The Shakespeare Book

117

Puck

Mischievous fairy

THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN

really is, as Lysander, who once
professed to love her, suddenly
seems to hate her: “Am I not
Hermia? Are you not Lysander?”
(3.2.274). Yet Helena lamented at
the beginning of the play that she
would have been happy if she could
only be Hermia and so be loved by
Demetrius—that she would give
the world to be Hermia “translated.”
In the forest, they are all
“translated” under the influence
of mischievous, shape-shifting
Puck, and the effect is decidedly
nightmarish. The magic love
juices turn them this way and
that, love to hate, hate to love, in
an extreme fashion. Bottom is the
most dramatically translated of all,
yet he is the one who stays most
constant. He may gain the head
of an ass, but he is unfailingly
courteous to Titania and to all the
fairies who tend to him, and the
relationship between him and
Titania, though in some ways an
illusion, is the gentlest and most

tender in the play. Indeed, it

is Bottom who has the sanest

insight into love, telling Titania:

“Methinks, mistress, you should

have little reason / for that [loving

me]. And yet, to say the truth, reason

and love / keep little company

together nowadays” (3.1.135 –137).

Happy resolution

The artisans show the truest

understanding of love, and pass

through the madness of the forest

with their identities intact. Even

when they are playing characters

in their play, they stay steadfastly

themselves. Snout doesn’t become

the Wall, he simply, as Snout,

“presents” it.

It is only fitting that these

simple men bring the drama down

to earth and good humor again

at the end, leaving the realm of

dreams to the fairies, with proper

separation restored. At the end,

everyone retires to bed, thankful to

put this wild night behind them.

The fairies reinhabit the house as

protective dreams: “But all the story

of the night told over, / And all their

minds transfigured so together, /

More witnesseth than fancy’s

images, / And grows to something

of great constancy; / But, howsoever,

strange and admirable.” (5.1.23–27). ■

Now the hungry lion roars,

And the wolf behowls

the moon,

Whilst the heavy

ploughman snores,

All with weary task fordone.

Puck

Act 5, Scene 2

Theseus

Egeus King of Athens

Asks for help Engaged to

His daughterHermia Lysander

Given love potion by Puck

A Midsummer Night’s Dream relationships

Hippolyta

Former Queen of the Amazons

Helena

Her friend

Demetrius

Courting Hermia

Truly loves

Loves because

of potion

Titania

Queen of Fairyland

Oberon

King of Fairyland

Lieutenant to

Nick Bottom

Weaver

Loves because

Given love potion by Oberon of potion

Transforms

Loves because of potion into an ass

Truly loves

Married to