Robin Goodfellow

4 Pages 1015 Words

Puck
Oberon’’s henchman, Puck –– a nickname for ““Robin Goodfellow”” –– loves mischief. In one of the most famous speeches of the play, he gleefully describes to another fairy all of the terrible pranks he pulls on humans, to whom he is invisible (these are pretty sophomoric: pulling the stool out from under people so that they fall down, etc.). Puck is given a task by his master as part of the revenge on Titania: find a flower that can make love-juice. Oberon also asks Puck to put some of this juice on the eyes of an ““Athenian youth.”” After he mistakenly gives it to Lysander, rather than Demetrius, things become very complicated. Puck seems genuinely sorry for causing problems, but you get the sense that he also likes watching the fun of such mix-ups –– after all, he was the one who gratuitously changed Bottom’’s head into a donkey’’s! In the end, though, Puck uses his invisibility to help Oberon repair the confusion among the pairs of Athenian lovers, and the entire play concludes with his speech apologizing to the audience for any ““offence”” the plot might have caused –– ““Robin,”” he offers, ““shall restore amends.””


Puck (In-Depth Analysis)
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).
More important, Puck's capricious spirit, magical fancy, fun-loving humor, and lovely, evocative language permeate the atmosphere of the play. Wild contrasts, such as the implicit comparison between the rough, earthy craftsmen and the delicate, grac...