Puck's Views on Love

In William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, we are introduced to the character called Robin Goodfellow or Puck who conveys a few of his views on human love. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream there are three couples: Hermia and Lysander, Demetrius and Helena, Theseus and Hippolyta. Most of the action takes place in the city of Athens or the forest outside the city. In the forest there is a big confusion over who truly loves who, and most of this misunderstanding is caused by Puck. Puck thinks that true love is a one in a million occurrence and should not be punished for mistaking Lysander who is like all other men. He also seems to see himself above the foolishness that occurs when humans are in love. He also believes, though, that in the end love does tend to work out. He gives us a few good insights into human nature concerning the aspects of love.

Puck, after being chided by Oberon for charming Lysander instead of Demetrius, says, “Then fate o’errules, that, one man holding troth /

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189-195)

Here Puck is basically saying that love tends to work out in the end.

Puck gives us many good arguments to think about on the concept of love. He poured the potion on Lysander, whose love was already true, and Puck is saying here that “one man holding troth (true love’s vow)” is very rare because for his true love for Hermia, a million other men are not really in love but “confounding (breaking) oath on oath. True love is a rare quality; many people aren’t deeply in love, and when they are it is a wonderful thing. After Lysander pursues Helena instead of Hermia, and Demetrius, who has just been charmed by Oberon to love the first person he sees and wakes up to see Helena, a mess is sure to take place. Puck seems to tell us that humans are immature and foolish when in love and that all their fighting is childish; perhaps he is immune to it because of his supernatural nature. He also says though that for everything that goes along with love, in the end it turns out right. Humans in love are also very impulsive, foolish, and funny. A million fail, confounding oath on oath” (3. ” So Puck is cynically saying here that true love is a one in a million occurrence; why be harsh on him for mistakenly making Lysander just like all other men, untrue to their “love”?

Puck also comments on the couples bickering and fighting. Love is unpredictable we can love someone and not really know why we do or for completely absurd reasons. Even though there were some fights and struggles, they made it through.

Approximate Word count = 694
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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