A Midsummer Night’s Dream Essay The Character of Bottom

The Character of Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream The character of Bottom in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream is frequently foolish, but he is not a fool. His exuberance and energy are allied to practicality and resourcefulness, with an alarming lack of self-consciousness. He, at any rate, is not at all tongue-tied before the duke, as Theseus has known others to be. We do laugh at Bottom in many situations, but should note that these are situations in which any man might seem ridiculous: amateur theatricals are almost a byword for unintended comedy, whether in planning (1.2) rehearsal (3.1) or performance (5.1); any artisan afflicted with an asss head and appetites, and beloved of the fairy queen would have difficulty†¦show more content†¦It is Bottom who prompts most of the debate about the practical difficulties of the lion, the wall and the moonlight. When his friends run away, Bottom, though clearly afraid, remains in the wood. He is not subdued by his encounter with the powerful fairy queen and her servants. When he wakes in the morning, he is thinking of his lines in Pyramus and Thisbe, and he is not awed even by the great duke. Bottom is also capable of great wisdom. His comment to Titania about reason and love is the clearest articulation in the play of this central truth. His soliloquy on waking in the wood, though marked by his usual verbal confusion is, perhaps because of this, almost lyrical in articulating what defies the language of the ordinary man (Lysander, in this scene, is far less eloquent; in the next scene, Theseus fails to penetrate the mystery). The mixing up of the senses (The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen...) is of course not intended, but reflects the confusion of the nights events. 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