Puck the Good One - Essay Example

Without Puck’s actions and mistakes, the play would not have been set into motion. There would have been no comedy. He creates the scenes and places them into motion. He is the one who searches and retrieves the juice from the flower to enchant the fairy queen to lose interest in a young Indian prince, whom Oberon, his master would wish to be a knight (II.i.25). He is a loyal subject and good follower of his King, and with quite good intentions, as he tried to put the flower’s juice in Demetrius' eyes so that he could be kind to Helena (II.ii..246). Although he may have deliberately mistaken the identity and placed the same in Lysander instead. He laughs at the chaos that he has created, and makes fun of the emotional weakness of the mortals, “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” (III.ii.115). He takes advantage of human fragilities, and controls the characters (even the fairy queen), as mere puppets for his delight. He also transforms the head of the actor Nick Bottom into that of an ass (III.i.129) so that the fair queen will fall in love with him as a beast, and forget the Indian boy.

But despite all the chaos that Puck brings, he still helps put everything in place. As he tries to figure out how to make right his mistake with Lysander, Demetrius begins to see Helena’s worth, as Puck also tries to fix his mistake by dropping the flower’s juice in his eyes (III.ii.38). He removes the spell, and help all the lovers get back to their right match. He also removes the spell on Bottom and makes him a normal man again; even inspiring him to write a ballad that he would perform at the wedding. He gives it the title "Bottom's dream because it hath no bottom"(IV.i.223).

At the end of the play, all is well. We, as an audience are amused, as the audience of the play performed by the “Mechanics” amused the newlyweds and the people (V.i.220). Puck has done his job as a loyal servant to his fairy king. He has placed everything in the proper place, with his magic, mischief, and still genuine heart. He is still a fairy after all. He closes the play, apologizing for its silliness and the humor. And gives us the complete opportunity, to fall into the madness that love can bring in our own lives. But if we choose to see love as mere foolishness, then we can all choose to just forget about the whole thing, and just look at it, as but just another dream (V.i.423-438). Read More