of men versus women in the play.

Upon closer inspection of his words, the reader can see Feste's honest assessment of character shine through. For example, while jeering back and forth with Malvolio, Feste states, "Sir Toby will be sworn / that I am no fox, but he will not pass his word for / twopence that you are no fool" (1.5.77-79). In this proclamation, Feste shows his perceptions of both Toby and Malvolio. He believes that Toby is not a wise man due to the fact that, although the fool is clearly intelligent, Toby does not realize just how crafty Feste truly is. However, Malvolio's self-deception is so obviously false that even one such as Toby, who cannot even realize Feste's ingenuity, can see through it. Later, while he is fooling around with Toby and Andrew, Feste laughs, "Did you ever see the / picture of "We Three"?" (2.3.16-17). This comparison between the three characters in the scene and the famous painting of "We Three," a picture portraying only two fools, therefore implying the viewer to be a third fool, shows that Feste portrays both Sir Toby and Andrew to be fools, along with himself as the third. One last illustration of Feste's whimsical messages can be found while he is speaking to Sebastian. In this instance, the fool reveals one of the play's ongoing themes by stating, "No, I do not know you, … nor your name is not Master Cesario, … Nothing that is so is so" (4.1.5-9). To Sebastian, this statement was simply a sarcastic one,

Mandy Conway Mrs. Guynes English 12 16 March 2000 A Critical Analysis of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" William Shakespeare, born in 1594, is one of the greatest writers in literature. He dies in 1616 after completing many sonnets and plays. One of which is "A Midsummer Night's Dream." They say that this play is the most purely romantic of Shakespeare's comedies. The themes of the play are dreams and reality, love and magic. This extraordinary play is a play-with-in-a-play, which master writers only write successfully. Shakespeare proves here to be a master writer. Critics find it a task to explain the intricateness of the play, audiences find it very pleasing to read and watch. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a