Topic > Disc Essay A Midsummer Night's Dream - 887

"What fools these mortals are!" (GJ Thomas R. Arp) voices Puck. Its single line suggests several possible interpretations. It could be interpreted that Shakespeare's idea is that human beings are too willingly influenced by their feelings. Puck states that mortals are foolish because they cannot properly control their emotions and are never sure of what they feel. Too often the risk is taken, as shown in Puck's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," when Puck states "[t]his is the woman, but not this the man" (G.J. Thomas R. Arp). Oberon takes an opportunity with love when he describes the Athenian man on whom Puck must distribute the love potion, and that opportunity was taken without better thought or at least direction, because Puck put the potion on some other man, who it should not have been rubbed. This also shows that there is sarcasm in Puck's statement that not only mortals joke with love, but fairies too. Reality is often confused with mystical thoughts as well as feelings. Shakespeare must have understood this because he often showed hints in this play, for example: when Titania expresses her love for a mortal with an ass's head on him and says "Come, sit on this flowery bed, while I lovely cheeks si they are shy and the mossy roses are attacked