William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
The role and character of Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, in A Midsummer.
Night's Dream, is not only entertaining but quite useful. .
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William Shakespeare seems to have created the character of Puck from his.
own childhood. In Shakespeare's time it was believed that fairies and.
little people did exist. Whenever something went wrong around the.
farmyard or house or village, incidents such as buckets of milk.
'accidentally' spilling over, or tools suddenly disappearing, or doors.
opening for no reason, it was blamed on 'those little people!'. .
.
The idea of Puck's character is a lovely one. One can't help but be.
attracted to him and his innocent, little pranks. He is also known by.
the name Robin Goodfellow. The audience can only see this 'Robin.
Goodfellow' side of Puck when he is trying to fix something he disrupted,.
hence the name Goodfellow.
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When compared to Oberon, King of the Fairies and Titania, Queen of the.
Fairies and the remaining fairies of the play, Puck does not seem to fit.
in as well. While Oberon and Titania belong to the forest and the world.
of dainty fairies, a small village setting seems more appropriate for.
Puck. He is the type of fairy that likes to be around mortals and cause.
them trouble, as opposed to other fairies. This is why Puck's little job.
with a love potion and a young couple is perfect for him and he perfect.
for the job.
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Puck is a likable character who tends to create mischief around.
himself. Everything is a game to crafty little Puck. Yet once he.
realizes that he has caused a problem he will make sure to the best of his.
ability and power that it is rectified. As in the scene with Hermia and.
Lysander, and Helena and Demetrius. When Puck mistook Lysander for.
Demetrius and dropped the love-juice into Lysander's eyes.
and then (with help from Oberon) realized what he had done he knew he had.
to fix it.
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Shakespeare conveniently created 'Puck' to add some probability to the.
