Quince Character Analysis

Quince never had much, growing up in a financially unstable family. The family’s earnings came from his father’s carpentry business where Quince developed the skills of his father’s. His father’s strict and tough demeanor enforced Quince’s leadership and managerial qualities. However, growing up, he took responsibility of taking care of his ill mother and younger brother. As a child, he was feeble and naïve and was often picked on by the kids of the slum for his unattractive appearance and unusual bowl cut hairstyle. During his teenage years, his mother passed away and his younger brother went missing on Midsummer Day. The unknown disappearance of Quince’s only sibling worried him. Had he “gained the powers of a bard” (Midsummer Eve)? Or had he been “spirited away by the fairies” (Midsummer Eve)?
Despair and hopelessness consumed Quince, who also contemplated suicide only to remember that his brother may well be still alive. As determination filled him, he set out to find his brother and only to be further disappointed after a year of searching. Quince settled in Athens and stumbled upon a crew of amateur actors assembling equipment for a play. Watching the disorganized group of men displeased him. After offering help to fix and improve their supplies, Quince was offered to be a prop master. He accepted, hoping the company would release some of the burden in his heart.When Quince was assigning the roles of the Pyramus and Thisbe play to the Mechanicals, Bottom intruded, claiming he was fit for the role of the lion too. Quince responds, “You can play no part but Pyramus, for Pyramus is a sweet-faced man, a proper man as one shall see in a summer’s day, a most lovely gentlemanlike man. Therefore you must needs play Pyramus" (A Midsummer Night’s Dream