A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

Puck is portrayed as a merry, mischievous elf, Robin Goodfellow, of English folk legend. He is Oberon's servant. He brings about the confusion of the young Athenians on Midsummer Eve as he tries to carry out Oberon's wishes; the king has taken pity on Helena and hopes to turn Demetrius' scorn for her into love. Puck simply enchants the first Athenian he sees, Lysander, and with great amusement watches the confusion that follows, commenting, “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” (Patterson, 35)

A Midsummer Night's Dream marks the maturation of William Shakespeare's comic form beyond situation and young romantic love. One plot focuses on finding young love and on overcoming obstacles to that love. Shakespeare adds to the richness of comic structure by interweaving the love plot with a cast of rustic guildsmen, who are out of their element as they strive to entertain the ruler with a classic play of their own. The play also features a substructure of fairy forces, whose unseen antics influence the world of humans (Patterson, 36). With this invisible substructure of dream and chaos, A Midsummer Night's Dream not only explores the capriciousness and changeability of love (as the young men switch their affections from woman to woman in the blinking of an eye) but also introduces the question of the psychology of the subconscious (Patterson, 37).

Tradition held that on midsummer night, people would dream of the one they would marry. As the lovers enter the chaotic world of the forest, they are allowed, with hilarious results, to experience harmlessly the options of their subconscious desires. By focusing in the last act on the play presented by the rustic guildsmen, Shakespeare links the imaginative world of art with the capacity for change and growth within humanity. This capacity is most ...