Puck In A Midsummer Night's Dream

In William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Puck plays a major role in the events of the play. He is the one that shapes the relationships of all the lovers in the play by manipulating their actions. Puck does not act completely alone in messing with the humans he does have help from the fairy king. Puck does have orders from Oberon the fairy king that he should follow but does not always do so. It is also unknown if puck is truly making mistakes in following directions or messing up on purpose to further cause mischief. Puck also does not fit in with any of the groups in the hierarchy of the play the closest he comes to fitting into one is with the fairies, yet he still shows differences from them making him not really fit in. This leads to the argument that he is the highest level in the hierarchy of the play since he controls the play with the actions he takes. First, the fairy talking to him confirms that Puck is the sprite that has the reputation of causing mischief among humans. This is seen when the fairy states, “Either I mistake your shape and making quite, / or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite/ called Robin Goodfellow…” This shows that he is already well known for causing mischief with humans (2.1.32-34,42). This is

This is seen in how the king shows his doubt that the lovers ever even encountered the mischief that the fairies had caused. Although, he contradicts himself in him stating, “Lovers, to bed. 'Tis almost fairy time (5.1.344).” Theseus in this is ironic in how the king shows doubt and does not believe the fairies exist, yet he is sending them to bed using the fairies in his reasoning of why they need to go to bed now. While Puck at this point is not causing mischief, he is still present and is a part of the end of the play. He is the one to get the last word through is