Puck
Also known as Robin Goodfellow, Puck is
Oberon’s jester, a mischievous fairy who delights in playing pranks on mortals.
Though A Midsummer Night’s Dream divides its action between several
groups of characters, Puck is the closest thing the play has to a protagonist.
His enchanting, mischievous spirit pervades the atmosphere, and his antics are
responsible for many of the complications that propel the other main plots: he
mistakes the young Athenians, applying the love potion to Lysander instead of
Demetrius, thereby causing chaos within the group of young lovers; he also
transforms Bottom’s head into that of an ass.
The king of the fairies, Oberon is initially
at odds with his wife, Titania, because she refuses to relinquish control of a
young Indian prince whom he wants for a knight. Oberon’s desire for revenge on
Titania leads him to send Puck to obtain the love-potion flower that creates so
much of the play’s confusion and farce.
The beautiful queen of the fairies,
Titania resists the attempts of her husband, Oberon, to make a knight of the
young Indian prince that she has been given. Titania’s brief, potion-induced
love for Nick Bottom, whose head Puck has transformed into that of an ass,
yields the play’s foremost example of the contrast motif.
A young man of Athens, in love with Hermia.
Lysander’s relationship with Hermia invokes the theme of love’s difficulty: he
cannot marry her openly because Egeus, her father, wishes her to wed Demetrius;
when Lysander and Hermia run away into the forest, Lysander becomes the victim
of misapplied magic and wakes up in love with Helena.
A young man of Athens, initially in
love with Hermia and ultimately in love with Helena. Demetrius’s obstinate
pursuit of Hermia throws love out of balance among the quartet of Athenian
youths and precludes a symmetrical two-couple arrangement.
Egeus’s daughter, a young woman of
Athens. Hermia is in love with Lysander and is a childhood friend of Helena. As
a result of the fairies’ mischief with Oberon’s love potion, both Lysander and
Demetrius suddenly fall in love with Helena. Self-conscious about her short
stature, Hermia suspects that Helena has wooed the men with her height. By
morning, however, Puck has sorted matters out with the love potion, and
Lysander’s love for Hermia is restored.
A young woman of Athens, in love
with Demetrius. Demetrius and Helena were once betrothed, but when Demetrius
met Helena’s friend Hermia, he fell in love with her and abandoned Helena.
Lacking confidence in her looks, Helena thinks that Demetrius and Lysander are
mocking her when the fairies’ mischief causes them to fall in love with her.
Hermia’s father, who brings a
complaint against his daughter to Theseus: Egeus has given Demetrius permission
to marry Hermia, but Hermia, in love with Lysander, refuses to marry Demetrius.
Egeus’s severe insistence that Hermia either respect his wishes or be held
accountable to Athenian law places him squarely outside the whimsical dream
realm of the forest.
The heroic duke of Athens, engaged to
Hippolyta. Theseus represents power and order throughout the play. He appears
only at the beginning and end of the story, removed from the dreamlike events
of the forest.
The legendary queen of the Amazons,
engaged to Theseus. Like Theseus, she symbolizes order.
The overconfident weaver chosen to play Pyramus in the craftsmen’s play for
Theseus’s marriage celebration. Bottom is full of advice and self-confidence
but frequently makes silly mistakes and misuses language. His simultaneous
nonchalance about the beautiful Titania’s sudden love for him and unawareness
of the fact that Puck has transformed his head into that of an ass mark the
pinnacle of his foolish arrogance.
A carpenter and the nominal
leader of the craftsmen’s attempt to put on a play for Theseus’s marriage
celebration. Quince is often shoved aside by the abundantly confident Bottom.
During the craftsmen’s play, Quince plays the Prologue.
The bellows-mender chosen to play Thisbe in
the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. Forced to play a young
girl in love, the bearded craftsman determines to speak his lines in a high,
squeaky voice.
The tailor chosen to play Thisbe’s
mother in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. He ends up
playing the part of Moonshine.
The tinker chosen to play Pyramus’s
father in the craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. He ends up
playing the part of Wall, dividing the two lovers.
The joiner chosen to play the lion in the
craftsmen’s play for Theseus’s marriage celebration. Snug worries that his
roaring will frighten the ladies in the audience.
Theseus’s Master of the Revels,
responsible for organizing the entertainment for the duke’s marriage
celebration.
The fairies ordered by Titania to
attend to Bottom after she falls in love with him.
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