Puck: The Chaos Agent Who Enjoys His Work
First appears: Act 2, Scene 1
Puck is the play's engine of chaos, and he knows it. He misapplies Oberon's love potion to the wrong Athenian in Act 3, doubles the disorder, and watches the fallout with obvious pleasure. His mistake is accidental; his delight in it is not.
A fairy in Act 2, Scene 1 describes him as a 'lob of spirits': a household sprite who skims cream from milk and misleads travellers at night. He is older and stranger than the fairy court, closer to the folkloric Robin Goodfellow than to Oberon's regal world.
His epilogue in Act 5 offers the audience a way out: treat the whole night as a dream, and nothing that happened need be held against anyone. He is the only character who can step outside the play and see it whole. 'Lord, what fools these mortals be.' He says it of the lovers, but it covers his own role in making them foolish just as well.
Key Scenes
Famous Quotes
“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”
Puck — Act 3, Scene 2
“I'll put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes.”
Puck — Act 2, Scene 1
“If we shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended.”
Puck — Act 5, Scene 1
Themes
Other Characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream
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