‘I am that merry wanderer of the night’
He uses the word ‘merry’, which is used to describe drunks e.g. he’s a bit merry. So he might think of himself just having some drunken fun or the word is also used for children so he may think of himself as a big little boy, like a sort of ‘Peter Pan’ or something having good fun. He also seems good because apparently those that call him ‘Hobgoblin’ and ‘Sweet Puck’ he does their work ‘and they shall have good luck’. We also see him being very loyal to his master Oberon at the beginning of Act 2 Scene 2 because he says:
‘fear not, my lord; your servant shall do so’
So he is willing to do anything for his master. So others so far may not think very highly of him but I still believe he is a good character.
In Act 3 Scene 1 we see something, which may show Puck’s nasty side looming because he gives Bottom an asses head. But later Puck says:
‘I’ll follow you: I’ll lead you about around’
So we see he’s just playing a game with them leading them ‘about around’ just to amuse himself, here we see him being ‘knavish’ as the fairy called him before, because he’s being childish and thinking about himself but then again he’s keeping the audience amused, so he seems like an entertainer. He’s also doing what Oberon wants (by mistake) because Titania does
‘wake when some vile thing is near’
He does it by mistake but it is his mistakes which moves the play along e.g. mistaking Lysander for Demetrius. So he manages to affect the human and fairy world. That is why I think Shakespeare chose Puck to end the play.
All through the play Puck speaks in rhymed couplets as like all the fairies to make them seem ‘magical’. Puck arrives in Act 5 Scene 1
‘To sweep the dust behind the door’
This is a commonly used phrase meaning to put away your troubles and forget about them, which is very fitting with his coming epilogue where he refers to the actors as ‘shadows’ to imply that they are not real and they are ‘visions’ which ‘did appear’ while the audience have but ‘slumbered here’. So Puck just in these first few lines is establishing an atmosphere of it all being ‘but a dream’. We also know this because he mentions the play as having a ‘weak and idle theme’, which once again makes it no more true than ‘but a dream’. And he asks the audience to pardon them if they’ve offended and ‘think but this, and all is mended’ so that they won’t heckle and hiss at them with a ‘serpent’s tongue’ and if they do then Puck will stay there and ‘make amends ere long’. So if they forgive him and if they ‘be friends’ then clap and give him ‘your hands’ and ‘Robin shall restore amends’ as in fix any problems.
I think this speech is very important because we see he is capable of being serious when the time comes but still some bits may come out a bit mocking and cocky to the audience, and as a child he is saying sorry about anything that may have offended anyone. So he is not as ‘knavish’ and ‘shrewd’ as the fairy previously thought.
So from all of this I still have to say Puck is a good character. He sometimes seems like a child and comes off a bit mean, but all through the play he has an air of innocence surrounding him so he seems okay, which is what makes him a very interesting character. Also, if Puck was ‘Robin Badfellow’ than wouldn’t have Shakespeare have named him that instead of ‘Robin Goodfellow’?
