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How Does Shakespeare Present Puck In A Midsummer Night's Dream

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The Shakespearean play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is still relevant and used widely as entertainment in contemporary theatre. There are a variety of wild elements in the play, including the characters. The characters are sometimes altered to fit the audience or era in which they play is being performed for, sometimes even switching genders. Puck is a servant to the king of the fairies, Oberon, and was originally written to be played as a man, but has been played as a female in recent productions. The American Players Theatre recently put on a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Puck was portrayed much like the character on paper, however, many traits were taken further; a deeper understanding of the jokester was revealed throughout the portrayal by Cristina Panfilio. …show more content…

This is seen in act one, scene two, when Puck is telling another fairy of his mischievous behavior “I jest to Oberon / and make him smile / When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile, / Neighing in likeness of a filly foal…” (30-43). Another trait of Puck’s which is found in his actions throughout the play is that he is mistake prone. A prime example of this is when he pours the flower love potion into Lysander’s eyes instead of Demetrius and ends up causing quite the love triangle in act two scene one. Puck is also a symbol of darkness within the magical fairy world when he reminds all of the creepy occurrences and scary thoughts that night brings in act five, scene one- “Puts the wretch that lies in woe / In remembrance of a shroud. / Now it is the time of night / That the graves all gaping wide”

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