A Midsummer Night's Dream Versions of Reality Quotes Page 3

Puck draws attention back to the darkness of the play.  In the courtly world, the feuds have ended, the lovers have all wed, and everything seems to be going towards happily ever after. Puck reminds us, though, that another reality still exists, one where nighttime is not for lovemaking and fairies, but for terrifying animals and the dead.  Puck is the perfect candidate to make this reminder, as he is neither fairy nor human, but one who straddles both worlds and thus has an arguably more objective perspective about each of their versions of reality.

Puck's final speech is a good indication of where Shakespeare was in his writing career. This is not the best storyline he has created, but he writes it when he is at the peak of his comic form.  In this way, it is a frothy piece, but beautifully written and worthwhile for that reason.  While it does not meet the high standards of drama that his tragedies do, he would like to present it to you as a dream, which excuses him from a moving and amazing story line and lets him just revel for a bit in the magic of his art as a poet.