Robin "Watch out for this" Goodfellow

Vidya Sivaramakrishnan and Colin Sunderland

Puck, Oberon’s fairy henchman, has many comical attributes that cause pandemonium throughout the play. Some of those include cleverness, mischievousness, impertinence and strangely enough, obedience. The whole affair starts with Puck trying to follow Oberon’s instructions to put the love-in-idleness juice on Demetrius’ eyes. Unfortunately, Puck makes a mistake and puts the juice on Lysander’s eyes. This action causes much emotional agony among the four lovers, Demetrius, Helena, Lysander and Hermia. Puck is a troublemaker -- once Oberon points out his error, Puck puts the juice on Demetrius’s eyes too and then sits back to enjoy the comedic saga that unfolds. In 3.2.424-459, Puck demonstrates that he is clever by driving Lysander and Demetrius crazy by pretending to be both of them and getting both of them lost in the forest. For Puck knows that by getting Demetrius and Lysander in different parts of the forest Helena and Hermia, their respective lovers will follow them. The scene goes,

“Lysander: Where art thou, proud Demetrius? speak thou now.

Puck (who is speaking in Demetrius’ voice): Here, villain; drawn and ready. Where art thou?

Lysander: I will be with thee straight.

Puck (who is speaking in Demetrius’ voice): Follow me, then, to plainer ground.” (3.2.423-427)

Puck can also be a little bit sassy. He likes to talk back to Oberon, even though in the end, he will do what he says. For example when Oberon, who feels empathy towards Helena, because he knows what it is like to be in love and get no attention, instructs Puck to put the love-in-idleness juice on Demetrius’ eyes. The tone in this next quote is rather sassy.

“I’ll put a girdle round the earth in 40 minutes.” (2.1.181-182)

This means, “Be back in a flash,” but Puck is basically saying that he could run so fast that he could circle the globe in 40 minutes. Sarcastic? Think again.

Many of Puck’s attributes go hand in hand. Another attribute that fits smoothly into Puck’s character is mischievousness. When Puck accidently puts the love in idleness juice on the wrong person’s eyes, instead of desperately trying to fix the situation, he anticipates in amusement at the comedy that is going to unfold. If one were to dramatize this, the director would instruct the actor playing Puck to have a mischievous twinkle in eyes. This is like the glint knowing that you have put a cream pie in your arch-enemy’s locker. For example, after Oberon found out that he had accidently coated Lysander’s eyes instead of Demetrius,’ Puck says:

“Then will two at once woo one; that must needs be sport alone; and those things do best please me, that befall preposterously.”

Even though Puck might have many amusing qualities, he is, in the end, obedient. When Oberon told him to go put the juice on Lysander’s eyes, he went without complaining or asking why, like most of us curious people tend to do. For instance he says (in true Puck manner),

“I go, I go, look how I go, swifter than the arrow from the Tartar’s bow” 3.2.102-103

         Throughout the whole play, Puck speaks in verse, for the majority of the time it is trochaic tetrameter, but he occasionally switches to iambic pentameter, like in 3.2.102-103.

This shows Puck’s high intellect as a fairy, because only Oberon, Titania, and Puck speak in verse. In a Midsummer’s Night Dream, the characters who speak in verse are highly educated or have a astounding intelligence quotient, as in the case of Puck.