Puck
Though there is little character
development in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and no true protagonist,
critics generally point to Puck as the most important character in the play.
The mischievous, quick-witted sprite sets many of the play’s events in motion
with his magic, by means of both deliberate pranks on the human characters (transforming
Bottom’s head into that of an ass) and unfortunate mistakes (smearing the love
potion on Lysander’s eyelids instead of Demetrius’s).
More important, Puck’s capricious
spirit, magical fancy, fun-loving humor, and lovely, evocative language permeate
the atmosphere of the play. Wild contrasts, such as the implicit comparison
between the rough, earthy craftsmen and the delicate, graceful fairies,
dominate A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Puck seems to illustrate many of
these contrasts within his own character: he is graceful but not so saccharine
as the other fairies; as Oberon’s jester, he is given to a certain coarseness,
which leads him to transform Bottom’s head into that of an ass merely for the
sake of enjoyment. He is good-hearted but capable of cruel tricks. Finally,
whereas most of the fairies are beautiful and ethereal, Puck is often portrayed
as somewhat bizarre looking. Indeed, another fairy mentions that some call Puck
a “hobgoblin,” a term whose connotations are decidedly less glamorous than
those of “fairy” (II.i.40).
Whereas Puck’s humor is often
mischievous and subtle, the comedy surrounding the overconfident weaver Nick
Bottom is hilariously overt. The central figure in the subplot involving the
craftsmen’s production of the Pyramus and Thisbe story, Bottom dominates his
fellow actors with an extraordinary belief in his own abilities (he thinks he
is perfect for every part in the play) and his comical incompetence (he is a
terrible actor and frequently makes rhetorical and grammatical mistakes in his
speech). The humor surrounding Bottom often stems from the fact that he is
totally unaware of his own ridiculousness; his speeches are overdramatic and
self-aggrandizing, and he seems to believe that everyone takes him as seriously
as he does himself. This foolish self-importance reaches its pinnacle after
Puck transforms Bottom’s head into that of an ass. When Titania, whose eyes
have been anointed with a love potion, falls in love with the now ass-headed
Bottom, he believes that the devotion of the beautiful, magical fairy queen is
nothing out of the ordinary and that all of the trappings of her affection,
including having servants attend him, are his proper due. His unawareness of
the fact that his head has been transformed into that of an ass parallels his
inability to perceive the absurdity of the idea that Titania could fall in love
with him.
Although Puck and Bottom stand out
as the most personable characters in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, they
themselves are not involved in the main dramatic events. Of the other
characters, Helena, the lovesick young woman desperately in love with
Demetrius, is perhaps the most fully drawn. Among the quartet of Athenian
lovers, Helena is the one who thinks most about the nature of love—which makes
sense, given that at the beginning of the play she is left out of the love
triangle involving Lysander, Hermia, and Demetrius. She says, “Love looks not
with the eyes, but with the mind,” believing that Demetrius has built up a
fantastic notion of Hermia’s beauty that prevents him from recognizing Helena’s
own beauty (I.i.234). Utterly faithful to Demetrius despite her recognition of
his shortcomings, Helena sets out to win his love by telling him about the plan
of Lysander and Hermia to elope into the forest. Once Helena enters the forest,
many of her traits are drawn out by the confusion that the love potion
engenders: compared to the other lovers, she is extremely unsure of herself,
worrying about her appearance and believing that Lysander is mocking her when
he declares his love for her.
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