The only time a line is spoken out of character and to the audience is in Puck’s final monologue (lines 440-455). Puck is speaking to the audience as an actor, breaking the fourth wall, rather than playing the role of Puck. He starts by saying “if we shadows have offended,” calling himself, as well as all the other actors, just shadows, suggesting that they are figments of the imagination and not substantial. Shadows are dark and ominous figures that can hide things that shouldn’t be seen, or be all that is seen from something to come. Similar to a large shadowy man coming down an alley, Shakespeare may be hinting at a sneaky and possibly dangerous idea that the actors portray. Along the same vein, the actors can represent ghosts of a past time which were common in Shakespeare’s plays. This first line already has a feeling of spooky mystery and confusion. Underlying these lines is a secretive tone that is trying to trick the audience into thinking they were dreaming. “Think but this and all is mended: / That you …show more content…
By saying he is honest, one immediately thinks of the possibility that he is not honest. The words “liar,” and “serpent” convey an undercurrent of malice and mistrust that Puck is indeed capable of. This is in stark contrast with “honest”. However, under his spell, the two-faced nature of him would go unnoticed by the audience. “If we have unlearned luck / Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue.” Escaping the serpent’s tongue correlates with the plays magical presence, but also extends it into a mythical story of dangerous serpents catching the souls of bad actors. It is as if little Puck is pleading with a fierce hydra or “serpent” that is ready to devour him. Specifically the horrific tongue of a serpent because it is split at the end into two, making it the more terrifying. The actor is trying to tame the serpentine audience and spare himself and the other actors through