Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to today's learning on the power of magic.

So for today, you will need your pen and you will need your paper by your side for me, please.

Take a moment to clear away any distractions that you might have, so you've got that lovely, quiet learning environment.

So when you're ready, let's begin.

So when we think about the power of magic, and we're thinking about "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and our magical forest, we have to think of fairies.

We have to think of these magical beings that are causing all of our spells and our potions that are going on in the magical forest, these love spells caused by the love potion, where people are falling in love with the next live creature that they see.

But we need to think about where this idea of fairies even began, prior to "A Midsummer Night's Dream." So there is the view before "A Midsummer Night's Dream" that fairies can be these scary, fearful, almost like creatures that are absolutely terrifying.

And there's also the more classical view of fairies, that fairies are beautiful.

So we've got our frightening, terrifying version of a fairy, and then we've got our classical view of a fairy that our Elizabethan audience would have been most familiar with, would be this classical version of the fairy, the classical version of a fairy being a creature that's very, very beautiful.

However, despite beauty, when it comes to the Elizabethan belief of a fairy, it was still believed that fairies were related to the devil and that they were deceitful.

So fairies prior to "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by our Elizabethans were considered generally beautiful, but also linked to the idea of the devil, that they would do devilish acts, deceitful acts, and therefore, before "A Midsummer Night's Dream," the Elizabethans believed that fairies were something to be feared, something that they were frightened of.

And part of the tradition of fairies and what Elizabethans found, that they actually blamed fairies for are the following.

So in the Elizabethan era, before "A Midsummer Night's Dream," disease, illness, misfortune, misfortune being bad luck.

If any of these things happened, then fairies were blamed, these beautiful creatures, but despite appearances, that were linked to the devil.

So these demonic, evil acts were blamed upon fairies.

And not only things such as disease, illness, and misfortune were blamed on fairies, but also if there was no milk from a cow.

So if I'm a farmer went to milk their cow, and there was no milk, fairies were blamed.

If the farmers have a bad crop, so if their crop doesn't grow properly, they can't make their money, that bad luck was seen to be as a result of fairies.

If the maids spilled their milk, when they are milking the cows, then that was considered to be blamed on fairies.

So we can see that the Elizabethans prior to "A Midsummer Night's Dream" believed that fairies were beautiful beings, but also something that they were quite afraid of, because they believed that fairies brought bad luck.

They believed that fairies brought bad luck and did deceitful, horrible things.

And therefore, they were frightened.

They were fearful of fairies.

They were very, very afraid of them, so they're fearful of fairies.

So before "A Midsummer Night's Dream," notice the emphasis on that, before "A Midsummer Night's Dream," the Elizabethans were afraid of fairies, but they did, they believed in them.

They believed in their existence, but they were afraid of them.

They also left offerings of bread and milk for the fairies, and it was considered, if they didn't leave these offerings of bread and milk, then the fairies will come and bring them bad luck.

They also believed, because they believed that fairies liked clean houses, if they didn't keep their house clean, then fairies will come and bring them bad luck.

They believed prior to "A Midsummer Night's Dream" that they must appease fairies.

That means that the Elizabethans believed that they must keep fairies happy, and part of that was offering them bread and milk and their source of food, and also by keeping their houses clean.

And one of the punishments that was feared more than anything that they believe fairies did, if they didn't get these things right, was pinching, when someone nips your skin really tight and causes a bruise, and that was considered to be one of the fairy punishments.

So not only this idea of bringing disease or misfortune and bad luck, but also the physical punishment of pinching.

So prior to "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Elizabethans were fearful of fairies.

They were scared of them.

They were frightened of them.

They felt that they needed to keep them happy, so they didn't bring them bad luck and punish them.

However, what Shakespeare managed to do, which is absolutely fascinating for what we have today, is that he managed to completely change the perception of a fairy by the way that he portrayed the characters in our magical forest in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream." So rather than portraying or presenting the fairies in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as something to be feared, what he did is he turned around this idea of them bringing bad luck and misfortune, and actually turned that into mischief and playfulness.

