Use of Puck to Explore Love in A Midsummer Night's Dream Essay

True love’s path is paved with every step. Through the assistance of fanciful elements as well as characters Puck and Oberon, the true message of love in William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is revealed. The four lovers know the direction in which their hearts are inclined to turn, but when the love potion is administered, the bounds of their rectangle are thrashed without knowledge or consent. The rapid shifts in affection between the play’s “four lovers” is representative of the idea that love isn’t a conscious choice, but a cruel game in which we are the figurines, being controlled by whomever the player may be, relating the characters’ karmic fates.

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.

Love is a very common theme that is seen in literature, and love is one of the most powerful things that can be felt for someone or something. Love can drive a person to do incredible or horrible things, and we see many forms of love that take place in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This is demonstrated in the book by many characters including Hermia and Lysander who demonstrate true love. Titania and Bottom show magical love. In the play, love is also the cause of a few broken hearts. While there is no one common definition of love that suits all of the characters, the romantic relationship in the play all leans to one simple rule laid out by Lysander, “The course of true love never did run smooth.”

People come up with contradictory answers when they try to describe love. Love lasts forever between two people whom fate matches together. Love changes like the tide; it spreads any direction on a whim as one gleans new information about the object of his or her affection. Some people say they control their own emotions; they allow themselves feel what they want to feel. Yet others say free will does not apply to emotions, love in particular, and that everyone lives without knowledge of what can appear just around the corner. In the Elizabethan era romantic comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare uses hilariously absurd situations to attempt to explain human behavior in the face of love, to prove that love turns people into complete fools when they fall for someone else.

Love is a theme which reoccurs through many of Shakespeare’s Plays. In ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, the theme ‘Love’ is presented from the very beginning in Act 1 Scene 1, through Shakespeare’s use of poetic language, structure and vivid imagery.

What is love? Love is a very powerful emotion! Love is something that can come at any time in your life. It can appear in any way, shape, or form. In the famous play “Midsummer Night's Dream,” by William Shakespeare, love is a major theme that affects many people and causes many challenges. In order for love to conquer these challenges one needs to stay true to their love, they may need the help of some magic, and must be persistent.

Some optimists have compared love to a blissful dream, but Shakespeare's clever intrigue shows what a confusing nightmare love can be. As the audience ponders the revelry they have just seen as the play comes to a close, Puck steps forth to conclude the confusion:

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!” (III.ii.116) Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow, describes how the pairs of lovers found in his forest are idiotic, thanks to their infatuations of each other. Anyone who has been in love can attest that it can change the personality of all involved. From the different qualities, unhealthy relationships, and risks taken, A Midsummer Night’s Dream demonstrates what length a person is willing to go to for love, even if it places them in danger. Shakespeare is showing people do irrational things for love, as they are blinded by intense attachment to another.

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

Puck is also enjoying the process of messing with the maidens of the villagery. When the author reveals “Fairy:Misleads night-wanders laughing at their harm?” ( Shakespeare 2.1.39) This shows Puck is mischievous because he is messing with people by getting them lost. The reader knows Puck is enjoying this because it says he laughs at their harm.

The Not so Fair Fairy In both Norse and English mythology, Robin Goodfellow, or Puck, is a mischievous character living for the thrill of tricking others. Throughout the centuries of his literary existence, he is remembered most for being a troublesome fairy that makes toying with the fates of others a hobby. In Shakespeare's Midsummer's Night’s Dream Puck sets most of the stories events in motion with a love spell given to him by Oberon. Throughout Act II, he sets the scale of love out of balance by “Laying the love juice on some true-love’s sight” (pg. 89, Act III, scene ii) which creates the conflict in the story.

Since there is very little character development in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream I'm just going to give an analysis of Puck and Helena. First we start ourselves with Puck (Also known as Robin Goodfellow), the mischievous fairy who in this play ends up messing up more than a few plot points and creates a disaster in and of itself. Puck is the official jester of King Oberon and in my eyes his personal assistant. I believe that Puck is himself the most important character in the play. His presence in the play is a driving factor for the love incident pertaining to Hermia, Helena, Lysander, and Demetrius.

In the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare, three completely different situations that have to do with different topics become intertwined in the magical forest locates in the suburbs of Ancient Athens. Throughout the play, there are many representations of the character’s emotions and feelings, such as jealousy, betrayal, and most importantly, love. The main reason everyone get into their troubles is due to one reason; love. Hermia and Lysander made a decision to elope because of their love for each other; Demetrius chases after her because he loves her; Helena chases Demetrius due to love, etc. In this comedy of Shakespeare’s, love is displayed as something fantastical and bizarre.

In this play called the Midsummer night’s dream it talks about this crazy love rectangle between Hermia, Demetrius, Helena and Lysander. These characters are important but not as important as this little fairy named Puck is a rebel in some way with his idea and using flowers to make people fall in love with each other throwing off the balance of love in this play.

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,