The Character of Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream

Analysis of Puck Considered by most as one of William Shakespeare's greatest plays, A Midsummer Nights Dream reads like a fantastical, creative tale; however, its romantic lines contain a message of love, reality, and chance that are not usually present in works of such kind. All characters in the play are playful, careless and thoughtless, and Puck, one of the central characters in the play, is significant to the plot and meaning of A Midsummer Nights Dream, consequently becoming a representative of the above-mentioned themes. The plot of this Shakespeare's plays is comical and, at times, ironic. As summarized by Puck in the last stanza of the play. Puck suggests to both the watchers and, consequently, to the readers, that if they did not enjoy the tale, they should pretend it was a dream, an impression so convincing that at times the audience is left confused.

London: Macmillan, 1946. Rhoades, Duane. Shakespeare's Defense of Poetry: "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "The Tempest". Westport, CT: Greenwood Press,1986. Young, David.

A Midsummer Night's Dream, ed. Brian Gibbons. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Vaughn, Jack A. Shakespeare's Comedies. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1980 Watts, Cedric.

"_A Midsummer-Night's Dream." 26-31 in Kenneth Muir, ed. Shakespeare: The Comedies: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1965. Shakespeare, William.

Shakespeare portrays naivety and innocence principally, but not exclusively, through the characterization of Desdemona and Othello, and through a whole range of dramatic techniques: their language, behavior, their interaction with other characters, the imagery applied to them etc. The portrayal of the qualities is a complex one which is significant in the following ways. Firstly, the vulnerability of innocence and naivety helps drive the play towards its tragic conclusion, although it is matter of debate whether the principal cause of the catastrophe is the vulnerability of innocence or the ingenuity of wickedness. Secondly, the values of innocence and naivety comprise values which are dramatized in opposition to those represented principally by Iago; each illuminates the other. This is one of the conflicts central to the dramatic action.

Secondly, both plays are very ambiguously categorized. By this I mean that each could have been a tragedy just as easily as a drama (with a few minor modifications). By definition, a tragic play is a play in which the main character has a fatal flaw that leads to his or her eventual downfall. A comedy, on the other hand, is a play that contains at least one humorous character as well as a successful, happy ending where the best possible resolution is achieved. When comparing these two plays, one realizes Shakespeare's repetition of character types as well as the versatility of his themes.

Works Cited and Consulted: Bloom, Harold. Modern Critical Interpretations: William Shakespeare's Sonnets. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. pg. 12-13 Davidson, Frank. "The Tempest: An Interpretation."

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965. Rose, Mary Beth. The Expense of Spirit: Love and Sexuality in English Renaissance Drama. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988. Shakespeare, William.

Harold Bloom, Pub. Chelsea House New Haven CT 1987. (1-6) Jones, Eldred. "Othello- An Interpretation" Critical Essays on Shakespeare’s Othello. Ed.

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.