So in actual fact, these fairies in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" are not presented by Shakespeare as something to be feared, but something that is quite playful and quite comical, and that completely changed the perception of fairies, but not only for the Elizabethans.

This is the best bit.

Not only for the Elizabethans, but actually Shakespeare's presentation of fairies in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" changed the perception of fairies from that point on.

That's huge.

That reminds us how important Shakespeare is to the English language, not only through his vocabulary, the words and language that he uses that we still use today, but also through his ideas.

So he turned this frightening, deceitful, demonic, yet beautiful fairy into something that is playful and quite comical, and therefore not something to be frightened of.

And that brings us onto how we see a fairy today.

And the image on your screen has got that magical element about it, that idea of the helpfulness of a fairy nowadays, the idea that a fairy brings good.

We don't often associate the idea of a fairy any more with bringing evil and bad luck, and that's due to Shakespeare.

One of the many reasons Shakespeare's amazing, but he completely changed society's perception of fairies to what we have nowadays.

So nowadays, we think we have the tooth fairy.

You lose a tooth, the tooth fairy puts the money and leaves the money.

That's the image that we have of a fairy now.

This idea of the fairy godmother being helpful, that's that positivity that we now associate with fairies, which is thanks to Shakespeare.

We're no longer like the Elizabethans, fearing what fairies might do if we don't leave them offerings of bread and milk, and that they might bring us bad luck and pinch us.

We don't worry about that anymore because Shakespeare changed the perception of fairies in the Elizabethan era, in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." How amazing is that? And that leaves us with the fairy image that we now have in our society, and that's evolved over time.

So we've gone from demonic deceitful to mischievous, causing mischief, playful, comical, and then turning into that image for good that we have now, This charming element.

How amazing.

So we're going to have a think about how we can write about these ideas of fairies, because it's important to understand how influential Shakespeare's play was in changing people's beliefs in the world.

Not just simply what we think, "Oh, it's a story about fairies," but actually changing people's whole perception, their whole viewpoint.

So before Shakespeare, fairies were believed to be demonic.

They were linked to the devil.

They were blamed for the bad things that happened.

In "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Shakespeare portrays fairies as playful and comical.

He's changed that fearful, scary image that we have before the play.

As a result of Shakespeare's depiction of fairies in the play, we now.

The idea that we see fairies now as something charming.

The idea that they perform good acts.

So when you're ready, you're going to pause your video, and complete each of those sentences.

You can write more than one sentence, if you need to.

Try to use those key words on the right hand side, where possible.

Off you go, please.

Excellent work.

So hopefully you've recognised that change from this fearful fairy into something that is comical into the idea that a fairy is for good in our modern society, and how fairies have evolved and changed over time.

So we're going to look at Puck today, Puck the trickster.

Puck is our fairy that serves Oberon.

He actually has an incredibly important role in the play in terms of how he acts as a fairy and also in terms of the responsibility he has actually to the narrative and how he has the ability to completely change what happens in the play.

So let's look at how a fairy talks about Puck.

"Either I mistake your shape and making quite, or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite call'd Robin Goodfellow.

Are not you he that frights the maidens of the villagery, skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern, and bootless make the breathless housewife churn, and sometime make the drink to bear no barm, mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?" So this is just a snapshot of some of the things that Puck the trickster gets up to.

So Puck does get up to some playful things.

So he frightens the maidens.

So he frightens the maidens in the village.

He skims the milk.

He takes the cream off the top of the milk, so that the milk doesn't turn into cream as they want it to.

He messes around with the mill.

He makes sure that the housewives are churning their milk into butter, and he makes sure it doesn't turn into butter for them.

He makes sure that there's no froth on the beer as there should be, and he gives people the wrong directions and send them all over the place.

And then he laughs about it.

