01st Feb 2005

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

• In Scene 2, Puck exclaims, “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” To what extent do you
think the mortals in this act are fools? To what extent are Oberon and Puck to blame for
the trouble? What could Shakespeare be using Puck and Oberon to represent, and what
could that tell us about the source of some of our problems?

In Scene 2, Puck exclaims, “Lord, what fools these mortals be!” in line 115, Puck

means the four Athenians, which are Hermia, Lysander, Demetrius and Helena are the fools.

Puck calls them fools because Lysander once loved Hermia, but now he left Hermia for

Helena, who Lysander fell in love because of the power of the love potion. Now Hermia

accused Demetrius for Lysander’s disappearance, she thought Demetrius had murdered him

while he was asleep. Lysander and Demetrius had once fought over for Hermia, but in this

night Lysander and Demetrius had fall in love with Helena and now despise Hermia. They

are arguing over their nonsense love, over nothing. And they are all gullible Athenians, who

got tricked easily by Oberon and Puck. Oberon and Puck are to blame because Oberon told

Puck to put the love potion in Demetrius’s eyes, but Puck mistaken Demetrius as Lysander.

If Oberon has not told Puck to do so, these problems would not happen.

Shakespeare could represent Oberon and Puck as the blind cupids, since they are the

one who mess up with Lysander’s, Hermia’s, Demetrius’s and Helena’s relationship. Blind

cupids do not look at its target when he/she is shooting love arrows. In Elizabethan times,

people believe so much in gods, angels, miracles, magic, witchcrafts and other fictitious

magical characters and powers. Philosophers came up with lots of complex questions which

have no answer. How do we know we exist? Why are we here? Are we dreams? These

questions are some of the question that Philosophers asked. How are people blind with love?

You must not let other people control you, you should control yourself, choose your own fate.