I need an essay examining Puck (Robin Goodfellow) from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and making the case that he could be considered the protagonist of the play.
Could you write 6-7 (double spaced) pages (including works cited) that follow this outline and use these sources (or other outside, scholarly sources), trying to match the writing style of the first couple of paragraphs?
[title
still needed]
Dating
back even further than 1596 and existing even before the Shakespeare play,
Robin Goodfellow—or Puck—was known throughout Europe as a trickster spirit who
personified disorder and mischief. Robin upholds his infamous reputation
throughout A Midsummer Night’s Dream, being the source of all mishaps
and miscommunications.
Though
the four Athenian lovers may act as the central characters of the story, Puck’s
influence on the plot outweighs theirs, as he disrupts lives—both theirs and
the Fairy Queen’s—with his show-stealing antics and sets the overall mood with
his impish behavior. This embodiment of disorder and mischief not only wholly
encapsulates several messages of the play, it sets Puck up to be the true
protagonist of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This
is exemplified throughout his time onstage, from his initial act of mistakenly
applying the potion to the wrong man’s eyes to pranking Bottom and Titania with
a combination of potions and animalistic transformations. A Midsummer Night’s
Dream simply would not happen without Robin Goodfellow, no matter how exasperating
he may be.
Outline
I) Introduction
A)
Brief intro of Puck
B)
Thesis: This embodiment of disorder and
mischief not only wholly encapsulates several messages of the play, it sets
Puck up to be the true protagonist of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
II) A Midsummer Night’s Dream
A)
Brief rundown
B)
Ambiguity of main character, the lovers, etc.
C)
Overall themes and how they can directly
relate to Puck’s character and actions
III) Robin
Goodfellow/Puck
A)
Who is he? Character analysis
B)
Historical context
C)
Role in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
IV) Protagonists
A)
Definition of protagonist, their roles in
stories, etc
V) Puck’s
influence
A)
His major actions/scenes
B)
How these actions further the plot, are
integral to the story, etc.
VI) Conclusion
Works
Cited
Bhattacharjee,
Ratan. “The Fantastical Semi-Tawdry Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Academia.edu,
2024, https://www.academia.edu/2955127/The_Fantastical_-Semi_Tawdry_Puck_in_A_Midsummer_Nights_Dream?auto=download
.
Miller,
Ronald F. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream: The Fairies, Bottom, and the
Mystery of Things.” Shakespeare
Quarterly, vol. 26, no. 3, 1975, pp.
254-268. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2869606.
Shakespeare,
William. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The Norton Shakespear., Ed.
Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W.W. Norton & Company,
2016.
Sparkes, Abigail. “Robin
Goodfellow.” Historic UK: The History and Heritage Accommodation Guide, Historic
UK, 2023, https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Robin-Goodfellow/.
Vukadinovic, Jelena. “The Figure of
Puck in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Background, Character,
Functions.” GRIN, 2008, https://www.grin.com/document/-126098?lang=en.