But what we can see, though, these things are what we would probably term as pranks, joking, comical, playful things that he does, but not things that cause harm.

There's not the suggestion of what Puck does that actually causes harm.

He plays pranks on people.

He tricks them.

But there's not the suggestion that he does anything particularly bad.

So we can already see that this perception of fairies as something to be scared of isn't shown in Shakespeare's play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The fairy goes on to say, "Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck, you do their work and they shall have good luck.

Are not you he?" So what Shakespeare's doing here is picking up on the Elizabethan worries and fears of fairies, but he's changing it.

So he says here that those people that are nice to Puck and do what Puck wants, he does their work and gives them good luck.

But what Shakespeare is showing is that when people don't call him sweet Puck and when people aren't nice to him, he doesn't bring them disease, illness, misfortune, and horrible things.

He commits acts of trickery.

He's a trickster instead.

So rather than bringing them horrible things, he actually plays tricks instead.

So this Elizabeth and belief of how they feel about fairies is presented in a way that Shakespeare wants to take that fear away.

He wants to take the fear of fairies away, and he's changing that perception.

Therefore, the audience watching the play are going to start to think that fairies aren't as frightening and fearful as they first perhaps thought.

So it's important to recognise that Puck is mischievous, not malevolent.

And those two key words there are really important.

So they're really important pieces of vocabulary, because they can apply to lots of different characters in lots of different texts.

So let's look at a definition of what mischievous and malevolent mean.

So if you are mischievous or mischievous, it is a playful desire to cause trouble.

So you're causing trouble, but in a playful way.

So you are not intending harm on anybody else.

However, malevolent is something quite different.

If you are malevolent, it means you want to cause harm to another person.

And that would be the older view of fairies.

That's what the Elizabethans, prior to the play, and before the Elizabethans would have thought about fairies, that they want to cause harm to other people.

They would have seen fairies as malevolent.

But what Shakespeare's doing is he's changing that and making fairies seem mischievous, that they play, they're playful in the tricks that they do.

They don't mean harm.

They don't inflict violence.

They don't hurt people.

So he's still picking up on the idea that, you know, if you're nice to them, they give you good luck.

But if you're not nice to them, they don't bring you misfortune.

They bring you trickery, which is much more comical and much more playful in the way that Shakespeare presents it to us as an audience.

So let's take a pause then.

Let's think about the definition of mischievous.

So option one, a playful desire to cause trouble, or a desire to be nasty and cause pain and harm to others.

Have a think.

Is it option one? Is it option two? Excellent work if you said it was option one, a playful desire to cause trouble.

That element of being playful is really important with the idea of mischievous.

Playful, not harmful.

Let's look at the next one.

Which of the following is a definition for the word malevolent? Wants to cause harm to another person, or wants to show kindness towards another person.

Remembering that malevolent is not the same as mischievous.

So hopefully you thought option one best fits the word malevolent.

Of course it does.

Wants to cause harm to another person.

So if you are malevolent, you want to cause harm.

That's the older view of fairies before the play.

So we've got mischievous Puck.

There's a picture of a laughing apple.

It is there for a reason.

So we've got mischievous Puck, so we're going to hear about what Puck gets up to, and Puck is mischievous.

He's naughty.

He's crafty.

He plays pranks.

He plays tricks on people, and to be honest, the way they're portrayed in the play, they are quite funny.

So let's hear from this first section of what Puck says.

"Thou speak'st aright; I am the merry wanderer of the night.

I jest to Oberon and I make him smile.

When I have fat and bean-fed horse beguile, neighing in likeness of a filly foal; and sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl in very likeness of a roasted crab." So he admits to the fairy.

He says, "Yes, I am.

I'm the merry wander of the night." The merry wanderer, that sense of positivity of happiness.

And he says, "I jest to Oberon." He makes jokes to Oberon.

So he makes jokes to Oberon.

He's got a playful nature.

He makes jokes to Oberon and he makes him smile.

And when he sees a horse, he thinks it's hilarious to neigh like a female horse to wind the other horse up.

So we make silly neighing noises to try and get the attention of a horse, to trick them into thinking that there's a female horse.

And then he says he, "Sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl." He's talking about a glass, like a beer glass, and he says he sometimes lurks, and he does that because he transforms into an apple.

So when it says roasted crab, it's not the little thing with pincers that we see on the beach.

It's actually the idea of a crab apple, the little tiny apples that you get.

So this, he turns himself into a little apple and lurks in someone's glass, in a gossip's bowl, so someone who gossips a lot.

And then what he does is, let's read.

"And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob, and on her withered dewlap pour the ale.

The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale, sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me; then I slip from her bum, down topples she, and tailor cries, and falls into a cough; and then the whole quire hold their hips and loffe and waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear.

A merrier hour was never wasted there." So let's break that down.

Let's look what he does to each of these different people, these examples that he gives of his mischief.

So he says, "When she drinks, against her lips I bob." So this is talking about the image of him transforming into a crab apple, and floating around in the person's drink.

So in a woman's drink, who's a bit of a gossiper, he's this little apple floating around in the top of her drink.

So he bobs.

He's floating around the top.

And he says, "And on her withered dewlap pour the ale." So he's saying, because he's bobbing against her lips, when she goes to take a drink, she dribbles the drink everywhere.

So he's being a bit silly.

He's getting a few laughs.

So he makes people dribble their drinks everywhere.

So he transforms into an apple.

That's one thing he does, a little crab abble.

He also then says that, "The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale." So he's got this, you know, a wise aunt sitting there telling a really sad story, the saddest story they can think of, and she thinks herself very wise sharing all of this information.

But what he then says is, "Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me." He actually transforms through the power of magic into a stool with three legs.

So he he's turned into a stool with three legs, and this wise aunt who's going to tell her sad tale sits on him, thinking he's a stool.

He looks like a stool.

And what does he then do? He slips from a bum and she falls down on the floor.

So he's quite naughty, isn't he? He's pretended to be a stool and he's made her fall over.

She's slipped from her bum and down topples she.

So she falls down, she falls off the stool, and he says, "And tailor cries, and falls into a cough.

And then the whole quite hold their hips and loffe and waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear." So he's saying everybody who's there in this place then laughs at the woman who's fell off the chair.

Okay, so it's a reaction, isn't it? When someone falls off a chair, we know we should ask them if they're okay, but sometimes, it's really hard not to laugh when someone falls over, and that's what's happened here, and he actually says, at the end of this extract, "A merrier hour was never wasted there." So he's saying this sense of playfulness, this mischief that he gets up to, "A merrier hour was never wasted there." It's fun.

People laugh, but it's not done to be cruel.

He doesn't move the stool and do it so she falls on the floor and really hurts herself.

He does it because it's funny.

He bobs around in a person's drink.

So she dribbles it all down herself, because he thinks it's funny, and he said, people laugh, people find it funny.

So you can see how Shakespeare has taken this mischievous fairy and turned them into something playful and comical rather than the Elizabethans watching the play, thinking he's someone who is frightening and fearful, who's going to bring them really, really bad luck.

He's just messing around.

He's playing some pranks.

It's just him pretending to be an apple, pretending to be a stool, and causing people to laugh.

It's suggested to be by Shakespeare in good humour, nothing threatening, nothing violent, nothing malevolent.

It's just him getting up to naughty tricks.

So Puck, we can say he's mischievous.

He's always up to no good.

He's always doing things he shouldn't, but he doesn't mean any harm by them.

He's just a little bit naughty and a prankster.

He's quite playful.

He's playful in what he does.

He does things to make people laugh.

He doesn't do things to hurt people.

He doesn't do things to make people cry or upset or sad.

That would be malicious.

He's a trickster.

He plays tricks on people.

He plays pranks.

He gets up to no good, but he does it for laughter.

He does it for comedy.

He doesn't cause harm.

And he's comical.

We can say that he is comical.

He's quite funny.

The thought of him pretending to be a stool and then somebody falling off the stool and everybody laughing around them, including the person who fell down herself, that is quite funny.

Those kind of things, we still find funny now.

So when we hear about what Puck's been up to, we can still, even now as a modern audience, appreciate the humour.

I find Puck a great character.

I think he's hilarious with the little things he gets up to, and the naughty things that he does.

So we need to think about the love potion, and we need to think about the love potion because actually, Puck, Puck's character plays a really important role in the love potion.

But before we talk about Puck and the love potion, we need to just remind ourselves of Oberon and the love potion.

So Oberon has asked for Puck to get a particular flower.

He wants the juice from particular flower because then he can create the love potion, which can make people fall in love with the first live creature that they see, and not just fall in love, but madly dote.

Now Oberon takes the responsibility upon himself of putting the love potion on Titania.

That's what he takes responsibility for.

So let's read what Oberon does, before we come back to Puck.

So Oberon says, "What thou seest when thou dost wake." So he's literally talking to Titania, but she's asleep.

"Do it for thy true love take; love and languish for his sake.

Be it ounce, or cat, or bear, pard, or boar with bristled hair, in thy eye that shall appear when thou wak'st, it is thy dear.

Wake when some vile thing is near." So this is Oberon using the power of magic at this point, and he's using the power of magic specifically on his queen because she won't give him the boy that she has in her care, the boy that he accuses her of stealing from an Indian king, whereas she said that she is raising the child because the child's mother, her friend has died.

And what Oberon plans with this love potion is not against a human being as such.

It's against a fairy.

So if we think about our Elizabethan audience feeling fear, this is from one fairy to another fairy, remember, and that last point is really key there, the last thing he says.

"Wake when some vile thing is near." So vile, something disgusting, something horrible, something nasty.

So he's saying, you know, "When you wake up, you'll fall in love with the first thing you see, you'll treat them as your true love," but he's like, "Make sure you wake up when something really nasty is there, because then you'll fall in love with something really nasty." So he wishes ill upon Titania.

However, there is an element of humour there, in a way, because it is his queen and he is acting this upon another fairy.

So it's not going to cause the fear that we would have if this was upon a person.

So he wants to humiliate Titania and he wants to humiliate his queen, but there is something slightly humorous about it, because he's like, "Oh, make sure you wake up with something nasty's around." So Oberon is using magic for bad, but he's using magic for bad against another fairy, not a human being.

That's quite important.

So that's Oberon's job.

That's what Oberon has decided, but he's also given Puck some responsibility with the love potion.

So Oberon has looked after Titania himself, and he's giving Puck the responsibility of the love potion with the Athenian lovers.

I'm using that term very loosely, and we'll see why shortly.

So Oberon overheard Helena and Demetrius's, we'll call it an argument, when Helena said that she was willing to be Demetrius's spaniel, when she said she was willing to be his spaniel and he told her not to follow him.

He wished ill upon her.

He really was quite cruel.

Oberon witnessed all of this, and Oberon wants to help.

Notice again, Elizabethan audience, prior to the play wouldn't have thought of fairies helping humans, but Oberon wants to help the humans.

So again, that's going to help change that perception of this evil, fearful, threatening fairy that's going to bring them lots of bad luck and misfortune.

So Oberon says, and this is what he says when he has just seen Helena and Demetrius having their argument, using the term loosely.

"Fare thee well, nymph, ere he do leave this grove, thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love." So he says that, when he leaves, you shall go after him, and there will be a time when he shall seek your love.

So he's talking about Helena, but not directly to her.

"He shall seek thy love." He's going to fix it so that Demetrius does love Helena, and he's left this in the capable hands of Puck.

So Oberon, he does want to use magic for good.

The fairies are helping the humans.

That's a positive, that's a positive thing.

So Oberon's used the magic for bad, but on another fairy, on his queen.

He wants to help the humans.

So helping and using magic for good, because Helena is suffering, and actually so is Demetrius Demetrius, so even if Oberon turned things around, and Demetrius did love Helena, then that would also, that would stop Demetrius having unrequited love as well, wouldn't it? So although he does want Hermia, if he's got the potion on him, it's not going to matter, because he will only think of Helena.

So technically Oberon's effort to try and help is actually really good, because he's trying to fix this suffering that Helen's going through, but we know actually he'll be helping Demetrius in a way as well.

Obviously, Demetrius does love Hermia, so if this potion is put upon him, we have to then think about whether that is fair on him or not, but Oberon is trying to help Helena at this stage, and that's what we need to accept and understand.

So, however, said that for a reason, particularly because I'm saying that this is Puck's responsibility.

This is Puck's job.

This is what Oberon has put in the capable hands of Puck to fix this situation between Helena and Demetrius.

The audience knows, though, Puck, he's mischievous, he's playful.

So he has been given an incredibly important job.

Helena's distraught.

She's beside herself.

She's willing to be seen as a spaniel rather than be seen as anything that isn't related to Demetrius.

So she'd rather be a spaniel than she would be nothing to Demetrius.

So being a dog is better than nothing, in her mind.

So, Puck.

Mr. Reliable is being given the job of fixing Helena and Demetrius's relationship, but we know he's mischievous and playful.

So we have to question how much trust and hope we have in Puck actually succeeding on this mission that Oberon has tasked him and expected him to do.

So before we think any further about Puck's character, we need to just remind ourselves how powerful is the potion that our mysterious Puck holds? So Puck has got this potion, and he's got it in his hand.

He's ready to use it.

We need to remind ourselves the power that Puck, a mischievous, playful character, is actually holding onto, and this takes us back to an earlier point in the play, to an earlier point in the play, and Oberon said, "The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid will make man or woman madly dote on the next live creature that it sees." So Puck, naughty fairy, holding all this power, and the power that he's holding has the ability to make a man or woman madly dope upon the next live creature that they see.

So when he puts this love potion, this incredibly powerful potion on sleeping eyelids, that person will madly dote on the next live creature that they see.

So this is the power that Puck has.

Think what we know about Puck.

This is the power that Puck has.

So the question I pose to you, then, are Oberon's instructions Puck proof? Is it possible that Puck can mess up the situation? So these are Oberon's instructions.

And while we're reading through, have a think, what could actually go wrong? What does the audience know? So, "Take thou some of it and seek through this grove: a sweet Athenian lady is in love with a disdainful youth.

Anoint his eyes, but do it when the next thing he espies may be the lady.

Thou shalt know the nave," sorry, "Thou shalt know the man by the Athenian garments he hath on.

Effect it with some care that he may prove more fond on her than she upon her love." So are Oberon's instructions Puck proof? Let's look at the sections that are highlighted.

So Oberon has told Puck to find a sweet Athenian lady who is in love with a disdainful youth.

So he is looking for an Athenian woman, an Athenian lady, and an Athenian man.

And he says, "Put the potion on the man's eyelids while he's asleep, but do it so that when he awakens, he will see her." So in Oberon's mind, Puck is going to put the love potion on Demetrius's eyelids.

Demetrius will then wake up, see Helena for the first time, and fall in love with Helena.

That's Oberon's perfect plan.

He's trying to help.

He's actually trying to help.

And then Oberon says, "Thou shalt know the man by the Athenian garments he hath on." So he says, "You'll know which man it is because he's wearing Athenian clothes.

So you won't get him muddled up with anyone who lives in the forest, because he's got Athenian clothes on," and Puck would know what they look like.

So Puck has got some knowledge.

So Puck must find, right hand side of your screen, an Athenian lady and an Athenian man.

Now, that's a problem.

That is a huge problem because there is more than one Athenian lady and more than one Athenian man in the magical forest.

We have Athenian lady, we have Hermia and Helena.

They're both Athenian, they'll both be wearing Athenian clothes.

How's he going to tell Hermia and Helena apart? And also Puck must find an Athenian man.

There's two Athenian men, though.

There are two Athenian men in the magical forest.

There are Demetrius and there's Lysander.

So he has got, if he's looking for an Athenian man and Athenian woman, we know that Helena and Demetrius are near each other.

We know that Hermia and Lysander are near each other, but they are not going to look any different to Puck.

So it's a case of who is Puck going to meet first? Because we know that Helena is following Demetrius, but we also know that Hermia and Lysander, they have actually chosen to sleep, not beside each other, because they're not married.

So they are not sleeping side by side.

So when Puck comes across an Athenian man and an Athenian lady, it's not going to look any different when he sees Hermia and Lysander to when he sees Helena and Demetrius.

So if we're thinking about the possibilities of what might happen next, we need to remind ourselves of a Shakespearian comedy.

So "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a comedy.

A Shakespearian comedy has the following key parts.

Number one, a happy ending, often a marriage.

Number two, a romantic plot.

Hermia and Lysander are our main romantic plot.

Number three, a group of ridiculous characters, the mechanicals, and number four, confusion over who is who.

So as we are watching a Shakespearian comedy, one of these features is going to become quite relevant to this particular part of the story, but before we look at that in more detail, I would like you to pause your video and see if you can write down those four key features.

Off you go, please.

Excellent work.

Let's see if you're correct, then.

Number one, a happy ending, often a marriage.

Give yourself a tick if you got that correct.

Number two, a romantic plot.

Number three, a group of ridiculous characters, and number four, confusion over who is who.

Well done if you've managed to get those correct.

Excellent work.

So in terms of our plot that is happening at the moment, our part of the narrative with Puck, we can see that number four is highly likely, isn't it, with our character, because he's our mischievous fairy who is playful, causes pranks, and he has.

He does obey Oberon, though.

He does obey Oberon, but he's been given a huge responsibility, a huge responsibility.

So let's recap, then, with Puck's responsibilities.

We'll go through the questions together and then I'll give you an opportunity to answer those, and then we'll look at some possible answers.

So what kind of character is Puck? How might we describe him? Number two, what has Oberon entrusted Puck to do? What is his responsibility? What's the job he's asked him to do? Be careful not to get muddled up with what Oberon does with the potion.

Number three, are Puck's instructions clear? Who has he been asked to find, and why do we know that this might be a problem? So think about the idea of what Oberon has specifically said to Puck, and therefore, how could that go wrong? And number four, what does the love potion have the power to do? And you might use that key phrase that we've had before, MD.

We've talked about that today, MD.

So when you're ready, pause your video, please.

Excellent work.

Let's have a look at some possible answers, then.

So number one, Puck is a mischievous fairy who likes to play lots of pranks on people.

So we've got pranks.

We could have had playful, comical, loads of ideas you could have put into the number one.

Number two, Oberon has entrusted Puck to put the love potion on Demetrius's eyes.

He hasn't said, "Put it on Demetrius." He said, "Put it on the Athenian man," but don't get muddled up on that one with Titania, because that's Oberon's job.

Number three, Puck has been told to find an Athenian woman and an Athenian man.

These instructions are not clear, because we know there are four Athenians in the forest, so he might well get this wrong.

And number four, the love potion has the power to make a person madly dote on the next live creature they see.

So there we've got those key quotations, madly dote and live creature, not even human being.

So Puck, our character, has a huge responsibility, can dramatically change the course of events, but he's mischievous and playful.

So when you are ready, please take your quiz on this lesson and aim for 100%.

Well, that brings us to the end of today's learning on the power of magic.

Well done on your amazing learning achievement stage.

You should be immensely proud of what you have done.

So, from me, thank you very much.

Take care, and enjoy the rest of your learning.